What’s your unfinished business? Hard canyon access, mtn peak, you name it!

Titans

Titans

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Have you ever repeatedly tried to access a canyon without success? Or repeatedly “failed” a hike?

Do you have a story to tell? Can’t wait for @scatman ’s story….

We have probably over the years tried to access Side Step canyon like 4 times now from above, which naively seemed shorter & easier than just walking in the “long” easy way…. A week ago we even had the route down, could have slid down a steep slope, but we weren’t sure we could make it back up. So again, we didn’t make it down into the canyon. The next time, the access will be boring but guaranteed! We will walk in from the bottom the easy, but longer way .
Have to see those cool hoodoos :roflmao: .

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Love sidestep! We made it down one or two levels from the rim but not farther. It's a wild place.

I have many nemeses but White Baldy in the Wasatch is maybe the main once, I've failed to summit on two routes. The ridge over from White Pine got too scary for me, and a direct ascent of its main face out of Red Pine turned icy partway up and we didn't have crampons.
 
regehr said:
Love sidestep! We made it down one or two levels from the rim but not farther. It's a wild place.

I have many nemeses but White Baldy in the Wasatch is maybe the main once, I've failed to summit on two routes. The ridge over from White Pine got too scary for me, and a direct ascent of its main face out of Red Pine turned icy partway up and we didn't have crampons.
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We have made it down quite far, two levels down, but never the whole way, ha!
So now White Baldy is waiting for you:)
 
regehr said:
Love sidestep! We made it down one or two levels from the rim but not farther. It's a wild place.

I have many nemeses but White Baldy in the Wasatch is maybe the main once, I've failed to summit on two routes. The ridge over from White Pine got too scary for me, and a direct ascent of its main face out of Red Pine turned icy partway up and we didn't have crampons.
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The Red Pine approach is actually quite lovely. Then we took a terrible line down into White Pine and just suffered.
 
LarryBoy said:
The Red Pine approach is actually quite lovely. Then we took a terrible line down into White Pine and just suffered.
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I've been meaning to try the route from Red Pine, maybe next summer. I don't do super well with exposure.
 
Blaurock Pass. I've been on all sides of it (except Sunbeam, I guess) - most multiple times - but never actually gone over it.

On a broader scale, Wrangell-St. Elias NPP - I've had plans to do a trip here on three separate occasions that have been bumped for various reasons.
 
Zebra Canyon. Flooded every time but once when I was nearby. The other time when I went I was with my family and one of the kids was overheated so we didn't go.
Also Golden Cathedral. Didn't have HC 4wd first time and other times it was hotter than the surface of the sun.
Final answer is the big loop at Chiricahua. Snowed out one time and other time kids were still too small to go that far.
 
@Titans, are you suggesting that I fail at many of my hikes? :D Well, probably closer to the truth than I care to admit.

Let's see, a few come to mind right off the bat. The first being not finishing the Theodore Solomon's backpacking trip with my son back in 2017. I got halfway, but we couldn't ford the Middle Fork of the Kings River. It was a record snow year in the Sierras, and we had to begin the trip the first week of July due to Hugh Jr.'s schedule. We had a lot of butt pucker water crossings on the half that we completed.

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Not even the stream's channel

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Crossing Bubbs Creek

My son has his own life now, so I'm guessing I will never finish the northern half of this.

My second failure would be trying to reach Fairyland in Yellowstone back in 2012. I had my son with me again. He was 13 at the time, and we had to approach Fairyland from campsite 4M2 on Moss Creek instead of the site 4B1 at Joseph's Coat. We bushwhacked to Coffee Pot Hot Springs, and then more bushwhacking out on to the promontory that looks down on Fairyland.

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Scatman and Jr. at Joseph's Coat Springs

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Bushwhacking out the Promontory

This is where we made our crucial error, we tried to come off the promontory on the Shallow Creek side of the Promontory and cliffed out where we descended. Turned out we should have headed off the Broad Creek side. By the time we returned to the top of the Promontory, there was not enough time left in the day to get down to Fairyland and back to camp. This one still sits in my craw, so there is a chance I might attempt it again if I can convince @TractorDoc to carry me over all the downfall between Joseph's Coat and Fairyland. :) My son and I ended up getting back to camp in the dark on that one. Rough day.

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Looking down of Fairyland

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Jr. - out of gas, returning from Fairyland attempt.

My third failure is completing the Millcreek Ridge (local hike in the Wasatch) in one shot. I attempted it back in 2015 and was 30 minutes from completing it, look up at the summit of Grandeur Peak, but my hiking partner couldn't continue on at that point, so we had to bail. I attempted this again this past July 1st, but the heat did me in, and I had to complete it the next weekend. :( I'm pretty sure this one is out of my wheelhouse now.

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Matt - out of gas (bonked), and bailing near where the Millcreek Ridge meets the Church Fork Trail

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Disappointed Scatman at the Church Fork Trailhead after 19.5 hours of hiking. :)

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Second time Millcreek Ridge failure. Oh well! :)

Another failure was on my Birthday this past July. I was supposed to do the Beatout Hike, from the Pfeifferhorn Trailhead to the Bells Canyon Trailhead. After my Millcreek Ridge failure the week before, I turned back at the summit of the Pfeifferhorn instead of continuing on along Lightning Ridge, partially due to the heat, but also because a storm looked like it was moving in. There is no easy bail point once you commit. This one might be remedied on a day when it is not so hot?

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The route to Bells Canyon from the summit of the Pfeifferhorn

There are probably numerous others that given time I could come up with, but my reputation is taking a hit with these. :D
 
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My nemesis was Mt. Sneffels. Nothing technical about it, just grind your way up, big scree field. First time was in high school when my brother and I "borrowed" my dad's pickup and tried to drive up the Yankee Boy Basin side. My dad was out of town and forbade us from ever driving his collectible truck (he knew). We almost got to the trailhead when I ran over a rock and destroyed the oil pan and a few other critical parts, like the manifold. We limped it home and had the shop repair things. I told them to put in used parts, as my dad was a good mechanic and would've noticed a new part. I told him years later and he didn't believe me.

Second try, my nephew, brother, and I tried it from the Blue Lakes side, backpacking. We got to the upper lake and were stymied by a blizzard and lightning and ended up retreating. (We didn't check the weather.)

Third time, Yankee Boy side, my brother and I finally claimed success until we actually looked over and saw we weren't on the summit but had instead gone up a sub peak. We hadn't been able to see where we were until we got on top. (We didn't have a topo.) It was fairly technical and I think it might've been Kismet.

Fourth time, success, finally. I've climbed it twice since then just to gloat over being up there after all those failures.

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Rockskipper said:
My nemesis was Mt. Sneffels. Nothing technical about it, just grind your way up, big scree field. First time was in high school when my brother and I "borrowed" my dad's pickup and tried to drive up the Yankee Boy Basin side. My dad was out of town and forbade us from ever driving his collectible truck (he knew). We almost got to the trailhead when I ran over a rock and destroyed the oil pan and a few other critical parts, like the manifold. We limped it home and had the shop repair things. I told them to put in used parts, as my dad was a good mechanic and would've noticed a new part. I told him years later and he didn't believe me.

Second try, my nephew, brother, and I tried it from the Blue Lakes side, backpacking. We got to the upper lake and were stymied by a blizzard and lightning and ended up retreating. (We didn't check the weather.)

Third time, Yankee Boy side, my brother and I finally claimed success until we actually looked over and saw we weren't on the summit but had instead gone up a sub peak. We hadn't been able to see where we were until we got on top. (We didn't have a topo.) It was fairly technical and I think it might've been Kismet.

Fourth time, success, finally. I've climbed it twice since then just to gloat over being up there after all those failures.

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Gorgeous photo!
Congrats on finally making it up. Love the story about the "borrowed" car and repairs.
 
What a great question. My 2 are relatively easy areas to access but stuff happens.

The first was Pitchstone Plateau in YNP. The first planned trip ended when my hiking partner admitted defeat from altitude effects. He lives near sea level and it didn't take long for 7500 feet elevation to crush his ability to continue, especially as he contemplated gaining another 1500 feet that day. The second attempt was blocked by a snow storm. I could have continued up but figured with the winds howling up high that it was not worth leaving the sheltering forest for the exposed plateau top so hiked out. I have since been up there twice.

The other is Mirror Plateau in YNP. The first time I was with my wife and kids and after camping at Moss Creek the kids decided they didn't want to spend 2 more nights out so we backtracked out. They were 10 and 11 at the time. The second time I was going to hike up from Lamar R/Cache Creek area but after almost 12 hours of heavy rains the previous afternoon, evening and night, the Lamar R was un-crossable. The 3rd time I had a trip planned that would take us up Sour Creek to Fern L CS, then to Upper Pelican Cr CS and Upper Opal Cr CS but the deadfall along upper Sour Creek (it was horrible) killed my wife's desire to continue as planned. So we looped around to the north and out. Then last year I had an off-trail route planned, and still do, but I could not obtain a permit for the restricted campsites on top. I have an aternate plan that will let me traverse much of Mirror Plateau without needing to stay at the restricted campsites so hopefully next year.
 
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