Mount Raymond - Take 1

Mount Raymond was on tap on Friday. Tracie needed to be back in the valley reasonably early, so we opted for a quick peak out of BCC. There was only a little bit of snow on the trail on the way up...I guess south facing slopes really do melt out quicker.


Getting to the saddle is the easy part...


Once you make the turn for the summit you'll start to encounter some trickier sections .


This is Lisa, she'll be joining us for the summer (then fall hits and it's back to work for Lisa...but she's sad about that)...every one say, "Hi Lisa!"


Another peak down for the FAC. I've said it before and I'll say it again...there's something special about being on a peak in sight of the masses cooking in the valley. The weather on the peak was perfect.


The view from the peak was great. Lisa and Tracie took advantage of the view to look for places to ski next year.



I titled this "Take 1" because I think we're going to need to consider hitting this peak via Mount Olympus. You can kinda see just how much ground you'd need to cover to do this from this picture (yes, I know my Patagonia hat needs to be cleaned...maybe for the next FAC).


Getting there:
We started from the Butler Fork trailhead. You'll encounter the first fork in the trail roughly 0.5 miles from the trailhead...take the trail to the left. Eventually, you'll hike up a few switchbacks to a small ridgeline. Follow the ridgeline for 0.28 miles to another fork (again you'll go left). This left will take you to the saddle between Gobbler's Knob and Mount Raymond, the saddle is about 1.43 miles from this split (according to my map, there's another junction 0.23 miles before the saddle...where you turn to the right). From the saddle, you turn to the left and follow the ridgeline up to the summit.

Tennis can be an adventure, right?

Two weekends ago, Matt decided to go tweak his back. After hobbling around for a few days, he decided to flake out on FAC (ha! No really, I feel bad, Matt. Hope you're back to 100% for next week). But have no fear, there is another FACker guest start for the summer - Lisa! As a teacher, she has the rest of the summer off, and hopefully will be joining us for the next few FACs.

One of my summer school teachers decided to give us a final on Friday night. I mean, come on....Friday night?!?? So, to keep things simple and unstressful, Lisa and I played tennis for a few hours so I could study. Believe me, tennis with us is an adventure, so the FAC tradition lives on.

In other news, my most astute and thoughtful husband bought me a book for my birthday that will fuel the FAC fire for years to come: Hiking the Wasatch by John Veranth. This book is loaded with tons of obscure hikes in the central Wasatch like Little Black Mountain, Beacon Hill, the Olympus to Raymond traverse, and the Beatout. Gotta love those Wasatch Mountain Club folks for doing all this crazy stuff first so we can feel cool by doing it later.

Great link - Utah Peak Bagging Pics!

I found this awesome link this spring that will be a great resource for the FAC.

The possibilities are endless...

Grandeur Peak (Matt)

So, chiming in a little late...my legs still hurt. The approach from the west is definitely the more brutal route. As said by Tracie, not a real scenic hike...but worth the trip to tick off one more FAC peak.

The view of the city on the way up is tremendous. The view from the peak is good too...just didn't get a good city pic from there.



For the record, a little proof that we were really there.


Sitting on the top of a peak might be one of my favorite places in the world...doesn't really matter which peak, just on a peak.