Mt Nebo

mike_offerman

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Feb 8, 2012
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On Thursday the 8th I was flying into Salt Lake City to watch my daughter run at the NCAA Mountain Regional Cross Country meet in Provo on Friday. Since I got in at 10:30 and the weather was supposed to be cool but nice, I might be able to sneak in a nice climb. After landing and picking up my rental car, I headed South. After a brief stop at In-N-Out Burger (not the best pre hike lunch), I continued on down to Nephi where I turned East and made my way to the Southern end of the Nebo Loop road. I had called the ranger district and was happy to hear that the road was open to the Mona/Pole road, right where the trailhead is.

Mt Nebo, North Peak.jpg

I arrived at 12:45 to an empty parking lot. After a quickly getting ready, I headed out at 12:55. I walked down the dirt Mona/Pole road, not knowing if my car could make it over to the other parking lot. It was only about 1/3 of a mile, but I easily could have driven it. I headed up the trail and was surprised to find a couple of inches of snow even down here. I had checked the NOAA website and it didn't show much snow in the area.

North Peak.jpg

I had laughed when I saw someone had been wearing snowshoes down here, but up higher, I wished that I had brought mine! There was a cold breeze out of the North, and combined with temps in the 20's, I had to keep moving to stay warm. Up about 10k the tracks that I had been following stopped and I was on my own. I made my way up an open area onto the NW ridge of North Peak.

IMG_20181108_141031.jpg

I put on a few more layers as now I was fully exposed to the wind. There was about 1' of snow in most places, but lots of harder snowpack I could walk on. I tried to find the trail that bypasses North Peak, but after going a little ways across the West face, I was post-holing too much, so back up to the ridge I went. I then followed the ridge up to North Peak, figuring the elevation gain was better than the post-holing.

North Peak, Mt Nebo.jpg

I arrived at 3:20 and enjoyed the views for a few minutes before heading down to Wolf Pass. This section was wind blown and easy going. The view of Mt Nebo from here was impressive and also intimidating with all the snow on it. Heading up from Wolf Pass, the snow got deep and soft. I was making slow progress in the 1-2' of snow. This lasted for about 500' before I made it up to more wind blown areas. These sections felt amazingly easy. I topped out at the first false summit and was not inspired by how far and rough the ridge looked between me and the top. Luckily the first half was semi flat and mostly on firm snow.

Mt Nebo.jpg

The second half got much more steep and the snow softened up. All the rocks were covered in a thick layer of rim ice. The sun was almost down, so I took a few photos.

UN 10460, Bald, Dry, UN 9596, North.jpg

It took me a while after that brief stop to warm my hands up. There were 2 more steep sections to go, luckily the snow was firm enough to hold my weight and still allow me to kick steps. The microspikes I was wearing kept me nice and secure where it wasn't steep enough to need the steps kicked in. I topped out at 5:20 just in time to watch the sunset.

IMG_20181108_171740.jpg

After a quick text to the wife, I headed back down. The wind was blowing and the temps were very cold. I was very glad to be heading down, and with the microspikes I was able to descend fairly quickly. 25 minutes later I was already on the sub-peak above Wolf Pass. It was now dark enough that I got my headlamp out and turned it on. Again, it was fairly quick to get down to Wolf Pass. On the way up, I had seen the trail that bypasses North Peak. Now in the dark, it took a little time to find it. I made the decision to try and take the trail instead of gaining the 500' back up and over North Peak. Big mistake, that 500' of windblown ridge would have been much easier! I was able to follow the trail for a while, but soon lost it in the 2' of snow. I am not sure how long it took, but maybe an hour to wallow through the snow back over to the NW ridge where I met up with my tracks. One thing the wallowing did was keep me warm! I followed the ridge back down, then split off it to the NE and down to where the trail enters the woods at about 10k. Now in zombie mode, I plodded along, fairly wiped out from the effort. I had to take a break or two at every little hill I had to go up. I was very happy to see the dirt parking lot along the Mona/Pole road. Seemed like a lot longer than 1/3 of a mile back to the car! I got back at 8:40. The car was covered in a thick frost and it said it was only 15 degrees.

IMG_20181108_203901.jpg

I was very happy to be sitting in the car. This ended up being a tough but great hike. Hiking at night is always so different and fun to do. The stats looked like 9 miles and 4,600'. Overall time was 7 hours and 45 minutes.
 
Those are some great pictures. I have always enjoyed spending time in the Mt. Nebo area. Thanks for sharing!
 
Whoa...! Tough hike. I can imagine you were happy to see your car. I was wondering how you could do the 10,000+ ft elevation so easy, but I see you live close to the mile high city! ;)
 
Lol In and Out is my ideal pre hike meal!
I figure, 'imma about to hike it off, it is fine'.
Stunning views. Thanks for sharing!
 
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