Climbing Mount Timpanogos

This weekend, 5 friends and I climbed Mount Timpanogos. Of all of us (Amanda, Bryce, Tiffani, Anthony, Emily, and I), only Tiffani had done the climb before. It was an intense, but awesome experience! We left on Friday night at 8 P.M. from Aspen Grove, up Provo Canyon. After 4 hours, we reached Emerald Lake, which is like the "base camp" for the hike. Emerald Lake is a lake made from the melted glacier above it. It was FREEZING up there that night! I had no idea how cold we would be! Emily and I shared a tent, and we had to cuddle to stay warm... it was in the thirties! We barely slept about 2 or 3 hours.

Then, at 6ish on Saturday morning, we woke up and did the final climb to the summit. Wow, it was intense. We kept thinking we were close, and then we'd see another peak that we had to climb! There were a lot of people climbing the peak too... it is a popular hike. We saw kids, teenagers, college students, tourists, even dogs! Anyhow, we then had to go back down... and by the end, we were extremely thirsty, sore, and tired. Needless to say, we slept REALLY well that night!

Saturday also happened to be my 25th birthday! It was an interesting way to spend my birthday, and it will definitely be a great memory! We went to Chili's later that night and then ate cake and watched "Clue" in Emily's backyard on a projector. It was a great birthday and a great way to start my next year!

Here are some pictures from the trip:

These flowers are called "Indian Paintbrushes." Aren't they gorgeous? There were so many different wildflowers... it was beautiful!

Here are Anthony and Tiffani, enjoying the cold water at the waterfall near the end of the hike... we were so tired by this point!


Emily, Amanda, me, and Tiffani at a waterfall near the beginning of the hike.
The sun coming up near Emerald Lake on Saturday morning.

The glacier above Emerald Lake. This is a popular way to descend from the summit, by sliding down the glacier! Unfortunately, the glacier wasn't very large this year, so it was extra dangerous to go down it. So, we decided to climb back down the way we came.

This is a view near the top of Mount Timpanogos. Doesn't it look incredibly high?! It looks like the view from an airplane!

Amanda and Bryce... hiking on the way back down.

Anyhow, I've had a lot of fun enjoying all of the fun outdoor things in Utah this summer. I'm not sure that I'll be climbing Timp again in the near future, but I'm really glad I did it and I hope to do it again someday. Climbing Timp is sort of a BYU rite of passage... it seems that most of my friends have climbed it at least once. And, this weekend, a group of 6 twenty-four-year-olds (one turning twenty-five on the trip) joined the ranks of those who have climbed before :-)