Mike's Walk Talk

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Spring Snowshoeing at Aspen Grove

An epic ridge trek on the east side of the alpine loop. The weather was constantly in flux but no significant rain came down until I was a few minutes from the truck at the end. Explored lots of new ground. The chute I came down was steep, probably too steep to walk up comfortably I'm sure but with snowshoe it was a fun decent.

GPS Tracks: kml gpx
Raw Photos: Flickr Slide Show

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Snowshoeing 4-4-2009

I've been thinking about climbing the hill on the east side of the Alpine Loop just above Aspen Grove for at least the last month. The snow conditions were not great but I did make it up a fairly steep side of the hill. There is quite a bit of flat terrain up there. I headed towards a large meadow named Pine Flat on my GPS. I followed a drainage with a gentle slope down to the North Fork Provo River where it is just a trickle along the Alpine Loop highway. I picked my way off road down the 'river' back to the trailhead.

GPS Tracks: kml gpx

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Snowshoe Tracks: Winter 2008-2009

Here are the tracks for most of my notable snowshoeing outings in the Aspen Grove trailhead area this winter. I've had a blast, I had only been snowshoeing once before on boring flat ground. The most recent trip was March 29th, it was stormy weather for some of the day but really pretty snow falling for most of it. The screen capture is OK but open the kml file into Google Earth for a nice view.

-Mike

GPS Tracks: kml gpx

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Big Baldy from the south ridge

An early spring assult on Big Baldy from the south ridge. I made it to the front peak but snow and bad weather prevented me from getting to the true peak.

GPS Tracks: kml gpx
GMaps: Terrain Satellite

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Sundance-Arrowhead Lift from Provo Canyon

I've wanted to hike up to the top of Sundance from Provo Canyon for a long time. With information in the book "Climbing and Exploring Utah's Mt. Timpanogos" and cross referencing the crude maps with Google Earth I planned a trail from a spot in Provo Canyon just west of Vivian Park. There are several bands of trees near the bottom that have reasonable passages (use the 'down' tracks from my GPX or KML) though the upper band is quite painful if you pick the wrong spot like I did on my way up. I recommend trying to stay on the crest of the ridge when possible and tend to the west side when needed. For much of the hike there are game trails that crisscross the crest of the ridge which can be used as switchbacks. On the flatter sections on the top half, there are game trails on the west side of the ridge which make for easier hiking. 3350 vertical feet in less than 2 miles is very steep. A cell tower is visible for most of the hike which marks the southwest corner of the ski resort. The top of the Arrowhead lift is only about 100 yards away.

GPS Tracks: kml gpx

Looking down at Provo Canyon

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Indian Road to Rock Canyon via Buffalo Peak

Length: 8.3 Miles
Vertical Climb: 3100 ft
Time: 4 hrs 45 min

This hike involved plenty of mud and snow. I didn't encounter any other hikers until I reached the Squaw Peak Trail under Buffalo Peak. The snow wasn't deep and was fairly hard and actually easier to hike on than the muddy sections of trail. The bushwhack down the southwest side of Buffalo Peak was fairly soft but not as muddy as I feared.

GPS Tracks: kml gpx