King's Peak

A little over a year ago, I received a call pretty late at night from Jeff saying he and his dad were broken down on their way to hike King's Peak, the highest peak in Utah (13,528 ft.). I hopped into the car that night and drove out to Wyoming where I picked them up near Fort Bridger. Ever since, Jeff and Uncle Tim and been eager and planning to go back. Thankfully, I was invited to go along as well. We left on a Thursday at noon and made our way through the southwest corner of Wyoming and back over into Utah into the Uinta Mountains. The drive wasn't bad at all and the dirt road to the trail head was fantastic. Jeff had been up in the area the week previous and warned us that there might be quite a few people there. The parking lot was PACKED! There had to be near a hundred vehicles at least. I had heard that this was a popular place for Scout groups and such, but it was pretty surprising to see that many people out and about. We unloaded our gear at the trail head, snapped a pre-hike pic, and headed up the trail. It was pretty overcast that day, but that made for wonderful hiking weather for the first hour or so... until it started to rain. Yeah, we hiked most of the way in the rain, but it wasn't too bad. The trail was easy to follow and relatively easy to climb with only a few steep inclines. It wasn't until we had crossed the river that the hail and heavy rains really began. We stopped under a tree to wait out the worst of it and then continued on.

After about half an hour going through the trees and side hills, we walked into a beautiful and vast valley that I can best describe as being "a completely different world." It was surrounded on all sides by massive mountain peaks and seemed completely shut out from the rest of the world. The sun finally came out right about this time and it really was breathtaking to say the least. We got a great look at King's Peak from the valley as well. Despite seeing so many cars in the parking lot, we only passed a few hikers along the ten mile trail to base camp. We found a good spot to camp where we cleared out some snow and set up tents. I even found a backpacking frying pan under a tree in great shape! We were pretty worn out from the long hike and dinner was great to lift our spirits. We were pretty concerned, however, about what the weather would be like the next day. We concluded that if it was going to be rainy again, we would not be able to summit.

Thankfully, our worries were gone when we woke up the next morning to a beautiful sunny day. We ate breakfast after Tim got back from fishing, loaded our day packs, and began the 5 mile trek to the summit. Even though it was only 5 miles to the top, it took us the same amount of time as it did to hike the 10 miles into base camp, which was about 3 1/2 hours. Leaving camp, you continue up the grassy valley passing several ponds and lakes towards a saddle-like rocky pass. Once we reached the pass, we stopped for a few pictures and chose the trail we would take to the little valley at the base of the peak. One could either drop down into the open basin and around the hillside to the south, or hug the hillside and go over the top of it, dropping into the valley and saving about an hour's worth of hiking. There was a fair amount of boulders to climb and scramble over, but it was worth the time saved. We stopped on top of the hill for a nice lunch and enjoyed the sunshine.

We cut across the valley and started up the trail to the peak's summit. This was where we started to see a lot of people. Many were on their way down, but there was still a good amount of hikers heading towards the top. We were just heading up the mountain when we passed an old man who had been separated from his group, but was heading to meet them and communicating over radio. Jeff and I stopped to take a short break and were looking out over the valley when we saw the old man fall over like he was shot! I asked Jeff, "Do you think he's okay?" "NO!" was his reply as he started jumping over rocks and running down the hill, me close behind. Another group of backpackers were close to him and offered help as he got to his feet. He insisted he was alright, but did say he had probably broken a finger at least. They again tried to help, but he brushed them off and continued down the mountain. Crazy.

We got back to the trail and eventually caught up to Tim. Up until this point, I hadn't really thought the hike had lived up to its "Extreme" rating on the websites I'd seen. This was were it did. The trail soon vanished amongst the rocky boulders and we were left to climb up whatever way we could to make our slow progress towards the peak. It was slow going and mentally draining because of all the false peaks that we would reach. Just when we thought we'd made it to the top, we'd look up and see another climb. Again, the distance wasn't that far, but the mountain was visually deceiving and played games on your mind. Slowly, but surely, we continued on and eventually came to the top. It was epic! Such an amazing view and the sense of accomplishment was absolutely indescribable. There were only three other guys on the top when we reached it and they left after taking some pictures for us, so we had the summit all to ourselves. We took a nice break and had some snacks and enjoyed the beauty around us for 20 minutes or so until we looked up and saw dark clouds looming. While we were on the summit, it looked as though the storm would pass by us to the north, but we decided to get off the mountain while the getting was good.

We only passed one other group on the way down, a pair a guys mine and Jeff's age about 20 minutes (going up) from the top. We told them they'd have the summit all to themselves, but the weather was starting to get a little crazy. It was amazing how dark the sky started to get in a very short time. We elected to head straight down the east slope instead of going down the "trail" in order to save time. This was just boulder hopping all of the way and it was pretty gnarly to say the least. It definitely was a time saver, but we had to watch our steps for loose rocks and cracks that could be a potential broken leg or worse. We made our way down as quickly as possible, but it wasn't quick enough. About 3/4 of the way down, the rain started to fall. The rocks got wet and slippery very quickly and even more care had to be used with each step. Our pace didn't slow down for long, however, because shortly after the rain came the hail. It was relentless and it came down the size of marbles. It was all we could do to get down the last few boulders into the valley. The hail pummeled us from all sides and then came the thunder and lightning. It's one of those moments where your mind immediately races back to anything and everything you've learned in the wilderness and I looked around quickly for some kind of shelter to hide under but there was NOTHING. That left us only one choice: run! Jeff pulled out his camera and took this video, but it really doesn't do the situation we were in justice:

We ran like our lives depended on it and they did. There was literally lightning striking the ground around us. It wasn't close enough to hit us, but close enough to feel like it would. We saw a huge fireball erupt from the ground when the lightning hit the earth and looked back to see more strikes hit the peak's summit. We could only hope and pray for those two who we'd passed coming down who were still up there somewhere. And we prayed for ourselves as we ran through the slush, water, and hailstones that covered the meadow. Honestly, I've been through enough to block out everything and just go in those moments and that's what I did. Looking back, it was like a horrible and scary nightmare. I was still in shorts and had to wrap my bandanna around my ears and neck to get them protected from the relentless hail. My legs were covered in welts from the pounding ice stones, but somehow, we made it through and over the hill. This time, there was no stopping at the pass and the wind and rain followed us until we finally dropped into the valley floor again. The storm raged on over the peak behind us as we walked back to camp, making it from the summit down in only 2 hours. We fell asleep for a while and then woke up to more blessed sunshine, which allowed us to dry off our wet clothes. We ate dinner and fell into a deep and restful sleep that night.

We woke up early, packed up camp, and hiked back down the trail in warm sunshine. I think we were all pensive and reflective as we walked, but it was still very enjoyable. We made it back to the trail head in good time and loaded our stuff into the truck and came home. I've been through a lot of things in the mountains in my days, but that experience in the storm was something unreal. It's amazing how helpless you feel when Nature's wrath is unleashed around you. I was never worried we wouldn't make it out of there alive, but it was definitely a defining moment for each of us. Another great adventure in the books for theBRIGADE.