Mt. Nebo is a beast!

[Wasatch Rebel]

Mt. Nebo North Summit is a beast. Nearly killed me. I was within shouting distance of the top, and I wanted to stop because it looked so freaking hard and I was utterly exhausted...but wanting to make it after coming that far caused me to keep going and I stood on top of the highest peak in the Wasatch late this morning. It was awesome!

I began my hike at 7:12 this morning. It took me nearly four and a half hours to reach the top. I did stop to take pictures, and took a lot of short breaks. The trail begins at a grassy parking lot accessed through the Monument Trailhead area. When you pull into the area, you need to take the Mona Pole Road for about .4 miles. Park just after the cattle guard. You will see a map mounted on a Forest Service standard. After I parked I headed up the trail, which wasn't bad until a short time after the trail left the fence behind and after it wound its way for a ways through a forested section. After that it got a bit steep, heading up through a gully. At the top of the gully is a ridge with a fantastic view down upon the town of Mona. My views were largely obscured today because of smoke from all the fires in the west that supposedly just happened within the past 24 hours. Following the ridge for a ways, you soon reach North Mountain. The trail forks, with the left fork heading to the top of North Mountain, and the right fork traversing the west side of North Mountain over to Wolf Pass. At Wolf Pass you basically follow the ridge the rest of the way to the top. But what a trail! That trail up from Wolf Pass is very steep, very strenuous. It gets more rocky with lots of knife edge areas. As you continue up this ridge you will first get go Pt. 11,440, which is a peak along the trail. From there you can see false North Summit really well. The rest of the trail was a struggle for me as my intro to this post gives you some clue.

The trail meanders through sharp rocks and scree on the knife edged ridge, sometimes splitting several ways. It requires thinking about your route carefully and then deciding on a trail to take...there are so many branches that it's sometimes difficult to pick out the best route. About 75 feet before the top of the false peak, the trail peters out and some four-limbed scrambling is required. Once on top, you can see the real summit just a short distance away...it actually only takes a couple of minutes to make your way from the false summit to the actual summit.

This was a tough hike for me, but great because in just a couple of weeks I'll be doing Kings and I needed a good tough one to help prepare me for Kings. This was really tougher than I thought it was going to be after reading one guy's blog...he said he made it to the top in about 2 and a half hours. It took me four and a half. When I looked at his blog though, he looked like he's in his twenties and he had topics like trail running and ultramarathoning...I'm 55 and I don't run on trails nor do I ultramarathon. I am in decent shape though, so I'd say for the average in-shape person who is a bit on the older side, it will take you longer than most of the information says it will. It has always been my experience that when hiking I meet either the 65-70 yr. old guy making it look easy, or the marathon runner running up the trail. This trip I met both on the way up. I'm pretty sure the marathon runner didn't make it to the top because he told me his cutoff time was 1:00 and it was 12:45 when I saw him, still about an hour from the top at my pace. At any rate, both he and the old guy eventually passed me on the way down, and I know the old guy made it all the way up, because I saw him standing on the false summit!

The way down was tough in many spots because of the steepness and loose rock, and since the trail goes down into Wolf Pass on the way in, there's a lot of climbing on the way out. I took my 3-liter water bag and ran out on the way down, so you may want or need more than that. I nearly lost my camera as I had apparently failed to zip up my pack sufficiently and it fell out, rolling down the mountain side for about forty feet before it luckily ran into a bush and stopped. The filter I had on it was cracked (even though the lens cap was still on it), and I may have a bit of grit in the adjustment mechanism of the lens, but other than that and a couple of cosmetic dings, the T2i appears okay.

All in all the hike was beautiful, but could've been spectacular (the wild flowers were) if there weren't so many brush fires filling the air with smoke. Highly recommended for those wishing to climb the highest peak in the Wasatch.

I always feel like the mountain is part of me, once I've climbed it, and this one is no exception.



The trailhead begins with this map. There is no sign indicating it's the trail to the top.



The trail follows this fence for a while.



Many wildflowers along the way



After leaving the fence, the trail winds through this forested section for a ways



Then it heads up through this drainage to the ridge. This is the first really steep section, but it's child's play to what comes later.



From the ridge you can see the town of Mona below. On the horizon, smoke was drifting in from the fire in Stockton and other parts of the west.



Leaving the ridge, you traverse the west side of North Peak. The trail forks here with the left side going to the top of the peak. Take the right fork.
You can see Pt.11440 and the false summit of Nebo in the distance.



Wolf Pass. . . this is where it gets tough the trail heads up the right side and goes steeply up for a long, long ways.



I saw columbines all along the trail, but there were many that were up above the 11,000 foot level.



As I got to the top of Pt. 11440, I took this shot of the false summit.



There was a lot of this kind of stuff for the last mile or so...and there were always several likely looking trails.
I eventually found that if I was careful, all ways would work out.



When I got to the false summit, I took this shot. The real summit is just a short distance away, and easy at this point.



Mt. Nebo (north summit) with middle and south summits in the distance.



And here I am at the top



The smoke from the fires had filled the upper Sanpete area by noon. I knew then I'd have to do it again on a clear day.



I saw this placard on a tree on the way down. I don't know what happened to the guy, but I felt sad.



The last picture I took was of the drainage where my camera fell out of my pack. As you can see, if it wouldn't have been stopped by a
a bush, it had a long way to roll. I was fortunate I only had to go down about forty feet.

[stefan]

congrats!!

looking forward to the pics

[Wasatch Rebel]

So it appears that the memorial marker for Spencer Hales information can be found online here: http://www.heraldextra.com/lifestyle...b54f1926a.html

and also here: http://blog.utahscouts.org/newslette...ephen-a-hales/