Pfeifferhorn, elev 11,326' Aug 2007

Another day off, another hike attempt. After trying to get a couple of people to go with me to no avail, I decided to make the attempt on my own.
I arrived at the parking lot for the White Pine trail head at about 7:45am and was on my way by 7:55am. The trail begins by descending on a paved path down to the river. A bridge crosses the river and the trail then heads off to the right (west). The first mile of the hike is a very gentile grade. It is at this point that the White Pine trail breaks off to the left, while the Red Pine trail continues straight to cross the river and a couple of other footbridges.
Not long after crossing the river the trail heads west parallel to the Little Cottonwood road far below. At one point, there is a great view down the canyon and out into the Salt Lake valley. Soon after the view of the valley, the grade steepens, but still not to drastically. The Maybird Gulch trail comes in on the right and is very noticeable due to the footbridge used to cross the river to take it. Continue straight.
A few tenths of a mile after the Maybird Gulch junction, I saw about 5 deer that didn’t seem to be afraid of me at all. One walked up to about 10 feet away from me and I was able to reach in my fanny pack, grab my camera, and snap a shop with out him even flinching.
I finally reached the Beautiful Red Pine Lake about 3.5 miles from the trail head. It was the first time I had been there, and I was enamored by the beauty of it. The Trail up to the Lake is very well kept and extremely easy to follow.
Once arriving at the lake look at the ridge behind it - This is the ridge you will need to climb to reach Pfeifferhorn’s main ridge. From the Lake, there is a well defined trail around it’s eastern side. Take it until you come to a stream that feeds into the lake. Here, the trail (or what trail there is) heads up the ridge. Although there might not be much of a trail from here to the main ridge, the rout is obvious.
The faint trail generally stays in the pine trees and heads in a south westerly direction up to the main ridge. Eventually, the trail emerges above the pine trees and from here, a little boulder hopping/climbing begins, not to mention that it was also the first time I noticed upper Red Pine Lake behind me. This was the first part of the hike that I felt my legs getting tired. The grade is steep.
Once to the main ridge, Pfeifferhorn is off to the right. A visible trail starts off to the south (left) of the main ridge as you pass a couple of minor summits before reaching the Pfeifferhorn summit base. The summit base is a massive structure which looks way too steep to hike when looking at it from a few hundred feet away. Although it is steep, it is very do-able and is about as steep as the Provo Peak trail.
But first you must negotiate the "knife ridge." It really isn’t too scary unless you’re scared of heights, I guess. There is some exposure but even if you choose a poor route along the ridge (which I did a couple of times) there are plenty of big foot and hand holds to get you back to where you need to be, if you don’t just want to retrace your steps to find an easier route.
I cached my trekking poles in some bushes before starting the knife ridge so I could have my hands free for climbing (I already has mu hat fastened to my camelback due to the strong winds).
Once past the knife ridge, the steep climbing begins on the summit base. It is either a difficult class 2 or an easy class 3 climb, depending on if you use your hands for balance and the occasional pull up as much as I did.
It was a busy day on the trail and I passed a couple on their way up to the summit and was on the heels of another climber. I made it to the summit just a few minutes past 10:30am. Once on the summit I struck up a conversation with the hiker who made it ahead of me named Christian. He mentioned that it was his first time up there and that he was going to try to take the Maybird Gulch way out.
To do so, it would be a steep down climb from a spot on the knife ridge, but I watched him do it with relative ease. I’m just not sure where to pick up the trail once in the canyon.
I spent about 30 minutes on the ridge, taking pictures, eating a couple of granola bars, and just taking in the breathtaking scenery around me. The summit of the Pfeifferhorn allows for great views of so many dominant peaks in the surrounding area. It was rather cold on the summit because of the wind so I was glad I had brought some thermal sleeves to put over my arms.
The hike down was quick and I noticed a few bits of the beautiful scenery around me that I hadn’t seen on the way up. This was probably the most scenic hike I’ve been on with Timpanogos (via Aspen Grove) being a close second. It was definitely the most enjoyable hike I’ve had.
Over all, the hike was about 9.6 miles round trip and took me 5 hours and 19 minutes to complete, with 30 minutes of that resting on the summit.