July 4-5, 2014
Over the Fourth of July I headed up to Lone Peak with Carly. Â We had been packing, unpacking, moving, and generally doing a whole lot of not particularly fun things for a while. Â Carly had the great idea that if we got the bulk of the moving done prior to the holiday weekend we’d have the opportunity to do something fun. Â It was a great idea and so we decided to head to Lone Peak to escape some of the heat in the SLC valley.
As it went the last time the hike up was long and painful. Â Jacob’s Ladder is just a pain in the butt because of the loose, steep, and sunny nature of it. Â To compound it, my lack of activity was giving me a cramp, and my back was sore. Â Despite this once we got to the Lone Peak Cirque we were rejuvenated by the cool temperature, amazing alpine environment and the copious climbing to be had.
After setting up the tent and racking up we made our way up to the start of the Lowe Route (5.8) which surprisingly had no one on it. Â It was a little tough shaking the rust off my climbing head and abilities. Â After a little indecision on the upper pitch we got to the top and watched the lowering sun from the top of the Question Mark wall. Â Back in camp we cooked up and ate while enjoying the amazing view of the Cirque as the sunset, turning the walls orange and red with light.
The next day we made a try for another easy route in the Cirque but the rust on my skills had quickly grown back overnight and we decided to lower off the route because it didn’t seem like it was going well. Â We’ll have to go back up and finish it off next season as all the snow must be melted by now and there’s no water anymore up there.
The hike down was a bit better than the one on the way in, but this time hotter. Â We finally go back to the car in mid-afternoon and promptly blasted the AC in Carly’s car, which luckily works amazingly despite being 12 years old.