Pfeifferhorn summit run with Jun.
This is one of my favorite peaks in the Wasatch and I have never run to the summit before and I was excited to see how fast I could get up there. Jun and I hung together for about the first mile. He told me that he was going to stay with me to the top and then blast the downhill. That didn't last long. At the Red Pine fork he pulled away. I could see him up ahead for the next mile, but after that I was by myself. I ran as much of the trail as I could, but there are some steeper sections that I hiked.
The trail was still wet on occasion and there were a few places that had running water on them. It is normally completely dry by now, but it wasn't serious. I reached Red Pine Lake in 52 minutes, but I didn't see Jun and thought maybe he was flying because I didn't see him going up the headwall either. I made good time moving up the headwall, but I was amazed at how fast MattVS had done it last week as I was using his split as a reference to where I wanted to be. When I was almost to the ridge I saw Jun coming up from below me. He had gone off route and it cost him about 10 minutes of time.
The ridge to the summit has a few spicy sections. It is class 3 with some good exposure. Jun went ahead while I took some pics and then when I crossed I got into some tricky scrambling and actually had to make a lower 4th class move with some exposure. This ridge should never be climbing and if it ever feels like it you're off route. It slowed me a bit and soon I was grinding my way up the face to the summit. Jun shouted some encouragement "Hey, get your old nuggets up here, there is a dark cloud moving in", so I pushed it up pretty good and made it to the summit in 1:58. Not as fast as I wanted to go, but I think a pretty good time. We didn't stay long.
Jun was moving very fast down the face and then over to the ridge and I lost sight of him pretty quickly. I made it back over the ridge and it was much easier this time as I avoided the section I had been in on the way up. Back at the saddle I took a faint trail back down, then crossed over a snow slope and then slowly made my way down to the lake. I kept thinking about turning an ankle or twisting my knee, so I just took it much slower to be safe. I actually fell twice going down the slope, once right into some stinging nettle and another time into a thorn bush. Back at the lake I took a break to dump the rocks out of my shoes and take a gel.
The run down was tough. My knees were sore and I didn't want to go too fast. The trail is pretty technical and I just don't want to risk getting injured. Even though I wasn't running fast I still slipped on a rock and took a hard fall. Luckily I fell into some soft bushes and it wasn't that bad.
With a mile to go I could finally pick up the pace and I ran pretty solid back to the car. Jun met me a few minutes from the trailhead and we ran in together. He had beaten me down by almost an hour. Wow! He was really cruising. I had an incredible time on one of my favorite mountains. I'm really impressed with the times that Matt and Jun had. This trail is very difficult and steep with a lot of technical sections. Props to both of them. Here are a few pics. Jun also added some good ones:
There is still snow up there. Upper Red Pine Lake.
Jun running on the ridge.
Approaching the 3rd class scramble with the Pfeifferhorn looming.
Jun scrambling across the ridge.
Jun on the summit.
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