Northwest Ridge of North Thunder Mountain

via Coalpit #4

Saturday July 8, 2006

 

I set out on this adventure with little idea what lay above.  The powerplant in Little Cottonwood provided a jump-off point and soon I was climbing the gully named Coalpit #4 (or the Black Pearl?).  Goats are usually a good omen and I was greeted in the first 1000’ vertical by a small family.  At the first fork, I kept straight (steep dirt climbing), the right hand heading for the top of Perla’s Ridge.  This was a beautiful area, steep, with a mixed feeling of desert and sub-alpine.  I crossed enormous boulder fields, steep rock ridges, and the final pine headwall before reaching the sharp ridgeline dividing Bells and Little Cottonwood.  As expected, the views into Bells and Thunder Mountain Bowl were stunning.  Hulks of granite domed like surfacing whales out of the solid ridgeline.  I climbed east, following the apex, passing through the dreamy aspen groves above Sam Thomas, leading eventually to a view into the bowels of Coalpit.

 

Here the ridge crooked and ascended Peak 10,490, west of Coalpit.  I was met with a view of the sharp northwest ridge of North Thunder Mountain.  It looked exposed and classic.  Being alone and without a rope I chose to descend slightly west (some sketchy downclimbs), into lower Thunder Bowl, and avoid the most difficult section of the ridge.  En route I was almost maimed by a good luck goat kicking rocks.  I was able to make it back to the ridge in time to see him careen his way across the Coalpit headwall to preside over the Hogum.  Some easy 5th class climbing and 500 more vertical brought me to my destined summit.  3:40hr.   Undeniably this is one of my most beloved peaks in the Wasatch.  From my last summit entry, it looked as though my last fated visit was one week prior to 9-11.  Few new entries.  Epic.  Savor.

 

A looming lightning storm (and laziness) kept me from continuing south to my summit’s southern sister.  Instead I dropped north into Coalpit (last time I went out Hogum and had a miserable, yet wicked time).  Glissading the headwall was steep and sketchy, but quick.  More lucky goats and a odd traverse into Sam Thomas (bushwack nation) and I was back at my truck.  Overall it was an excellent tour, with no signs of mankind until the summit registry.  Alone and stoked in an unknown land.        

 

 

Looking north into the intestines of LCC from Coalpit #4

 

 

 

 

The balding summit of Perla’s Ridge reigning high.

 

 

 

 

The elusive Pawn guarding the canyon northside

 

 

 

 

Peak 10,490 and the gnarled northwest ridge of North Thunder Mountain.

Coalpit headwall on the left and Bell’s Cleaver on the right.

 

 

 

 

Self posed on the summit of North Thunder with Sunrise and Dromedary behind.

 

 

 

 

Telefoto of Lightning Ridge, Box Elder, and Timp in the distance.

 

 

 

 

Chasing my luck in middle Coalpit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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