Ibapah Peak

Though I plan to update everyone as to where things stand in the job search, I must relate my adventures first.
A week ago Dave Dibble and I made our first summit attempt of the season at Ibapah Peak, in Western Utah. Ibapah is 75 miles south of Wendover, and 100 miles north of nowhere. It is the highest point in Juab County and 7th highest county high point in the state, rising to a stately 12,087'. Dave and I drove for about three hours from Salt Lake and were well on our way to the trailhead, when I drove over a sharp rock and punctured the car tire. We were about 60 miles from Wendover with more than 20 of them on some pretty remote dirt roads. We actually changed the tire for the spare at a Pony Express relay station and followed the Pony Express Trail for quite some distance. The tire proved to be a 4 hour delay and $32 in gas and repair fees, but we were back on the road and made it to the trailhead by 6:30 pm. That's pretty late considering we met in SLC at 9:45 am! By far the longest drive to get to a peak!
We ate a delicious dinner of potato pearls and packaged salmon and a bagel before heading up the hill. We hiked for about 1.5 hours and made it a little farther than 2 miles and 2,000' of elevation before it was getting so dark we couldn't see. So, we threw down our tent and sleeping bags and went to sleep.
We slept fairly well, especially considering the slope we were on and the outside temperature! I think I only woke up about five times to worm-crawl my way back up to the top of the tent and begin my slide again. Though I took Autumn's warm sleeping bag, I failed to realize it was too short for me. Due to the fact that the temperature hovered near freezing all night, I slept with my fleece jacket, gloves, and beanie on. I was pretty warm though, so no complaints here.
We awoke and headed to the peak by 7:30. Camp was near 8,000', and by 9,500' we were thought all the deeper snow drifts and walking on a snow blanket covering all of the ground. Due to the angle of the incline, we broke out the crampons and used the the rest of the way to the summit. I must admit, it is an empowering feeling putting spikes on your shoes. It just seems so cool to use the technical gear and to be able to go where few others have or will. We saw no one else on the mountain and only saw one set of tracks on the mountain. Those tracks ended about where we put the crampons on.
We hiked up a steep ridge line, but the snow was as hard as could be hoped for, so there was no danger of knocking off a cornice or sliding down the steep incline to our right (East). As an added precaution, we pulled out our ice axes and practiced a few safety arrests. They are really amazing in crust snow and would easily stop you from sliding on up to about a 70 degree slope.
We pushed on, though the temperature kept dropping and the wind rising. I'm always amazed at how the snow levels change as you near a high point. There are 15' drifts on the leeward side, and windswept rocks on windward. I think that is the case even in the most snowy parts of the winter too. Just before noon we summited the peak. It was a spectacular view. We could see Deseret Peak (West of Tooele) to the East, Wheeler Peak to the South, and the Salt Flats to the North. I believe in the distance we saw Mt. Nebo, but it was hard to identify from that distance. It was quite cold and windswept. There were two rock surveying shelters at the summit, but both of them were filled with crusty snow. We didn't even look for a trail register because it was too snowy and cold. Our faces were freezing, so we only stayed for 10 minutes on the summit.
In an effort to get home a little faster, we decided to glissade (slide on the snow) down a huge bowl and take a shortcut back to our camp. We dropped over 1,000' during our glissade in about 10 minutes. It was great fun. Then we lost another 1,500' as we walked down the snow-filled bowl to rejoin our trail. The only hard part was the bushwhacking at the end. It really requires a lot of effort to make your own trail through heavy deadfall and thick brush. I was glad when we intersected the trail. I was also glad we had the GPS so we knew where the trail was...
We hurried back to camp, packed up, and were back at the car by 4:30 pm. We drove home without incident and I got back to Provo by about 9:30 pm. It was interesting that we drove for nearly 1.5 hours on dirt roads without passing a single car! The Goshute Indian Reservation out there is very rural.
The trip was great and a momentous high point for me. I only have four more to go to complete my Utah County High Points quest. I'm hoping to hit one more in the next week or two, and then the others I may have to wait for the snow to melt a bit before I can get to their trailheads. I don't have pictures of this hike yet; Dave took all the pictures and they're on his camera still in Layton. I'll see about getting some pics up ASAP.