Devil's Castle, Again

For the second time this week I hiked Devil's Castle in Albion Basin, Alta, UT. This time I went with a group of friends and even took T for his first ever peak bag. We meant to start at 5am, but do to some late arrivals we didn't get on the trail till almost 5:30. We made quick work up to Cecret Lake and were on the steep section before sun-up.

T showing his mad skills. He led the whole way.

We reached the saddle just as the sun was coming of the eastern mountains. It was beautiful and exciting to share it with my son. He had never seen the sun rise over the mountains, and certainly had never seen it rise while up in the mountains. He loved it.

Looking back down to Cecret Lake.

In the lei of a cliff at the saddle someone had built two wind shelters. Both were in great shape. We sat and snacked for a few minutes before going for the summit.

Steve in the wind shelter.

We made the first summit pretty quick. I ran this whole trail on Wednesday and didn't have much trouble on the technical parts. Honestly, I viewed them as mostly 4th class. Once I had T up there I realized that the scramble to all of these summits are more like easy 5th class, which can be extremely challenging for a 10 year old who doesn't like heights. That being said, the kid was an absolute champion and with very little help (except to protect him) he did it all on his own.

T on top of the first summit

It wasn't long before we had traversed over to the main summit and were on top. We didn't take the knife edge arete, but came from below, up an easier, but still challenging 4th/5th class section.

I couldn't be more proud.

Steve and Jami recording the memories.

And of course, peak jumping. Classic.

The descent was fun and pretty easy. Round trip was 3 hours.

T about to stumble.