What an incredible morning! I woke up 5 minutes before my alarm at 3:40 am this morning and met MatthewVH at the Grandeur Peak trailhead at 4:30. It was pretty cold when we started out, but once we got going I heated up fast. The trail was completely covered in snow. Luckily, there were some steps we could climb up in from previous hikers, but the snow really slows you down.
Matt lead the way and pushed a decent pace and as we got higher up the views continued to get better. There was a light fog down in the valley and with all of the lights it just looked surreal down there. It was really cool. There was very little wind this morning, which isn't typical on the west ridge, but Matt did find the windiest place on the whole ridge to stop for a potty break. I took a gel (Hammer espresso) and had a drink and I had to zip up my vest to block the wind. That was the only time the whole day I got cold. From here the trail was pretty icy in places and the packed snow was frozen solid, so we had to take care not to slip and it also slowed us down. At this point we also could see a planet in the east that was as bright as any planet I have ever seen before. It was huge.
We were about 4/5 of the way to the top and Matt told me that he had to go back down in 15 minutes. I told him to push and we did, but after 15 minutes we were about 5 minutes from the top. We were now on the summit ridge breaking trail in crotch deep snow. We were not moving fast at all and snow shoes would have really helped, but it would not have been worth it to carry them up there. What noramally would have taken about 5 minutes took us 20, but we pushed to the top where we spent about a second each.
The views were absolutely amazing up there this morning. I was thinking that the only sunrise I had seen with better views this year was in Titcomb Basin in the Wind Rivers. It was that good. The colors in the sky, the snow covered terrain and the misty fog down in the valley were just incredible. That is why I love Utah. It doesn't get much better than this.
The descent was pretty fast, but I did slip on the ice and fell twice because we were moving pretty fast. I was wishing I had taken my trekking poles. We made it back down in about 35 minutes. What an amazing morning.
Here are a few photos. The first is Matt just below the summit (you can see the moon and that planet) and the second is on our way back down.
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