Mt. Nebo - Three Summits

North summit of Mt. Nebo. 11,928 ft.

On a hot Friday afternoon the Utah Climbing club and I left the Cedar Ridge trail head East of the tiny town of Mona. Our goal for the day was base camp at 10,000. So, with winter overnight packs we tromped up the rocky, dusty trail toward the cooler pine laden forests above. After lots of dirt, scree and bush-whacking we finally made it to the pines and snow (8,400 ft.) and put on the snowshoes. I was quite happy, not only to be done with the scree and brush but to get the weight of the snowshoes off my back.  After about a thousand ft. we paused to watch 6 bull elk, most looked to be 4 point bucks, cross about 50 yards in front of us. It was pretty cool watching them bound through chest deep snow as they crossed over to a different mountain ridge.

David and his tent he kindly shared, surrounded by walls of snow

At around 9000 ft. my usual nemesis leg cramps cropped up making me stop for a few minutes here and there to let my legs relax and regroup.  Dropping my knees and legs deep into the snow seemed to help with a little natural icing down of the muscled. I was on the tail end of the first group of 5 to make base camp. By the time I got there my tent partner David had found a suitable spot with trees to the South that would help block the forecasted 50 mph winds. We didn’t get much of a break, but I did get to take off my 40 lb. pack, as we started digging out the snow to make a level spot of ground and build up a nice snow wall that worked well as a wind break.  Slowly the rest of the club straggled into camp. Lots of calls to borrow shovels and Steripens were heard as people dug out pits and melted snow for water. My Steripen was the champ of the night and my JetBoil stove was not. The JetBoil works great to boil water, but quickly slows down after a few liters when melting snow for water. The fuel just gets too cold and inefficient burning to deliver enough heat.

At around 10 pm we finally got our food cooked and enough water to get us through the summit march the next day. As is usually the case we found out that our flat base, wasn’t that flat. I had a big lump under my back making it impossible to find a comfortable position to sleep and David had his head on the downhill side of his feet, making his night less than idea. After an eternity I checked my watch to see that the time was 2:38 am, with a wake-up time of 3:00 I wasn’t thrilled. I managed to fall asleep for 15 minutes then it was time to get up and get to it. I dug into my usual Pop-Tart breakfast, cheap, easy and lots of calories, but found later that they didn’t really have enough substance to keep my stomach from wanting more pretty quickly.

Lone climber on the top of middle summit

At 4:00 am four or five of us got started up the ridge to the South summit, the 2^nd tallest of the Nebo peaks at 11,877 ft.  My summit pack was nice and light but my lungs were still feeling the altitude. We crept up the 1800 or so feet to the south summit in the dark. I paused for a moment on the bump on top then turned to the north to start down the ridge toward the middle and north summits. When we got to the low point between the south and middle summit we found a very narrow rocky ridge with lots of exposure on both sides. Working across this ridge, using my rock skills was a little scary in the dark, but we got it done and headed up the steep middle summit climb.

Matt nearing the top of the north summit

Once on the middle summit (11,824 ft) I saw the sun was about to peak over the distant mountains so I paused to watch the orange rays come up and illuminate the lower mountains and hills below. Not much better in this world than being on top of a mountain watching the sun come up.  I couldn’t stay long as my hands and feet were getting cold so I continued north to the final summit. Between each of the summits the ridge drops a couple of hundred feet. The descent is a nice break, but starting the upward climb was a lot of work.  I was a few minutes behind 3 of my faster cohorts, having had to stop a couple of times to stick my hands in my armpits to get the feeling back in my fingers. I made the true summit of Nebo, the north summit at 11,928.  I snapped a couple of quick summit photos then headed down before the snow started to turn to slush.

Me on the north summit of Mt. Nebo

After getting back to camp, packing up and heading down on snowshoes the snow had turned to crap, really slushy and slippery making it difficult to keep my balance with my heavy pack.  After getting through the trees there were some great stretches to glissade. My butt got pretty soaked from the wet snow, but it was worth it cut out about 1000 ft.

The champ of the weekend was my Grivel Air-Tech Evo ice axe. It’s pretty light, about 1 lb. but it has a really strong shaft in case you need to belay off of it and it comes with a great leash that has a rubber cover for the shaft pick.  I’ve used this a few times in the mountains. I like the curved shaft near the head of the axe. It makes it nice and comfortable to carry and use. The head is forged and really tough. I used it for a bit of dry tooling here and there and there are no signs of use. I’m 6’3” and the 66 cm length is perfect for me. I was a bit worried that it might be too short, but I’ve found that any time I’ve needed it longer the slope is mellow enough that the axe isn’t all that needed. It’s on the steep stuff that I really like having it. Little nicks have come off the bright yellow paint from banging balled up snow and ice off my crampons, as well as knocking around on the rocks when I need to use my hands for a bit of climbing.  I like it so much that I keep it by my bed for both the good mountain memories as well as a home protection weapon. Can you imagine being an intruder and facing down someone wielding an ice axe. I wouldn’t want that buried in my skull, would you?

Big props to the climbing club, you’re all a lot of fun to hang out and climb mountains with. 

Mt. Timpanogos - Redemption...almost

Last year my friend Rick and I made an attempt at climbing Mt. Timpanogos (Timp) via Everest Ridge on the West face. We planned on an overnighter, but never made it to our intended camp site on the Timp- Big Baldy saddle. We bumped up against heavy trees/brush, a large spring, and deep snow on the Battle Creek (North) side of Big Baldy.

Ever since then the massif that is Timp has been looking down at me, taunting me. Timp is a beautiful mountain and Everest Ridge is an awesome route running up the middle of the West face from Big Baldy to a point about .38 mile south of the summit. After a couple of weeks of heavy storms, heat, and massive avalanche danger everything finally settled down and Rick and I made our attempt.

We decided on a single day push from the bottom of Dry Canyon on the South side of Big Baldy. With snowshoes strapped to our packs we left the trailhead at around 5:20am. The temps were cold enough to keep the snow pretty solid until we got to near the saddle (~8000 ft.) where the snow was deeper and less consolidated. We moved up a prominent low angle ridge to the base of Everest Ridge where things got pretty steep. After a 100 yards we stashed our snowshoes next to a small band of rocks and switched to crampons and ice axes.

It was fantastic working our way up the ridge, watching the valley floor and Baldy drop below us. Most of the going was pretty steep, but stable crusty snow. A few stretches of post holing kept the heart rate up and made us extra grateful for the solid stuff. At one point, I think around 10,500 ft., there is a narrow, rocky ridge, that made the going a little interesting, and did a good job of breaking up the stretches of snow and post holing.

Rick and I finally made it to the cliff band, often referred to as the Step. We opted to traverse to the right (South) on a pretty steep slope. We got about halfway through the first section, after I slipped a couple of times and Rick admitting that his leg injury wasn't doing so well, we decided that we probably ought to cut it short and turn around.

Our high point was at around 11,300 ft. We dropped down a hundred or so to a place where we could glissade down the chute. There was a large crack across the face so we stayed far to the left so as to not tempt the avalanche gods. Just as we were about to start our slide down four college students, who were coming down from the summit stopped to watch. They had never heard of glissading down this section and were intrigued with not having to climb down the entire ridge.

After watching Rick and I they got enough courage to give it a try themselves. After that they were hooked and provided us with some ready made glissade tracks to follow down much of the mountain. After a lot of glissading and walking we made it to the cliff band where we had stowed the snowshoes. Only we were about 500 yards to the South. What proceeded was the worst period of post holing and swimming in waist deep snow that I've ever had. It was pretty late in the day and the snow was pretty soft and slushy. It took an hour or two (I really have no idea how long, but it felt like an eternity) until I was below the spot where I could finally see our snowshoes. Only problem, I had about a hundred yards to go strait up a 45 degree slope. At times I was literally moving on all fours, just trying to stay as near the top of the snow as I could.  I was about 30 ft. from the snowshoes and nearly gave up when I realized that 30 ft. was about a year in post holing years. Eventually I made it and after some trouble finally made it down to the bottom where Rick was wringing out his socks. He had followed me part of the way but had to give up when his leg injury started some serious nagging.

As is usually the case with me, once the climbing is done I get a strong mental urge to just get down to the car. The problem is that my knees don't like the quick pounding descent, so I'm forced to stop now and then to give them a break. 

Though Rick and I still didn't summit, I feel much more satisfied with this effort than last year when we were turned back so early. Timp still looks down on me, but its nice to look back near the summit to see just how close we got. I'll definitely have another go at it. Each time I learn some new lessons. Next time, if the weather is going to be warm, start much earlier in the morning and stow the snowshoes in a spot that I'll pass by on the way down.