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| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Utah, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 40.38460°N / 111.636°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Mar 11, 1990 Activities: Mountaineering Season: Winter | Page By: Scott Created/Edited: Aug 22, 2003 / Oct 2, 2007 Object ID: 169051 Hits: 1804 Loading... Page Score: 86.21% - 1 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
The ClimbNote: Date is just a guess based on looking at weather records, but it was 1990.
I was 15 years old at the time, but close to 16. It sounded like a good idea, a winter climb of Mt. Timpanogos. The weather forecast was bad: rain mixed with snow in the valleys and snow, sometimes heavy in the mountains. But we had to climb it this particular weekend. My parents would never let me go on such an adventure, and they were out of town this weekend. It just had to be this weekend.
Kenny Walker, Chris Anderson, and myself started early in the morning from the mouth of Dry Creek. The weather was very warm and windy. We made it up almost to the Big Baldy Saddle before putting on snowshoes, and we hiked up the very steep minor spur coming down to the Glacier Saddle. We reached the saddle after 10 hard hours with 6500 feet altitude gain, and were planning to camp there, but gale force winds made setting up a tent, or even standing up impossible. We were only 450 vertical feet from the summit, but we decided to descend to Emerald Lake to try and camp. We went down the steep perpetual snow field and down to Emerald Lake. It was snowing hard and blowing furiously. We dug out the shelter (it was filled with snow), and tried to get some sleep.
When we emerged in the morning, we found that a few feet of new snow (which was blowing and drifting) had fallen overnight! It was settled. We would skip the summit, and snowshoe down to Sundance, where we could hitch hike out. We made it through the deep powder to the edge of the cirque that holds Hidden Lakes. The cliff below Hidden Lakes stopped us dead in our tracks. The snow was very unstable and was avalanche prone. We would have to retreat the same way. We made it rather quickly to Emerald Lake, but climbing the 1,000 feet up the perpetual snowfield was extremely strenuous. The only problem was that the storm left a HUGE cornice at the top of the perpetual snowfield. We tried hard for thirteen hours to try to punch through the cornice. We were trapped! It was well after dark and we were forced to retreat back to Emerald Lake for another night. It was clear and calm, but the temperature was probably below 0.
It was a long, cold, and sleepless night. We all thought we would freeze to death. The morning was clear and COLD. We woke up, melted snow for water and reclimbed the snowfield. It was easier with our packed trail from the day before, but it was still strenuous. We again dug our way through the cornice and succeeded on standing on top of the Glacier Saddle just after dark. We slid and hiked carefully down the mountain in the dark and reached the car very late at night. It was the most exhausting day in our lives.
Other AttemptsThis was not my last winter attempt on Timp. In early 1997, I led a WMC trip up the South Ridge Direct from Bridal Veil Falls in winter. We were forced to turn back in a nasty blizzard at the Second Buttress. Another failed attempt.
My brother Richard and I at the end of that same year took on an ambitious project to traverse the Sundance Ridge in winter from Vivian Park to the summit. We started at 10:00 PM and tried to hike by moonlight. As luck would have it, the moon was hidden behind clouds for much of the time and navigation was too difficult along the rugged ridge in the dark.
In 1999 in the winter, I went up to Emerald Lake. It wasn't a summit attempt. Too bad it wasn't, the weather was perfect.
I have since climbed several high and equally difficult peaks of the Wasatch in winter. I climbed Lone Peak, Pfeifferhorn, Nebo, etc., all in winter, and on my first attempt, as well as peaks in other ranges such as Deseret Peak, and several in the Uintas and Colorado Rockies, all in the winter, and on my first attempt. Why is my luck so bad on Timp?
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Wasatch Range (South)
