One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: March 29, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1986_0727-28_WilsonPeak.htm)
(A
Fourteener
trip report.)
After returning from two weeks climbing in the San Juan Range I took a couple of weeks off from hiking, the first time in about 10 weeks. I didn't stop doing aerobics though... 300 step-ups on a tall box seemed to be a rather specific exercise applicable to climbing, but veerrryyy boring! [Later after developing knee pain, I learned that a "tall box", like 16", was a bad idea! And scaled it down to something a little safer, if less manly.]
Friday, August 15 through Tuesday, August 19 I took off to climb Pyramid Peak and Capitol Peak in the Elk Range of Colorado (near Aspen). They were two of the tougher Fourteeners. In three days I gained about 10400' total, including a 13+ mile backpack round-trip, and got very tired! But I succeeded in reaching both peaks -- Colorado Fourteeners number 47 and 48 for me. In fact I had beautiful weather, lots of time, and surprisingly easy route-finding... It was a great trip.
From: ajs@hpfcla.HP.COM (Alan Silverstein) Date: Thu, 28 Aug 86 18:11:49 MDT Subject: Re: Trip reports: Pyramid and Capitol Newsgroups: hpnc.general
Friday, August 15: Thanks to dropping my parents at the Denver airport this 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 Maroon Bells up the valley any time I looked out of my sleeping bag. Unfortunately I discovered that the parking lot was a busy and noisy place until about 0200. You'd be amazed how many people drove up late at night and did a U-turn in the lot without even pausing... Bizarre.
Saturday, August 16: 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 bright 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 heading the right way.
Well -- sort of. It petered out in trees on the steep hillside up to the Pyramid Peak amphitheater. After more bushwhacking we eventually found the main trail, just as steep (mainly hard dirt), but easier to follow into the huge bowl northwest of the summit.
Early in the morning the amphitheater was 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 went 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 was 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 was neat because of the great view on both sides. On the way up the Bells loomed into sight over the Pyramid west ridge looking remarkably flat-sided (vertical) and layered. Later Snowmass Mountain and Capitol Peak were visible further west. From the ridge, in the distance to the east, was Castle Peak and its nearby thirteeners. Meanwhile the scene due south up the ridge to the summit was unnerving. It looked very far away, steep, and rugged.
But in fact the cairn-marked trail was pretty good all the way to the summit! After a short time on the right side it crossed to the left (east) side of the ridge and traversed a long ways on ledges, some fairly narrow, with one jump across a deep cut.
The last stretch up to the summit was 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 was easier than down anyway.
We reached the top of Pyramid Peak at 1130 (5:35 for 4420', not bad for this summit). 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 was 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 were cliffs. A short ways south on the ridge huge chunks of it were 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; but 11:45 total, a long day). The descent was easier than I expected, partly because it was easy to see where to go next.
I caught a zig-zag series of 7-8 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 was quite steep and overgrown. (It could have used 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 to climb it next.
(Next trip report: 1986_0816-18_CapitolPeak.htm)