Digiclimber - Apr 2, 2009 11:16 am Date Climbed: Aug 4, 2003
Storm
Reached the peak just as a huge storm rolled in, had to go straight down the chute and bushwhack back to camp, very cold and kinda scary cause of the lightning. Good Times!
sassyplatt - Jan 24, 2009 7:27 pm Date Climbed: Aug 10, 2003
Long approach!
Gorgeous country! Thunderstorms really are a concern. Lots of unhappy boy scouts on the trail.
I can't remember exactly how old I was but it was a while ago.. I remember it was snowing on top.. didn't get much of view
Outdoorpartner - Aug 11, 2008 8:01 pm Date Climbed: Aug 9, 2008
Small weather window
Camped near Gunsight pass and was on the trail before 7 AM. Summitted at 11:07, and the surrounding clouds turned menacing. By the time I was off the rock, lightening started. Hiked back to my tent in pouring rain, hail, and strobe light lightening. Glad to have the weather window, during the 4 day backpack trip, it rained most of the time. Thank you whoever left the very nice "King's Peak" banner on the summit.
J Anderson - Aug 10, 2008 6:48 pm Date Climbed: Aug 8, 2007
Beautiful Hike
Hiked in from Henry's Fork and hit the summit the same day. On the way up the chute it started to rain pretty hard but cleared up as we reached the summit.
gbrill - Aug 5, 2008 8:44 pm Date Climbed: Jun 1, 2007
One day
My fiance and I did it in one days. We left at 7pm hiked through the night, summited at sunrise and made our way back to the car by 3pm the next day.
marauders - Aug 3, 2008 2:38 am Date Climbed: Aug 2, 2008
Kings Peak / Henrys Fork Peak Combo
Lucked out with fantastic weather. The meadows and grasslands were in bloom with waterfalls running at full capacity. Can it get any better?
Man, what a long hike! I think our route ended up being about 27 miles (and 5,000 feet) over two days. There were a few snow fields to cross (an axe wasn't totally necessary, but I kind of wish I brought mine). Had to endure some nasty weather and sloppy conditions ... and the mosquitoes were bad.
Here's a full trip report with photos, if you're interested in more details:
breagen - May 22, 2008 8:43 pm Date Climbed: May 13, 2008
worthy try.... kinda
We were expecting much better conditions but instead it was snowshoe postholeing and cold. We didnt have good maps so got off route, that was about it. Ill be back.
Our team of four climbed via the Anderson Pass Variation. While crossing the unbelievable sea of wobbly blocks to the south of West Gunsight Peak my wife stepped on a perfectly flat boiler plate and it tipped, toppling her into the rocks. (A fall from a standing position to level ground.) Somehow she managed to break her left pinky finger (severe angulation) and cut her knees bad enough to require a butterfly. As Mrs. Rat said she felt 'okay,' our two teammates continued onto Kings and I escorted my wife back to camp. (After great treatment the following day at the Evanston, Wyoming hospital we headed home. (The break ended up requiring surgery.) This just points out that bad things can happen with the most benign circumstances. Lugging around my bulky first aid kit for all of these decades paid off, and with EMT skills, this incident wasn't a big deal. (It ruined a good climb - and we're ready to go back!)
warriorpoet - Mar 24, 2008 1:22 am Date Climbed: Mar 21, 2008
Serac Club 2008
We spent two days skiing into Dollar Lake, via Henry's Fork. We broke trail through fresh snow on both days, Wed & Thur. From our camp near Dollar Lake, we headed for the summit at 9AM on Friday. We skied up Gunsight Pass, stripped our skis, and traversed the snowfield on the east face, heading south. We then skied a little further, and ran out of snow. So we ditched the skis, and bare-booted it up into the basin on the east of King's Peak, across mixed snow and rocks. reaching the base of King's about a quarter mile south of Anderson Paas, we climbed up the face onto the ridge, and summited about 2:40PM. On the way back, we ran into strong winds near Gunsight. My skis felt like a sail on my back. We sometimes had to ground ourselves to keep from blowing over, This was especially unnerving crossing back over the snowfield to Gunsight, where gusts tried to pull us off the mountain. Without crampons, I frequently had to plant the shaft of my axe, and lean into the mountain until the wind subsided. I'd never self-arrested going head-first, and didn't want to learn here. It took us an hour to go about 100 yds. When we reached Gunsight Pass, we were hit by a 50-60 MPH wind from the west. We ducked behind a large rock for shelter, hoping the wind would die down. Finally, we decided to push forward down into the pass. We had to lean hard into the wind and push off with our trekking poles to counteract the large wind profile of the skis on our backs. The wind was milder further down the pass, enough that we were able to stop and put our skis on. From there, we skied back to Dollar Lake. In retrospect it we may have presented less of a profile to the wind, and had better balance, had we strapped the tips of our skis together while carrying them. From now on, I'll always have the strap readily accessible. We headed back on Saturday morning. It took us two days to ski in, and three hours to ski out.
Hiked in to Dollar Lake and set-up camp. Terrible winds blew in the night before pushing for the top preceeding an impending snow storm. We decided to bail before getting caught up in the Uinta's notorious bad weather.
I've been up a few times. This is a nice climb, with an excellent view from the top. My favorite approach is up China Meadows over Smiths Fork Pass (passing Red Castle) and approaching up Anderson Pass from the west side of the mountain. This route provides more solitude than the popular Henry's fork route.
merrill - Feb 11, 2008 2:51 pm Date Climbed: Jul 21, 2006
Dollar Lake
My wife's first state highpoint. Nice mosquitoes by the way. We left a day earlier than planned.
jimegan - Feb 7, 2008 11:12 am Date Climbed: Jul 14, 2004
KINGS PK
DAY HIKE FROM HENRY'S FORK TRAILHEAD WITH TREMENDOUS AFTERNOON THUNDER AND LIGHTNING ON THE RETURN
Have summitted Kings multiple times. Climbed Kings Peak in a day. That was a riot. Got caught in a hail storm and had to spoon with my younger brother to keep warm. Never had been so cold in my life. One of my greatest natural highs when I first summitted Kings when I was a little Boy Scout. Great memories and stories. Still love going to Henrys Fork Basin even though it has become very popular.
Bassoon - Dec 16, 2007 9:53 pm Date Climbed: Sep 2, 2007
Crazy Storm
Climbed this with my uncle. We made it to the top before the big crowds and turned right around when we saw the storm heading our way- it amazed me how many idiots passed us heading up as we worked our way down the boulder field, even with our warning. The t-storm pounded us for 2 hours of the descent, but cleared up beautifully later. A great, great climb.
Lubos - Dec 8, 2007 7:22 pm Date Climbed: Mar 23, 2006
great fun in winter
I did the WMC cross country trip but did not summit. I need skins next time.
Digiclimber - Apr 2, 2009 11:16 am Date Climbed: Aug 4, 2003
StormReached the peak just as a huge storm rolled in, had to go straight down the chute and bushwhack back to camp, very cold and kinda scary cause of the lightning. Good Times!
sassyplatt - Jan 24, 2009 7:27 pm Date Climbed: Aug 10, 2003
Long approach!Gorgeous country! Thunderstorms really are a concern. Lots of unhappy boy scouts on the trail.
alphasteve - Dec 24, 2008 1:51 am
ClassicFun Classic especially if you have less experienced folks. Also great mid-point for the highline trail push.
byates - Dec 7, 2008 10:56 pm
Skied and hikedMultiple times always in a day.
dfrancom - Oct 20, 2008 3:09 pm
Long agoI can't remember exactly how old I was but it was a while ago.. I remember it was snowing on top.. didn't get much of view
Outdoorpartner - Aug 11, 2008 8:01 pm Date Climbed: Aug 9, 2008
Small weather windowCamped near Gunsight pass and was on the trail before 7 AM. Summitted at 11:07, and the surrounding clouds turned menacing. By the time I was off the rock, lightening started. Hiked back to my tent in pouring rain, hail, and strobe light lightening. Glad to have the weather window, during the 4 day backpack trip, it rained most of the time. Thank you whoever left the very nice "King's Peak" banner on the summit.
J Anderson - Aug 10, 2008 6:48 pm Date Climbed: Aug 8, 2007
Beautiful HikeHiked in from Henry's Fork and hit the summit the same day. On the way up the chute it started to rain pretty hard but cleared up as we reached the summit.
gbrill - Aug 5, 2008 8:44 pm Date Climbed: Jun 1, 2007
One dayMy fiance and I did it in one days. We left at 7pm hiked through the night, summited at sunrise and made our way back to the car by 3pm the next day.
marauders - Aug 3, 2008 2:38 am Date Climbed: Aug 2, 2008
Kings Peak / Henrys Fork Peak ComboLucked out with fantastic weather. The meadows and grasslands were in bloom with waterfalls running at full capacity. Can it get any better?
AubreySun - Jul 8, 2008 12:47 pm Date Climbed: Jul 5, 2008
Long and tough two daysMan, what a long hike! I think our route ended up being about 27 miles (and 5,000 feet) over two days. There were a few snow fields to cross (an axe wasn't totally necessary, but I kind of wish I brought mine). Had to endure some nasty weather and sloppy conditions ... and the mosquitoes were bad.
Here's a full trip report with photos, if you're interested in more details:
http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=4612&cpgm=tripmain
breagen - May 22, 2008 8:43 pm Date Climbed: May 13, 2008
worthy try.... kindaWe were expecting much better conditions but instead it was snowshoe postholeing and cold. We didnt have good maps so got off route, that was about it. Ill be back.
peakrat76 - Apr 28, 2008 6:30 pm Date Climbed: Sep 14, 2000
Bad Luck on King's PeakOur team of four climbed via the Anderson Pass Variation. While crossing the unbelievable sea of wobbly blocks to the south of West Gunsight Peak my wife stepped on a perfectly flat boiler plate and it tipped, toppling her into the rocks. (A fall from a standing position to level ground.) Somehow she managed to break her left pinky finger (severe angulation) and cut her knees bad enough to require a butterfly. As Mrs. Rat said she felt 'okay,' our two teammates continued onto Kings and I escorted my wife back to camp. (After great treatment the following day at the Evanston, Wyoming hospital we headed home. (The break ended up requiring surgery.) This just points out that bad things can happen with the most benign circumstances. Lugging around my bulky first aid kit for all of these decades paid off, and with EMT skills, this incident wasn't a big deal. (It ruined a good climb - and we're ready to go back!)
warriorpoet - Mar 24, 2008 1:22 am Date Climbed: Mar 21, 2008
Serac Club 2008We spent two days skiing into Dollar Lake, via Henry's Fork. We broke trail through fresh snow on both days, Wed & Thur. From our camp near Dollar Lake, we headed for the summit at 9AM on Friday. We skied up Gunsight Pass, stripped our skis, and traversed the snowfield on the east face, heading south. We then skied a little further, and ran out of snow. So we ditched the skis, and bare-booted it up into the basin on the east of King's Peak, across mixed snow and rocks. reaching the base of King's about a quarter mile south of Anderson Paas, we climbed up the face onto the ridge, and summited about 2:40PM. On the way back, we ran into strong winds near Gunsight. My skis felt like a sail on my back. We sometimes had to ground ourselves to keep from blowing over, This was especially unnerving crossing back over the snowfield to Gunsight, where gusts tried to pull us off the mountain. Without crampons, I frequently had to plant the shaft of my axe, and lean into the mountain until the wind subsided. I'd never self-arrested going head-first, and didn't want to learn here. It took us an hour to go about 100 yds. When we reached Gunsight Pass, we were hit by a 50-60 MPH wind from the west. We ducked behind a large rock for shelter, hoping the wind would die down. Finally, we decided to push forward down into the pass. We had to lean hard into the wind and push off with our trekking poles to counteract the large wind profile of the skis on our backs. The wind was milder further down the pass, enough that we were able to stop and put our skis on. From there, we skied back to Dollar Lake. In retrospect it we may have presented less of a profile to the wind, and had better balance, had we strapped the tips of our skis together while carrying them. From now on, I'll always have the strap readily accessible. We headed back on Saturday morning. It took us two days to ski in, and three hours to ski out.
SundanceKid203 - Feb 26, 2008 3:24 am
WeatherHiked in to Dollar Lake and set-up camp. Terrible winds blew in the night before pushing for the top preceeding an impending snow storm. We decided to bail before getting caught up in the Uinta's notorious bad weather.
tp - Feb 14, 2008 11:06 pm
The King!I've been up a few times. This is a nice climb, with an excellent view from the top. My favorite approach is up China Meadows over Smiths Fork Pass (passing Red Castle) and approaching up Anderson Pass from the west side of the mountain. This route provides more solitude than the popular Henry's fork route.
merrill - Feb 11, 2008 2:51 pm Date Climbed: Jul 21, 2006
Dollar LakeMy wife's first state highpoint. Nice mosquitoes by the way. We left a day earlier than planned.
jimegan - Feb 7, 2008 11:12 am Date Climbed: Jul 14, 2004
KINGS PKDAY HIKE FROM HENRY'S FORK TRAILHEAD WITH TREMENDOUS AFTERNOON THUNDER AND LIGHTNING ON THE RETURN
Garfimi - Dec 31, 2007 12:28 am
Henrys Fork BasinHave summitted Kings multiple times. Climbed Kings Peak in a day. That was a riot. Got caught in a hail storm and had to spoon with my younger brother to keep warm. Never had been so cold in my life. One of my greatest natural highs when I first summitted Kings when I was a little Boy Scout. Great memories and stories. Still love going to Henrys Fork Basin even though it has become very popular.
Bassoon - Dec 16, 2007 9:53 pm Date Climbed: Sep 2, 2007
Crazy StormClimbed this with my uncle. We made it to the top before the big crowds and turned right around when we saw the storm heading our way- it amazed me how many idiots passed us heading up as we worked our way down the boulder field, even with our warning. The t-storm pounded us for 2 hours of the descent, but cleared up beautifully later. A great, great climb.
Lubos - Dec 8, 2007 7:22 pm Date Climbed: Mar 23, 2006
great fun in winterI did the WMC cross country trip but did not summit. I need skins next time.