Hike The West Temple Zion National Park, UT

The West Temple is an intense sandstone mesatop surounded by sheer vertical walls, and it towers over Springdale Utah. It's one of the first peaks people see when visiting Zion National Park, visible from St. George and beyond. Shaped sort of like a layered cake, it seems inaccessible except to some serious big-wall climbers, but the southwest ridge provides a Class 4 route with only one 5.8 pitch. The route we started from begins at the Chinle Trailhead, and the first few miles use the same social trail as the route to Mount Kinesava. However, the approach is the only thing that resembles the route to Kinesava, The West Temple being significantly more exposed, slow, and dangerous. It's an incredible peak and an extremely fun route.

We parked at the Chinle Trailhead, which was concerning at first because it required driving along a paved private road in order to reach it, but apparently this doesn't apply to those going to the trailhead. Chris and I started along the pleasant trail as it paralleled UT-9 and meandered amongst private homes and roads. The trail eventually reaches an underpass, and just past this it continues on a dirt road converted into a trail. Instead, enter the drainage on the right of the underpass to start the route to The West Temple, a route which leaves the official Chinle Trail. The drainage follows some slickrock before narrowing into a sandy, narrow wash. A cairn marks a good spot to leave the drainage in order to ascend north along a steep slope. A social trail keeps the going straightforward. We followed a low ridge and passed a telephone pole, views to our right into Springdale below. A second, steeper section along the social trail led up a heavily human-eroded slope to a flatter section above. This steep section included some light Class 2 and sandy nonsense.

The following flatter section is where the social trail becomes a bit more difficult to follow. While there are plenty of social/animal trails leading in a web all over the place, I included on my attached map the route that seemed the most human-formed and most direct. After a quarter mile or so of walking on mostly flat terrain, the slope began to steepen and ended on a minor ridge above. Here, we located cairns leading northeast along the ridge. The shared face of The West Temple and Mount Kinesava loomed above. This is where the route to Kinesava heads up to the northwest, but the route to The West Temple continues northeast. At about the 5600' contour we were able to find a social trail that made tight switchbacks up the slope. I assume this social trail starts farther down, but it wasn't obvious enough down lower to be of much help. However, after finding it we were able to stay on it as it climbed steeply to the base of the cliffs above.

There's a significant notch visible to the north, the first goal of the route. This notch marks the start of the lengthy ridge traverse to The West Temple's summit, so we'd have to reach it to overcome the mountain's face. Once at the base of the sheer cliff, a convenient ledge with a few Class 3 moves traversed north. Often it widens into more of a slope, and a social trail helps avoid brush and small cliffs. Along the way we had to scramble a few Class 3 moves, but none had any notable exposure. The drop-off to the right is severe, but the ledge/slope traverse is wide enough that the fear of exposure (if you have it like I do) shouldn't kick in just yet. The traverse landed us below the notch and after a hundred feet or so of loose and dirty Class 2, we were at the notch, the start of the ridgeline.

In order to reach The West Temple, unranked Peak 7085 stands in the way. It's a significant obstacle and boasts the majority of the dangerous stuff for the traverse. There are three Class 4 cruxes to get up and over this pain-in-the-butt peak. Not realizing the ridgeline calmed down a lot after getting up and over Peak 7085, there were a couple of times I thought about turning back. Out of the notch was some fun Class 3 that led steeply to the base of the first Class 4 crux, the worst of the tougher sections in my opinion. With some exposure on the right, the slabby and featureless blocks required to scramble the 20-foot section scared me enough to have Chris drop me some webbing. The moves aren't all that hard, but mantling on typical horrible Zion sandstone with a drop just below isn't exactly a fun experience. I had to take a second to consider what we were getting into, but we giggled a bunch and continued on.

Ample Class 2 and Class 3 obstacles wrapped up along the spine of Peak 7085 or just to the right on dirty terrain, but nothing was memorable or particularly scary. We came to the base of the second Class 4 crux, located a bit below the summit of Peak 7085. This set of moves are characterized by slanted sandstone ledges that form a tight squeeze between them, followed by some interesting moves on blocky rock. The whole thing lasts about 20 feet, but the exposure on the right is pretty surreal. Again I had Chris drop me some webbing, though I didn't need it for this crux; it's just nice to feel safer when possible, right? A short bit of scrambling led to the top of Peak 7085, where we took in the magnificent view of the ridgeline to The West Temple.

Just past the summit, an extremely exposed and steep Class 2 social trail led down for about 30 feet on the right side of the ridge, leading us to the third Class 4 crux on Peak 7085. This portion is characterized by a near-vertical series of moves using protruding blocks of sandstone. Toward the bottom a tree's branches help with keeping the exposure tolerable. I certainly didn't want to downclimb this without knowing the moves, so yet again Chris dropped me a handline. On the way back up later in the day I went first and actually quite enjoyed the scramble. At the base of this cruxy section we were now in a small notch, where a few Class 3 moves continued along the ridge crest. Some minor route-finding through the various boulder obstacles and steep slabby slopes (Class 2/3) took us down to the saddle separating Peak 7085 from The West Temple. To get into and out of the notch that marks the saddle, we had to pull some Class 3 moves without exposure.

We still had a long way to go, but the terrain eased up a bit for a long time as we made our way up the ascent to The West Temple. Thrilled to finally be making some good mileage progress, my mood shifted and I was getting significantly more confident. Typical Zion sandstone slabs and breakability continued to keep us moving at a slower pace, but at least the summit was in sight and nothing exceeded Class 2+ or low Class 3 for a while. Finally we reached another crux a few hundered feet below the 5.8 rim crux. This is a tricky portion, mostly because it's not clear what the best route would be, and you'll have to choose for yourself where to go, though I would advise choosing one of three options. The first leads directly up the ridge, which requires extreme exposure on slabby sandstone (Class 4). Neither Chris nor I was keen on this idea. We traversed below the ridge (Class 2/3) in search of a better option. Everything was loose and steep until we got to a significant chimney located at the base of an adjacent wall. This was ultimately the route we decided to take (low Class 5). It begins with a loose, dirty slab and enters a dark and long chimney. We didn't protect it and if you choose to go this route, I highly recommend going one at a time. There's no way to back out if someone kicks a rock, which is likely to happen. The chimney became more difficult, but ultimately led back up to the ridgeline. The third option, which we believe is likely the best, is located just right of the chimney route we went. It's easy to miss because it seems like a pile of loose garbage from below. It involves a series of stemmy moves and likely is also low Class 5. We know this route is probably best because we located rap webbing above on the way back, and inspected the movement on our way down later as if we had chosen to ascend this way. There are roots and ample holds, but it's certainly still not easy. There may be other options for this tricky portion, but nothing looked good to us. Regardless of the route you choose, you'll end up back on the ridgeline.

Some Class 2/3 slabs and blocks brought us to a Class 3+ move to reach the base of the 5.8, the crux of the day. Chris broke out his gear and started up. A fin of rock pokes out initially, but it doesn't have all that much to grab onto. We both agreed this was the hardest part of the pitch, especially because there was little confidence for gear placement and no bolts. Above the fin has a hardy bush that Chris used for an anchor point. He then passed right  by a rusty bolt, ascended a short slope/dihedral with a crack useful for gear and hands, clipped into the next couple of bolts he found, and after a few more blocky moves made it to the anchors (bolted on our visit). The pitch was around 50 feet long. We were now through the scary stuff and on top of the rim!

The summit was still about a half mile away, however. At the top of the 5.8 you'll find the best views since the rest of the hike includes only brush and flat terrain, blocking most viewpoints. Plenty of animal trails lead through a silly amount of brush, but we were able to keep our scratches minimal. The layer of the cake visible for miles around Zion would be the final bit of ascending, taking us from our lower level up to the summit mesa layer (Class 2). We stomped around looking for the true high point, but were content to call it and returned. We rappelled all Class 4 and 5 pitches on the way back, both of us happy to keep the descent as safe as possible. What an outstanding day out. The West Temple is one I'll remember forever, though likely won't repeat.