Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2023-05-29, By: 1nt3rn3tc0wb0y Info: Very firm snow the whole way, but post holed a few times in the trees. The trail to the amphitheater is ~95% covered. I turned around at the ridge. |
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Route: Area Posted On: 2023-05-28, By: WillRobnett Info: Hiked up an Aspen hill this morning for a good view of Pyramid. Summer colors are starting to come out all over the valley! |
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Route: Northwest Ridge/West Gulley Posted On: 2023-05-22, By: HikerBox Info: Semi-continuous snow from ~1/2 mile below Crater Lake. Multiple snow bridges across Maroon Creek, the first of which is just upstream of Crater Lake but the avalanche path just below the gulley is also bridged over pretty well. Snow in the west gulley that leads to the NW ridge was solid below ~12,000 feet but turned into a less than supportive crust over dry facets that lead to some random hip deep post holing and a lot of calf deep boot packing. The crust skied really well around noon on a partly cloudy day with solid freeze overnight. Occasionally your tails would break through. The "rubble gulley" to the notch was dry so expect loose rock there. We turned around below it, out of time and our weather window closed. |
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Route: Area Posted On: 2023-05-15, By: WillRobnett Info: Amphitheater approach holding snow. Trail by Maroon Lake mostly melted out. |
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Route: Landry line Posted On: 2023-05-02, By: rangercarl Info: The landry line was "in" on 4/29, but the sidestep/choke didn't have much longer on it before it is a significant dry ski...the road was showing some bare spots (100ft or less), but those will be growing quickly. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-10-23, By: MrSmileweil Info: #58! Finished just before a week long winter storm that has set in, so this report is probably out of date. Class 4 was pretty dry, but the upper amphitheater and some stretches on the ridge and towards the summit had some minor, packed snow. Climbed the mountain in suits with thermals underneath, which ended up being surprisingly comfortable. Somehow hit a weather window perfectly and it made for a great day! "No Pain, No Gain, No Champaign" |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-10-11, By: Misi197 Info: Summer conditions to the top of the amphitheater, at which point snow patches start up. The gully is doable without traction, although spikes are helpful for the trip down as freeze/thaw gets rolling. About as much dirt/mud as snow in the gully right now. Spikes from the saddle to the summit advisable. Crampons would be overkill. Gaiters helpful if you are in low tops. A few calf deep spots but nothing deeper. Harder technical moves after the saddle are all snow free. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-09-30, By: Colorado-Hawaii Info: Clear all the way to the summit of snow. We (my step son Dan) had flurries twice on the way up. Two other individuals were near us going up, Corey & a gal from Findland who also summited. We missed the first turn off of trail 1975 and caught the second turn; use your gps to catch it correctly. After you come out of the trees you will eventually need to find the DIRT trail on your right of the rocks; missed this going up. The leap of Faith isn't a big deal; it's the ledge after that....it's very thin and you could catch your clothes and loose your balance if not taken slowly. Took us 11 hrs total from the parking lot. The last 1000' was slow and challenging finding the best path up the loose rock. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-09-19, By: andrewpatterson33 Info: Snow was covering most of the ridge above the saddle through the morning. Definitely made for a slick ascent. The way down was better as the sun started to warm the ridge, but still slow going. If any more snow accumulates traction will be crucial, was not necessarily helpful on the loose rocks yet though. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-09-11, By: EthanBeltramo Info: Summer conditions and trail is dry. Not technical until the leap of faith, then it is sustained class 3/4 all the way to the summit on loose rock. Saw plenty of goats. They will follow you around and do kick down some rocks so bring a helmet and watch out. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-09-01, By: HikesInGeologicTime Info: The Leap of Faith seems like it might have sustained some damage in all the heavy rains that have happened since I last crossed it in July 2021. Back then, I'd been able to scramble around the leap with a series of decent hand/footholds. Today, I had to stretch my 5'6”, largely inflexible legs into a splits to cross it. Shorter people take note and care! Route is completely dry save for a bit of moisture at the base of the amphitheater that stayed on the trail through noon that made that part of the descent a smidgen easier than the rest of that miserable slog. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-08-30, By: csf-lhiver Info: Started at 4:02 AM. Party of 3. Some muddy conditions on the way to the trailhead split for Pyramid due to rain the night before. The split to Pyramid trail mentioned at photo #3 is easy to miss. Even in the daylight it could be easy to miss. We spent a moment looking for it, 3 others were passing by to get one of the Maroon peaks and they pointed it out to us. No snow over the rock glacier. The 1000' of fun up to the saddle is a bit loose in spots but not as bad as it looks from far away. The green rock section is pretty loose in spots so just go slow (you can by pass all of this if you choose to go the climbers right (ascent) and do the staircase portion instead of the green rock, which we did for the descent (climbers left)). After the green rock it was a lot of careful route finding. On the descent through this section it's easier to see where to go because you can see all the correct ledges to take. Good sunny day. Plenty of goats. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-08-25, By: cougar Info: Snowfield in amphitheater is gone. Route is snow free. Recent rains didn't seem to affect much, besides holding the loose dirt together. Trail crew was working on section of trail just below the 'gateway cairns' at treeline. Goats were helpful for route finding. Not as fun as others have touted - lots of talus, steep loose dirt, scree, and minimal scrambling on rubble covered rock. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-07-25, By: Msbaker Info: Started at 4:45 AM from the overnight parking lot. Summer conditions all the way. Only the one snow field in the amphitheater that requires crossing and it is solid and doesn't require spikes. The hike up the slope to reach the Northeast Ridge is incredibly steep but decently marked. However, be aware of the various goat paths as they can lead you astray. Speaking of, once you reach the ridge you will encounter the goats. They will likely follow you up and down the mountain, like they did for us. At one point, one of our group peed and three of them mad scrambled down (from up above) in a steep and dangerous section, kicking down rocks on us in the process in order to get to the spot to lick it. So might be a better idea to hold it. Back to the route....you will get your fair share of class three and four moves as you continue to ascend the standard route, coupled with significant exposure. There is a small leap of faith (3 feet) on the standard route as well. The green rock section is solid and the final push was manageable. Beautiful summit views and overall awesome mountain. Just be aware that rockfalls will happen and they will not necessarily be man made. Was back down to the overnight parking lot by 1:00 PM, and we spent a good thirty minutes on the peak hanging with our new furry friends. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-07-22, By: Cygnus X1 Info: Same peak conditions as the last report. Heads up if you will be camping at Crater Lake, there is at least one active bear at the campsites. My partner and I saw one Tuesday afternoon next to site #3. Then on Wednesday afternoon my partner saw one rummaging through our neighbor's gear at site #7 and it took off with a shoe. He couldn't tell if it was the same bear. The one we saw Tuesday might be a repeat offender because it was sporting a tracking collar. Make sure you're complying with the bear canister requirement! |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-07-14, By: Baliwp00 Info: Departed the Maroon Lake TH at 6:06am. Perfect weather. Cairn for the turn off is large and hard to miss, about a mile up the trail. The trail up the amphitheater is well-defined and maintained. Narrow tongue of snow at the base of the amphitheater which would be easier to climb than the loose talus. Would recommend microspikes/YakTrax for the snow. Slow slog up and across the rocks to the base of the steep couloir leading the ridge. It is full of loose rock and is indeed very steep. Made it up to the ridge to be greeted by the first of many mountain goats. Route-finding along the ridge is reasonably easy and the crossover to the leap of faith and ledge wasn't hard to find. Traverse to the green wall is well-marked, a somewhat uneventful climb to this point. I found the green wall to be stable and easy to climb but I lost the standard route towards the top. I found myself climbing pretty difficult class 4 with exposure to attempt to regain the trail. Finally arrived back at the standard route with about 150' left to the summit. Easy climb from there with mountain goats leading the way. Summited at 10:16am with beautiful views and weather holding steady. More mountain goats at the summit, one approaching VERY closely before I kindly asked it to back away. Down climb was arduous but was at least able to find the standard route back down to the top of the green wall. Pretty uneventful for the rest of the descent except the slog across the amphitheater was so much worse with shredded quads. Arrived back at the TH at 1:40pm and shuttled back to the Aspen Highlands lot. Including myself, a total of 7 people summited that day. Pretty quiet out there! Excellent climb, beautiful views and one hell of an adventure! I should mention… I called the ranger station the day before to find out what exactly the policy was for drop offs/arrival times. He told me that drop offs between 6am-8am were fine, any earlier than that, no one is manning the station. My wife dropped me off just before 6am and we just slipped right past the station. Had a ticket for the bus on the way down. Picked up at Highlands. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-07-10, By: MountainBuhn Info: Started at 11:15 from the shuttle drop off. Beautiful day for an afternoon climb. Hot as I've ever felt on a 14er though. Nearly 65 at the peak. Amphitheater was kinder than expected. Steep gully is about as bad as expected. Easier than I thought going down. I think the terrain after the leap is a bit overhyped. I personally thought the route finding and rock between the saddle and leap were actually really bad and dangerous. We just didn't find the cairns. Green gully is loose but small rock. Above that there is a bit of class four moves but in between are nice landings which shield from falling rock and are nice break points. We generally stayed on the ridge after the green gully only moving left occasionally to keep it easy class 4. Pup made it up just fine with the occasional butt shove and help from class 4 sections. Finished at 8pm and hitch hiked a ride from a generous local back to Highlands parking. Real calf burner |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-07-05, By: cloudkicker Info: Mostly summer conditions. Minimal snow left on the route, and not enough to require spikes or make things more difficult. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-07-05, By: demmons1 Info: 95% summer conditions. Two very small (less than 15ft) of traverse on snow still required. Snow is well post holed thus no microspikes, ice axe or crampons required (unless the extra weight is your thing). Talus field in the amphitheater is no joke. Be prepared for a long slog through the talus up/down. It drains the life from your soul. Ugh. |