The Pyramids

Pyramid Peak - 14018' - NE Ridge Class 3
Thunder Pyramid - 13932' - West Face Class 3
June 2012

Pyramid peak

Pyramid Peak looks pretty crazy!

These fine peaks were a thrill for me to finally do. I did Pyramid Peak first and Thunder Pyramid the next day, camping at the Maroon Lake parking lot both nights. At 5am the first morning we were off up towards Crater Lake. Since I had the old version of the Roach guide we went up to the notch he describes above Crater Lake by climbing up a steep talus slope. We didn't realize there had been a CFI trail that was made around 2007 after Roach's book. In his new edition he has this trail described but I never saw it nor do I use the 14ers route descriptions which would have had the trail mentioned as well. I don't use the descriptions on that site because they are far too detailed and I feel like it's cheating. So we did more work...oh well. Once we made the notch we descended slightly into the basin north of Pyramid and walked across very large talus. We followed the boot path up the steep loose slope to the crest of the NE Ridge where we studied the route and ditched our trekking poles (which proved to be a mistake...more later). We started scrambling on the ridge and using the brief Roach description I had memorized I led us to the infamous "green gully" at which point I took my friends Matt's advice and headed straight up. The green gully was sustained third and forth class climbing and I really didn't want to descend this. We continued to work our way up the northeast ridge at times I was right on the crest with the huge vertical drop off to my right down the north face. Lucky there wasn't much snow left or the climb would have been much more tedious. I remember finding a good boot path once I reached the top of the green gully and followed it to the summit. Just before I got to the top, a solo climber was just starting to head down. He would prove to cause me some grief later. But all I could say was WOW! I had made it up Pyramid Peak, something that only a year before I thought I wouldn't ever do. The views were fantastic especially the Maroon Bells. I sat here for a half hour as it was a perfect day. This was a place I didn't want to leave but alas, I got my photos and we had a tedious descent ahead of us.

Pyramid Peak with the moon

So we started the descent and I was hoping to be able to find an easier way down. Lo and behold I was able to follow a marked boot path nearly the entire way down. This path stayed on the far side of the green gully but since I went straight up this gully I never made it to this path. So I guess if you want the easiest way up Pyramid, just cross the green gully and locate the boot path. The crux of the day was down climbing the exposed 4th class chimney just after we crossed back over the green gully. When we reached the saddle once again my trekking poles were gone! I couldn't believe it that old guy must have taken them. So I literally ran down the trail causing numerous rock slides and boulders crashing but no one was below me. I continued to run across the talus back to the snow hoping I'd be able to catch him on the re-climb up to the notch. Remember I didn't know about the trail at this point. However I saw his foot steps in the softened snow and they went straight towards the end of the valley towards Maroon Lake. I thought to myself "how can this be?" Maybe there was another way down that was a secret shortcut. When I got to the end of the snow I was surprised to see three huge cairns and a giant trail. WTF is this I thought! I began running down and caught up with him and there he was, carrying my trekking poles. However he thought I stole his (which I never even saw) which is why he took mine. After I saw my poles when he gave them back I noticed the bite marks from the dumb goat I saw roaming around. He then concluded the goats must have knocked his down a cliff or something before we got to the saddle on our way up which was why I nevr saw them. They ate the handles off mine but I put mine between two rocks to keep them from blowing away. He then told me about this trail we were on and I was informed about hold olf Roach's guide that I was using really was. I laughed and continued down to the car. We actually had a good talk the rest of the way down.

Pyramid Peak

Pyramid Peak north face

Crossing an exposed narrow ledge

The notch at the beginning of the climb

Pyramid Peak seen from Thunder Pyramid

View from the notch at the beginning of the climb

Pyramid Peak from the west at the base of Sleeping Sexton

Thunder Pyramid

Len Shoemaker Ridge from the west face of Thunder Pyramid

The next day I met with a couple other 14ers members and we planned to climb Thunder Pyramid. Once again, we left the Maroon Lake Trailhead right before dawn and hiked the three miles up the trail to where you leave the trail and begin ascending loose rock and talus straight up Thunder Pyramid. At first the slope wasn't too bad and we climbed through a narrow gully through a cliff band. Past this though the angle eased as we made it into Len Shoemaker Valley. Views of the morning sun on Len Shoemaker Ridge shown at left was amazing. Shortly past this the angle increased and we had to be careful not to knock any big rocks down. We aimed for the obvious white gully and instead of climbing inside it since it still had hard snow, we climbed just to the climbers right of the gully on a small rib where the rock wasn't quite as loose. We just kept going on class 2 talus all the way until we reached the crest of the Pyramid group. I was surprised to have not seen any third class yet. We made a left turn and followed a marked route up through a couple cliff bands which did have some very brief class 3. Then a short exposed walk on the crest took us too the summit. What a sight to see as Pyramid Peak loomed to the north. Across the valley the Maroon Bells stared right as us and seemed to rise vertically right out of the ground. After a very nice 20 minutes on a bluebird summit with no wind we began the tedious descent. Slowly making our way down trying to keep all the rocks in place, we eventually made it back down to the trail and the 3 miles out seemed to take forever. A nice dinner in Aspen followed this great day. All in all, I believed Thunder Pyramid also didn't live up to its loose rock reputation.