Desert Southwest - The Checklist Edition - Lady Mountain - Zion National Park - September 2014

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Utilizing some old gear around a small tree, We set up a rappel line for the sloping 13-foot step (what I sometimes call the "3rd climbing bit" in some text and pictures). For extra safety, we backed the old gear up with our own gear for the first six rappels. Beyond this rappel was the traverse section, which led us back north towards the crux of the big chimney.

Rapping the "3rd Climbing Section"

The Traverse

Jenn rappelling chimney

The rappel through the chimney section is very straightforward, especially since the huge eyebolt of an anchor is nicely rounded, allowing us to put the rappel rope directly through it without any extra gear. We managed to rappel all seven of us through the chimney in about fifteen minutes.

courtesy PChen

courtesy RHanel

Rappelling Chimney Section

The Chimney

It was now 6:30pm - forty-five minutes before sunset - fairly late, but we now only had one obstacle to descend: the moqui steps section (aka the first climbing section). We all had our climbing legs about us by now, and everyone elected to carefully free-downclimb the steps, rather than set up a rappel.

courtesy RHanel

Evening Approaches

Down the initial steps

Below the steps was one final blocky chimney downscramble, and then we were done - the climbing and scrambling, that is. A rapid descent down the herdpath brought us to the decommissioned Emerald Pools alternate trail, which in turn quickly brought us back down to the floor of Zion Canyon for a completion time of five minutes past seven o'clock.

Back on trail

A successful completion

Woof.... that was worth it!

courtesy RHanel

The Complete Route

It had taken us about three hours to descent from the summit of Lady Mountain to the bus stop at Zion Canyon Lodge. It hadn't felt that long, though: we were busy the whole time, paying careful attention to our foot placement, turning around and downcscrambling, scouting the terrain, and occasionally setting up rappels. Totally dissimilar to the experience of trudging along a trail for three hours after the end of a long day.

Congratulations to all who joined on this climb. Lady Mountain is very worthwhile, both for the mildly adventurous mix of scrambling and climbing, and for its superb views - especially from the summit.

Back at camp

After-climb Pizza

We arrived back at the visitor center at 7:30pm, and a few more minutes later - in gathering dusk - we walked back into our campsite, just as the Hatkos and Alana and Sandra were just finishing up dinner. We had originally hoped to have dinner with them, but we had arrived a bit later than planned. In retrospect, even our revised earlier time for our ascent was probably a bit too late. Starting off climbing no later than 9 a.m. - especially when you have a large group - is recommended.

So, instead of a camp dinner, we decided to go have a hot pizza at Zion Pizza and Noodle, in nearby downtown Springdale. Not such a bad tradeoff!

Interactive trackmap with photo points - Lady Mountain Climb - click map to view

Interactive trackmap with photo points - Lady Mountain Climb - click to view

Lady Mountain - Climb Data

Start Time: 10:32a.m.

End Time: 7:15p.m.

Duration: 8h43m

Distance: 5.79 km (3.6 mi)

Average Speed: 0.7 km/hr (0.4 mph)

Start Elevation: 4355ft (1327m) *

Max Elevation: 6962ft (2122m) *

Min Elevation: 4328ft (1319m) *

End Elevation: 4334ft (1321m) *