Mount Wire - February 25, 2023

[scatman]

You've all seen Mount Wire several times, but this hike to the summit was my hardest ever. With all the recent snow, the last 0.5 - 0.7 miles of this hike was post-holing to the summit. It absolutely wore me out. It took me a good hour and twenty minutes to cover that last half mile.


Getting ready at the trailhead


Love the golden grass against the white snow


Zoomed in


Mount Wire behind


An out of focus spider along the trail


Relatively easy going so far


A chickadee


Making our way up the draw


A wishbone in the trail


How does this thing work?


Sheila, making her way up to the saddle


Once we began our way from the saddle to the summit, our troubles began


Whomever went ahead of me must have been a touch lighter than me.


Getting a little annoyed at this point.


Scatman down!


The beacon ahead


Sheila had to give me a push on my derrière to get me out of this predicament.


Victory!


I barely had enough energy for the BCP greeting @Rockskipper


Summit shot


Sheila, with Broads Fork Twin Peaks in the far distance

Some shots from the summit




A view over Parley's Ridge to Gobblers Knob and Mount Raymond on the Millcreek Ridge to the south


Downtown SLC


Some nice oak leaves on our way back down


A couple of hound dogs set to greet me


A deer trail only @Bob could love.



The sun remained behind the clouds all day which gave a kind of eerie feeling to the hike


Back at the Subaru


And of course the after hike meal on a Saturday night is pizza - a combo this time


And to wash it all down, a Big Bad Baptist Rum Barrel Aged Imperial Stout from EPIC
Brewery. Ask @TractorDoc about this one.


The End.

 

[kwc]

Nice hike. Even though you neglected to use snowshoes and postholed in the deeper snow. Tsk tsk tsk.

 

[regehr]

love it!

but hey check this out: a full on (if small) slab avalanche nearby and much lower elevation than where you were today:

 

[Bob]

I thought SLC got hammered with snow.... doesnt look like much there

PS ..... you know they make snowshoes you could carry incase??????

 

[TractorDoc]

A couple of hound dogs set to greet me

Did either of those dogs have the little wooden keg on their collar to offer you a splash of whiskey? I'm not sure if that is a job only reserved for St. Bernards. . . maybe hound dogs handle the task in Utah.

I tried to warn @scatman that those barrel aged brews are potent, but I don't think he believed me. I'm betting he needed one of those after a day of post-holing on tender shins.

 

[Rockskipper]

I barely had enough energy for the BCP greeting @Rockskipper

Wouldn't it have been something if your hand froze to your nose in the salute? Probably not the best way to make new friends.

 

[The Trout Whisperer]

Adventure….looks like more snow comin yall’s way…here in th high 80s later this week….

 

[scatman]

Nice hike. Even though you neglected to use snowshoes and postholed in the deeper snow. Tsk tsk tsk.

My bad, I honestly thought that trail runners would have packed it down long before I arrived.

 

[scatman]

love it!

but hey check this out: a full on (if small) slab avalanche nearby and much lower elevation than where you were today:

Didn't think much about avalanche danger in the foothills. I guess the wind blown conditions were just right.

 

[scatman]

Did either of those dogs have the little wooden keg on their collar to offer you a splash of whiskey? I'm not sure if that is a job only reserved for St. Bernards. . . maybe hound dogs handle the task in Utah.

I tried to warn @scatman that those barrel aged brews are potent, but I don't think he believed me. I'm betting he needed one of those after a day of post-holing on tender shins.

Are you kidding, if they had had kegs I'd have never made it down the mountain.

 

[scatman]

Wouldn't it have been something if your hand froze to your nose in the salute? Probably not the best way to make new friends.

Who said it didn't? No new friends to make on this hike, though there was a couple coming up behind us, but they turned around after the first part of the posthole section. After @regehr's video, they may have been the smart ones.

 

[scatman]

I thought SLC got hammered with snow.... doesnt look like much there

PS ..... you know they make snowshoes you could carry incase??????

Yeah, we should have packed our snowshoes for this one. Oops!

I got about 16 inches at my house with this last storm.

 

[Ugly]

Is that a grimace or a smile when you fell over? or maybe gravity just pulled enough to make it look like a smile.
The postholing is definitely challenging. All the snow this year has been great.
I was not up in the hills this weekend. Rugby got off to a flying start and kept me confined all day Saturday.

 

[scatman]

Is that a grimace or a smile when you fell over? or maybe gravity just pulled enough to make it look like a smile.
The postholing is definitely challenging. All the snow this year has been great.
I was not up in the hills this weekend. Rugby got off to a flying start and kept me confined all day Saturday.

Definitely gravity taking its effect. I can tell with the postholing, that I'm weaker than I used to be. I'll blame that on gravity too.

 

[Ugly]

You know, if you want to use snowshoes, and are interested.
I don't have any events this Saturday and was contemplating a morning jaunt up to Lone Rock here at the south end. There's snow, so the new-ish bike-only track that requires one to take their life into their own hands in summer is not an issue in winter.
Draper trails did not really take hiking to Lone Rock into consideration when they revamped it all last year or the year before.

 

[scatman]

You know, if you want to use snowshoes, and are interested.
I don't have any events this Saturday and was contemplating a morning jaunt up to Lone Rock here at the south end. There's snow, so the new-ish bike-only track that requires one to take their life into their own hands in summer is not an issue in winter.
Draper trails did not really take hiking to Lone Rock into consideration when they revamped it all last year or the year before.

Can't make it this weekend, I've already committed to other things. Thanks for the invite though.