By Lynn Arave
THE Mormon Pioneers did more hiking than just Ensign Peak that first summer in the Salt Lake Valley of 1847. They also scaled "Twin Peaks" and got more difficulty than they expected ..... Read on ...
MENTION "Twin Peaks" in Salt Lake County and you always have a confusing identification to deal with, since there are three such so-named twin peaks in just the S.L. section of the Wasatch Mountains.
There's the "Broad Fork" Twin Peaks, located prominently between Big and Little Cottonwood canyons; then there's an "American Fork" Twin Peaks, located above Snowbird. Finally, there's a smaller set of much more obscure Twin Peaks found directly east of the downtown Salt Lake area.
While the American Fork Twin Peaks comprise the two tallest points in Salt Lake County, at 11,489 and 11,433 feet above sea level, it is the Broad Forks version (some 159 feet shorter) that gained the most attention from hikers and climbers during Utah's earliest years.
(Likely, the Broad Fork Twin Peaks appeared to be the tallest summits in the area and thus were the supreme challenge of the day.)
The Deseret News of Nov. 5, 1897 reported that the Broad Fork version of the Twin Peaks were first climbed in the summer of 1847 by an Elder John Brown and Aug. 21 that year, in company with Albert Carrington, Dr. William Rust and a Brother Wilson.
The men had camped at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon. At 8 a.m. the next morning, left their horses and according to Brown's own account:
“... After tolling about eight hours and being very much fatigued, three of of us reached the summit of the west peak.”
(The fourth party
member, Dr. Rust, gave out and stopped by a snowbank high up the mountain.)
The group
made some readings and estimated the elevation to be 11,219 feet above sea
level. The temperature on top was 55 degrees, vs. the 101 in downtown SLC that
day.
They
descended at 5:30 p.m., but got caught in the darkness, but not before
they rejoined Dr. Rust.
“… As we had
expected to get back to camp about the middle of the afternoon, we were
unprovided with bedding, coats or any kind of arms, wishing to go as lightly
loaded as possible, the day before very warm. But, now when the night came, we
found it quite cold in the mountains.
“While
climbing over the rocks, after feeling our way with our hands in order to
escape death by falling over a precipice, we became separated and only Brother
Carrington and I remained together. At 10 p.m., we laid down under a scrubby
tree, being so tired that further progress was impossible and we knew not where
the other two men had gone. At length, we found a place between the rocks large
enough to lay down. Our bed, however, was by no means horizontal: it had a
slope of something like 45 degrees. Instead of feathers, we had pebbles for
pillows and coarse sands, which were yet warm from the heat of the sun, for
bedding: we kept them warm by our bodies during the remainder of the night.
“At 5
0’clock the next morning we arose, being somewhat sore and continued our
journey down the mountain side. Hungry and faint, having had neither supper or
breakfast, we scrambled over the rocks as best we could.”
They met up
with Dr. Rust part way down.
“We reached
our camp at 7:30 a.m., where we found our other companion, who had made his way
in at 10 o’clock the night previous. We then returned to the city, satisfied
with our first attempt at climbing mountains.”
The story
reported that only a few men had attempted to climb the peaks between then,
1847 and 50 years later in 1897.
-"The Twin Peaks. Three Gentlemen make the ascent to the summits" was an Aug. 22, 1883 headline in the Deseret News.
Dr. J.R. Park, Joseph T. Kingsbury and Orson Howard were reported as making a climb of these "Twins."This 1886 climbing report stated that the climbers started at 5 a.m., near Little Cottonwood Canyon, looking for a feasible route to take. They ended up in some "fearfully rugged" terrain and had to scramble upward. They were determined to reach the summits, which they did after eight hours of effort. The men reported the summits as entirely devoid of vegetation, though there was still some snow to deal with. They returned to the Valley by 7 p.m., making for a 14-hour trek.
The story estimated the peaks to be 11,060 feet above sea level. (The actual altitudes of these Twin Peaks are 11,328.)
Some three years later, in August of 1886, the Salt Lake Democrat newspaper contained the account of how another two men climbed the Broad Fork Twin Peaks. They rode horses much of the way, leaving their animals in a meadow as the climb became rugged. The men reported a narrow, foot-wide precipice to negotiate, iwth hundred-foot cliffs below. Also, lots of deep snow in the upper areas.
-The Salt Lake Herald of Nov. 3, 1897 reported on a $100 bet to climb the supposedly previously unclimbed north of the Broad Fork Twin Peaks. Conditions of the bet where that the two men, Herman Neipage and Claud Victor would leave Murray at sunrise and had to return by sunset, after having climbed the summit.
It was reported to be a hard and dangerous climb with 2,000 feet of ledges. Neipage was described as daring leaper while Victor used a 60-foot rope for help.
Six hours after sunrise, Victor planted an American flag on the summit and even built a fire just below the summit to show they had made it. They were back in Murray one hour before sunset to collect their $100.
-The Salt Lake Telegram of July 30, 1912 reported a group of Salt Lake men scaled the Twin Peaks in just five hours from a base camp in Big Cottonwood Canyon, considered to be a record. The men even took a bulldog along, who had to lifted over some rocks.
-"Local Girls Climb Dizzy Twin Peaks" was an Aug. 8, 1919 headline in the Salt Lake Herald. A group of 10 females climbed the peaks, led by J.T. Griffiths, physical instructor at the University of Utah. And, the girls made the hike in 12 hours and WITHOUT a single drink, since there was no water on the mountainside, this being a dry year.
-By 1922, the University of Utah sponsored an annual hike to Twin Peaks, according to the Salt Lake Telegram of Aug. 1922. That year was the fifth annual such event. At least 25 persons were registered to go that year.
(-This story was first published in the Deseret News on August 20. 2018.)
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