November 2, 2013 my brother Nelson and I attempted to climb the legendary Mt. Timpanogos. The summit of dreams. Specifically, our dream was to get a head start on the snowboarding season. We packed up all of our needed gear; boots, boards, water and food, determination and some extra dry socks. We left Lehi close to 7am that beautiful Saturday morning and arrived at the trail head a little before 8 am. Taking some pictures and video along the way we began our hike.
Sadly, if you've watched our little slideshow already you noticed we didn't make it to the top. In truth we weren't trying to get to the top, just to Emerald Lake and the historic glacier that feeds it. (Make sure to read 'glacier' in a Bear Gryll's voice, pronounced "glassy-ehr.") We reached the top of the valley at around 2:30 pm. Still a ways off of the glacier where we wanted to begin boarding. For those of you that didn't bother to do the math, that's 6 and a half hours of hiking in snow with 50 pounds of awkward gear on your back. The clincher of why we turned back was a combination of the top of the valley being super steep, and super deep (with loose snow), plus it was getting windier and windier. We were faced with the prospect of continuing our glycogen depleting climb up a veritable snowy waterfall as the wind pushed the loose snow over the edge of the valley and down the mountain on top of us. This, which was altogether very exciting, when added to the fact that we were running out of valuable time and that Nelson's gloves had soaked through we deemed it best to stop there. We determined we had underestimated Timpanogos (not the first time for me) and that it would be best to retreat and attack a different way another day. Nelson and I will probably make our attack without the snowboarding gear next time, which will allow us greater flexibility and speed on the mountain. We will, however, make the attack in the Winter. We may not summit, but we will make either the Saddle or take the trail around the glacier.
If we had pressed on that day, we would likely have reached the glacier around 5:30 or 6pm at the latest. We would have been exhausted, we would have probably had enough energy for a single run and then turned back for the parking lot. It would have been getting dark at that time. It would be much colder and the steepness wouldn't have been easier on the way down, especially with all of the weight of the packs. We both slipped numerous times anyways. No mistake, Nelson and I are tough guys. I have no doubt we would have made it back to the car and back home but the risk factor was too great. It would have been too easy to slip and break an ankle, fall forwards down the mountain, any number of things. But we're not dumb, so we made the call before we hurt ourselves. So while physically we recovered with some warm food and a days rest, emotionally Timpanogos triumphed again. It hurts to muscle your snowboard gear that far but never use it. Fortunately we can plan smarter next time, Timpanogos you will be beaten soon enough.
A documentary of November 2, 2014. 6 mins 56 sec. Please enjoy.
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