Backpacking

[bluegoose]

Any cool new backpacking gear for anyone for Christmas?

My wife got me a new headlamp for backpacking and running. Rechargeable battery that does 6 hours on full power (75 lumens) and 42 hours on lower power (4 lumens). Charges via usb cable so it will work with my external phone charger.

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[Eddie]

From the peak looking SSW. It was a perfect weather day, no afternoon thunder showers that are common in the Uintas. It was clear enough to see Mt. Timpanogos to the far west.
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See that blue patch of lake against the mountains just right of center in this photo? I believe that is Five Points lake. My BiL thought it would be a great idea to summit King's Peak from a base camp at Spider Lake - which is just a little further down the trail from there. Made for a LONG day, but we saw a lot of cool territory.

[chrisrenrut]

chrisenrut, where is Kings Peak in relation to provo?

About 90 miles east, as the crow flies. To drive there, most go up through Wyoming, and the trailhead it's about 20 miles south of Ft. Bridger/Mountain View.

There are some trails that come in from the south, north of Duchesne, but they are longer routes.

[SteelBlue]

chrisenrut, where is Kings Peak in relation to provo?

[BigPiney]

Not backpacking, but a guy in the ward just got permits to do Whitney tomorrow so we are going to drive down this evening and do the Mountaineers route tomorrow. Should be clear skies.

[chrisrenrut]

i'll try to add some pictures later.

Rising sun hitting Kings Peak as we hike towards Dollar Lake.
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Breakfast below Gunsight pass around 6:30 am. It was in the 30's. Not bad when hiking, but chilly when stopped.
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Dropping packs at Anderson Pass, preparing for the summit. So many false peaks along the way
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From the peak looking SSW. It was a perfect weather day, no afternoon thunder showers that are common in the Uintas. It was clear enough to see Mt. Timpanogos to the far west.
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[Eddie]

Oh wait, he started from "an advanced base camp" at Dollar Lake? That's not as impressive. Hitting Kings and South Kings and then doing Gilbert is doable, although tough. I thought this dude was starting from the trailhead and ending at the trailhead.

Color me mildly impressed.

You need to read the entire thread. It starts with one guy doing all three from Dollar lake, Then later on he sees that a guy named Davy Crockett did all three from the trailhead. So he decides to up the ante. In the end, I think the record for fastest known time is just under 8:30 from trailhead to all three peaks and back again. Fastest for a woman is about 8:45.

[Applejack]

Lunatics and insane about covers it.

http://fastestknowntime.proboards.com/thread/85

Oh wait, he started from "an advanced base camp" at Dollar Lake? That's not as impressive. Hitting Kings and South Kings and then doing Gilbert is doable, although tough. I thought this dude was starting from the trailhead and ending at the trailhead.

Color me mildly impressed.

[Eddie]

That's pretty crazy. Hitting Kings and South Kings in a day is doable, although inadvisable, for good hikers. It's really just adding another summit from Anderson pass. But Gilbert is an entirely separate affair. I've done Kings and Gilbert in a three day trip: Day 1 - backback in, camp, summit Kings; Day 2- summit Gilbert, fish; Day 3 - pack out. But doing all of that in a day would be insane.

Lunatics and insane about covers it.

http://fastestknowntime.proboards.com/thread/85

[Applejack]

We got passed a couple of times by trail runners. Some of them were doing the Triple Crown, Kings Peak, South Kings Peak, and Gilbert Peak all in one day. I guess they were training for the Wasatch 100. Freaking lunatics (although I am in complete awe of their fitness level).

That's pretty crazy. Hitting Kings and South Kings in a day is doable, although inadvisable, for good hikers. It's really just adding another summit from Anderson pass. But Gilbert is an entirely separate affair. I've done Kings and Gilbert in a three day trip: Day 1 - backback in, camp, summit Kings; Day 2- summit Gilbert, fish; Day 3 - pack out. But doing all of that in a day would be insane.

[Eddie]

We did King's as an overnighter last year. Pulled both of my boys from school at lunchtime and headed out. We arrived up at our drop camp below the real climb a little before dark and enjoyed the evening. Up early the next morning for the summit - then back to camp, packed up, and headed for home.

The guy I was with is a pretty heavy and was worried about climbing the chute, so we went through gunsight. As it was, he ended up staying behind before we got to Anderson - so we summitted and then met him at Anderson on our way back down. Then we took the chute down to the bottom. We ran into a guy and his 9 year-old kid who had left the trailhead at 5:30am that morning and were doing it as a one day hike. They went up and down the chute and were making awesome time.

I could see doing it in a day as a challenge - but I enjoy being in the Uintas too much. I'm kind of sad we did the 24 hour thing rather than spending a couple of nights.

[chrisrenrut]

Congrats! I did Kings in one day many moons ago (15 years). It was an ordeal. We also skipped Painter Basin (a must), but we went light on water thinking that we could fill up at the glacier just below Anderson. When we got there (around 11:00 AM), there was no glacier. We had to dig beneath those boulders for about an hour just to get enough of a mud pool to pump through our filters. It was a bad scene.

I wouldn't recommend the hike as a one-day journey. Better to hike in, drop packs, summit and camp back down in the valley, then hike out the next day.

I don't think I'll be doing it in one day again. The last 8 miles down was grueling, despite it being all on gently sloped trail.

There was no snow on the trail, but still plenty of springs. I packed in 2.5 quarts, and had about .5 left at the end. I also just packed in a couple of bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, and Clif Bars to eat along the way. Everyone else brought Jet Boil's and Mountain House meals. We finished in 14 hours, but could have cut an hour or more off if if they hadn't had to boil water and let their food soak for 20 minutes before eating. And I was never jealous of their meals. Soupy eggs or 3 cheese macaroni didn't look or sound good to me on the trail.

We got passed a couple of times by trail runners. Some of them were doing the Triple Crown, Kings Peak, South Kings Peak, and Gilbert Peak all in one day. I guess they were training for the Wasatch 100. Freaking lunatics (although I am in complete awe of their fitness level).

[Applejack]

We finished the Kings Peak in one day hike. Beginning elevation was 9,300 feet, so the starting point was higher than the peaks of any of our training hikes. Three out of the six in our group were carrying GPS trackers, and they all varied in mileage and elevation. The low was 25.5 miles and 4,700 vertical, the high was 27.3 miles and 5,000 vertical. My brother wore a heart rate monitor the whole way, and it said he burned over 8,000 calories. I weigh 40 pounds more than he does, so I probably topped 10,000.

Boulder hopping the final mile to the peak at around 13,000 feet was tough. We also took some shortcuts through talus fields between Gunsight and Anderson pass, rather than drop down into Painter Basin. It was exhausting both physically and mentally. I feel very fortunate that we made it through without any injuries or problems (other than the normal blisters and general soreness). I'll try to add some pictures later.

Congrats! I did Kings in one day many moons ago (15 years). It was an ordeal. We also skipped Painter Basin (a must), but we went light on water thinking that we could fill up at the glacier just below Anderson. When we got there (around 11:00 AM), there was no glacier. We had to dig beneath those boulders for about an hour just to get enough of a mud pool to pump through our filters. It was a bad scene.

I wouldn't recommend the hike as a one-day journey. Better to hike in, drop packs, summit and camp back down in the valley, then hike out the next day.

[chrisrenrut]

We finished the Kings Peak in one day hike. Beginning elevation was 9,300 feet, so the starting point was higher than the peaks of any of our training hikes. Three out of the six in our group were carrying GPS trackers, and they all varied in mileage and elevation. The low was 25.5 miles and 4,700 vertical, the high was 27.3 miles and 5,000 vertical. My brother wore a heart rate monitor the whole way, and it said he burned over 8,000 calories. I weigh 40 pounds more than he does, so I probably topped 10,000.

Boulder hopping the final mile to the peak at around 13,000 feet was tough. We also took some shortcuts through talus fields between Gunsight and Anderson pass, rather than drop down into Painter Basin. It was exhausting both physically and mentally. I feel very fortunate that we made it through without any injuries or problems (other than the normal blisters and general soreness). I'll try to add some pictures later.

[SteelBlue]

Sound like it was a cool trip chrisenrut. Just seeing that fog makes me jealous for some cooler weather. We are likely to have another solid month of high temps here.