My brother in law, Kevin, texted me back towards the end of February and said he needed another sufferfest with the boys. I threw out the idea of attempting the WURL - the Wasatch Ultimate Ridge Linkup. The “route” runs along 21+ named peaks over 36 miles and 18,000+ feet of vertical gain across the entirety of Little Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake City. His birthday was coming up and we figured there was no better way to celebrate than annihilating ourselves in the mountains. One of our best buddies, Caleb, found out he was able to come last minute and we were stoked. Plans were made, flights were booked for late June, and we looked forward to the journey ahead of us. As per usual, things like this never really go as planned.
The idea was simple. Hike up Ferguson Canyon Trail and summit Broad Forks Twin Peak East, hit the Cottonwood Ridge Traverse to the Alta area, work our way around the ski resort horseshoe to the other side of the canyon, knock out the remaining 10+ peaks, and come down Bells Canyon Trail to civilization no worse for wear about 30 hours later. Like I said, simple. Kevin put a food drop up in the mountains at the halfway point and Seth was going to hike food and water up to the Mount Superior summit for us to refuel after completing the Cottonwood Ridge Traverse portion.
We got a 4:30am start on the morning of June 26th. It had rained heavily the evening before and the air was crisp. We had a full moon for the next few days, which would be a big help once we had to start navigating the route at night. Everything was looking up. The light from our headlamps bounced around out in front of us while we made our way into the darkness at the Ferguson Canyon trailhead. The Ferguson trail area starts off enclosed between granite walls for the first mile or so and is popular among rock climbers. We crossed over the creek a few times, got lost a few times, and then finally started switchbacking our way out of the little canyon. Although Salt Lake City desperately needed that rain the day before, it made for an extremely wet journey the next mile as we hit the end of the packed trail and had to bushwack our way through a ton of shoulder high scrub oak. We were completely soaked, looking like we just jumped into a swimming pool with all of our clothes on.
We finally made it up a boulder field and to a nice lookout area. We were out of the thickets but the “hike” was really just beginning. The route from this point forward goes straight up and is pretty much a choose your own adventure, with only a rough GPS track to work off of. Rock ledges were ascended, mountain goats were spotted, bumps and bruises were collected, and lungs were burning. The summit of Twin Peak was only about 1.5 miles away at this point, but you have no idea what mountain miles are like unless you’ve been up there to see for yourself. Nothing is ever quick and every step counts in some areas or you’re looking at a pretty nasty fall to your demise. This is where things started to go south for me and I started getting mentally taxed. The whole time leading up to this trip I was worried about my fitness and never thought the mental game would take me out. As we got higher and higher and had to do more climbing, I started getting less confident with myself. I don’t climb, and we don’t have routes and exposure like this back in PA. I’ve sumitted a handful of peaks in the Wasatch before, but this route so far proved to be harder than anything I’ve done to date.
Kevin looking down into Big Cottonwood Canyon
Caleb looking at the route ahead
I put the fear aside and continued on. We went up a few little satellite peaks below Twin and then spotted a guy up on a ledge on the Big Cottonwood side of the ridge. He was unraveling a parachute and appeared to be setting up to go paragliding down the canyon. Kevin yelled out to him, asking him how he got up here. After a few shouts back and forth, the man abruptly yelled “have a good one!” and ran off the cliff with the parachute in tow. He made a few sharp turns, bopped up and down through the air violently, then cruised out of sight. I swear I thought that guy was going to die for a few seconds when we was spinning wildly. Safe to say, this encounter didn’t do much for my confidence. I started lagging behind from Kevin and Caleb, much more experienced climbers. I wasn’t sure of hand holds or foot positioning on a lot of the climb sections and started costing us precious time. Crossing one cliff section, I was reminded of a Youtube video from a decade ago featuring a guy jumping down a big rock pile and smashing his whole body off of the bottom (They Call Me Nasty). I imagined myself falling off of one of these big boulders, smashing into the ground, and pain-running back down the route I came like the guy in the video.
One foot in front of the other got me to the top of Twin Peak. We summited the East peak at 11,330 feet, one foot higher than its counterpart to the West. This was now the highest mountain I have summited, beating out the Pfeifferhorn (also on the WURL route) by about five feet. The clouds put on an incredible display, crashing together from opposite sides of the peak and giving us brief windows here and there of the route ahead. We took a short break to refuel and then started the down climb to the ridge linking up the rest of the Cottonwood Traverse and beyond. We scrambled across the saddle and then got to the base of Jepsens Folly, a little peak and false summit of Sunrise (or O’Sullivan) Peak. We had a decision to make at this point. It took us way longer than expected to make it here, and we still had the hardest part of the entire WURL ahead of us for the next 3 miles. Given how slow I was climbing, it would be a while before we made it to Monte Cristo, the crux section of the route. We would probably hit that section in the evening and didn’t think it would be super safe for me to be climbing that area in the dark. Kevin made the decision and we bailed out, heading down the Broad Forks Twin Peak trail and into Big Cottonwood Canyon. I was gutted, us not finishing the WURL or even the Cottonwood Ridge Traverse part of the route was my fault. The guys assured me it was ok, but it still hurt to not push forward. We slid down the scree slopes, bushwacked through some thickets, and made it down to the trailhead where Seth was waiting to take us home.
Kevin on the summit of Twin Peak
I suggested that Kevin and Caleb go back up and try to complete the Cottonwood Ridge Traverse section, an accomplishment in its own right. Plus, doing this section would give us valuable beta for a future attempt. They went back up the next day and crushed the route. After seeing video of the ridgelines and the climbs, I know we made the right decision to bail out the previous day because it would have taken me forever. I know I could do it, but I will need to get up on more routes in Utah in the future that have more exposure and get used to it so I feel confident in my movements before trying the WURL again. It would also be fun to hike up Superior and then continue the route onwards from there and piece the rest of it together over time before trying it again in one single push. All in all, while not the outcome or the experience I was hoping for, I still had a blast. That was the most elevation gain in the shortest amount of distance I’ve done so far (nearly 6,300 feet of climbing in just under 5 miles) and it gave me a true taste of just how unforgiving but beautiful the mountains on that side of the canyon are. I heard a quote recently which I think applies to these sorts of endeavours, especially whenever they don’t go the way you want. “I never lose, I either win or learn.” I think that’s a great mentality to have when attempting this kind of stuff, and it has shifted my outlook on perceived failure vs. lessons learned.
Lessons learned for next time:
Go climbing more for better preparation.
Carry less stuff. As always, I brought camera gear and a bunch of extra junk that I probably didn’t need. A lighter running pack with just the GoPro and the bare essentials would be a much better outfit. The bulky pack made me less confident on the climbing sections.
Try out a different set of shoes. I wore Saucony Peregrines, which performed great, but with all of the climbing ahead, a less aggressive tread paired with a rounder / stiffer toe box would be more ideal and confidence inspiring on the vertical scrambling.
Move faster, or rather more consistently and with purpose. It’s great to take breaks and slow the pace down, but I think (mindfully and carefully) charging ahead and stopping at more strategic areas to catch your breath is much more time effective.