Pyramid Peak Trip Report 07/27/2016

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Pyramid Peak - 14,029 feet
Date Posted	07/27/2016
Modified	07/29/2016
Date Climbed	07/24/2016
Author	arianna2

Grand Accomplishment!
If you would have asked us 7 years ago, when we started climbing these peaks, if we would ever climb Pyramid Peak, the answer would have been a resounding No. We felt like maybe we were too old or it was too dangerous. Little by little, over the years, we have gotten a little more brave. After we mastered Maroon last year (which was another one we didn't think we could do), we thought-hey maybe we CAN do this. The weekend we planned to do this finally came and we re-contemplated our plans at 2am when we were awoken by lightening, thunder, and rain. It did pass by quickly (just long enough we had to get the windows up) and we snoozed for just an hour more. We decided that we would at least get a good hike in, if the weather didn't allow us to get to the top. The weather reports were a little sketchy calling for thunderstorms between 9am and 5pm. Even in the dark we could see it could be trouble. I am not sure if I just didn't pay attention in the reports of where the Pyramid Peak trail was or I just thought that would be an easy detail, nicely and neatly labeled. We would have probably missed it if it weren't for my on the ball husband who put in the GPS coordinates for it. It is hard to see things in the dark, in fact, two climbers that walked part of the way with us missed it the day before, both on the way up to Maroon and on the way back. Here is a daytime picture so you know what to watch for but I would recommend putting it in the GPS. Middlebrook has that in his route description. We started at 4am and reached the amphitheater a little before 530. The entrance has a lot of big cairns which make it easier on the way back out. The snow field was nice to walk on with microspikes. We highly recommend them for this as well as for later in the hike. It was a grind any way you looked at it. Some that didn't have spikes walked to the right of the snow field on the talus and there was a short path up a little higher as well. Morning Glory! It did start raining a little bit at this section of the hike. We just kept our heads down and kept trudging along...hoping. There is quite a ways of boulder hopping to do to get over to the gully going up to the saddle. Once you get there, there are a lot of different ways you can go. There is a trail that goes up that big pile of talus between the small snow fields on the lower left of the picture (between the third and fourth field) but we decided to go up just a little to the right of this area. We had the spikes so we climbed up snow and made our way up to what was probably more the correct established trail. In our opinion, the micro-spikes made all the difference in the world going up and down this area because of how steep and loose it is. Since it had rained just a little, we were blessed with even a little more traction. It took at least an hour to get up just this slope. We were greeted by the goats, suddenly beautiful blue bird weather... And a looming, menacing, intimidating yet exciting approach Now the next part is really hard to decipher in people's trip reports and even while you are there. The first part is easy. The trail and cairns are distinct going to the right but at some point it gets difficult to understand where the crossover is. Quite a few cairns, or what we thought were old cairns, were knocked over here and along the rest of the approach. So we didn't think that the crossover was really well defined and when we went by this area that was probably it, it looked really narrow and loose which is not what we envisioned. Cairns kept going up so we followed those which seemed to be in the middle of the ridge rib until we reached a really big boulder that didn't quite look passable. We again tried looking more to the left to crossover and ended coming back to this boulder. Here is where I got to be the heroine. I had read a trip report called "A long way to the top of Pyramid" from 2014 and had seen the picture of the notch and knew that it led to just above the "leap of faith". As I decided to walk around this big boulder and saw the notch that was in that picture, I knew we were in the right place. Craig had to trust me on this one! Thanks to bbass11 for this trick. Others may have it their reports too but this is where I saw it and would recommend that report if you are planning this climb in case you miss the real crossover, we didn't get a picture. I didn't even have to jump across the leap of faith as I just climbed on some rocks to the right as we were down climbing to it. Craig didn't want to miss the opportunity. I did jump it on the way back after telling my mind to shut up and just jump. The ledges didn't bother us too much but I would say that some are a little narrower than some reports let on. There was an area where the ledge curves and you can see back towards the ledges after the leap of faith, and another climber had to call out to us to see if he was on the right ledge. Luckily, we were there to tell him he was above the right ledge by 20 feet. I don't remember it being difficult route finding there, but I think all those ledges and loose rock can start to meld together pretty quick. Finally we made it to the infamous green wall. We had to be pretty focused here so we didn't get any pictures of this area. In general it was fun rock to climb. I just avoided all the little banana peel dirt patches and most of the rock was pretty stable. However, I thought all the way up, how much it was going to suck coming back down. At least here you can see the green to know you are in the right area. We had marked where we went into the green rock and it was marked well where you get out. However, as you are climbing it is a little hard to tell how far you are supposed to go up and whether to stay to the right or left. It didn't seem to matter. We eventually got out the route description and the picture that showed the small steep gully near the top of the green rock helped up a little. I saw a ledge to the left that looked like it could be it and it was heavily cairned when we got to it. After that, you pick your way up the ledges that look best toward the summit. We were more worried about getting down and I have learned from Eolus that a lot of people put up cairns for their own particular route and that can get confusing. We put a little piece of green leaf or flower in the cairns we passed so as not to put up a bunch of new ones and this made it a lot easier to see where our route was for the way down. We were a little surprised how narrow the rubble was leading up the summit. Awesome views and so blessed with the weather! It wasn't even windy. We summited just after 9. Almost brought tears to our eyes thinking of the accomplishment. Now for the less than exciting way back down. Again, somehow marking your cairns is helpful. I don't think someone would be mad at us for picking a branch off the plants. Although some small rocks were knocked loose by other parties below us, the goats were by far the ones to watch out for. They would cross above you and they don't yell, "ROCK!" This mama decided to cross completely over from where she was over to the other side of the green rock. Her baby was not as courageous and cried for her our whole way down. Coming down toward the saddle, we got a good view of the brutal task ahead. Several people had to go down sideways to limit slipping. I can't stress enough how much easier the micro-spikes made this for us. We were just about dumbfounded at what we had just done. We are really thankful to Bill Middlebrook for this forum and all those who do trip reports to make this outing possible for us. Such an incredible, stunning place. We got back at about 230 and enjoyed a very refreshing and chilling dip in Maroon Creek. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Grand Accomplishment!

If you would have asked us 7 years ago, when we started climbing these peaks, if we would ever climb Pyramid Peak, the answer would have been a resounding No. We felt like maybe we were too old or it was too dangerous. Little by little, over the years, we have gotten a little more brave. After we mastered Maroon last year (which was another one we didn't think we could do), we thought-hey maybe we CAN do this.

The weekend we planned to do this finally came and we re-contemplated our plans at 2am when we were awoken by lightening, thunder, and rain. It did pass by quickly (just long enough we had to get the windows up) and we snoozed for just an hour more. We decided that we would at least get a good hike in, if the weather didn't allow us to get to the top. The weather reports were a little sketchy calling for thunderstorms between 9am and 5pm. Even in the dark we could see it could be trouble.

I am not sure if I just didn't pay attention in the reports of where the Pyramid Peak trail was or I just thought that would be an easy detail, nicely and neatly labeled. We would have probably missed it if it weren't for my on the ball husband who put in the GPS coordinates for it. It is hard to see things in the dark, in fact, two climbers that walked part of the way with us missed it the day before, both on the way up to Maroon and on the way back. Here is a daytime picture so you know what to watch for but I would recommend putting it in the GPS. Middlebrook has that in his route description.

We started at 4am and reached the amphitheater a little before 530. The entrance has a lot of big cairns which make it easier on the way back out. The snow field was nice to walk on with microspikes. We highly recommend them for this as well as for later in the hike. It was a grind any way you looked at it. Some that didn't have spikes walked to the right of the snow field on the talus and there was a short path up a little higher as well.

Morning Glory! It did start raining a little bit at this section of the hike. We just kept our heads down and kept trudging along...hoping.

There is quite a ways of boulder hopping to do to get over to the gully going up to the saddle. Once you get there, there are a lot of different ways you can go. There is a trail that goes up that big pile of talus between the small snow fields on the lower left of the picture (between the third and fourth field) but we decided to go up just a little to the right of this area. We had the spikes so we climbed up snow and made our way up to what was probably more the correct established trail.

In our opinion, the micro-spikes made all the difference in the world going up and down this area because of how steep and loose it is. Since it had rained just a little, we were blessed with even a little more traction.

It took at least an hour to get up just this slope. We were greeted by the goats, suddenly beautiful blue bird weather...

And a looming, menacing, intimidating yet exciting approach

Now the next part is really hard to decipher in people's trip reports and even while you are there. The first part is easy. The trail and cairns are distinct going to the right but at some point it gets difficult to understand where the crossover is. Quite a few cairns, or what we thought were old cairns, were knocked over here and along the rest of the approach. So we didn't think that the crossover was really well defined and when we went by this area that was probably it, it looked really narrow and loose which is not what we envisioned. Cairns kept going up so we followed those which seemed to be in the middle of the ridge rib until we reached a really big boulder that didn't quite look passable. We again tried looking more to the left to crossover and ended coming back to this boulder.

Here is where I got to be the heroine. I had read a trip report called "A long way to the top of Pyramid" from 2014 and had seen the picture of the notch and knew that it led to just above the "leap of faith". As I decided to walk around this big boulder and saw the notch that was in that picture, I knew we were in the right place. Craig had to trust me on this one! Thanks to bbass11 for this trick. Others may have it their reports too but this is where I saw it and would recommend that report if you are planning this climb in case you miss the real crossover, we didn't get a picture.

I didn't even have to jump across the leap of faith as I just climbed on some rocks to the right as we were down climbing to it. Craig didn't want to miss the opportunity. I did jump it on the way back after telling my mind to shut up and just jump.

The ledges didn't bother us too much but I would say that some are a little narrower than some reports let on. There was an area where the ledge curves and you can see back towards the ledges after the leap of faith, and another climber had to call out to us to see if he was on the right ledge. Luckily, we were there to tell him he was above the right ledge by 20 feet. I don't remember it being difficult route finding there, but I think all those ledges and loose rock can start to meld together pretty quick. Finally we made it to the infamous green wall.

We had to be pretty focused here so we didn't get any pictures of this area. In general it was fun rock to climb. I just avoided all the little banana peel dirt patches and most of the rock was pretty stable. However, I thought all the way up, how much it was going to suck coming back down. At least here you can see the green to know you are in the right area. We had marked where we went into the green rock and it was marked well where you get out. However, as you are climbing it is a little hard to tell how far you are supposed to go up and whether to stay to the right or left. It didn't seem to matter. We eventually got out the route description and the picture that showed the small steep gully near the top of the green rock helped up a little. I saw a ledge to the left that looked like it could be it and it was heavily cairned when we got to it.

After that, you pick your way up the ledges that look best toward the summit. We were more worried about getting down and I have learned from Eolus that a lot of people put up cairns for their own particular route and that can get confusing. We put a little piece of green leaf or flower in the cairns we passed so as not to put up a bunch of new ones and this made it a lot easier to see where our route was for the way down.

We were a little surprised how narrow the rubble was leading up the summit.

Awesome views and so blessed with the weather! It wasn't even windy. We summited just after 9. Almost brought tears to our eyes thinking of the accomplishment.

Now for the less than exciting way back down. Again, somehow marking your cairns is helpful. I don't think someone would be mad at us for picking a branch off the plants.

Although some small rocks were knocked loose by other parties below us, the goats were by far the ones to watch out for. They would cross above you and they don't yell, "ROCK!" This mama decided to cross completely over from where she was over to the other side of the green rock. Her baby was not as courageous and cried for her our whole way down.

Coming down toward the saddle, we got a good view of the brutal task ahead. Several people had to go down sideways to limit slipping. I can't stress enough how much easier the micro-spikes made this for us.

We were just about dumbfounded at what we had just done. We are really thankful to Bill Middlebrook for this forum and all those who do trip reports to make this outing possible for us. Such an incredible, stunning place.

We got back at about 230 and enjoyed a very refreshing and chilling dip in Maroon Creek.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

jenkscolin	Congrats! 7/28/2016 8:54am Great trip
glenmiz	Cairn Missers 7/28/2016 12:43pm Congratulations on making it up and down; that was pretty difficult (especially dodging the goats' rocks). My son and I were those you referred to at the all-important cairn. Thanks for preventing us from missing it a third time and we did notice your "flower cairns" near the top. Both of us were prepared to turn around with a thunder clap going up the amphitheater; happily, it didn't come. Boot-skiing back down was a treat, wasn't it?
arianna2	boot-skiing 7/28/2016 3:08pm definitely, was fun!
JosephG	Congrats! 7/28/2016 8:57pm Pyramid was my first "step-up" peak, and it was great fun. As you can, I haven't looked back. Nice job!
MtnHub	Great job, guys!! 7/29/2016 1:50pm I did Pyramid last year and it was one of my best climbs ever! Total enjoyment!! Nice to have a super weather day for sure! Congratulations! :D
tygr	micro spikes 9/24/2018 4:12pm Nice report! This is the second time I've read a Pyramid report and someone saying that microspikes helped. Guess I should probably invest in some if I hope to do other similar peaks (e.g. S/N Maroon).
arianna2	Microspikes 9/24/2018 7:46pm Definitely helped on this one and any steep banana peel type dirt.

Caution: The information contained in this report may not be accurate and should not be the only resource used in preparation for your climb. Failure to have the necessary experience, physical conditioning, supplies or equipment can result in injury or death. 14ers.com and the author(s) of this report provide no warranties, either express or implied, that the information provided is accurate or reliable. By using the information provided, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless 14ers.com and the report author(s) with respect to any claims and demands against them, including any attorney fees and expenses. Please read the 14ers.com Safety and Disclaimer pages for more information.

Please respect private property: 14ers.com supports the rights of private landowners to determine how and by whom their land will be used. In Colorado, it is your responsibility to determine if land is private and to obtain the appropriate permission before entering the property.

14ers.com

Social

Mobile App