Notch Peak is an incredible limestone cliff out in the West Desert, about 4 hours from SLC. It's about 4500' in total, but is broken in half by a very large ledge. The lower wall is about 2000' and the uppper 2500' or so, and it's roughly a 20 minute walk between the two. They're not quite directly above/below one another. Some people call this the biggest cliff in the western US, but the catch is that it's not continuous. Mt Siyeh in Glacier National Park is a continuous 3500', so that might win out...check it in Alpinist.
Regardless, we did a route called Western Hardman (IV, 5.11, 12 pitches, ca2000'), which was really superb limestone adventure climbing in an awesome location. I can't wait to do more of the routes here...it's like the big Canadian Rockies limestone routes but with bolted anchors...very civilized and safe.
Notch Peak:
Jim on a ledge, 1 pitch below the top:
Above is the view topping out...the West Desert is a very satisfying place for a displaced Alaskan looking for some wilderness.
Above: Jim sending on pitch 11...below on pitch 5.
The weekend before that, Sally and I hiked Kings Peak, the highest mountain in Utah at 13,528'. It was a great day out, and we did the 25 mile, 4000' route in about 9 hours car-car with no running involved. We thought about running, but just ended up enjoying chatting and hiking...not needing to hurry with such nice weather. Below are some photos of Sal up high. Despite the looks of it, there was a nice trail most of the way.
The Henry's Fork tail (our route) comes from the trees in the upper left part of this photo...12 miles distant.
