( Pictures 1,12 and 13 kindly shared by, and used with permission of, WildWanderer.)
Thunder Pyramid has had near mythical status in my mind due to its threatening reputation and stories of prior climbers experiences. Thus I was happy when climbingcue and I were able arrange a climb together. Climbingcue is a strong, competent and fast climber as I learned when we did Little Bear in April and Casco in May.
We met at the Maroon Lake Day Parking area at 0215. Two other nearby climbers were gearing up for a Bells traverse. We started out at 0230 under overcast skies and a light rain with temperatures in the mid-40s. Lightening flashed to the south. Thunder Pyramid was already living up to its reputation.
Climbingcue's headlamp rapidly receded into the night. I was able to catch up with him only when the trail became buried in snow and avalanched tree debris, such that we had to frequently consult the GAIA GPS route ( downloaded from the Thunder Pyramid TR of SnowAlien) on my phone.
We were a short distance above Crater Lake when suddenly there was a loud KERPLUNK! Climbingcue had been crossing Maroon Creek on a seemingly solid snow bridge which most rudely collapsed and dumped him into the creek. He emerged with a mere splashing of water on his clothing. The near cold water bath in the pre-dawn was quite invigorating to him and I was now forced to redouble my efforts to keep up with him.
We crossed on solid snow to the east side of Maroon Creek at 10,500. Gray light was making an appearance and the skies were clearing. We stopped to put on our crampons and ice axes at 0530 to ascend a steep gully immediately to the north of Len Shoemaker Ridge.
Entering the first gully. A rare view of climbingcue. He is usually far ahead.
Climbingcue near the top of the entrance gully. The north terminus of Len Shoemaker Ridge is to his right.
Dawn making Her appearance on the Bells.
A more typical view of climbingcue perched on a rock and waiting, waiting, waiting.....
The terrain flattened as we entered the drainage between Thunder Pyramid and Len Shoemaker Ridge but soon steepened as we started up the gullies that led to the Thunder summit. It is difficult, as others have noted, to make out which of the points on the ridge is the actual summit. I mis-identified three of the points as the actual summit before looking at GAIA to identify the summit.
Crossing the drainage to the summit gullies. Will the real summit please stand up?
Heading up a gully.
Climbingcue sitting around again. He spends so much time sitting that I do not know how he manages to climb anything.
I made a course correction after checking GAIA to get us into the gully leading to the ridge south of the summit but did not check GAIA again as we headed towards the proper gully. Thus we crossed the correct gully and kept heading left and upwards until we topped out at the small saddle to the north of the Thunder summit.
Climbingcue on the small ridge separating the gully on the right, which would have taken us the correct way to the south side of the summit, from the left gully which led us to the north of the summit.
Climbingcue near the top of the left gully. The summit is to his right. Yes, that insignificant bump is the summit.
Climbingcue at the small saddle to the north of the summit. He is still looking happy as I had not yet given him the bad news that we were on the wrong side.
I looked up with dismay at the imposing north face of Thunder Pyramid. We were supposed to be on the south side. Climbingcue looked up with disgust and disgruntlement at my inability to follow a simple GAIA route.
Route of WildWanderer on the north face of Thunder. Too hard for mans. For woman only.
The only thing to do was cross a rock ridge and head south. Climbingcue saw a steep snow gully on the summit's west face. The snow was quite firm and icy in the gully and climbingcue, who had only one ice axe, exited the gully about halfway up and summited via a rock ridge to the left of the gully. I had a 57 and 64 cm axe and rigid boots with ice climbing crampons so I was able to ascend the complete gully and topped out a few feet from the summit at about 1040.
Looking down from the summit at our tracks after crossing the rock rib.
Climbingcue on the summit. Pyramid Peak in the background.
Out ascent gully was too steep to descend so we followed the GAIA route of SnowAlien on the descent with climbingcue in the lead as he had been on the ascent.
I had to descend facing into the slope the first 200-300 meters or so. The slope flattened out slightly and I turned facing outward to look at the route ahead. I was immediately above three rock outcroppings interspaced by small bands of snow. Suddenly I was falling on my back and crashing through the rock bands unable to stop or arrest until after going through the third rock band when the slope lessened and the snow became soft enough that I slid to a stop. Climbingcue later told me several rocks had come down the slope to his right.
The story of Prince Andrei, felled at the Battle of Austerlitz, describes it perfectly: "What is it? am I falling? are my legs giving way under me?...and fell on his back. He opened his eyes...but he did not see anything. There was nothing over him now except the sky - the lofty sky...with gray clouds slowly creeping across it. How quiet, calm, and solemn, not at all like when I was running, shouting and fighting... - it's quiet different the way the clouds creep across this lofty , infinite sky. How is it I haven't seen this lofty sky before?...And how happy I am that I've finally come to know it...There is nothing, nothing except that...except silence, tranquility."
And like the Prince, for several minutes I was quiet happy to lie motionless, looking up at the lofty sky, no longer falling and sliding or hearing the horrible sounds of crampons scraping rocks. But one must get up eventually and when I did my right arm hung helpless and the ax dangled useless by its leash.
My rescue beacon was at the bottom of the pack and I was not able to access it. Climbingcue was of course out of sight by now. The only option was to continue a slow descent which I would need to do even if I had been able to send a rescue signal or if climbingcue had been nearby. And so began the descent. Sometimes facing into steep slopes with one ax in my left hand and the right ax hanging by its leash. Sometimes it was less painful and more efficient on less steep areas to sit on my buttocks and pull myself forward with my crampons. Some very short areas with safe run outs were glissaded. Finally I could see the flat drainage area by Len Shoemaker ridge. I could not see climbingcue but knew he would be waiting there and so gave loud whistles on my emergency whistle and soon saw him reascending the slope. He had been waiting for 1.5 hours for me to reappear.
By now I was exhausted and felt sure I would need to be evacuated. I explained the situation to him when he reached me about 1:50 p.m. and he immediately set off his SPOT. He guided me down to where he had been waiting and removed my pack and crampons and gave me water from my pack. I spoke words of shame, humiliation and fury that I had fallen on easy non - technical ground resulting in injury and need for rescue. He listened quietly and replied " Be happy you are alive."
After about an hour rest I felt we could continue down and meet up with the rescue team as low as possible. He helped in strapping my pack on me and we resumed the trek out.We descended and were almost to the Maroon Creek crossing around 5:30 p.m. when two advance members of the Mountain Rescue Aspen team arrived. They removed my upper clothing and it was immediately obvious the right shoulder had an anterior dislocation. We tried a field reduction but it was unsuccessful due to having been dislocated for more than 5 hours. Clothing reapplied we started the hike back to Maroon Lake.
I was more than happy to see MRA, but tried to apologize to the MRA for causing them to come out on a Friday afternoon/evening. They rejected it saying they were having a training exercise at the time of the SPOT message and they welcomed the opportunity to put their training to real life use.
I heard a roaring sound as we descended which I thought was from Maroon Creek. The closer we got to Maroon Lake the more and more MRA people appeared. We reached the trailhead about 9 p.m. and I was happy to be able to show MRA my COSAR card before going to the Aspen Hospital for a shoulder reduction. Climbingcue had stayed with me the entire time. He could, and should, have left when MRA arrived. Words cannot express my appreciation to him for his unselfish aid. It would have been a much longer day without his assistance. MRA also, of course, gets a big thank you. They were a huge moral boost simply by their presence.
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Donna had been expecting a call from me by no later than 4 p.m. The worst part of the ordeal was, upon reaching her late in the evening, hearing the frantic worry in her voice, and listening in the darkness to her weeping.
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The roaring has persisted and is now recognized as the tightening circle of age and infirmities leading me to wonder how much longer left to climb? To life?