It's likely the "triple crown" of Utah hiking — reaching the top of the state's three tallest summits, all about 1.8 miles higher than Temple Square, on the same day, not by helicopter or any artificial means but by plain old leg power.
On Aug. 15, Craig Lloyd, 30, of Sandy, and Ravell Call, 48, of Farmington (also a Deseret Morning News photographer), earned the rare triple crown after almost 13 hours of hiking.
Kings Peak (13,528 feet above sea level), South Kings (13,512) and Gilbert Peak (13,442) are these three lofty prizes that are, fortunately, within a seven or so mile radius of each other.
"It's awesome, so amazing," Lloyd said after returning to camp, where he later drank a large bottle of Pepsi as his reward. "Surely not many people have done this."
He said three false summits were the hardest part of the final of the three climbs, to Gilbert Peak, located straight east of Dollar Lake.
However, even from a nearby base camp with a 4:40 a.m. start, this one day's effort involved almost 6,000 vertical feet of climbing and scrambling over a 24-mile distance in thin air where there's about 40 percent less oxygen than at sea level. (This also doesn't count the almost nine miles in and nine miles out of backpacking required to reach the base camp in two separate, other days.)
It's unclear how many other hikers have scaled these three summits in a single day. Likely at least a few others have. But South Kings is often overlooked in such treks because it is not a county high point as Gilbert (Summit County) and Kings (Duchesne County) are. (South Kings is also in Duchesne County.)
The weather also has to cooperate for all three of the summit climbs because no matter how great of shape a hiker is in, a storm can abruptly cancel a safe summit hike. Lightning danger can be extreme on these bare peaks.
For Call, reaching Gilbert's summit was extra special. During a similar hiking trip in August 2000, stormy weather prevented a safe climb up Gilbert. On this trip however, he enjoyed near-perfect weather, though there was one small storm in the area.
Lloyd and Call chose a rock slide shortcut to reach Gilbert, located a mile south of Dollar Lake. With larger rocks, grasses and even some waterfalls, they said this slide was much more stable than the similar rock slide shortcut to Kings Peak.