Everest Ridge - Mt. Timpanogos

Dear Family and Friends,

I love the feeling of being so sore that you feel like a million dollars. This past weekend, Friday afternoon through Saturday, I went with the Utah Climbing Club and attempted to summit Mt. Timpanogos (11,200 ft). What follows is a brief recap of the climb.

At 1:00 PM Friday afternoon we were all supposed to meet at the trail head and make our way to base camp. Unfortunately the man I had set up to share a tent with hadn’t arrived yet. I waited as everyone else left for Baldy’s Saddle, and after an hour he finally showed up… only he had just bought a back pack and had yet to pack a single thing. – At this point I figure it is necessary to point out that he resembled more of the “City Slickers” type of mountaineer than anyone else in the group. In other words everything he owned was bran new and I would highly doubt it if he had done much of any hiking/camping/climbing before. – I spent the next 30-40 minutes helping him pack and then took the tent and loaded it on my pack before we headed off.

There were three other people who showed up late and were started up at the same time we did. I took this opportunity and left him in their care, one of the girls made it clear that she was going to take a slow pace. Two miles and 3200 vertical feet from the trail head I finally made it to base camp. On the way I caught up with a few of the other members of the Climbing Club and we made the finally ascent to base camp together. Greg was in the group.

Greg and I helped each other dig out a place to set up our tents. Both of us were sharing with people who had yet to make it up from the trail head. As the

sun was going down we finally finished setting everything up. As I was eating dinner Craig, my tent mate for the trip, arrived at Base Camp. He started to complain that I hadn’t dug an entrance on the other side of the tent for him. I didn’t say much except, “Feel free to dig out an entrance on the other side. I’m eating dinner.”

At 9:00 I started getting ready for bed. Jared, thank you so much for letting me use your sleeping bag! It kept me so warm I was

almost too hot. With my water, clothes for the hike, and gloves in the sleeping bag with me I put in some ear plugs and placed a shirt over my eyes and started to drift off to sleep (yes, you have to sleep with your water in the bag unless you want to wake up in the morning and try to cook with frozen water).

At 1:00 AM we woke up and started making breakfast and preparing for the main ascent. Craig, decided he didn’t want to try to climb “Everest Ridge” and went back to sleep. The South west face of Mount Timpanogos has a ridge from Baldy’s Saddle called “Everest Ridge” because of the Utah climbing team who used the ridge to train for Everest.

Darren, the group leader got us all organized, about 30 people in all, and we made our way up about ½ mile where we practiced self arresting. In winter mountaineering an ice axe and crampons are absolutely necessary and self arresting is what a climber does when they have slipped and are sliding down the face of a frozen mountain. It is a pretty simple procedure but can be fairly scary as you pick up speed. This training was extremely important as the ridge we were about to climb encompassed a gain of 2000 vertical feet in less than a mile and a half.

From 2:40 to 6:30 AM I fought the ridge, fatigue, cold, ice, fear, and the incredible urge to slide down the mountain on my back side. I made the climb with Greg and Dave, two geologists in their 50s. We were making pretty good time, but around 6:00 a storm, which I had hoped would roll in around 10:00 AM, came barreling in.

We made it to about 10,800 ft, a mere 400 vertical feet from the crest and false summit, before we decided that we needed to turn around.

Some others in the group had made it to the false summit and said that the face was becoming wind loaded and they could already see cracks in the snow. Wind loaded refers to one of the many was a face can become avalanche prone. With their info we stopped at the last wand and turned around.

The climb down was all wind, snow, and throbbing legs. The wind had picked up substantially, freezing the snow covered ridge. On the last part of the descent Greg and Dave were about 50 yards in front of me when I saw Dave’s orange coat go sliding down the ridge to my left. All of us on the ridge at that point froze, breath held, and watched in horror as Dave continued to slide. He almost self arrested twice before hitting what we thought was a bush, is turned out to be a small cliff. He disappeared and we hoped that he had finally self arrested; we couldn’t have been farther from the truth. Moments later we saw Dave, at this point looking like a rag doll, rolling down the rest of the ridge. After about 1,000 feet he came to a stop,

motionless. All of us on the ridge watched and waited for some sign of life. After a minute or so he got to his knees and eventually stood up. We had a doctor in the group who was almost to base camp, which is practically where Dave stopped. When I finally made it to base camp, I took things a little slower after watching Dave take what could have been a life ending fall, I found Dave chatting and laughing. He had slightly sprained his ankle, but other than that he appeared fine; shaken up, but otherwise in good condition.

The rest of the day was rather non-eventful. I packed up tent and made my way back to the car. I love life and am so grateful for the beauty of the world we

live in. … Now, for those of you wondering why, how, and again why, I started climbing and doing this stuff, the answer is pretty short. Haylie and I broke up, and well, I had a ring to sell back and have thus invested the money into better pursuits. … I can’t wait for Mt. Rainier and a few of the other climbs we will be doing this summer. I love you all and hope that everything is going well for you.

Love,
David