Tuesday was one of those days where I headed up into the Wasatch to do one thing, and ended up doing another on the fly. When I hit Pole Line Pass, dark clouds hovered to the West, threatening anything from lighting to hail. I headed East along the ridge instead.
The only other creature I saw on the outing. I suspect it's a coyote, but being bad at naming animals, recognize that it could well be the elusive large-brown-eared, bushy ring-tailed, six toed sloth-ox-erine. A distant cousin to the fox and wolverine. Mhhmm.
This tactic avoided the worst of any inclement weather; only a bit of hail fell, followed by some light rain later. Nice way to keep cool while moving, really. In fact, I got cool enough to pull out (and put on) a light layer even while moving. Welcome back, cooler temps! Which reminds me – while I’ll skip bringing a spare layer into the mountains during July and August, it can be pretty silly to get deep into a day during the other ten months without some layering backup. Mountain weather is fickle, temps can drop, and the weather change in a hurry at any time.
it looked forbidding and socked in - kinda Scottish, really -to the West. Not so much to the East.
Somehow I got lucky connecting Pole Line Pass to Wolverine Peak via the ridgetops. The weather held for the most part, hypothermia stayed away, and I had a fine few hours on the mountain ridges. It’s easy to lose track of how many peaks one passes on a jaunt like this – the ‘peaks’ are pretty small. Mostly, one simply maintains a sensation of being on a ridge for the entire outing.
This was the most technical section of the day. Probably third class scrambling, which reminded me that I'm a first class kinda guy. Witty, too. It was pretty easy going, really, although I didn't jog this section...
Not only does that provide great views to either side, one also has the added delight of encountering the occasional chute that they haven’t skied yet. Experiencing much cooler weather and seeing two chutes beneath my feet that I didn’t recognize had me thinking about snow. The hail helped in that regard as well.. I’ll let the pictures paint the rest of the story.
On the ridge above the Holy Mole Couloir. Needs a little more snow, though.
Nice looking chute..
The Honeycomb cliffs are striking in any season.
I even wore a coat towards the end - on, and off of - Wolverine Peak.
A day of clouds offered plenty of shade.
Wolverine Cirque looking a little dry for ski turns..
Starts at A and ends at B, moving clockwise. The straight line on the bottom right is the out-and-back to Wolverine Peak. 9.9 miles total distance.
1st class guy, agree.
You’re making me blush!
Does anyone ever do that scramble from Cardiff Pass to Flagstaff/Toledo in the winter? As I remember it, it looks pretty rough but you make it sound not so bad.
Pondsy – Like many things in the Wasatch and elsewhere, that route is not commonly done in winter – it’s far easier to reach Toledo from the other side (the pass between Toledo and Flagstaff) – but it has been done. That said, the series of ledges that makes passage easier in dry conditions tend to disappear as the snow fills in. Between the cornices and the handholds being covered in snow, I think it’s safe to say the route becomes more challenging in snow.
Makes sense. To me, coming up under the pole line it’s always a decision point that you can’t turn back on going to Toledo or towards Cardiff. Never occurred to me to try climbing that scramble. I did ski Holy Mole’ and then climb Cardiff from the back once. Pretty good way to go.
Side question – going to Superior from Cardiff.. the traditional route is to climb that tough ridge to that peak with the weather station and awkwardly descend that peak with skins on before climbing to the Black Knob. Last time I was there I was thinking a lot of suffering could be skipped by dropping stright off the back of Cardiff Pass and regaining the ridge somewhere underneath the Black Knob. Thoughts?
Pondsy – The peak with the weather station is Cardiff Peak (thus Cardiff Pass, known locally as Pole Line Pass, is below it). To avoid the full length ridge skin to Superior, there are any number of chutes and even some glade skiing down to the basin on the north side. From there, one of several skin tracks usually shows the way up towards the north side of Superior. There is often a skinner in that takes one back to the ridge just above the Black Knob (West of it). There is another route up as well (probably more than one), that dumps you on the ridge near the peak. But all approaches leave one with the prospect of doing the ‘air walk’ ridge section near the summit.
However, dropping off the ridge adds a good amount of vertical to one’s Superior summit effort. Taking the ridge is by far the fastest winter route, even if awkward in short sections. In spring when the snow settles, another route is to ascend either the B.K. or Superior directly from the South, right off the LCC road.