Climbing Kings Peak is a true test of endurance

It's a 15-mile, one-way hike/scramble to Kings Peak, Utah's highest point at 13,528 feet above sea level. However, it's probably the final mile to this lofty summit in rarefied air and over endless boulder slabs that's the hardest part of this trek.

Summiting Kings is a pure endurance feat, akin to running a marathon. It is only determination and desire that fuel many hikers, because once on the ridgeline, the actual summit isn't visible until the final 30 yards. Several false summits can crumble the hopes of first-time climbers.

With no actual trail to follow in that last mile, each hiker must also choose a path, or choose to follow another hiker, hoping he or she knows the way.

Dangers and hazards are also plentiful here — altitude sickness, possible stumbles on sharp rocks, cliffs, lightning strikes, possible heavy rain or snow, gusty winds, dehydration and exhaustion.

Difficulty-wise, Don W. Holmes, who wrote "Highpoints of the United States," ranks Kings Peak as a "Class 2, strenuous" hike, exceeded only by the highest summit in six other states — Alaska, Wyoming, Idaho, Hawaii, Oregon and Montana.

Despite the difficulty with this hike, hundreds and perhaps thousands of Utahns each summer attempt to scale Kings Peak.

For example, the trail-head register book at Henry's Fork (closest access point to Kings), from Aug. 11-16 included 156 total hikers, 120 of whom declared that Kings was their ultimate destination. There's no way to know for sure how many of those 120 actually made it to the summit, but probably most did.

"Reaching the summit is not technically challenging, but the length of the hike, the likelihood of inclement weather and the altitude can make reaching this summit difficult," Scott Wesemann, 30, from American Fork, said after his third time on the top of Kings Peak.

Altitude sickness is probably the most overlooked hazard on a Kings Peak hike.

"I have suffered from altitude sickness on two occasions while climbing Kings Peak," Wesemann said. "Both times I was not able to keep food or water down."

Altitude sickness is fairly unpredictable and can strike young and old, even very physically fit people.

Grant Holman, 9, of West Jordan, was probably the youngest hiker to summit Kings on Aug. 15, and he said the altitude had made him a little sick. But that didn't stop him from playing inside a large hole in the center of the flat rock slabs that adorn the summit.