Kings Peak Utah, 1st attempt

As I do more highpoints, I'm finding that (a) every climb is different and (b), the weather can be a huge factor in making the summit.  Now this is the third peak I wasn't able to summit on the first attempt.  I've managed to go back to the first two, and, look forward to coming back here as well. I was close.  How close?  Read on, and you'll see!

I had been reading Highpoint Adventures, and all the post coming in from the Highpointers newsfeed.  July was here, and people would be taking advantage of the brief window of opportunity in July and August to bag this summit.  I wanted to go. 

Kim King, hiking Kings Peak, UT

After hearing that my motorcycling pal and fellow highpointer, Kim, was in Colorado climbing, I got even more antsy.  When she announced she might go to Utah, I logged into Travelocity just 4 days out to see if I could get a flight without having to give them a limb.  $500 was my limit, and, amazingly, Frontier had a seat open in my budget!  It was a go, Kim would drive from her Mt. Elbert summit trip (I did Elbert a few years back), and we would meet up in Utah, and join the groups of Highpointers attempting Kings Peak.

This trip would offer many obstacles to hinder my attempt.  The first one: my flight landing in Denver got stuck on the runway for over an hour, causing me to miss my connection to Utah.  After a frustrating long evening, I ended up with a short 3 hour nap, in an airport hotel, a red-eye flight to Utah, and 14 hours behind schedule. 

The trail near Dollar Lake

After finding Kim in Utah and arriving at the trailhead the next day, the plan was to hike as far up the treeline past Dollar Lake and hang up my hammock for an early alpine summit attempt.  Obstacle number two: a driving hailstorm at mile 5, and, obstacle number three: the footbridge accross the stream was washed out.  I had left my armpit vents open during the hailstorm, and now my clothes were wet, and it was difficult to think clearly and find a was across the stream.  A couple we ran into from New Jersey decided to turn around here. As did a group of horseback travelers, due to the swollen stream. It looked like a nice class 4 or 5 rapid, with just two slippery logs to cross.

Finally, the storm eased up, and we were able to slither accross the logs, me while pulling my backpack.
The late start now meant we had to go at least 2 more miles to Dollar Lake and set up camp. Obstacle #4: I was carrying a heavy pack, and now, at mile 6, my back was hurting.  The mosquitos were swarming like mad. The snow and storm runoff made the trail a mushy swamp.

I ended up running out of steam near Dollar Lake, with only 45 minutes of daylite to setup camp.  I had hoped to camp a little closer to the summit, to make the trip up shorter and more doable.  Mistake #1: deciding to wake up at 4 AM and get an early start.  2 AM would have been a better decision, or, midnight.

Summit Day: I am dragging butt, and woke up at 4:20AM, and didn't get started till 5:30AM.  Feeling tired, perhaps from little sleep for 3 days, or, from the altitude. We had camped at around 10,500 feet.
We crossed at Gunsight Pass, and tried to traverse as high as possible and avoid the 600 foot drop on the back side of Gunsight.  Mistake #2, not taking the Anderson Pass chute, or "Toilet Bowl" route straight up to the summit ridge. 

A snowfield traverse near Gunsight Pass.

As we traversed around Anderson Peak, we noticed a helicopter landing below us.  Later back at camp we learned that a 67 year old hiker got separated from his family (son and grandson) and had spent the night out, having to be rescued.  I recommend that your party stay within sight of each other at all times on this summit.  There were a few steep snowfields to traverse that were quite scary. Not quite bad enough to require crampons, but, quite risky nonetheless.  A couple of them had some pretty serious consequences had anyone slipped.

The hike leading up to Anderson Pass was an easy incline, then things got pretty steep pretty fast.  About half way up the final summit ridge, the thunder started. Obstacle #5.  The scrambling is steep here, and if a person was careless it would be easy to get hurt.  I considered dropping off my daypack and raingear at the pass, which would have been a really bad decision.  I would say NEVER hike here without your rain gear, even on the sunniest of days.  It was sunny and clear for the first five hours of the day, then it got bad quickly.

The boulder field, final 700 feet. Fifteen minutes later,

the storm opened up.

About 200 yards from the summit, it started coming down.  50 yards later, it was coming down HARD.  It was time to call it a day. Too dangerous to continue, with the lightning coming in, a hard, horizontal blowing hail pummeling my face.  Again, it was difficult to focus.  Wind were probably in the 40MPH + range, and there was a father pushing forward with pre-teenage children!  This didn't seem like a wise decision, on his part.

One thing  I noticed,  the more often that I have to abort a summit because of weather, the less upset I get.  I also notice that at 53, I'm no longer the first bloke up the peak anymore.  Oh well, I'm just happy that I can still walk, and still hike at all! 

The hike back to camp went from hail to rain, and wet and sloggy, for 90 percent of the trip.  After a 13 mile summit attempt, I was too tired to consider contiuing another 7 miles to the parking area, and was looking forward to hitting the hammock early.  I was in the sack just shortly after 7PM, and stayed in the hammock all night, for 12 lovely hours!

Survived to hike another day!

The hike back to the trailhead was mostly nice, it only rained and lightly hailed on the last mile or two.  The stream had to be crossed again, now with time to video some of the action! 

Hopefully Kim didn't get tired of my constant yapping and attempts to sing as I hiked.  I tend to run off my hiking partners. Hmmm, I wonder why???  It was nice to have someone I knew to help in the decision making process of such a hike! 

I spent most of the downhike pondering my strategy for my next attempt!

Another bit of advice to myself:  don't try a new pair of "weatherproof" gloves on a long trip like this! And take two pair of gloves next time.

Link to more photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/rickomni/Kings2010?feat=directlink