Trip Report: *Do the Book* - Wildcat Ridge Day Hike
|
*Do the Book* - Wildcat Ridge Day Hike By Ray Daurelle |
||
| HIKE | 09/19/2026 | EXT |
| The club's longest, toughest one day hike offered in the Wasatch mountains is Wildcat Ridge. It's the ridge running eastward from the top of Mount Olympus all the way to Mount Raymond about half way up big Cottonwood Canyon. It has long stretches of stuff you could fall off of on either side at once. It's a 12 mile hike with about 7-8000 feet of cumulative elevation gain. It's got more serious scrambling than the beat out hike. The original eight people on the list dwindled to 4 due to the weather concerns. We chose to do Wildcat in reverse (west to east) compared to the original event so we could throw in some extras. First plan was to add in the West Slabs of Olympus, and then north peak to the main south peak is the Traverse of the Goddesses, with a total of 6 peaks (or peaklets). But rain hit the day before, continuing into the wee hours just before the hike. So the West Slabs seemed like they could be (even more) dangerous if the occasional moss and/or lichen was still wet. So we dropped the West Slabs from our plan and hiked up a steep gully through the middle of the north face in thick, low clouds. By the time we got to the north summit, the low clouds had opened up into a fabulous cloud show. The rock was dry, so the tricky "Traverse of the Goddesses" was just fun, and even more beautiful than usual, nestled in among low bits of clouds. Getting up the final face to the main south summit, the occasional gullies had dirt that was now mildly muddy, so we stayed on the rock, which was dry, and made a very nice class III or IV pleasant scramble. All along the way, the clouds danced around and between us, occasionally closing in to shorten visibility. So the temperature was cool, yet the rock was still dry. Best conditions you could ask for. When we reached Hobbs/Triangle Peak and sat a while for lunch, the clouds darkened around us, cutting off all visibility and we heard a rumble that we couldn't quite attribute to anything man made. So we bailed out down the first chute along the east side of Hobbs (AKA Triangle) Peak into Neff's Canyon. On the long descent through Neff's Canyon we felt a few raindrops at one point, but never got visibly wet. Still among the best conditions you could ask for. Our group of 4 included Ray Daurelle, Brandon Callahan, Eric Hossfield and Michael Marine. |
||
| View Photo Album |
||