Mount Timpanogos from Timpooneke

Despite plenty of prior notice, the group for the big Timpanogos hike consisted of only thee hikers, Mel, Kirk and me. At Kirk's request we planned a very early meet-up at 5:00am in the Timpooneke trailhead parking lot. The lot was almost full and several other small groups, mostly college aged, were heading out or meeting up. After finding each other in the pitch black darkness we headed out on the trail at 5:10am.
The temperature was very cool as we started hiking but the exertion kept me warm in just a long sleeve t-shirt but gloves were crucial for me to keep warm. Unfortunately the darkness prevented us from enjoying much of the scenery for the first hour of so of the hike.
When we arrived at 'The Saddle' in just 3.5 hours we were all very pleased. Mel had decided that she would make a decision to summit if she made it to the saddle in less than 5 hours. Not only did we blow that time away she and the other two of us felt great. We took a 15 min break for some energy food for the final push to the summit.
I was excited to better my previous time so put my head down and left Mel and Kirk behind on the final part of the climb. I had remembered struggling on this section last time but was able to keep up a good pace without stopping to catch my breath. I got to the summit in 4:38 with Mel and Kirk arriving about 10 min later.
There were lots of other hikers on the trail both going up and down. One thing I noticed was almost all of the hikers we saw on our way up were college aged. On our way down from the summit to the saddle we started seeing man more hikers older than college aged. I feel like we were near the front of the over 30 classification. We did see one older guy who was on his second trip up, for the day! He said he was training for the 'Bear 100' and was running the trail twice. Wow!
The trip down was much less enjoyable. We did get to see more scenery on the way down but the sore mussels and feet were catching up with us. We took one little sit down break on the decent but otherwise kept moving. The last few miles dragged on and on, we got back to the parking lot at 3:00pm. The ruggedness of the lower trail surprised me. We had climbed it in the dark with only head band lights. It looked treacherous in the light, I was amazed I didn't stumble and trip hiking it in the dark with only a little spot of light.

5:11am -  7200ft: Timpooneke Trailhead 
 8:56am - 11000ft: Arrive at the Saddle 
                   15 min Break
 9:12am - 11000ft: Depart the Saddle
 9:48am - 11720ft: Arrive on the Summit
                   41 min Break - Lunch
10:30pm - 11720ft: Depart the Summit 
 3:00pm -  7390ft: Arrive Trailhead

GPS Tracks: kml gpx
Photos: Flickr