Full Mt. Mahogany Ridgeline Traverse

Full Mt. Mahogany Ridgeline Traverse

I have been eyeing Mt. Mahogany for a while – from the freeway, while climbing up Grove Creek, from Timpooneke Rd., etc. I decided I needed to do a full traverse of the ridgeline – in preparation (hopefully!) for a full Timp ridgeline traverse later this year. MVH came with, and it was a great day on the mountain!

We started at the Grove Creek Trailhead. To climb this south end of Mahogany, most take the Grove Creek Trail up to the bridge, then go straight up the scree north of that. That leads to the southernmost end of the Mahogany massif. For a cleaner “ridge” approach, we went straight up the SW ridge that begins at the Grove Creek trailhead.

It was steep, but fairly straight forward. There were a number of “trails,” and game trails. At the occasional cliff-band, stay left (north) and they are easy to skirt around. Steep though. 3,000 ft. climbing in 2 miles.

 

Looking SW down the ridge as we climbed
Climbing up the SW ridge, p/c MVH
At the top, near the south end of the massif, looking east towards the Timpanogos massif. WOW!

Once at the top, you are met with a beautiful set of verdant meadows – amazing spots for camping,  though it would be a haul with lots of gear!

MVH coming up the ridgeline towards the summit (quite a few false-summit bumps along the way). Down and to the left you can see the area around Grove Creek Springs and the aspen climb up to Chris Fisher Flats. Sagebrush Flats – just out of frame to the bottom left – looked amazing.

The summit was great, but I’m always amazed at how ridgelines that seem to only have one main pitch, always have multiple climbs. They are always steeper and longer than they look from the valley floor.

So THAT’S how he flies up the mountains so fast – he’s got wings!
Mahogany summit, looking west

Coming down off the summit, continuing north, there was some fun snow to glissade down.

Father along the ridgeline, looking back south and up towards the main summit

 

Slip sliding away

We made our way to the northern edge of the ridge where it drops down into American Fork Canyon. I jogged up and to the right to bag the north summit. Views for days. The descent down the NW ridge was steep – my knees didn’t like that.

Along the far north end of the ridge, looking northwest down into American Fork Canyon. there were some scary huge cornices up there!
At what people call the “North Mahogany” summit (the terminus of the trail that goes up from Cedar Hills golf course on the NW ridge), looking towards North Timp

 

Me up on the North summit, p/c MVH

2 thoughts on “Full Mt. Mahogany Ridgeline Traverse

  1. It was fun to read this report as Eric Willhite and I had done a similar hike a few years back where we pretty much followed the same route to the summit of Mahogany that you did. We didn’t go to the northern summit since we were postholing pretty badly and still had to retrace our route back down. I loved your pics. Thanks for sharing.

    1. Its gorgeous up there on top. too bad its such a beast of a climb! I want to get back up and explore sagebrush flats a bit too. And yes, postholing gets really old, really fast.

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