Usually climb them while doing some type of traverse, last climb was on a Cottonwood Ridge Run July 2008.
Casey Bates - Aug 13, 2008 2:40 pm Date Climbed: Aug 10, 2008
Summer scramble
Beautiful summer day and a welcomed relief from Outdoor Retailer.
PocketsOfBlue - Jun 7, 2008 10:41 pm Date Climbed: Jun 7, 2008
Skied North Chute
Skinned up below the power lines from the church at Alta. Dropped down into a bowl and traversed over another ridge, then caught some turns into a bigger bowl below the North face of Superior. From there we skinned up to the East ridge and booted up to the summit. Skied the chute off the saddle to the East -- great conditions for June!
vanman798 - May 16, 2008 10:49 pm Date Climbed: Aug 19, 2024
South Ridge
Mt. Superior & Monte Cristo, August 19, 2024, solo. This was my first time ascending from Cardiff Peak via a snowless east ridge. As it turned out, free of snow, Mt. Superior's east ridge is much more scrambly than I anticipated (or remembered from my 2012 descent via a snowless east ridge). As this photo shows there are three "false" summits along the ridge. When hiking across the ridge, the first two false summit obscure the 11,040-foot summit (aka Mt. Superior - which is more correctly named Superior Peak according to Topo Maps). The third false summit is basically what the highest red arrow in this photo points at. The second false summit (two red arrows lower in the same photo than the third false summit) is best climbed on the right (aka North) side. Spotting a hand line - likely set by the Avalanche Tower installation project currently happening on Mount Superior - I got draw to the south side of the second false summit. This turned out to be a mistake, as I ended up on some nasty 4th class terrain where a slip or fall would have been life threatening. Car to peak ascent required two hours and 20 minutes. My route-finding mistake didn't slow me down any but was still not good! At 9:21 a.m., having started hiking from near the Alta Church at 6:36 a.m. I reached the 11,132 ft summit of Monte Cristo. My plan had been to continue on to the next three 11,000 foot plus points 500 yards or less from Monte Cristo. Truth be told -- bearing in mind that I had a scrambly descent back to the car still ahead of me - I decided I was no longer up for adding still more hazardous looking terrain to the outing. The return trip from Monte Cristo to my car took two hours and 15 minutes. Photo Album
Mt. Superior & Monte Cristo, May 3, 2014, solo. The intent of this outing was to test my new Spantik boots -- boots intended to climb Denali, Alaska in in a couple of weeks hence. I snowshoed the pole line pass to Cardiff Pass. From Cardiff Pass, I switched from snowshoes to crampons, with overboots, for the remainer of the ascent to the peak. The boots worked great under both set ups. Up in 2 hours 15 mins, took another 15 mins to walk to Monte Cristo. Walked down the SE face, and hitched a ride from the road back to my car. Round trip took 4 hours with breaks. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos.
Mt. Superior (less 150 feet), April 5, 2014, with Matt Hayosh. We skinned up to within 150 feet of the peak, but there was so much static in the air you could hear it and see hair standing up, so to avoid a shock Matt and I skied down the north face into Cardiac Bowl area. From there we skinned over to Little Superior (aka Black Knob). From Little Superior we ski down the south facing side of the ridge between Cardiff Peak and Mount Superior to the LCC road. Good way to do it. From the road we thumbed a ride back to our vehicle. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos.
Upon returning home I took a short nap only to awake to find my house was on fire (credit goes to the neighbors for starting the fire).
Mt. Superior & Monte Cristo, August 3, 2012, solo -- Followed the southeast ridge to the 11,040-foot peak which took 2 hours 25 minutes. To get to Monte Cristo took 12 more minutes. Here is a detailed time break down: From car to base of White Gully 16 minutes, to GasEx pipe #1 28 minutes, (don't - and I did not - go to GasEx #2), to Suicide chute 1 hour 9 minutes, to peak 2 hours 25 minutes, to Monte Cristo 12 minutes. Return via east ridge and pole line pass 2 hours 3 minutes. Photo Album
Mt. Superior, Feb 21, 2009, with Matt Jesperson -- Skinned up the pole line pass, and all the way to the peak of Mt. Superior. It took us 2.5 hour to ascend. Skied down the North face into Mill D. Skinned up Cardiac Ridge, skied down, skinned up Cardiac Bowl, and then down into Mill B and over to BCC. Photo Album
Mt. Superior & Monte Cristo, May 16, 2008, with Sean Peckham. We skinned up the Pole Line Pass then across some of the East Ridge. Ended up booting most of the East Ridge to the 11,040-foot summit. We encountered Bob Athey (aka The Wizard of Wasatch) on Superior, as we were switching into crampons for the dash over to Monte Cristo. My aluminum Grivel crampons were new I was excited to try them out, Bob Athey found it funny that we "needed" crampons (clearly, we didn't need them, I just wanted to try mine out). Round trip (car to car), with a long break on Mount Superior, plus the jaunt over to Monte Cristo, took 6 hours. The descent, on skies, via the southeast face was fun, but the snow was a bit too soft. Photo Album
seanpeckham - May 16, 2008 4:20 pm Date Climbed: May 16, 2008
Up the east ridge, skied the southeast face
vanman798 and I got a 6 or 6:30 am start, skinned to Cardiff Pass and a bit beyond, and booted up the ridge to Superior. We left our skis there, put on crampons, and traversed to Monte Cristo and back. Ran into Bob Athey and a couple who had just climbed the south ridge, and then skied the awesome southeast face from the summit, though because of our delay from tagging Monte Cristo, the corn was past its prime and down low was more like mush. I can't wait to ski it again without the side trip to catch it in ideal conditions.
Once a long time ago I also did Superior only in the summer. Nice to have taken care of the unfinished business.
dunsum - Mar 30, 2008 8:42 pm Date Climbed: Mar 30, 2008
South Ridge
3/30/08 Great day for climbing; lots of snow. I do this route almost every year!
6/29/08 I pieced together couloirs and small rock steps on the SE Face and joined the S Ridge about 200 yards from the summit. A good solo climb on a very nice day.
Lubos - Mar 30, 2008 7:06 pm Date Climbed: Mar 30, 2008
8/27/07 via south ridge
9/9/07 Cottonwood ridge traverse
LonePeakFreak - Aug 26, 2007 2:48 pm Date Climbed: Aug 24, 2007
Via South Ridge
Ascended via the South Ridge. No ropes necessary and you can make the route as easy or difficult as you choose. Incredible views from both summits. The trail down from Superior to Cardiff was very easy to lose (which we did again and again). From Cardiff Pass down to the road it was easy to follow. About 6 hours round trip.
What a fun scramble. Summited on a day with very poor visibility due to the largest wildfire in Utah history burning 120 miles south, with a southerly wind.
Made the top pretty easily. Very hot day. No cover at all. Got a little sunburned.
hiker100 - Jun 24, 2007 2:08 am Date Climbed: Jun 26, 2006
Sucide Chute
Still plenty of Snow in the Chute.
marauders - Oct 23, 2006 6:14 pm Date Climbed: Oct 12, 2006
Route Climbed: Cardiff Pass
Hiked with Scott (climb14ers). Fun, quick scramble with unique views of the Cottonwood Ridge at this time of year. The north side was snow covered, and the south side was melted out with fall colors still present. It was a beautiful contrast of fall and winter split along the Cottonwood Ridge.
Scott Wesemann - Oct 13, 2006 2:51 pm Date Climbed: Sep 5, 2008
South Ridge
9/5/08- Climbed via the South Ridge with Matthew Van Horn. This has to be one of the best routes in the Wasatch. The exposure is great and the scrambling seems to never let up. There are a few tricky exposed moves, but the climbing is fairly easy all the way.
10/12/06- Climbed Superior and Monte Cristo with Mauraders from SP. This was a PERFECT day and we only saw one other person on the trail the whole hike..weekdays in the Wasatch are the way to go! The views from this peak are just incredible and I will try and come back and do this hike every year. There was some snow, but not much at all on the ridge and the scramble was enjoyable, although I did pull off a large rock that banged my shin pretty good.
6/7/12- via the South Ridge with Matt V. and Jun32.
apachedino - Oct 8, 2006 2:13 am Date Climbed: May 14, 2006
From Alta
As stated with Renogurt below, pretty much no visibility at the top, but still very fun. Lot's of cornices. Came back on Sept 3 2007 to do the South Ridge, very fun variation, wanted to continue on the Cottonwood Ridge west to peak 11,033, but it will have to wait until another time.
Climbed this one with apachedino three days after the triple traverse. The best part: finding a single ski to sit on all the way back to the car.
J Anderson - Aug 16, 2006 9:15 pm Date Climbed: Aug 16, 2006
Superior
Climbed 3 times -
08/16/2006 Cardiff Pass solo
05/28/2007 Cardiff Pass with Matt, Mike,Dan and Dave.
09/08/2007 South Ridge with Matt
Rocky Alps - Aug 14, 2006 7:31 pm Date Climbed: Aug 12, 2006
Route Climbed: Cardiff Pass
Started early, which treated us to some nice views of the rising sunlight on the Alpine Ridge (Pfeifferhorn looked really cool). A lot of fun scrambling, with a little exposure. We saw quite a few goats on neigboring ridges, and even heard a pack of coyotes howling (didn't know they were in this area). From the summit of Monte Cristo we could see the summit of every other 11,000 ft. peak in the Wasatch, except for Provo Peak. I was proud of my wife for being such a good trooper, since she has bad knees and this was the hardest hike (her first time scrambling as well) she had ever been on. See "Little Cottonwood Canyon Doubleheader" trip report for details.
Moogie737 - Aug 11, 2006 8:10 pm Date Climbed: Jun 19, 2021
Various routes
5-8-07 What a fun snow climb. No trail past Lake Blanche, so we winged it, huggingthe east edges of the drainage, then attaining the Cottonwood Ridge 1/4 mile west of Superior's summit (between Monte Cristo and Superior). From the S-curve TH it was 10 miles R/T. My 3rd time at the summit but my first in snow. Brent and Lana were great companions on this climb. Topped out on Superior and Monte Cristo on 6-5-07, a very windy day. On top of both peaks on 7-3-07, as a part of a trip to the summit of Sundial and then much ridge scrambling! On top of Superior for a 6th time as part of doing the south Superior ridge from Snowbird - awesome ridge. #7 along with Monte Cristo for the final two peaks of the 12-hour Cottonwood Ridge run. Started at the S-curve TH and ended at Alta. Tremendous adventure, but not for timid souls. #8 on 9-27-07 as part of south ridge scramble w/ Judy, Lana & Christine (3 geo-caches found en route by Judy!). #9 on 11-6-07 with Dave, Lana, Christine & Anne from S-curve via Lake Blanche, Blanche Peak, Cottonwood Ridge to Monte Cristo and down the steep snow-covered headwall of Superior back to Lake Blanche and out. Fabulous. 10th time w/ Lana & Brent. 10+05 from S-curve TH to Sundial, Cottonwood Ridge, Monte Cristo, Superior and back to the saddle between the two for a snow descent and out via the lake. Beautiful wild flowers and diminishing cornices. #11 as part of my 2nd full Cottonwood Ridge run on 7-19-08. Hot day requiring much mental toughness. #12 on 5-19-09 w/ Dave & Christine. Attained the ridge via a steep snow chute on the east face of the ridge, then Superior & Monte Cristo and back with several long glissades on the north side of the ridge leading to Cardiff Pass. #13 12-1-09 via Cardiff Pass w/ Christine, Ryan, & ZeeJay. Not a lot of snow considering the date. 2+47 to Monte Cristo summit, 5+15 total time for r/t. #14 6-15-10 W/ mtngoat. Via the suicide chute, both peaks, 2+30 to Superior summit. Hard to believe we could do this chute in crampons so late in the season! #15 7-3-10 as part of Cottonwood Ridge run with WMC. #16 9-25-10 to Superior via South Ridge w/ Dave & JP. #17 4-24-12 W/ Dave via Suicide Chute. Superior only as snow was softening quickly. Return by dropping down into the Cardiff Fork (9,500') and regaining Cardiff Pass. #18 8-11-12 Got 'em both as a fitting end to the Cottonwood Ridge traverse with WMC. w/ Brad & Sam. Thanks to Dave who left us cold water on top of Blanche Peak today! IVD #19 3-19-14 From Alta. Super cold. SS to 10,500' then crampons. Got Superior but too dangerous to attempt MC. #20 8-16-14 via So Superior ridge w/ Dave & Brent. #21 6-23-17 W/ Dave, Brent & Lana. Via So Superior Ridge. No Monte Cristo. #22 06-19-21 Both of 'em. With Lana, Broc, Jenny & Brent. Climbed Blanche Peak and did the Cottonwood Ridge over to Superior and down to Alta via Cardiff Pass.
Travis Atwood - Jul 30, 2006 3:20 am Date Climbed: Jul 12, 2008
Cardiff Pass / East Ridge
7/12/08 - Bagged both peaks with friends John and Alex. Up and back via Cardiff.
7/29/06 - Climbed solo. Very fun scramble. I only made it to the first summit because thunderstorms were moving in and I’m not a fan of getting fried by lightning. I high tailed it out of there pretty quick and almost ran into a herd of mountain goats as I came around a corner.
byates - Dec 2, 2008 12:11 pm
Mutiple routes and climbsUsually climb them while doing some type of traverse, last climb was on a Cottonwood Ridge Run July 2008.
Casey Bates - Aug 13, 2008 2:40 pm Date Climbed: Aug 10, 2008
Summer scrambleBeautiful summer day and a welcomed relief from Outdoor Retailer.
PocketsOfBlue - Jun 7, 2008 10:41 pm Date Climbed: Jun 7, 2008
Skied North ChuteSkinned up below the power lines from the church at Alta. Dropped down into a bowl and traversed over another ridge, then caught some turns into a bigger bowl below the North face of Superior. From there we skinned up to the East ridge and booted up to the summit. Skied the chute off the saddle to the East -- great conditions for June!
vanman798 - May 16, 2008 10:49 pm Date Climbed: Aug 19, 2024
South RidgeUpon returning home I took a short nap only to awake to find my house was on fire (credit goes to the neighbors for starting the fire).
seanpeckham - May 16, 2008 4:20 pm Date Climbed: May 16, 2008
Up the east ridge, skied the southeast facevanman798 and I got a 6 or 6:30 am start, skinned to Cardiff Pass and a bit beyond, and booted up the ridge to Superior. We left our skis there, put on crampons, and traversed to Monte Cristo and back. Ran into Bob Athey and a couple who had just climbed the south ridge, and then skied the awesome southeast face from the summit, though because of our delay from tagging Monte Cristo, the corn was past its prime and down low was more like mush. I can't wait to ski it again without the side trip to catch it in ideal conditions.
Once a long time ago I also did Superior only in the summer. Nice to have taken care of the unfinished business.
dunsum - Mar 30, 2008 8:42 pm Date Climbed: Mar 30, 2008
South Ridge3/30/08 Great day for climbing; lots of snow. I do this route almost every year!
6/29/08 I pieced together couloirs and small rock steps on the SE Face and joined the S Ridge about 200 yards from the summit. A good solo climb on a very nice day.
Lubos - Mar 30, 2008 7:06 pm Date Climbed: Mar 30, 2008
LCC - Altavia south ridge
Steve Elmer - Sep 30, 2007 11:18 pm
2x8/27/07 via south ridge
9/9/07 Cottonwood ridge traverse
LonePeakFreak - Aug 26, 2007 2:48 pm Date Climbed: Aug 24, 2007
Via South RidgeAscended via the South Ridge. No ropes necessary and you can make the route as easy or difficult as you choose. Incredible views from both summits. The trail down from Superior to Cardiff was very easy to lose (which we did again and again). From Cardiff Pass down to the road it was easy to follow. About 6 hours round trip.
pbogen - Jul 31, 2007 6:13 pm Date Climbed: Jul 8, 2007
Cardiff PassWhat a fun scramble. Summited on a day with very poor visibility due to the largest wildfire in Utah history burning 120 miles south, with a southerly wind.
soccerman - Jul 8, 2007 10:34 pm Date Climbed: Jul 4, 2007
Cardiff Pass TrailheadMade the top pretty easily. Very hot day. No cover at all. Got a little sunburned.
hiker100 - Jun 24, 2007 2:08 am Date Climbed: Jun 26, 2006
Sucide ChuteStill plenty of Snow in the Chute.
marauders - Oct 23, 2006 6:14 pm Date Climbed: Oct 12, 2006
Route Climbed: Cardiff PassHiked with Scott (climb14ers). Fun, quick scramble with unique views of the Cottonwood Ridge at this time of year. The north side was snow covered, and the south side was melted out with fall colors still present. It was a beautiful contrast of fall and winter split along the Cottonwood Ridge.
Scott Wesemann - Oct 13, 2006 2:51 pm Date Climbed: Sep 5, 2008
South Ridge9/5/08- Climbed via the South Ridge with Matthew Van Horn. This has to be one of the best routes in the Wasatch. The exposure is great and the scrambling seems to never let up. There are a few tricky exposed moves, but the climbing is fairly easy all the way.
10/12/06- Climbed Superior and Monte Cristo with Mauraders from SP. This was a PERFECT day and we only saw one other person on the trail the whole hike..weekdays in the Wasatch are the way to go! The views from this peak are just incredible and I will try and come back and do this hike every year. There was some snow, but not much at all on the ridge and the scramble was enjoyable, although I did pull off a large rock that banged my shin pretty good.
6/7/12- via the South Ridge with Matt V. and Jun32.
apachedino - Oct 8, 2006 2:13 am Date Climbed: May 14, 2006
From AltaAs stated with Renogurt below, pretty much no visibility at the top, but still very fun. Lot's of cornices. Came back on Sept 3 2007 to do the South Ridge, very fun variation, wanted to continue on the Cottonwood Ridge west to peak 11,033, but it will have to wait until another time.
renogurt - Oct 5, 2006 1:56 am
Mid-mayClimbed this one with apachedino three days after the triple traverse. The best part: finding a single ski to sit on all the way back to the car.
J Anderson - Aug 16, 2006 9:15 pm Date Climbed: Aug 16, 2006
SuperiorClimbed 3 times -
08/16/2006 Cardiff Pass solo
05/28/2007 Cardiff Pass with Matt, Mike,Dan and Dave.
09/08/2007 South Ridge with Matt
Rocky Alps - Aug 14, 2006 7:31 pm Date Climbed: Aug 12, 2006
Route Climbed: Cardiff PassStarted early, which treated us to some nice views of the rising sunlight on the Alpine Ridge (Pfeifferhorn looked really cool). A lot of fun scrambling, with a little exposure. We saw quite a few goats on neigboring ridges, and even heard a pack of coyotes howling (didn't know they were in this area). From the summit of Monte Cristo we could see the summit of every other 11,000 ft. peak in the Wasatch, except for Provo Peak. I was proud of my wife for being such a good trooper, since she has bad knees and this was the hardest hike (her first time scrambling as well) she had ever been on. See "Little Cottonwood Canyon Doubleheader" trip report for details.
Moogie737 - Aug 11, 2006 8:10 pm Date Climbed: Jun 19, 2021
Various routes5-8-07 What a fun snow climb. No trail past Lake Blanche, so we winged it, huggingthe east edges of the drainage, then attaining the Cottonwood Ridge 1/4 mile west of Superior's summit (between Monte Cristo and Superior). From the S-curve TH it was 10 miles R/T. My 3rd time at the summit but my first in snow. Brent and Lana were great companions on this climb. Topped out on Superior and Monte Cristo on 6-5-07, a very windy day. On top of both peaks on 7-3-07, as a part of a trip to the summit of Sundial and then much ridge scrambling! On top of Superior for a 6th time as part of doing the south Superior ridge from Snowbird - awesome ridge. #7 along with Monte Cristo for the final two peaks of the 12-hour Cottonwood Ridge run. Started at the S-curve TH and ended at Alta. Tremendous adventure, but not for timid souls. #8 on 9-27-07 as part of south ridge scramble w/ Judy, Lana & Christine (3 geo-caches found en route by Judy!). #9 on 11-6-07 with Dave, Lana, Christine & Anne from S-curve via Lake Blanche, Blanche Peak, Cottonwood Ridge to Monte Cristo and down the steep snow-covered headwall of Superior back to Lake Blanche and out. Fabulous. 10th time w/ Lana & Brent. 10+05 from S-curve TH to Sundial, Cottonwood Ridge, Monte Cristo, Superior and back to the saddle between the two for a snow descent and out via the lake. Beautiful wild flowers and diminishing cornices. #11 as part of my 2nd full Cottonwood Ridge run on 7-19-08. Hot day requiring much mental toughness. #12 on 5-19-09 w/ Dave & Christine. Attained the ridge via a steep snow chute on the east face of the ridge, then Superior & Monte Cristo and back with several long glissades on the north side of the ridge leading to Cardiff Pass. #13 12-1-09 via Cardiff Pass w/ Christine, Ryan, & ZeeJay. Not a lot of snow considering the date. 2+47 to Monte Cristo summit, 5+15 total time for r/t. #14 6-15-10 W/ mtngoat. Via the suicide chute, both peaks, 2+30 to Superior summit. Hard to believe we could do this chute in crampons so late in the season! #15 7-3-10 as part of Cottonwood Ridge run with WMC. #16 9-25-10 to Superior via South Ridge w/ Dave & JP. #17 4-24-12 W/ Dave via Suicide Chute. Superior only as snow was softening quickly. Return by dropping down into the Cardiff Fork (9,500') and regaining Cardiff Pass. #18 8-11-12 Got 'em both as a fitting end to the Cottonwood Ridge traverse with WMC. w/ Brad & Sam. Thanks to Dave who left us cold water on top of Blanche Peak today! IVD #19 3-19-14 From Alta. Super cold. SS to 10,500' then crampons. Got Superior but too dangerous to attempt MC. #20 8-16-14 via So Superior ridge w/ Dave & Brent. #21 6-23-17 W/ Dave, Brent & Lana. Via So Superior Ridge. No Monte Cristo. #22 06-19-21 Both of 'em. With Lana, Broc, Jenny & Brent. Climbed Blanche Peak and did the Cottonwood Ridge over to Superior and down to Alta via Cardiff Pass.
Travis Atwood - Jul 30, 2006 3:20 am Date Climbed: Jul 12, 2008
Cardiff Pass / East Ridge7/12/08 - Bagged both peaks with friends John and Alex. Up and back via Cardiff.
7/29/06 - Climbed solo. Very fun scramble. I only made it to the first summit because thunderstorms were moving in and I’m not a fan of getting fried by lightning. I high tailed it out of there pretty quick and almost ran into a herd of mountain goats as I came around a corner.