Uintas - Allsop and The Cathedral

[Mike K]

A couple of friends and I went to the Allsop Basin Fri - Monday (June 12- 15, 2015). We timed it pretty well as far as snow, bugs, and people. The weather was awesome (minus a brief hail storm that pinned us down as were about 2 minutes from the car on the way out- doh!), there were only a few skeeters at the lower elevations, and we only encountered one other group people (goat packers) a few miles from the trail head.

The lower trail from the trail head up to the Priod/Allsop split was 95% dry. But, definitely some muddy boggy spots here and there. Above the split the trail gets worse but it was still in decent shape overall. I'd say it was 75% dry. The other 25% definitely had soggy, muddy, snowy sections but totally manageable. We started hitting some snow patches around 10,000 ft and by the time we got to Allsop Lake (10,500ish) there was quite a bit of snow and the lake was 99% frozen still. We bagged The Cathedral and encountered some soft deep snow, but overall, it was a pretty easy summit and kicking steps in the snow worked out well.

Some pics:

The goat packer group a few miles in. Goats look like fun!



The falls on the way up to Allsop.



A view of the basin. The Cathedral and our route to the summit on the right.



Drying our feet after crossing the swift and chilly river.



Setting up at camp #2.




Another cool section of falls on the way up to Allsop Lake.




A view of the east side of The Cathedral.




Pano of the basin.




Pano of the east side of The Cathedral.



The Cathedral




A mostly frozen Allsop Lake.




Some steep work on the start of our summit of The Cathedral.




The route up.




A quick break to get some sugar in us.




Dave kicking some steps.




A nasty steep section. The rocks were loose and the post-holing in this section of snow was heinous.




A view from the summit of The Cathedral. Yard Peak on the right (I think).




A look into the basin to the east (Proird and Norice can be seen).




Lane and Dave hiking back up to do some more glissading. Crazy guys.



The damage some ravenous rodent did to the cork on Lane's trekking poles.




The hailstorm brewing on our way back to the car.


If you want to see more pics...

The rest of my pics here on flickr.
Lane's pics soon to be here on his site.
Dave's pics hosted on my flickr.

EDIT/UPDATE (12/22/2015): I created a quick vid that I posted later in the thread. I'll put it here as well:

Featured image for home page:

 

[Jackson]

Looks like an awesome trip! I'm planning on heading up there or up the West Fork of Blacks Fork within the next month, so this is good to read. Thanks for posting!

 

[Parma]

This looks amazing!
I'm headed for Grandaddy Basin next week so this was a good way to get me anxious.

 

[Artemus]

w00t! A backpack AND a summit. Great trip. I'd say the Uintas are officially open for business.

What time did you do the steep snow? Often in the morning the snow is locked up and stiffer and easier to kick steps without deep postholes. Even if it doesn't freeze. There is less avalanche risk from wet slides as well.

Well done, how many hours on the ascent/descent?

 

[Artemus]

I've had a cork and two foam grips on trekking poles destroyed by Marmots but that was in a high use camp spots in the Tetons. We tried recovering them with bicycle handlebar tape and that worked pretty well but we ultimately replaced them. Too bad.

 

[Nick]

Way cool, Mike! So Awesome that so many BCP'ers were up there getting the goods at pretty much the very first possible good weekend for it. And peak bagging no less! It bums me out seeing that chewed up pole handle. I take pride seeing how smooth and worn down my cork handles have become over the years. I'd be pissed if something chewed them all up!

 

[JoshuaDyal]

Yeah, Yard peak is the big one on the right. "Dead Horse Peak" is the officially un-named one on the left of the lake.

EDIT: I know its from a distance, but Norice doesn't look frozen, does it?

 

[andyjaggy]

Ha! My wife and I were hanging out at the trailhead that day, and we saw the goat group arrive and head up the trail. It seemed like they paid that guy with the goats to take them up there, because he was quite bossy and taking charge of everything. I was amazed that they all had full packs and the 6 goats all had packs on, I wondered how much crap they were hauling up there!

 

[JoshuaDyal]

Interesting to compare trip reports and pictures from this and an earlier trip, done at a later point in the summer. Some of the pictures seem to literally be from the exact same point of view.

http://www.summitpost.org/the-cathedral-of-the-uintas/844487

 

[Mike K]

@Jackson - It was awesome! Have a blast when you go. You can't go wrong with either route!

@Parma - Glad I could whet your appetite. Have fun in Grandaddy. I've only been back in there once (maybe twice) and I liked it!

@langutah - Our summit was a late start - around 10 am probably. Dave commented that we should have started earlier. But we were lazy. I'm not sure it would have made a difference with the snow. Luckily the majority of it was packed enough and it wasn't too bad. We camped right at the base our route so there was no long approach. I think we got to the top in 1 hour and 45 minutes. It went surprisingly fast. We were back chilling in camp by 2 pm or so.

@Nick - I feel lucky that we timed it right. We wondered if we were going a week too early, but it was sweet!

@JoshuaDyal - I always get confused between Yard Peak, South Yard Peak, "Dead Horse", etc. We thought about making a run at Yard or Beulah but we just didn't have the time. And we were content fishing and chilling. Norice was ice free, but Priord was still frozen. Hard to tell from that picture.

@andyjaggy - We didn't quite figure out the group dynamics but I think you're right...they probably paid that guy. We talked to him and he told us to check out his goat rental website (can't remember the name). I wonder how much gear they took if you saw them with that much! Crazy. The must have been eating like kings! =) They were a nice group.

 

[Mike K]

Interesting to compare trip reports and pictures from this and an earlier trip, done at a later point in the summer. Some of the pictures seem to literally be from the exact same point of view.

http://www.summitpost.org/the-cathedral-of-the-uintas/844487

Definitely interesting to see what it looks like later in the year. I agree, many of the pics looks like they're from the exact same spot! Cool. =)

 

[Mike K]

@langutah and @Nick - About the cork handles. Lane sent an email to Black Diamond and let them know what happened. He asked if it was possible to get them "re-corked" or if he was just out of luck and had to get new ones. He got a quick response from Mike at Black Diamond who told him that a) it was likely a marmot and they crave salt, b) the handles are fixed and not replaceable, c) that he was going to hook him up and send him some upper shafts that he had in his office, and d) that he should hang them from a tree branch to avoid this from happening again.

Pretty cool customer service. I love their flick lock trekking poles! =)

 

[Nick]

That's awesome they hooked him up. I bent a lower shaft once and they made me pay for the replacement. I do love those flick locks though.

 

[andyjaggy]

I had no idea. It looks like I will be hanging my poles for now on.

 

[steve]

nice mike, I wish I could have joined you guys, but it wasn't in the cards that weekend.

 

[WasatchWill]

Those pics all taken with your phone? Still a Samsung? I'm alway impressed with how good your phone pics turn out. I hardly ever shoot landscapes with mine anymore because they come out so bad.

Anyways, looks like it was an awesome trip! I love those views from the Cathedral. I was hoping to bag a Uinta peak myself this morning in Agassiz, but it looked like too much class 3 and I didn't feel comfortable making that attempt being all by myself. Maybe it just looked worse from farther away and really isn't so bad once you get going up it? I found that the post-holing in the snow up to the ridge was most treacherous where the snow edged around the boulders. That was where the snow gave way the most and I could feel my feet slamming on the rocks below, feeling fortunate each time that my foot didn't slip through a crack at the wrong angle and resulting a serious sprain or worse. I actually had my spikes on for a good stretch going up because the snow was frozen up and too hard to kick in any good steps. Coming back down it, mid-morning, the snow had softened up enough to not need the spikes anymore. I got to enjoy a little glissading too.

I'm glad the conditions were well enough to let you guys up all the way. Again, Great stuff!

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

Awesome looking trip! Those are some beautiful mountains and amazing views from the top. Can someone explain the goat group to me? It sounds like you guys are saying they hike with them as pets just like dogs? I'm a little confused?

 

[JoshuaDyal]

Awesome looking trip! Those are some beautiful mountains and amazing views from the top. Can someone explain the goat group to me? It sounds like you guys are saying they hike with them as pets just like dogs? I'm a little confused?

http://www.highuintapackgoats.com/

Goats can be used as pack animals to carry some of your gear.

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

Oh I see. Thanks for the link. I thought they were companion animals. Don't want to side track Mike K's trip report so I'll keep my thoughts to myself on this.

Anyways, that runoff looks like it's doing pretty well considering how dry of a winter you guys have said it's been out there.

 

[Mike K]

I had no idea. It looks like I will be hanging my poles for now on.

Same here, never heard of that. I guess I'll have to hang mine, too...or prop them up somewhere. I guess this gives more ammo for those people who are anti-trekking pole. =)