Given our dwindling list of unclimbed peaks in Zion National Park, Dom & I decided to give the obscure Wynopits Mountain a go. Residing in a remote area high above the main canyon, Wynopits seldom sees any visitors. The number of parties who have reached the summit is certainly in the single digits, and its feasible that we may have been only the 3rd. Forget about aesthetic slickrock scrambling, this peak is one hell of a sloggy bushwhack that will test the patience and pain tolerance of even the most seasoned Zion peakbaggers.
The summit of Wynopits was especially sweet for Dom & I, not for the climbing or for the views, but for all of the effort in getting there, the improbable route, and the fact that we nearly failed to reach it. We'd all but given up on trying to breach the final cliff band guarding the summit plateau. Twice we were within 20 feet of the top of it and twice we wussed out on questionable climbing, never sure if we'd found the route our friend CP had used and whether we were just being ninnies. Time was running out and we knew we were already committed to hiking the last several miles back to the car in the dark. We cried, turned around, and had begun retracing our steps when Dom exclaimed: "Is that just a mirage or a break in the cliffs!?". That's my Dominator!
First light finds us well on our way.
Ah, brush for as far as the eye can see. Zion at its finest.
"North Wynopits" will be our consolation prize if we fail to reach our main objective.
Another great feature of this route is all of the elevation we get to regain on the way back.
Another ranked peak in the neighborhood. Yay, we get to do this approach again sometime!
Stiff 3rd class downclimb mentioned by CP & AA? Seems to get us nowhere good.
Doin' it our way. Webbing on a bush will facilitate our escape on the return.
Cliffs guard "North Wynopits". What else is new?
The next leg of our journey begins.
Zion reveals yet another secret.
My favorite picture from the hike.
This is a special place, and you can feel it.
Where did we come from again?
The rather uninspiring summit of "North Wynopits". Better nab it before Wynopits has its way with us.
Slogging to "North Wynopits".
Dom on the summit of "North Wynopits". Our work has only just begun.
There she is.
Summit well guarded by a cliff band of course.
Let the technical bushwhacking begin.
Grab and pull, grab and pull.
Barking up the wrong tree... er, bush? Lots of time spent scaring ourselves.
We finally made it with negative time to spare!! View into Zion Canyon from Wynopits Mountain!
Do you see Angels Landing near the center?
Wynopits summit plateau. Its a looong way home.
Descending from the summit plateau. Thank god for game trails. We owe them animals.
The key weakness that eluded us. We'd all but given up when Dom spotted it.
More brushy fun on the descent.
Sometimes our feet don't even touch the ground.
Hurray for 4th class brush!
Sun's getting low and we have many miles to go...
We're tired and take our time reversing exposed terrain.
This narrow ridge is certainly the highlight today.
Dom pauses to watch me tiptoe down an attention getting section.
A deep, beautiful canyon below the ridge.
Hand over handing it.
Dom already rehearsed the moves with a belay from above before we committed on the way out.
Classic Zion: webbing in one hand and going for a little bush with the other!
Parting shot of beauty before the death march.
Himalayan foot disease as our friend Ken calls it: difficulty putting one foot in front of the other.