One less skeleton in the closet...

This photo represents more than just the neat looking north aspect of North Thunder Mountain. After failing pretty miserably on this route with my brother in law back in September of 2008, this peak and the route up from Coalpit Gulch have always been clawing at me since. Decided to finally Git R' done! Started at the Coalpit Powerplant at Little Cottonwood road and reached the summit in a little over four hours via Coalpit Gulch. I honestly still am pretty amazed that it took us over nine hours to reach not the peak, but the Hogum Saddle 800 vertical feet beneath the summit four years prior. Lack of experience, not knowing the route, being horridly fat and out of shape probably all contributed to that failure then. We didn't get to the Hogum Saddle in Coalpit until after 4:00 pm, and realized that we would be out of light and headed back down. This time around there was plenty of day left, enough to traverse the Thunder Ridge to South Thunder, and then I tackled the ridge north from there which dissects upper Bells Canyon and the Thunder Bowl all the way to the saddle just south of Bells Cleaver Peak. From that point it was down to the reservoir to filter water for the pack, then down Bells to the trailhead where my Dad was waiting to drag my rear back up to my truck in Little Cottonwood. Very glad to have hit this route proper this time! And that area up there is breathtakingly gorgeous! September 8, 2012. For the GPS data and metrics for this one, click the link below: Coalpit Gulch, Thunder Traverse.