Climbing Lone Peak In The Brutal Heat Of The Summer

Climbing Lone Peak In The Brutal Heat Of The Summer

Page Type Page Type: Trip Report
Location Lat/Lon: 40.52845°N / 111.75769°W
Date Date Climbed/Hiked: Aug 8, 2012
Activities Activities: Hiking
Seasons Season: Summer

6 strenuous hours

I set out on the morning of August 8th, 2012, with my brother and two friends to climb lone peak. We had a pretty late start and arrived at the Jacobs Ladder trail head around 8:00am and started hiking. Around the second mile or so we found out why the trail was called Jacobs Ladder because it literally went straight up the mountain side until the trail hit draper ridge. We were glad to be done with the toughest part Jacobs ladder after reaching draper ridge and continued down through some pines to the first granite field.
The summit of lone peak from Jacobs Ladder
The trail through the granite fields are marked by rock cairns and took us a lot longer than we though to cross due to many boulder fields and some wrong turns but we finally made our way to the start of the class 3 and 4 sections at the base of the summit ridge and took a good rest before starting up the ridge. Once we had rested we started on some fun scrambling up to the saddle were it becomes class 4. the class 4 section was pretty straight forward and not very difficult but could be a problem for anyone who isn't comfortable climbing around boulders with some pretty big exposure in some spots.
Lone Peak class 4 section
At the end of the class 4 section we reached the summit block and I got a overwhelming sense of accomplishment and one heck of a view. 6 hours of hiking had finally paid off and I wasn't really looking forward to the decent.
On The Summit Of Lone Peak

descending Jacobs ladder in 100 degrees with no water.

After starting our decent from the summit I soon began to realize how hot it was getting and that i was the only one with water left. I gave my water out to the others and by the time we hit draper ridge we had no water left for the steep decent down Jacobs ladder. With the temperature hitting 100 degrees and no water I found out why Jacobs ladder can be brutal on a hot summer day. As the hours passed on our decent down Jacobs Ladder I started to feel the symptoms of dehydration setting in on me. By the time we only two miles of trail left to go everyone was near the collapsing point, by this time things were getting pretty bad for me, my head hurt and was extremely dizzy and it was getting difficult to coordinate myself. That last mile never seemed to end and when i finally saw the car it was almost a better feeling than standing on the summit. We drove to the nearest gas station and drank lots of water and compared lone peak to other mountains we had climbed. We all agreed that lone peak was the hardest mountain any of us had climbed in the Wasatch range and that this mountain had taught us a good lesson, you never can bring enough water.

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phatty

phatty - Aug 21, 2012 12:31 pm - Hasn't voted

water stash

Good idea to stash some water on the ridge for the way down. Sucks carrying extra weight up the ladder, but totally worth it on the way down! Glad you survived!

mariporlit

mariporlit - Aug 23, 2012 8:49 am - Hasn't voted

w0w!!!!

..and i like that r0ck formation...nice view..!!!

austinfarnworth

austinfarnworth - Aug 23, 2012 11:33 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: w0w!!!!

yeah There are allot amazing rock formations in Utah.

mariporlit

mariporlit - Aug 24, 2012 8:10 am - Hasn't voted

very nice!!!

that is great sir...here in the philippines,,in our climbs..we seldom find rock formation..it's more on trees along the way..but still we love it..it helped us to shed from the heat of the sun...

enyalid - Oct 7, 2012 3:05 pm - Hasn't voted

Recommended Water to carry

I learned on the first hike up there to carry at least 6 liters of liquid. The first time I was up there, I ran out of water and had to turn around before getting to the peak.

austinfarnworth

austinfarnworth - Oct 9, 2012 5:17 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Recommended Water to carry

Yeah the funny part is that whenever i have climbed any of the other peaks in the Wasatch iv'e always brought too much water and this happened to be the one mountain i didn't bring enough on. The next time I do Jacob's Ladder ill bring double that and stash half of it on the way up.

sandramhickey@yahoo.com

sandramhickey@yahoo.com - Jul 27, 2014 2:53 am - Hasn't voted

4 liters is enough in July

Just summited this last week and went through all 4 liters of the water I brought!! There was still some snow melt available to drink if you bring a filter, but I would not plan on getting water because it depends on the year and the temps! Beautiful hike and a breeze compared to Twin Peaks in July, that hike has so much scree it was much more challenging. I'll take Jacobs ladder any day compared to that:)

Viewing: 1-7 of 7