The Men's Alpine Adventure - The Pfeifferhorn

There it is in the background.

At 11,326 feet elevation, the Pfeifferhorn up Little Cottonwood Canyon is one of the highest peaks on the Wasatch Range. After an aborted attempt years ago with the scouts back in Wandamere Ward days I had always wanted to complete this summit. Last week while my brother-in-law Bren was still here I went up with him and my brother Craig on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

We left the Red Pine Lake Trail head about 2:00 and headed up. Bren practically runs up the mountain. I like to think that Craig and I weren't so much holding him back as we were pacing us for the longer term. Anyways, it was a beautiful but vigorous hike up to the lake. After a little snack and rest there we went up a boulder field to White Pine Lake, walked around it in some snow and then went straight up to Alpine Ridge. It was just a jumble of granite boulders on a thin ridgeline straddling both Little Cottonwood and American Fork Canyons. We went up along that to the final steep summit of Pfeifferhorn itself. Even though it was steep I did it. I must admit further back it looked like too much, but one foot in front of the other and not looking down too much was the key.
At the top we found a fat chipmunk to share our trail mix and took some pictures. Up there it was like being on top of the world--we could see all around to Mt. Timpanogos, Lone Peak, Utah Lake, Snowbird Tram, Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island, etc.

We came down a lot faster of course. Bren was practically running at the end. My knee began to hurt on the down part so I hobbled to the finish while Bren sat at the car awaiting us. We finished about 8:oo--not bad for some weekend warriors.