approach and beta for Lone Peak

I've been perusing the beta for Lone Peak and had a few questions before I head up there:

1) A lot of the info for the approach beta seems to be pretty dated. From what I can gather, the best approach is to hike the Jacob's Ladder trail from Alpine. Is that still the consensus?

2) Is there water available in the Cirque itself? How reliable is it throughout the year? Is it snow melt, run-off streams, ponds, etc.?

3) Pack out human waste I assume?

Thanks in advance.

Jacobs ladder is still the most popular approach for hiking to the peak, and it takes you past the base of the climbs, the other trails don't.

As for water there are a few small streams that are mostly snow melt, went I went in August a few years ago there was only one small pool that only had a fast drip of water to refill it, we nearly emptied it by pumping. If you are going later in the year I would bring plenty of water.

Packing it out is always best, but I don't think that you need to, its not the most popular area because its a long trail. But you could just call the forest service and find out what they recommend.

Hope that helps.

1) Jacob's ladder trail is accessed from Corner canyon as far as I know, not from Alpine. I have taken the Alpine approach and it sucks. The only benefit to the Alpine approach is that it has year-round water just before the final 2000' slog up the slabs. Otherwise, it is hot (south facing), and you will get lost on the slabs and bushwhack.

2) The water in the cirque is usually gone by late July or so. This year could be much earlier given the snowpack. Once the season starts, someone will probably post a thread here with updates.

3) Pack out everything. It is the alpine, and contrary to what the above poster said, quite popular.

I have tried all 5 major approaches to Lone Peak. Favorite to least favorite:

1. Jacobs Ladder from Draper/Corner Canyon. Good water access until July, least uphill elevation gain. A couple of steep sections that will test your stairstepper fitness. This will be my approach again this year.

2. Bear canyon aka "Cherry Canyon Logging Trail". Not too bad, interesting switchbacks on west facing slopes of Lone Peak. Check out the outlaw cabin.

3. Trail of the Eagle. Very long and more elevation gain than the others, but graded well without too many steep sections.

4. Alpine "hammangog" approach. Last 2 miles really, really suck. First half is beautiful and well-graded.

5. Draper ridge trail. Got lost when the trail turned into very faint game trails. No longer maintained. Seems like a good, gentle approach if you can stay on target, but I couldn't.

Water is tricky in July and August after mild winters. You can walk back down the drainage out of the cirque and usually find some flowing water (15 min walk) until late July.

Wag bags are the accepted waste packout method.

1) GPS coordinates for the Jacob's Ladder Trailhead: 40.494469, -111.817141. It's the only way I've gotten up to the cirque, but it wasn't too bad as long as you bring enough water for the hike. Once you are up on the ridge, the trail is more enjoyable.

2) Last time I was up there was early July, 2014, and there wasn't any water until a small flat forested spot that had a small stream in it, before you started up the long slab/boulder hopping up to the meadows before the cirque. After that, we had to melt snow up in the cirque to get water; there might have been running water somewhere, but I didn't find it, and brought enough fuel to melt snow.

3) Pack everything out.

Ouch!! You know we've had a bad winter when people are asking questions about lone in April. Even in low snow years there is good water til July, to the best of my knowledge you can find good water until even August but you'd ave to go a ways back down, there's usually flowing pools where the huge granite slab field is.

Low snow year is kind of an understatement but even now there will be a decent amount of hardened snow up in the Cirque, it's still lingering at 8'000 feet as much as it hurts to type that in early April. Corner Canyon/ Jacob's Ladder trail in Draper and not the Alpine trail is the way to go if you want to climb up there, I would guess there is ice or water running down the cracks and/or faces right now. May is when I'm planning on heading up there a couple of times provided the weather stays much the same, it might stick around later ( but this is coming from someone who is still hoping that snow will fall in decent amounts in April). This year I wouldn't count on water available in reasonable distance past July. As for waste disposal it depends when you go up, some may disagree with me but I've honestly never been up there long enough to crap anywhere that would see much human traffic. It's still best to pack it out.

PACK YOUR SHIT OUT

There will be weekends with 10 parties up there. Imagine if all 20 people didn't pack out their shit? Now imagine that every weekend for an entire summer. That's a few hundred shits going into the ground water you're going to be drinking. Always pack it out in the Wasatch.

luke smith wrote:I've honestly never been up there long enough to crap anywhere that would see much human traffic. It's still best to pack it out.

What does this mean? The longer you stay in a place the more likely you are to shit at the base of the cliff?

I find it weird that multiple people in this thread are suggesting that it is ok to take a dump on lone peak and leave it there. It's not ok.

I'm not sure if they still do this, but IME once offered free wag bags specifically for the cirque. Do your part, it feels great and makes you a stronger person for doing so.

Don't leave your dumps in the cirque. Instead bring them back down and light them on fire on the porch of the governor's mansion. Hey NSA go fuck yourself!

Thanks for the replies--Corner Canyon/Draper up Jacob's Ladder it is. I'm confident I can find some water for a few months based on the beta. And rest assured, I have no problem packing my shit out and will happily do so. Clean water is okay with me.

I doubt it'll be something to think about for a while, but the comment about icy cracks got me thinking. How is Lone Peak in the winter? Is there pretty good ice/mixed or general alpine adventuring to be done there?

I haven't been to the cirque in winter, but I have seen it from the summit. It doesn't look too promising for ice climbing. Here's a photo I took this January:

Question Mark Wall from the summit in January

During winter almost no melting occurs up there, so no water to form ice.

Gotcha. So more like cold, hard rock climbing, then? Sounds like a good adventure to have once.

I typically do the alpine approach. Seams like the shortest distance although there are a few kinda hateful moments. Typically I have been able to find water late into the summer season up in the cirque, although this year might be a little different. Watch out for rattlesnakes on the alpine approach up high on the south face before you contour around into the cirque. Although I haven't heard of them being in the cirque, I have heard about them on other approaches as well.

I've only ever done the alpine approach. Last time I was there (last summer -- I live in Oklahoma and my parents live in Alpine), the dirt road at the start was blocked with huge signs saying "private property no trespassing." I've been told that road is public easement, and I called the city of alpine but never got a response.

Bottom line, the alpine approach may no longer by open. Though if anyone cares enough, they should press the issue. The developer that owns that land is a complete asshole, according to local lore. His people started the last alpine wild fire. From what I've been told, he cannot legally close that road. Yes it crosses through private land, but it's a publicly owned easement used to access national forest.

My two cents:

If you can still drive to the first hamongog the Alpine approach is worth considering. It was closed for some time but it would be worth looking into especially if you're coming from the south. Some apparently walk from the housing but that seems silly to me. I didn't find the upper trail that poor but it is faint in places and you could make it worse on yourself. One option the Alpine approach gives you is camping at the second hamongog where there is a spring and hiking into the cirque with your day pack. From the summit you can walk back downhill to camp without going back into the cirque.

Having said all that, my preference is for the Jacob's Ladder trail. It does not start in Alpine but in Draper up Corner Canyon, unless you have an ATV and you figure out how to negotiate the little trails from Alpine to the base of the Jacob's Ladder proper. I don't know if it is legal but people do it. You can no longer shortcut the approach but the lower trail portion has been significantly improved. If you start reasonably early (by 7) the sucky steep part is normally shaded and breezy, so tolerable.

When you walk through the narrow neck at the entrance of the cirque you'll normally find running water into mid August.

It's not possible to drive to the first hamongog. The road is gated down by the water tank.

Mike Marmar wrote:It's not possible to drive to the first hamongog. The road is gated down by the water tank.

You could a few years ago. Summer 2013 I rode on an ATV all the way to the first Hammongog. My partner and I were dropped off at the wilderness boundary with our packs. We drove a nice dirt road the whole way.

However, like I said above, when I went back last summer (2014) the road was entirely blocked with no trespassing signs. I called the land owner's number given on the sign and asked if he was still allowing hikers to pass through. He said no. No one.

Like I said, I believe that this is illegal. That road is a public easement through private land. He can't close it.

C. Archibald wrote: You could a few years ago. Summer 2013 I rode on an ATV all the way to the first Hammongog. My partner and I were dropped off at the wilderness boundary with our packs. We drove a nice dirt road the whole way. However, like I said above, when I went back last summer (2014) the road was entirely blocked with no trespassing signs. I called the land owner's number given on the sign and asked if he was still allowing hikers to pass through. He said no. No one. Like I said, I believe that this is illegal. That road is a public easement through private land. He can't close it.

The upper part of the dirt road from Alpine to the first Hamongog is on private land, there is no public easement.

The road was initially closed ~1998. One can park at the penultimate switch back and go up from there on a trail that eventually joins in with the last bit of the road. The last ~500 yards of the road is on public lands.

The fact that the road was open in 2013 may have some very interesting legal aspects in terms of a prescriptive easement. I will not say much more as I would be speculating.

Utah County Parcel Map(1).mhtml

Allen,

Take a look at this. This is a link to the Utah County Parcel Map, and if the link works, it should end up zoomed in on the north edge of Alpine. The First and Second Hammongogs are labeled on the map, along with a "County Trail" on land belonging to "Lehi City Corporation Et Al."

I'm no expert and I could be totally reading this wrong, but I think there is in fact a public easement through that land.