| A Fine End to the Summer Season, Solo on the Triple Traverse. Trip Report |
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| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Utah, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 40.59062°N / 111.71173°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Sep 25, 2009 Activities: Scrambling Season: Summer | Page By: Wasatchvoyage Created/Edited: Sep 27, 2009 / Sep 28, 2009 Object ID: 557503 Hits: 860 Loading... Page Score: 89.92% - 30 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
The Cottonwood Ridge.For those living in the shadows of the Central Wasatch Range just east of Salt Lake City, the Cottonwood Ridge area resides high above valley floor nearly 6,000 vertical feet. Broads Fork Twin Peaks, at 11,330 feet, is the highest Central Wasatch Front summit directly above the valley and is the furthest western peak on the Cottonwood Ridge. This rugged ridge has always had an inviting presence to it, with beautiful quartzite terrain ranging from class 2 all the way to lower class 5. After 17 years of absence in this area, it was time to hit it again.
The Triple Traverse seen from upper Red Pine Lake. |
The Cottonwood Ridge, above Red Pine Canyon. |
First traverse of the Cottonwood Ridge, June 1992.Just one week after graduating high school in 1992, my cousins Kelly, Dave and I made a decision to traverse the Cottonwood Ridge. We had seen it from a distance several times from adjacent areas in the Wasatch. From a distance to us it looked fairly tame, though retrospectively speaking we were humbled later.
Early in the morning we left Kelly's car at the Deaf Smith Canyon Trailhead located above Wasatch Boulevard, then piled into my truck and drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Alta, where the start of the route up to Mt. Superior began. Each of us tossed on full packs loaded down with enough gear to last three to four days, and began lumbering up the trail to Cardiff Pass. It soon became evident that the lack of regular exercise and a heavy load was going to take it's toll. Kelly, who also was my age, booked up the trail far ahead of both Dave and myself. Kelly was a part of the Brighton High Swim Team, and swam every day. His physical condition far exceeded ours and it really showed.
Once reaching the summit of Mt. Superior and making the short traverse over to Monte Cristo Peak, the Cottonwood Ridge stretched westward in rugged fashion. I looked over at Kelly and Dave, with some anticipation clouding my mind. We discussed that the ridge looked much more foreboding than we had thought. It was then that we decided to go for it.
We began the descent of Monte Cristo's south west face, and admired the exposure on both sides of the ridge as one side dropped steeply to the south in Little Cottonwood Canyon, and a vertical drop into Lake Blanche Fork to the north. We did not know then that some portions of the descent were low class 5. The next few hours was spent slowly traversing the ridge, one mile on average seemed to take about 2.5 hours. Perhaps it was the full packs making balancing more difficult, or lack of experience, how ever it was most likely both contributing factors.
Looking west at the Cottonwood Ridge near Monte Cristo. June, 1992. |
A view of the eastern portion of the Cottonwood Ridge, June 1992. |
After several more hours of excruciatingly slow progress, we decided to camp on the ridge roughly 1/3 of a mile east of Dromedary Peak. We found a section of ridge in a small saddle. What was interesting about this location was the fact that the ridge was so thin that I slept on the southern portion, while Kelly and Dave slept on the north side, the entire area of the camp having a circumference of only about 12 feet. I laid out my sleeping bag directly in the rocks, and soon crashed after taking some photos of the area.
The next morning we woke up to the sounds of animals close by and looked to the east on the ridge where a herd of mountain goats stood intently on checking us out. I reached quickly for my camera in my pack and they scattered, disappearing from sight within seconds. I got up, and admired the incredible scenery of the area. This feeling did not last very long, once seeing what remained of the traverse ahead. Dromedary and Sunrise Peaks stood threateningly to the west on the ridge.
Looking at Sunrise Peak, June 1992. |
Once packing it up and eating breakfast we began heading west, and made our way up over Dromedary Peak, and then on to Sunrise Peak. This portion of the route took several hours, and fatigue was beginning to set in on me pretty hard. We took an hour long break on Sunrise before continuing onward. Not knowing the route ahead, we made our way just above the Twin Peaks/Sunrise saddle area only to find a serious cliff which we ended up negotiating by several hundred feet of downclimbing to the south. Once reaching the saddle the terrain seemed to ease up a bit, where we lugged it up to the summit of Broads Fork Twin Peaks. Once reaching the summit I was relieved, looking out over the wide expanse of urban Salt Lake City below. We spent some time taking photos on the western summit, grabbing a snack and admiring the view east of the terrain we had covered. At the end of our stay on the summit we noticed a massive storm system moving in from the west, looming over the Oquirrh Mountains.
The eastern Cottonwood Ridge, 1992. |
Standing on the western summit of Broads Fork Twin Peaks, June 1992. |
We began booking it down the ridge and west into Deaf Smith Canyon, alarmed at the rapid pace the storm was making towards us over the valley. We had dropped about 2,000 vertical feet into Deaf Smith when it hit, lightning striking the terrain above with an almost instantaneous burst of thunder. Dave and Kelly wanted to stop under trees to wait out the storm, however I insisted that we move out into the open terrain. Donning our ponchos we kept moving through the torrent of rain, down to a primitive camp we had chosen earlier on mid way down the canyon. After 2 hours of descent through the storm, we arrived at our camp area. At this time the storm had passed. We setup camp under an enormous Engleman Spruce tree, and got a fire started. Our clothes were dripping wet, and we ended up spending almost an hour wringing out our pants and shirts, holding them over the fire to dry. Kelly ended up dropping one of his socks into the fire. Dave and I got a big kick out of this, though Kelly was not amused at all. The rest of the evening was spent on eating dinner, reminiscing of the previous days events, and staring into the flames of the fire as we shared our stories.
The following morning was spent descending the last portion of Deaf Smith Canyon to Kelly's car. We drove back up to get my truck, where Kelly and Dave left. I drove down the canyon, hitting up the first 7/11 store I could find and bought a large Big Gulp full of Pepsi, my reward after the trek we had made.
Solo on the Triple Traverse, September 25, 2009.After spending an incredible 2009 season so far bagging peaks, mainly prominence summits and County Highpoints, the Central Wasatch Range has been beconing! The summer season has flown by incredibly fast, and the more rugged peaks have been on the checklist. Hitting up the Triple Traverse had been on the drawing board though honestly I was a bit concerned about doing it due to the memories from 1992, and reading other accounts of the terrain here on SP.
I got started early in the morning with the headlamp lighting the way for the first several hours heading up into the unknown terrain of Broads Fork. This area had always been one I'd wanted to check out, as photos and descriptions made it look very appealing. Most of the way up was in the dark, with the early morning light hitting up the peaks above as I was making my way up in the upper fork area. Fellow SP member rjmwinters wrote a great page up on Dromedary Peak, and I followed his information to hit up the Dromedary/Sunrise saddle at roughly 10,800 feet after a steep talus/scree ascent from upper Broads Fork.
The sun was just beginning to hit the east face of Broads Fork Twin Peaks as I reached the saddle, with Dromedary's triangular shadow dominate also. It was an incredible feeling to look down steeply into Tanners Gulch and across Little Cottonwood Canyon at the Alpine Ridge area, seeing the early morning light hitting the summits there. I dropped down a bit into Tanners to bypass the cliff band on Dromedary's south west ridge, and then quickly scrambled up to the summit. The views were incredible, once again churning up memories from 1992.
Early morning light on Sunrise and Twin Peaks. |
From Dromedary Peak, looking south west at Sunrise Peak. |
I didn't spend much time on Dromedary's summit, perhaps 20 minutes, then headed back down to the saddle and up the steep ridge to the summit of Sunrise Peak at 11,275 feet. Again the views were stellar, and I located the summit register and began browsing through it. I found the most recent entry was by two fellow SP members one week before! Matthew Van Horn and Joseph Bullough had made the ascent, and I also noticed multiple ascents/entries in the register by these two. It was really impressive to see these two ascending via different approaches and completing the entire Cottonwood Ridge traverse, on several different occasions throughout the season.
Looking back at Dromedary Peak from Sunrise. |
Checking out Twin Peaks and the route ahead. |
After checking out the register, photos and a GPS reading were taken. Fortunately I remembered the down climb to the south this time around, and followed that route, making the traverse time from Sunrise to the Twin Peaks/Sunrise saddle in half an hour.
Looking at Twins west summit from the east summit. |
The ascent to the east summit of Twin Peaks went fairly swiftly, bypassing the cliffbands adorning the ridge mid-way up. The west summit was reached, where I unloaded the pack and checked out the scenery. About an hours time was spent taking photos, and an interesting phone call was made to my Dad. He was at his house in Sandy, a suburb just below the summit and to the south west. I signaled him with a mirror I had packed along, which he could see from his living room. We talked for a while, then I packed it up and headed back down Broads Fork.
Looking at the Salt Lake Valley from Twin's west summit. |
Looking back at the Triple Traverse from Twins. |
Looking north at the Wildcat Ridge from Twins. |
After getting into the middle portion of Broad's beneath the talus fields I took a break where a spring of fresh cold water flowed from the rocks. There is nothing like fresh spring water after an awesome ridge traverse!
The rest of the way down was fairly pleasant, admiring the scenery I had missed during the approach in the dark. I met a few other hikers on the trail who inquired about how much distance they had left, then reached the trail head. The total time took 9.5 hours, 6,000 vertical feet and 11 miles. This trip up seemed easier than the 1992 traverse, and is one of the classic's of the Wasatch Mountains, one I sure to do again.
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Wasatch Range (Central) > Sunrise Peak > A Fine End to the Summer Season, Solo on the Triple Traverse.
