Because she’s amazing and wonderful, my wife Taylor somehow managed to get time off from work to join me out in Utah for almost a week. As soon as she arrived, she was pressing me to fill my limited free time with as much adventure as possible. With almost a full day available (so what if I had to work overnight that night?) I decided to take her back up to the Pfeifferhorn and continue along the Little Cottonwood ridgeline to the neighboring White Baldy.
Taylor managed the Pfeifferhorn scramble in good style, despite being mid-rehab after shoulder surgery, so we decided that exploring the ridge to White Baldy was a go. I knew that this ridge is traversed as part of the WURL, but how technical it would prove I was unsure. Thankfully, though it at times looked pretty rough from afar, the scramble unfolded in high-quality third-class style on largely great rock.
As we approached the summit of White Baldy, the skies started to bloom with clouds, and we watched lightning flashing out over the Salt Lake valley. Few things make me as scared as lightning, so I pressed Taylor to hurry to the summit, and we quickly searched for a way down.
Major oversight– I’d neglected to look into a descent route. Nevermind, we’d make it up as we went along. Using quasi-solid reasoning and careful movement we made our way directly down the Northwest face of White Baldy, a boulder strewn slope of variable stability.
The boulder hopping went on for at least an hour too long before the rain finally caught us at Upper Red Pine Lake. There, it was refreshing, rather than terrifying, and we finished hammering our quads down to the trailhead in good style, unscathed by lightning.
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What stunning vistas.