Mountain of Death

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Saturday July 21, I accomplished something I never thought I would ever do. I climed to the top of Mount Timpanogos. It was insane! Scott, his brother Brad, and myself all started out together. We started at the base at 8:45 am, arrived at the top at 12:45 pm, and didn't get back to our car until 5:00 pm. It was insane! We all agreed it was the most difficult hike we have ever done.

The hike is amazingly beautiful. The views, the flowers, the waterfalls... it was incredible. We saw 3 moose, the first one was so close we were all a little nervous it would start to charge. We survived. As we got closer to the top the difficulty increased. We had to hike through rocks that just radiated the heat and switchbacks up to the saddle that made you feel like you wanted to turn around and quit. Of course I had two very motivated men with me that would never let me do that. The saddle is the first breaking point where you can see the entire Utah County valley. But of course not quite the end. From the saddle you have to "climb" up these rocks that are incredibly steep, its like doing a stair climber after already hiking for 3 1/2 hours. Not at all easy! But we got to the top and it the view was undescrible.

We took a different way down that allows you to slide down a glacier. It was soooooo fun! At the base of the glacier is Emrald Lake. As we were taking a break there we heard a helicopter, looked up and realized it was Life Flight. They landed right behind us and we went up to see what was going on. We saw a shack and people inside, as I looked closer I realized it was the Scout leader from our old ward in Provo. Scott used to be the Scout leader and Jared was the Young Mens president. Last year they did this hike together with all the boys. This year we were hoping to catch up with them at the top but got started too late. Anyways, what we soon learned was one of the Scout boys lost his balance on the rocks just above the glacier. He tumbled down the mountain until he finally hit the snow and slowed down a bit. Amazingly, he had no broken bones just a bunch of huge gashes some of which were down to the bone... his head, elbow, side, and knee. It would have been too difficult to carry him down the mountain, so Life Flight was called to bring him down. We are all glad that he is okay.

The hike down was hard. My whole body was starting to feel the work it had been through. My feet were so tired it was hard to pick them up over the rocks. We were all so releaved to be done! I am very proud of myself for doing it, although as of now I cannot say I will ever to it again.