Pyramid Peak 14018' - 1986 Trip Report
By Alan Silverstein
After returning from the San Juans I took a couple of weeks off
from hiking, the first time in about ten weeks. I didn't stop
doing aerobics, though... 300 step-ups on a tall box seems to
be a pretty specific exercise applicable to climbing, but
veerrryyy boring.
Friday, August 15 through Tuesday, August 19, I took off to
climb Pyramid and Capitol Peaks in the Elk Range (near Aspen).
They are two of the tougher Fourteeners. In three days I gained
about 10400' total, including a 13+ mile backpack round-trip,
and got pretty tired. But I succeeded in reaching both peaks
(numbers 47 and 48 for me). In fact, I had beautiful weather,
lots of time, and surprisingly easy route-finding. It was a
great trip.
I'll post two trip reports as responses.
Saturday, August 16: Pyramid Peak (14018')
Thanks to dropping my parents at the airport Friday morning, for
once I had lots of time on the way to a climb. After a slow
drive to Aspen (normally 4.5 hours from Fort Collins via
Leadville), and messing around there, I got to the Maroon Creek
road shortly before it re-opened at 1700. As expected, all
campsites in the valley were full, and had been since noon. At
the Maroon Lake upper parking lot I chatted with the campground
host. To my pleased surprise, he didn't mind if I just slept
out next to my car, in the lot, with no tent. So I did.
It was a gorgeous night. After moonrise I could see the Bells
up the valley any time I looked out of my sleeping bag.
Unfortunately, I discovered that the parking lot is a busy and
noisy place until about 0200. You'd be amazed how many people
drive up late at night, and do a U-turn in the lot without even
pausing. Bizarre.
At 0545 the next morning it got light enough for Paul Beiser,
Carolyn Mozley, and me to realize we were waiting for each other
on opposite sides of the lot. By 0555 we were on our way down
to the lake (9580', a 140' drop) and up towards Pyramid Peak.
It was just light enough to see without a flashlight.
The sunrise on the Bells from below Crater Lake was, of course,
magnificent. We got so distracted taking pictures that we
somehow didn't notice the large cairn marking the take-off point
for the Pyramid trail, going left (east). Farther up the main
trail we ended up bushwhacking a little, then finding a
secondary, cairned trail going the right way.
Well, sort of. It petered out in trees on the steep hillside up
to the Pyramid amphitheater. After more bushwhacking we
eventually found the main trail, just as steep (mainly hard
dirt), but easier to follow into the huge bowl NW of the summit.
Early in the morning the amphitheater is a neat place, dark in
the shadows. We proceeded up rocks and hard snow to the upper
end at 12000' by 0830. We three were alone except for one solo
climber behind us. He diverged to do the tougher west ridge --
and beat us to the top.
From the high end of the amphitheater an unobvious gully goes up
to a 13000' saddle on the north ridge. Actually it wasn't hard
to find -- it was the only reasonable way to go! -- and it was
a straightforward climb too. It's mainly rock going up and
scree coming down. We were on the ridge at 1000, a little south
of the lowest spot. This was because near the top we diverted
into a more direct gully, just for fun. It was the ONLY place
we loosed any significant rocks -- one large one almost nailed
two of us, in fact. (Moral: Stay on the route.)
Sitting on the narrow ridge is neat, because of the great view
on both sides. On the way up the Bells loom into sight over the
Pyramid west ridge, looking remarkably flat-sided (vertical) and
layered. Later Snowmass and Capitol are visible further west.
From the ridge, in the distance to the east, is Castle Peak and
its nearby thirteeners. Meanwhile, the scene due south up the
ridge to the summit is unnerving. It looks very far away,
steep, and rugged.
In fact the cairn-marked trail is pretty good all the way to the
summit. After a short time on the right side it crosses to the
left (east) side of the ridge and traverses a long ways on
ledges, some fairly narrow, with one jump across a deep cut.
The last stretch up to the summit is very steep, with
route-finding harder, a series of cracks and ledges through
layers of loose sedimentary rock. We always took what seemed
like "best" routes, but discovered coming down that we'd done
more hard work than really necessary. No problem, climbing up
is easier than down, anyway.
We reached the top at 1130 (5:35 for 4420', not bad for
Pyramid). Some clouds were collecting and we watched warily,
but the weather stabilized and remained perfect all day. We
spent 1:40 exploring the top and enjoying the cloud shadows
rolling over the rugged Elks, the temperature a pleasant 60
degrees F. The summit itself is a narrow, rotten ridge of
lichen-covered red and orange rocks, with a flat, rolling top
and sheer sides, perhaps 5-10' wide. In every direction are
cliffs. A short ways south on the ridge, huge chunks of it are
slowly "calving" off, forming giant fissures.
We returned to Maroon Lake the same way, from 1310 till 1740
(4:30 down, there was no hurry; 11:45 total, a long day). The
descent was easier than I expected, partly because it's easy to
see where to go next. I caught a zig-zag series of seven or
eight short glissades down the angled snowfield in the low end
of the amphitheater, traversing from the bottom of one to the
top of the next. Following the trail back to the valley floor
was easy, but it's quite steep and overgrown. (It could use
some switchbacks.)
Back in Aspen I borrowed a swim and sauna at Paul and Carolyn's
hotel. After they got over some mild altitude sickness, we
stuffed our faces with fine Italian food. Then I said farewell
and headed west out of town for the Capitol Peak trailhead.
Used here with permission of the author.
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