Mt. Ogden Wanderings Photos

Our Path along (mostly) the needles trail.

Below the Mt. Ogden summit.

Sunrise

Snow Basin Wanderings

In the early summer, we decided to try our luck at Mt. Ogden via the Bues Canyon trail. After getting soaked walking through "Fern Valley," we resolved we would try again another time. On Friday we decided to give it another try via the snow basin trailhead.

Neither of us has done this trail before, so when we arrived at 6:00, it was quite dark. We stumbled our way towards where we expected the trail head to be, and then started out. We only had a couple hours to make it to the summit, and since Steve was just getting back into it after resting his leg for 5 weeks, so we didn't summit. However, we did learn that the snowbasin trail system looks pretty much like a pile of spaghetti strewn all over the mountain. After wandering the trails for 2 hours, we ended up at the upper lodge, which sits about 200ft below the summit.

Going down, we decided the trails weren't worth it, and just followed the Gondola straight down the mountain. It only took us 30 minutes to get down that way. Overall, not too bad of a Friday morning.

Next up... Deseret Peak over Grantsville - 11,031 ft

Steve's Top of Utah Marathon

I ran in the Top of Utah marathon on Saturday, September 17th. My training hasn't been very good since the Kings Peak hike, due to an injury in my right leg that I picked up in late summer. But I figured overall, I could still get a new PR. The weather didn't seem that it was going to cooperate, and there was a slight rainfall right up until two minutes before the starting gun sounded. At that point, a groan went out over the croud as the skys dumped rain, soaking everyone to the bone before the race even started. For the first two hours of the race, at best it drizzled, and at worst, poured in buckets up to and including hail.

I kept a 3:40:00 pace for the first 21 miles, but at that point, my injured leg started getting the best of me. I dropped down to a much slower pace and finished the race with a total time of 3 hours 47 minutes. So, in spite of the rain, hail, and injury, I still set a PR by 2 minutes.

Now, I'm taking 6 weeks off from running to heal up, then we'll start again for next year.

Labor day - Lone Peak

Lone Peak is situated in between the Salt Lake and Utah Valleys, with an elevation of 11,253'. With the Orson Smith trailhead sitting about 4,800', the Cherry Canyon trail gains significant elevation for a long time. In fact, if you compare this to Kings Peak, you gain/lose nearly an additional 3,000' in a much shorter span. Kings averages about 400' per mile, while Lone Peak averages about 1000' per mile. This trail, from the granite walls, wildflowers, meadows, and cliffs of the Lone Peak cirque are hard to beat in terms of beauty.

On Labor Day, we went up the Cheery Canyon trail, looping around to the North of the main ridge in order to pass through some of the most beautiful scenery in the wasatch mountains. The trail winds past granite walls that surround fields of wild flowers, all covered by gigantic pine trees. This area of the trail is finished by going past the "outlaw cabin" on the way towards the summit. At this point, it's a scramble up and across countless granite boulders to reach the summit ridge. From there, the moving gets slow, as you carefully climb the last 300' to the summit along the exposed ridge.

Our overall time was 3 hours 45 minutes to the summit, and 2 hours 20 minutes to descend.

Lone Peak Photos

Steve running so fast you can barely see him.


Sam running through our favorite section of trail.

Carins are cool.... but somewhat futile on this hike.

Steve working his way up the granite boulder field. Lone peak summit is in the background.

On the days where your balance isn't quite up to par, dude, wear a helmet.

Summiting

Sam on the summit.

Somene chained a flag to the summit. We don't remember it being there last year.

Sam running down Jacobs ladder.

Mt. Olympus

Mt. Olympus is a strenuous do-or-die hike. Maybe that's why it's our favorite and we do it several times each year. If you can climb Olympus you can climb anything. If you've hiked it you know what I mean. We call most of the hike: The Never Ending Staircase. Our time for this trip was not the best, we summitted in just under 2 hours. Previous records have been a lot closer to 1.5 hours. Our goal is to someday beat 1.5 hours. Hopefully, the next time we try it the weather will be cooler.

Steve on the Summit.

Sam starting the scramble to the top.

Steve, scrambling.

Steve on the descent, doing his famous Godzilla leap-frog jump.

Sam on the Summit.

Quest for King's

About two years ago we climbed King's peak in one day. We started early in the morning at the trailhead and returned in about 12 and 1/2 hours. We were in pain and struggled to finish the last 3 miles. At the time, we vowed never to do it again. Two years have passed since then and we are in much better shape, having ran marathons and trained in trail running as well.

This year we participated in an ultra-marathon "race" called Quest for Kings. The easiest way to climb King's peak is to start at the Henry's Fork Trailhead (9430') and follow the trail 10 miles to Gunsight pass (11,888'). Climb the cliffs to the west and hop, skip and jump over the boulder fields to Anderson pass (12,700'). Then scramble up the shale to the top of King's peak (13,528').

Topo. map.

Steve at Gunsight pass, getting ready to climb the cliff and snow behind him.

Brian summitting.

Distance: 26 miles

Start time: 5:45 am

Steve's summit time: 9:55 am

Sam's Summit time: 10:05 am
Brian's Summit Time: 10:17 am

Sam's End time: 2:05 pm

Steve's end time: 2:08 pm
Brian's end time: 2:08 pm

Total time: Sam - 8:20:05, Steve - 8:22, Brian - 8:22:

We beat our previous time by 4 hrs. and 10 mins, setting a new record. Maybe a year from now we will do it again and knock off another 4 hrs.

Brian giving up wearing his 5 finger shoes.

Steve on Kings summit

Sam on Kings summit

Brian on Kings summit.