Tue, Aug 16, 2022
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Mt. Nebo is a popular P5K in Central Utah, east of I-15 between Nephi
and Payson. I had attempted it the previous afternoon, but got rained off after
reaching North Peak. Today I got an
early start, well before the
thunderstorms could develop and had no issues. There is
a decent trail
all the way to Wolf Pass, the lowpoint between North Peak and Mt. Nebo, after
that it becomes threaded and less well-defined. I spent the first hour+
replaying the portion of trail I had climbed the previous day, then followed
the trail as it traverses the west side of North Peak, reaching Wolf
Pass after an hour and a half. So far so good. A couple of guys
ahead of me were taking a break
at the pass. A short while
later, they wandered down the west side of the pass, evidently not heading to
Nebo or any summits. I'm guessing they were scouting for hunting season soon
to be upon us.
Beyond the pass, I used the lesser trails climbing up
the NE Ridge. A pair of
mountain goats were grazing high on the rocky
slope, eyeing me warily. Shortly before topping out on a false summit, I got
suckered by goat trails into traversing
the east side of the false
summit. The goat trail gave out and I was stuck sidehilling on unpleasant
terrain - better to follow the ridge more directly. I eventually regained
the ridge and stayed truer to it in reaching
Mt. Nebo's summit at the two and a half hour mark.
I spent some time at the summit taking in the views and answering a
handful of texts that had come in during the ascent. The weather was still
quite good, so I decided to continue traversing
the ridgeline south
the extra mile to
Middle Peak and
South Peak. Use/goat trails
continued to the other summits, though not continuously. A mix of class 1 & 2,
with a short bit of
class 3 where I didn't see an easier away across
a cruxy section
between Middle and South Peaks. I reached
South Peak an hour after leaving Mt. Nebo, finding
a register
of recent origin - the traverse across the range appears to be fairly popular.
On
I was too tired to consider more bonus peaks, so I drove
back out of the mountains and spent the afternoon chilling at a Starbucks in
Provo. Later that afternoon, with plans to climb Mt. Timpanogos the next day,
I drove up the American Fork Canyon back into the Wasatch Range and found a
most excellent campsite on the northern edge of the Timpanogos Wilderness, one
of the better ones I found on this trip.
Continued...
a trio of goats at
close range that included a youngster, causing them to
run off the
west side in a hurry. On my way back
down to Wolf Pass, a solo hiker
was on
her way up. She asked how far
it was to Mt. Nebo, having originally planned to only do North Peak. I gave her
an encouraging answer, so she thanked me and continued up. I saw one other
person on the trail north of North Peak. Like me the previous day, he was
getting a late start, but
the weather was looking more cooperative
today - clouds were developing, but so far they were far from threatening. It
was after 1:30p by the time I
returned to the TH - about 6:45hr for
10mi and 4,600ft of gain. Another speed record left unbroken, but a very
enjoyable outing.
For more information see these SummitPost pages: South Peak
This page last updated: Sun Sep 11 10:59:00 2022
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