OREM -- Mountaineering enthusiasts from across the country have climbed Utah's rocky ranges for decades. But the strenuous and adrenaline-pumping sport is now starting to take a foothold with local climbers.
"Utah is just being discovered as a mountainclimbing state," said Phil Schow, a mountaineering instructor. "In the next four to five years we expect more (growth) in Utah and Utah County."Schow and his climbers often scale such popular Utah County climbing mountains as Mount Timpanogos and Lone Peak.
"You need to be well-equipped to go into the mountains," Schow said. "And you should have the knowledge and the skill."
Because Mount Timpanogos and Lone Peak are nearby they tempt inexperienced and unequipped climbers. That often leads to serious -- and sometimes fatal -- accidents, he said.
SERAC Mountaineering, a nonprofit hiking club, teaches enthusiasts skills to lessen the risk of injury.
The acronym means Serious Enthusiasts in Recreation and Climbing, but a serac also is a pinnacle of ice left standing in the crevasses of a glacier hikers often encounter during remote winter hikes.
"The club was developed to pull people together who like to hike," Schow said.
The club, which is made up of advanced and novice hikers, plans several trips each year.
"The trips are designed around skill-building and increasing (mountaineering) knowledge," he said.
Emerald Lake high on the east side of Mount Timpanogos is a place the mountaineers often frequent.
Snow can be 20 feet deep there at the end of May, Schow said. "We train there for our Mount Rainier hike," Schow said.
Mount Rainier in Washington state has been an annual summer hike for the club since 1997. But it's also a winter hike, because winter conditions prevail on top of the 14,410-foot mountain.
Serious winter mountaineers use crampons -- spikes attached to their boots -- an ice ax, harnesses and they are roped together.
Outside of the county, Kings Peak is another mountain considered ideal for an extreme climbing experience.
At 13,528 feet above sea level, the northeastern Utah peak in the Uintas is the state's highest. For mountaineering enthusiasts it's still relatively undiscovered, Schow said.
The thrill of this hike is especially keen in winter, where temperatures can drop to minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit overnight. With the dangers in mind, he tells climbers to go in pairs.
"The remoteness leaves you with an incredible feeling," he said. "Weather can come in on you, you could get lost or you could slip and fall and you could freeze to death before anyone found you."
While skill and good equipment can temper the danger, the sport still remains risky. So why do they do it?
"The typical answer is -- because it's there," Schow said.
But it's also a sense of accomplishment, adventure and a "visual treat," he said.
Park City's Cheyenne Rouse, the sole woman climber at the clubs's hike last year on the Grand Tetons, called the experience character-building and scary.
The adventure sports photographer said the team arrived at the 13,770-foot peak late in the day last August and had to rappel off the Wyoming mountain to get down quickly.
A storm also was moving in, it was getting dark and the rocks were wet and slick. Rouse had never rappelled from those heights before -- as much as 150 feet. They returned to camp at 2 a.m.
"As a woman you know you can't be the weak link, even if they might expect it. You just get it done," she said. "We knew we were close to living on borrowed time. But we stayed together as a team because we knew we had to get down as a team."
Rouse didn't feel the emotional impact of the climb until the next day. "I think I had some post-traumatic stress," she said.
"(But the adventure) was character-building. It puts you into the perspective of what you are capable of."
Schow and other skilled mountaineers teach mountain climbing through Hansen Mountaineering , 757 N. State St. in Orem. For information call 801- 226-7498.