The highest peaks in Utah are found in the Uinta mountain range, but the most impressive peaks that rise from the valley floor to the sky are found in the Wasatch Front. In 2012 Jared Campbell had summited the highest three Wasatch peaks in one day. I considered if it was possible to summit the four highest Wasatch peaks in one day.  I knew I could do it.  If I was going to do four, why not the highest six because the other two were nearby.   That was my quest for this adventure.

You can define the highest peaks in several ways.  I chose to use a 300-foot prominence definition.  If you have two peaks close together, there must be at least 300 feet of descent between them to count the lower peak as a ranked peak.

Kings Peak is the highest peak in Utah. I again attempted to do a Kings Peak Triple (three consecutive summits from the trailhead, 78 miles), but again I came up short.  I think this is one of the mentally toughest running accomplishments that I have attempted.   I just couldn’t push myself to go out again for that long third trip.  But wow!  I had an incredible adventure.

This time, I started earlier so both summits #1 and #2 would be accomplished in the daylight.  Then, I could take my sweet time on summit #3 during the night.  It was a good plan  and I stayed right to my schedule.

The High Uintas are open early this year for running.   It was time to get up there.  I was interested in trying something new and decided to go run the Brown Duck Mountain Loop.   The trailhead is north of Duchesne and Mountain Home, at Moon Lake.  It was an easy drive, 2:45 from my home, all on pavement.   I arrived about 11 p.m. and slept in the car.   I woke up at 4 a.m. to get ready, but there was a big windstorm going through with a little rain.  I had no desire to run in terrible wind, so I went back to sleep.

I ended up getting on the trail around 7 a.m. and had wonderful weather all day.  The rain the previous day or night was nice because the trail was soft and not very dusty.  I had previously thought about also summitting Duck Mountain, but as I approached it, I could see that it was just a pile of rocks.  To get to the summit and back to the trail would be six miles of boulder hopping which would take hours.  Instead, I tried to run the actual loop fairly fast, faster than my normal adventure runs.   But I took plenty of time for pictures and several stops to eat.    The video tells the rest of the story.

Probably the toughest 100K race in the country is held in Utah, in August each year. It is called Kat’cina Mosa 100K but its name has nothing to do with the geography. The race director has interests in the Hopi culture from Arizona, so he named the course after it. A more apt name would probably be Wasatch Back 100K. The course runs a huge loop behind the Wasatch Mountains that rise above Provo and Springvale. Nearly half of the course shares the same course as Squaw Peak 50, but in the opposite direction. Kat’cina Mosa runs clockwise and includes about 17,000 feet of climbing along the way over its 62 miles.

For the past ten weeks, I have been doing very long weekend runs instead of daily workouts. I have accomplished eight runs of 50 miles or more during those ten weeks. By doing so many very long runs in close succession, my body is adapting and recovering very fast, getting ready for the next run. This weekend, I chose to run the Kat’cina Mosa course solo and unsupported, through the night.