Lady Mountain

Andrew, Tom, and I were supposed to go through Englestead Canyon on this hot Saturday in Zion, but instead Annette recommended that we do Lady Mountain since the weather forecast did not seem too favorable. I was prepared for Englestead with its 300 foot rappel to begin the canyon, so Lady Mountain should be a breeze, right. 

Well, not really. Lady Mountain is an old trail in Zion that used to have cables running most of the way up it to the top of a peak in Zion Canyon. The Park Service, deeming the trail too unsafe decided instead to take down all of the chains so that there would not be many deaths. Angel's Landing is scary enough, but just imagine if a thousand people a day tried to make it to the top of Lady Mountain. It would be crazy and each search and rescue to get them off would be terrifying. We headed up the Emerald Pools Trail bringing along Andrew's buddy Chris who was in town to do some hiking, climbing, and canyoneering with Andrew. Tom jutted off up the trail about a half mile at a spot that really was not a trail, just a way that he knew would get us there. We fought through the brush for a way and then came to a wall. It was difficult fourth class right at this first spot. I could tell that I was going to have the most difficulty of anyone on the hike.

 They just breezed on up, while I had to think about it for a while. We made it up the first spot, but the obstacles kept coming. Most of the time it was just traversing around where we would meet a headwall, always following the yellow and red arrows that pointed the way to the top. Soon there came a spot which seemed rather difficult. Tom eased his way up first, while I asked for a belay. I did not need it, but man it was nice to have. Everyone else did it without the help of a rope; I was not about to take those same risks. We next traversed over for a long time. Tom told us stories about how the Lodge employees used to have a race up and down Lady Mountain finishing at the swimming pool at the Lodge. 

The only thing that sounded appealing about that story was the swimming at the lodge part. He also told another tale about a rescue made of a person who lost there way in the dark. They took most of the day getting him down to the parking lot at the lodge where he proceeded to die, sadly as soon as he arrived. I don't think a search and rescue from this point would be any fun as we got to the hardest obstacle of the day. Freely admitting my lack of foolishness, I used the rope to ascend this part, while everyone else figured out a way to do it on their own. I do not believe that I am a rock climber and so frankly, I do not feel it necessary to defend my decision.

 Next thing I did was head straight uphill as we were really starting to gain elevation now. You could tell that someone did some work so that this sandstone was similar to steps taking us to the top. It was still definitely 4th class through this part requiring either three or four points of contact, or hands ready to brace yourself if for any reason you lost your balance. Finally, we topped out. Still, not at the top, we traversed over to the highest point on the mountain. The view was spectacular. Straight down 2400 feet below us was the Virgin River flowing. There were views and angles that I never thought I would see in Zion. Also, there was a sign pointing to all peaks from the summit. That was neat. About this time, all of us were definitely feeling the heat. Each person was starting to realize that we were going to have to hurry on down to avoid issues with the 100+ Southern Utah sun. So after taking my only pictures that I would take the whole day long, we started down. This was not an easy task. It is a lot scarier going down as you can see where you would go if you lost your balance, straight down over a thousand feet. I was not shy about handlining the spots that I had to use a rope for on the climb up. I was definitely the slowest also, as I have always been extra careful when dealing with large precipices. But, there were really no incidents on the way down except for us running out of water. Tom hooked us up with a Gatorade when we got to his patrol vehicle. I was so happy that I made it. This was definitely my limit and I knew it, so to push that and do something that was hard for me made me feel good. I was glad that I was able to do something new and interesting this summer. Andrew, though, did not get his limits pushed too much by this climb. Chris and he were talking about how that is how every hike should be. I did not consider it a hike, but they did. Andrew really wanted to push his limits and he conversed with Tom on the summit about how to get to the top of the Sentinel. Tom gave him his best advice and a couple days later, Andrew ignored it and went for it. He picked his own special route and without ropes or a partner, he made his attempt on the Sentinel. Getting to within 300 feet of the top, he was forced to turn back by daylight and lack of an easy route up from his position. On the way back down, he lost the way he had come up. Wisely, even though he had not brought rope, he did bring a radio. He radioed dispatch to let them know that he was stuck. The search team with ropes and much more climbing experience could not find the route up that Andrew took. In Gordon's words, "it was all chaw", which he informed me means terrible rock. They had to do a helicopter rescue to pluck him off the peak, which was embarrassing for Andrew, but at least he was safe.