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2608 Hits
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Page Type:
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Trip Report |
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Lat/Lon:
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40.25277°N / 111.5445°W |
Date Climbed/Hiked:
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Sep 15, 2018 |
Season:
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Summer |
- Start: Big Springs - South fork of Provo Canyon
- Creamy filling - Shingle, Freedom, South Provo, Provo
- End: Slate Canyon Trail head - Provo
We left the Big Springs parking area at 7:30 AM and wandered at a leisurely pace up to the Cascade Saddle. From here you can see the full ridge stretching over to Provo Peak. We then followed the trail towards Shingle Mill making sure that we were lined up with the snow retention cut that would put us right on the ridge between Freedom and Shingle Mill. There is a good trail through all of this. The Northeast face of Freedom looks intimidating, but it is only class 3 scrambling. Once on top of Freedom we had lunch. With one diamond in our crown we left around 12:30. You basically follow the ridge staying low past the minor summit between Freedom and South Provo. It gets easier the closer you get to South Provo and before you know it we were on top. Two down one to go. We looked at the ridge that remained and wondered about one particular part that looked pretty slim, but we couldn't go back now and so down we went. Working our way along the ridge it is still class 3, but about the midpoint it narrows up to a point were it is only a couple feet wide on rotten rock with steep drops on either side. I went over the knife edge without too much trouble. My partner dropped down the South side for about 80 feet and then back up skipping the exposure, but not so fun to go down and up again.
From here we scrambled up the remaining 300 feet to the summit of Provo. All three down we check our time. Around 5:30. Wow. we are moving slow.
Down the west side of Provo peak, around Lion's head, down Slate Canyon and back to civilization.
13 Hours total, but we were in no hurry. An amazing hike that feels remote (funny because it is only a few miles Provo) and often above 10,000 feet. We saw few people the whole trip. I'm guessing 16 miles all told. Probably not the best hike for people who feel uncomfortable on serious class 3, easy 4. Lots of loose rock and steep slopes. All told I would do it again. If you are looking for a bit of adventure in your very own backyard, than this is the hike for you.