Day 3 - Summit Day! We woke up, pretty much broke down camp and stashed our packs in Chad's tent. If felt great to be hiking without the 45lb pack. We were all feeling pretty light and good after a decent night sleep. To this point in the trip there had been no rain. A full 48 hours in the Uintas with out rain or thunder is unheard of. Clouds started to gather as we headed out for our summit attempt. I had faith that we would make it. And in fact the thunders storms split all around us. There were some boomers as we were near the top that hastened our return and we didn't get wet until we were off the ridge and down hiking. But I digress.....
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| Heading out from camp. This was pretty fun. We were off train and pretty much hiking off soft grass tundra. Our coal was to cut the below the shoulder and pick up the trail right at the base of the headwall that leads to Anderson Pass. We had 4 miles from Base Camp to the Summit. 2100 ft elevation gain from camp to the summit. |
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| Pretty flowers in the rock. |
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| The shoulder we cut to get back on trail. Kings Peak on the top left of picture. |
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| More pretty flowers. |
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| OK, funny story. See the little yellow dot in the middle of the picture. That is Andrew not flowers. He, umm, cut too close to the shoulder and ended up in the precipitous cliffs. He made it. He also made all of us very nervous. |
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| Here come the up. Looking back down the trail from the valley floor with Kings in the center of the ridge line behind. |
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| As you approach Anderson Pass you are essentially switching up a scree field. Rob and Geoff on my tail. In the top right corner of the photo you can see the storm clouds going around us. Still pretty windy. |
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| At Anderson Pass we realized a couple of things. 1) We were glad we approached from Red Castle and not Henry's Fork. 2) We think every scout troop in Utah was climbing Kings Peak. 3) We would not have the summit to ourselves. |
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| Taking turns up the final ascent. |
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| Making progress. Great views. |
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| Don't want to slip off the ridge. Only 1900 feet to your death below. |
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| My contribution to the summit. I build a karin. |
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| #5 of 40 checked off the list. |
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| Pretty happy to be here after getting shut out last summer. |
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| The dudes. |
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| The Great Salt Lake Council of Scouts. Glad they made it. |
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| More views. |
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| Looking back at camp. |
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| Chad suffered a little from the elevation (13,528). But made it up. |
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| Chad excited at the top. And doing a lightning rod impression. |
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| Down we go. Rob coming down off Anderson Pass. It finally started to rain. Only rained for about 40 minutes. We were safely off the summit. |
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| Big karin. This it the kind of grave stone I would like. This is right at the base of the head wall. |
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| This is one of my favorite photos of the trip. Hardened adventures. Thanks for coming to my Birthday party! |
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| After the rain cleared beautiful blue sky day. |
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| Heading back to base camp. Kings in the background. |
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| After base camp, we picked up our gear and headed back up over Smith's Fork Pass. We were a little tired, but made it up and over and back to the lake. I love a good adventure. |
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| Back a t the lake, more feet soaking and water filtering. |
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| Chad perked right back up and the wimpy elevation of 11,200 ft. |
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| eddie happy. |
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| Rob, happy. That red beans and rice he is eating would create consequences that we would all suffer from. |
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| I think they are happy. |
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| You always want Chad Dunford to accompany you on your adventures. Day 3 and he is cooking an egg an summer sausage omelet. It tasted really, really good. Like I said, Chad perked up. |
We were happy to be off the summit and heading toward home. Some cool shots as the sun went down.
Day 3 complete.
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