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Show THE Wednesday, June . . MRK CITV ID, 1971 COALITION Page .On A Trail The morning, an ordinary one, without a spectacular sunrise, woke us up. We packed up in silence and moved up higher to a small fall where we had a quick breakfast. We filled our canteens and took off towards our planned variation of the route, fresh and full of energy. Kris and Pam left their frame packs at the fall. Pam carried a small rucksack and Kris carried the rope with the camera and the canteens. Without the bulky packs, we were all ready to participate in a bit of frozen snow slope climbing with more ease. We chose a to of that led the base the rock walls forming the lower portion of the ridge. With a systematic method, we placed our ice axes, balanced, and then kicked steps in the surface of the snow. We carefully approached the edge of the deep gap between the top of the snow slope and the base of the rock band. Occasional rock falls from above kept us aware of the shattered nature of the Timpanogos rock. We moved cautiously along the edge of the gap, testing the thickness of the comice-lik- e lip with our ice axes. At the upper left edge of the snow, we found a possibility to cross the deep gap. With the rope tied to me, I went first. I stepped on a thin bridge of ice, hoping it would hold. It did. Then I stepped across the wide gap at the base of the steep wall. Pam, standing on a solid stance, thirty feet down the snow, slowly fed the rope towards me. As I pulled the rope behind me, I cleaned scree from the edge of the rock. Finally, I moved up to a sloping ledge five hundred feet above the base of the snow. Pam climbed the vertical section very smoothly, with a little help from the rope. Kris decided to swing on the rope to reach the rock ledge below us. She ended up hanging from her waist, below the hold, against the vertical rock. A few moments in silence passed, and then she managed to pull on the small ledge and, with a little help from the rope, joined us on the ledge. I had an uneasy feeling about the route. Because of the abundance of holds, climbing on such steep rock would have been easy had it not been for the extremely shattered nature of the rock. This made everything - even giant ledges suspended above the void - unsound. But I didnt mention anything to my friends. We climbed on easybroken ledges, moving together. At a spot about a thousand feet above the base of the steep snow, the easy climbing ended. We spotted a chimney d short vertical section, and then ah eighty- degree yellowish rock towering upward a hundred feet above us. The rock in the chimney and the steep section above were extremely sound. I frit the joy Amoving smoothly with control without worrying about loose flakes; My joy didnt last that long though. When I reached the final forty feet of the wall where the black rock turned yellow, I noticed that I was standing under forty feet of loose boulders piled steeply on top of each other by mere coincidence of nature. I immediately looked down to see where Pam and Kris were told them to watch out for rock g boulders, I reached a fairly portion of the hellish yellow wall. I took a deep breath of the thin air, felt the warmth of the sun on the back of my neck, and continued my search for solid holds. A slow and calculated traverse to the left and then back right ended at the fifty-degr- ee high-cornic- ed safe-lookin- 's J i - V , ,?i? j. r' ; ' if; ' 17 base of a holdless, but solid, slab near the top. I reached for the top, but everything I touched was loose. I moved along a small foothold without any handholds. Finally, my fingers touched a firm hold. I didnt let go. I pulled on it, manteled (pushed up) on it, placed my toe on it, and stood up. I found a safe place among the loose boulders and got ready to belay Pam. I was very pleased with her performance. She climbed with a little help from the rope and joined me, excited and tired. Kris kept a fang tastic speed, pondered on some problems, and with a little help from my rope, climbed up to us. We had a drink of water, shared the joy of rising for an instant above the slow everyday affairs of life, and continued moving up. The looseness of the rock forced us to the right and up. We climbed fast and carefully. We traversed right along lofty ledges bombarded in the past with rock falls, the ledges that cut through the sheer low density rock, stared into the face of the sky, and bore the constant exposure to the severe elements. Tljen, we were on lower angle and definitely more solid slopes. A very strenuous, but easy, climb took us to the top of the ridge where the magnificent panorama of the high mountain ridges decorated our horizon. Some steep towers, balanced in a threatening way, on the ridge, got us worried. But there was always a way around them. Soon, turning around a smooth corner, we got a glimpse of the BYU shelter on Timpanogos in a flat snowfield seven hundred feet below us. We climbed down to it and the sight of trash, rusted cans, gum wrappers, and wooden signs directing the hikers to the summit assured us that we were on an established trail. We werent on the summit yet, but obviously, the trip had ended for us. We ate, drank, talked, and looked at the graffiti on the shelter walls commemorating the arrival of some of ith'e hikers of the hut. d Our descent down the portion of the trail wasnt uneventful. But the small incidents added to the excitement of the trip. A silent and cool evening greeted us in the Theater in the Pines. Crossing a dry streambed on a wooden bridge, we briefly talked about how we felt about the trip. We were tired, but in a very pleasant and relaxed mood. route-findin- snow-covere- |