Pfeifferhorn

So, Last week I decided to go up to Pfeifferhorn. I guess it is also known as Little Hatterhorn. I really enjoyed doing this peak. My plan was to go up and be back for breakfast. I managed to get back about 9:30.

It started off with my alarm going of at 4:45. I don't remember if I heard it or not but about 5:00 my wife nudged me and let me know that the alarm had gone off. So I got up and out the door. I had my CamelBak already packed because I knew I wanted to take pictured up there.

I got to the White Pine trail head up Little Cottonwood Canyon about 5:30 and jumped right out on the trail. It was still pretty dark, so I had my head lamp with me. Over the first mile the trail is pretty wide and climbs slowly but steadily about 500 feet. At one mile there is a split in the trail. The trail to the left goes up to White Pine Lake. The trail to the right crosses the river and then up to Red Pine. I took the trail that leads up to Red Pine. The trail gets a bit steeper here and climbs another thousand feet over the course of 1.6 miles. There is another trail that splits off to the west. It heads over into the next little valley named Maybird Gulch. I stayed on the trail though another two thirds of a mile up to Red Pine Lake. I saw a lot of people camping around the lake. On the far side of the lake I talked with a guy that was taking down his tent.

Looking up from here I could not see the top of Pfeifferhorn. There is a false peak that hangs out in front of the main one elevation 10897. The elevation of the lake is 9680. I followed a faint trail up above Red Pine lake to a ridge above the Upper Red Pine Lakes. I followed that ridge to the west and up to that unnamed 10897 peak. I could see Pfiefferhorn from there. It was a pretty short hike up from there but it was really steep over lots of big rocks. I had to scramble in several places. I stopped even trying to run at Red Pine lake because the "trail" got way to steep with too many rocks and too many ways to break and ankle.

I got to the top of Pfeifferhorn (elevation 11326) about 7:30, so it took about two hours to get up. I am pretty sure it is five miles up and five miles down. So overall from a running perspective this was really slow, but I also climbed about 4000 feet. I think it is actually a little less than that. My map does not mark the elevation of the trail head, but it is somewhere between the 7600 and 7700 contour lines. I guess that makes it more like 3500 feet of elevation gain.

I took several pictures from the top. I took a few on the way up and down too, so I'll let you see them here. I scrambled back down the two miles or so to Red Pine Lake. Then I ran the about three miles from there back to the trail head.

This is about two and a half or three miles up the trail where it splits over to Maybird Gulch. It is blurry because it was still a bit dark and the camera held its shutter open for too long for my hands to handle.

This is a ridge to the east of where I was climbing. I was headed up to the right of this picture.

This is me up at the same spot as this last one, but in the background you can see where I was climbing up.

This on is a view from the top looking to the west. You can see Salt Lake Valley down there and even the great Salt Lake if you look hard enough.

This is also from the top I just turned slightly to the south. You can see Utah Valley and Utah lake.

Here is a great view of Box Elder Peak and part of Timp.

Here is a great view of Timp.

Here is a struggling flower at the top.

Here I am with Pfeifferhorn right behind me. This was on my way back down.

And this last one is of Red Pine lake from above. You can see the trail that goes around the right side of the lake.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these photos and hearing about my adventures going up the Pfeifferhorn.