North Thunder Mountain - July 9, 2011

[kniephof]

(originally titled North Thunder Peak...but most refer to it as Mountain I guess)...

Not a very eloquent trip report, but here goes:

Lane and I decided to make a run at North Thunder Mountain. Apparently it's one of the tougher peaks to bag in the Wasatch...and it's reputation didn't disappoint. I think our final stats were approx. 13 miles, 10.5 hours, 6,000 ft elevation gain. Doozy! I'm a little disappointed with my pictures. They don't do the trip justice. We were busy cranking out the miles...and I was too sketched on several spots to bust out the camera. And on the descent, I had tucked my camera away so it wouldn't get wet during all the glissading. I need that waterproof camera!

Started about 830am. Plenty of people on the trail. Actually, a bunch of people were heading up to Upper Bells Res (saw 3 or 4 crazy groups that were backpacking up to the Res...ugh!). There was also a big group (15?) from some climbing club that were going to make a run at South Thunder. I think half of them got 'er done (at least we saw them on the ridge above us as we descended into the Thunder Bowl). Luckily, several of them helped us with the route finding, because it's easy to make wrong turns and get off course as Lane found last year. =) About 1/2 miles from Upper Bells, we hit snow, decided to throw our crampons on to make the going easier. We left them on until the summit ridge. We got to Upper Bells, traversed across to the saddle, dropped into the Thunderbowl (had to kick steps and go down backwards). We thought we'd try a route farther up the cirque that looked doable IF there was a snow tongue up this particular spot in the cliff band. We hiked up for about 10 or 15 mins and it didn't look good. We were pretty hammered and debated a bit. We finally decided to head back down the cirque and head up the couloir that looked pretty menacing. We started up and it actually wasn't bad minus a couple of steep sections. Lane kicked many steps and I finished the last little bit up the summit ridge. There was some crazy rock scrambling with our crampons (should have ditched 'em) and an even crazier knife ridge hike over to the summit. I was a bundle of nerves and was gripping rocks and crawling on all fours much of the time. Pretty wicked exposure. We made it over, summitted, and were ready to get out of there and down all the steep and exposed stuff. We used our Swiss Bobs as much as we could. Climbed back out of the Thunder Bowl, 'bobbed' some more, and filtered some water near the lake. We each drank about 6 liters this day...a new record for me. Checked out the waterfalls on the way down (out of control...HUGE) and worked our way down the steep trail to the TH. Capped off our day with a fat meal at Crown Burger. Glad to have this bad boy checked off our lists. Whew!

1 - bridge crossing - pretty solid and nice actually


2 - 'Upper' Falls


3 - approx 1/4 mile below Upper Bells Res.


4 - catching up to the faster part of the big group from some mountaineering club (I'm assuming)


5 - heading up to the saddle before dropping into the Thunder Bowl


6 - just before dropping into the Thunder Bowl. North Thunder dead ahead. This picture shows our exact route to the summit (up the couloir from left to right).


7 - The 'club' heading to...South Thunder?


8 - After our 'mistake'...heading back down and over to the couloir.


9 - half way up the couloir


10 - Timp from summit


11 - summit shot. I'm holding on tightly. Lane had to make it quick to beat the 10 second timer! =)

[CarpeyBiggs]

awesome. great trip report, and congrats on the summit. i actually wonder if the snow doesn't make this one an easier peak than it would be otherwise, since you can skip alot of the scree wandering. what do you think? also, lane's got some sweet TR's on his website.

[kniephof]

awesome. great trip report, and congrats on the summit. i actually wonder if the snow doesn't make this one an easier peak than it would be otherwise, since you can skip alot of the scree wandering. what do you think? also, lane's got some sweet TR's on his website.

Thanks! Yeah, I'm sure the snow makes it easier...more scenic, too! And it makes for some fun glissading.

Lane does have some great stuff on his site!

[Dr. Nebz]

Awesome! Looks like an amazing day! 10/10

[ibenick]

Looks gnarly. Nice job.

[Glockguy]

How long did it take you to get to the Upper Res?

[kniephof]

How long did it take you to get to the Upper Res?

It took us about 3 1/2 hours to get to Upper Bells Reservoir.

[Iceaxe]

Sweet.

North Thunder is a tough one to bag.