Tackling Timp... Finally

I attempted the climb to the summit of Mount Timpanogos with my sister and brother-in-law back in 2000, but stopped about a half-mile shy of the peak; partly because we had run out of water and partly because the heights were kind of freaking me out. Over the past 5 years it has killed me to tell people that I have climbed Timp but have never made it to the top. Well, today Rosey and I remedied that problem and hiked all the way to the summit. It was long, it was grueling, in some places it was even a little treacherous, but it was worth it!


Our adventure began with my alarm clock going off at 4 in the morning. Temperatures have been reaching the 100's over the last couple of days and I wanted to get started on the trail as early as possible to minimize the amount of hiking that we needed to do in the sweltering mid-July heat. Unfortunately neither of us slept very well and we had to reluctantly peel ourselves out of bed when the alarm went off.


We began the hike in Aspen Grove at 5:50 in the morning and climbed what felt like hundreds of switchbacks up the mountain to Emerald Lake. We must have passed half-a-dozen waterfalls on the way up, crossed over several mountain streams and saw millions of wildflowers. It was gorgeous.


From Emerald Lake (which was really more of a pool), we could see our goal resting atop the sheer cliffs above us. It would have been a short hike (albeit strenous) if we were able to go straight there. But the trail had us hike a couple of miles out and then back up a ridge to reach the peak.

About 3/4 of a mile between Emerald Lake and the Saddle (where you get onto the ridge for the first time) was covered in snow. It made for an extremely slow crossing. It would have been challenging even if the snow was on level ground, but the fact that you were walking sideways across a snow covered slope made it even more difficult. With every step you faced the possibility of losing your footing and sliding down the mountain to the rocks below. Our only solace was knowing that even if we fell, we probably wouldn't have died... probably :) We may have just been maimed really bad.


Fortunately, the snow subsided once we got up to the saddle. The 3/4 of a mile or so to the peak was steep but not too bad otherwise. We took our time and made it to the top shortly after 11 AM. The summit was 11,750 ft above sea level and about 5100 ft above where we had started. That's nearly a mile of elevation gain! It was also nearly as high as we were in Rocky Mountain National Park when we hiked to Chasm Lake.


It amused both Rosey and I that the most common activity on the top of this beautiful mountain was for people to get on their cell phones, call all of their friends and family and ask the question, "Guess where I am". We had a short lunch just above the saddle before beginning our trek back down the mountain.

Neither of us were looking forward to crossing the snow field again. In particular, I was freaking out about a particular section of trail just below the saddle. There was about a 20 foot section of trail that was steep and covered in snow. For those 20 feet the trail was only about 6 inches wide; just enough to step foot over foot. As if that wasn't bad enough the use of the trail all day had turned the snow to ice. Coming up that section of trail was bad, but at least we were ascending. Going back down I was concerned that gravity was going to work against me and send me flying off of the mountain.

I was sure that certain death awaited me if I were to attempt that section of the trail on the way down. So, I opted instead to climb up and over the snow patch that was covering the trail. That was a good idea until I got to the other side and realized that I still had to come down. I slid about 20 ft. down a 60 degree incline on my ass. The slope consisted of a bunch of loose rock and I nearly started a small rock slide. Meanwhile, Rosey decided to cross the trail on the snow. It was a good thing that I was too busy creating a rock slide to watch Rosey traverse the snow otherwise I probably would have had a panic attack just watching her. Thankfully, we both made across OK.


Later in the day, when we got back down to our car we discovered that someone had been injured on the mountain and that they were sending in LifeFlight to retrieve them. I wondered whether or not that someone had fallen off of that ice-covered section of the trail. It really was dangerous.

The highlight of the day came shortly after our near-death snow traversal. There was a second snow patch covering the trail down from the saddle. The second snow patch was much less treacherous and had the added advantage that instead of having rocks beneath it, the snow extended all the down to the snow field below. This meant that we could shave about a third of a mile off our hike by sliding down the side of the trail instead of hiking down it. So, we hopped over the edge dug our heels into the snow and slid down a 45 degree incline to the snow field below. It was awesome!


By the time that we got back to Emerald Lake we were both dragging ass. We were tired and sore but we still had two and a half hours of hiking ahead of us to get back down. Still we were grateful to be leaving the unsteady footing of the snowfield behind us. We made pretty good time down the mountain, stopping only once at Couch Rock to rest our legs for a few minutes, drink some water and eat some snacks. We made it back to the car at 4:10 PM, 10 hours and 20 minutes later than we had started that morning. I'm not certain exactly how long the hike was, but I have heard it estimated between 16 and 19 miles. That's a lot of hiking.

The rest of our pictures are here.