Mt Timpanogos

Saturday morning at 5.30a Matt, our boss' son Jackson, and I climbed a mountain. 12000 ft of mountain. The first half hour was in the dark, and then the sun slowly peaked over the horizon.

Jackson and I in the lovely flowers. Unfortunately for Matt and Jackson, I had to stop every few minutes. It was a really arduous hike. It was so beautiful, but the air was so thin, and I guess I was too weak.

We passed tons of water falls. I appreciated the glacial runoff because my fingers were swollen the entire hike from the thin air and high elevation and it felt really good to stick my fingers in the icy (literally there were ice chunks) water.

The whole mountain was in bloom. The air was so fragrant. There were red, yellow, blue, pink and white flowers EVERYWHERE! I saw tons of wild roses and could smell chamomile.

Boys, standing on an ice flow in Emerald Lake.

We saw herds of mountain goats scrambling over the hardscrabble ground. Jackson found some mountain goat wool. It is surprisingly soft. Almost as soft as cat hair.

As hard going as it was, there's no denying how lovely the whole place was.

Resting our feet and refueling our bodies at Emerald Lake.

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Baby Mountain Goat. :)

View from The Saddle.

The Summit. Striking resemblance to Mount Doom.

I look happy, but I felt like dying. Matt literally had to push me up the mountain several times. This was taken just after we climbed up a steep snowy rocky "path" to The Saddle.

Emerald Lake and the Glacier from the Summit. You can't see the glacier very well because it's further to my right. Instead of climbing back down the summit, we slid down the glacier on our butts to the lake. It was fast and rocky and painful on our hands, but very fun. I love hiking.

We were still relatively happy at this point. It was the three hour descent that put everyone in a horrible mood. I got sunburned, Jackson fell asleep on the trail, and Matt slipped and nearly fell twice in 3 minutes. Our knees felt like they were going to blow and I had to go to the bathroom so badly I thought I would mess my trousers. Luckily that did NOT happen. When we finally got down we were exhausted. It was a 9.5 hour hike. I had a really hard time walking the rest of the day, and on Sunday I woke up feeling sick and I was SO sunburned on my neck and shoulders. Luckily it was never too hot, just a lot of direct sun.