The low snowpack combined with sun and lowish temps have continued to reveal some interesting climbing in the Wasatch. Normally buried under the snow, ice on the South Face of Mt. Superior in Little Cottonwood Canyon has recently revealed itself after years of hiatus. Jumping on it, I headed up this weekend with Matt Scullion and Louis Arevalo for a fun adventure. We had originally planned on carrying up skis and boards but the snowpack was too low and just booted up to the climb.
The route from the road.
Early starts have their advantages..
The peak of the light show.
Nikki climbing the first and crux step of ice. Photo © Matt Scullion
Matt topping out after the first step.
From here almost 700’ of low angle ice, snow and rock took us to a shelf where we traversed right into another gully.
Louis at the start of the 2nd gully.
Matt following the steppy ice.
Above the ice, in the no so fun snow wallow.
Louis on a short and thin step of ice.
Louis leading the final section of ice before packing away all the gear and postholing to the top of the ridge at 10,505’. Almost 2500’ of gain from the canyon road.
The posthole to the top.
The long descent in crappy conditions. We would have destroyed skis…and ourselves in these conditions.
