5/17/2025 Route: NE ridge Posted On: 5/18/2025, By: 9patrickmurphy Info: Travel to Crater Lake was easy with trailrunners in the morning (despite plenty of snow on and off the trail), then it was intermittent walking and skinning to the creek crossing at a pile of avy debris. Travel into the upper basin was easy enough despite a very steep snow gully through the first cliff band. Basin has great coverage. The peak itself had lots of snow on it, and the ridge was mostly covered as well. Gaining the ridge was easy enough, but the ridge which has been described as "sporty" was downright spicy with the amount of snow up there. A cornice keeps one away from climber's left, and steeper and steeper snow keeps one too far to the ridge's right. Shortly before the summit there is a class 3 wall with plenty of exposure and was not the easiest accomplishment with wet rock and few handholds. Luckily, that was the only real obstacle encountered on the ridge, although the entire ridge demanded attention. We skied from 50-100 feet above the saddle all the way down to the creek, picking our way through rocks occasionally. Will add photos in the next day or two. |
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9/7/2024 Route: Belleview- -> Len Shoemaker Posted On: 9/7/2024, By: yaktoleft13 Info: Ran ridge from Belleview to Len Shoemaker. It's largely class 2 up until the downclimb off 13223. The downclimb off 223 is unlocked by a hidden ledge (marked by a small cairn) that leads through the last cliff to the saddle. It's small, exposed, and looks like it'll stop like 5 times, but it keeps going. To get to this ledge, I dodged the towers on the sw side of the ridge. The ascent up Len Shoemaker (13642) had 4 distinct cruxes, all in the 5.easy range. There was solid rock (beneath the loose debris) when I needed it. Descent through Len Shoemaker basin to the trail is now incredibly well cairned through the talus and deposits you a few hundred feet before the trail crosses back over to the west side of the creek. Total stats 18 miles, 6800 vert, 10:20ish |
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6/26/2024 Route: Len shoemaker basin Posted On: 6/27/2024, By: Dobsons Info: Route is essentially summer conditions for better or worse. Hiked it Wednesday with Will E and had a fabulous day. Trail is a bit wet but not bad at all to mile 3.6 at the turnoff to make the creek crossing. Creek crossing is flowing but avy debris allows for easy passage. The head wall to access the basin has some snow in some gullies but we were able to navigate it without any snow on a nice ledge system right of the waterfall a ways. Upper basin also has a bit of snow that can be used to avoid some talus but it will be gone soon. The talus grunt to the lightening/len shoemaker saddle is completely dry along with the ridge. Lightening and thunder would still have some snow to contend with it appears but not for long. Snow retreated from the hills so fast this June! In keeping with the mosquito trend of these updates, we didnt see a single one the entire day which was a major blessing after we were completely ravaged and assaulted in a way Ive never seen in Colorado up deadman drainage in the sangre the previous Sunday. They were utterly relentless in the deadman drainage! |
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6/17/2024 Route: Len Shoemaker Basin Posted On: 6/17/2024, By: 9patrickmurphy Info: Couldn't be more different than the last report from just two weeks ago. The trail is entirely free of snow up where I turned around just before the West Maroon Creek crossing. Water crossings were all manageable to that point. I took a chance on this area based on some recent satellite imagery from a week ago, but that imagery is no longer up to date. I could see from the trail that the snowfield up to the Lightning/LenShoemaker saddle had melted out. I expect the ascent gullies on Thunder and Lightning aren't in much better shape, though I did not get eyes on those. I turned around since I was hoping to ski, but it looked unlikely. daway8's recent conditions report on Pyramid is a good reminder that rockfall on these peaks becomes even worse when the meltout is recent, so I felt okay bailing. |
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6/2/2024 Route: Len Shoemaker Basin Posted On: 6/2/2024, By: tjf242424 Info: See Thunder Pyramid report for approach details to Len Shoemaker Basin. The route from the basin is straightforward and all on snow, fairly steep on the headwall to gain the summit ridge. The ridge is holding a lot of snow and is heavily corniced (sporty). I used crampons and ice axe for the headwall and summit ridge. I left our camp in Len Shoemaker Basin at 4:30am due to a weak freeze, summit at 6:30am, back to camp at 8:00am. We packed up and were back at Maroon Lake TH by 12:00pm. |
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8/13/2023 Route: Standard NE Ridge Posted On: 8/14/2023, By: eskermo Info: Enjoyable, mostly straightforward route with only about 400' vertical of suck just before gaining the Northeast Ridge. CalTopo gives me 12.5 miles and 4,400'. 7 hours 25 minutes RT from Maroon Lake. Creek crossing at 3.95 miles is low enough to easily keep feet dry hopping on rocks. The turnoff for Thunder/Lightning/Len Shoemaker lies 0.17 miles past the creek crossing, marked by a small cairn between the trail and willows. If you can manage to stay on the climbers path, following the many cairns (detailed well by WildWanderers LS TR), then access to Len Shoemaker basin will go pretty quickly. But you will be drenched by willows the second you leave the West Maroon trail :) Only needed to walk on snow for a couple dozen low angle steps in the lower Len Shoemaker Basin. Managed to stay mostly on larger talus on the way up to the NE ridge, but this part sucks both up and down. Some sections were scree skiable-ish on the way down, but not great bottomless face-shot scree skiing, to be clear. The short but fun NE ridge makes up for the suck slope. Cool holds and moves, never exceeding class 3, lead to the spacious summit with great lounging rocks. Summit register had no paper, just a couple pens (nice metal register, maybe 10 pounds?!). |
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6/10/2023 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 6/12/2023, By: CheapCigarMan Info: Intermittent snow from around Pyramid's turnoff. Expect to get wet from running water on trail and multiple creek crossings. Consistent snow around 10,200'? Don't miss your turn and get off trail through the willows and woods in that area. Worst bushwhack I've ever done. 40+ lb backpack with snowshoes. Stay west around the woods on trailed talus field. Camped at 10,500' near major creek crossing and just where woodline ends. Creek crossing there is not an issue as has snow bridge, or is snow covered. Solid snow from here. Didn't see any feasible campsites beyond here. I brought snowshoes not knowing of snow conditions in Len Shoemaker's basin. They were not needed. Minimal postholing from TH to summit and back. From camp hiked maybe 200 - 300 yards south where trail heads east. Put on crampons from here. Bullet proof snow in the morning and firm supportive snow in the afternoon. IMO gullies through cliff bands are obvious. 800' - 1000' of steep climbing from turnoff to top of upper basin where all three climbs can be found; Thunder, Lightning, and Len S. Only one ice axe needed. As mentioned, supportive snow throughout the basin both morning and afternoon. Continuous snow on Len's slope except for about a 30' section. Miserable loose rock. I would not want to climb this without snow. Once on the saddle there's about 150 - 200 vertical feet of Class 3 and one Class 4 move of climbing. Mix of rock and snow. Too much snow on the east side to bypass the towers. At least not safely for me. Rocks were loose and sketchy. Not like a loose rock separating from a bigger rock but just a pile of unattached rocks. I don't remember Pyramid nor the Bells being this bad. However, there's the nicest summit register I've ever seen with two Bic pens but no paper inside. Glissaded on the descent where I could to avoid rocks. Lots of rockfall in the area and heard throughout the day. Met two others that did Len from its northwest ridge. They brought rope thinking there'd be a Class 5 section. Would be interested to know how their day went. Thanks TheHikingTexan for your boot tracks. |
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6/9/2023 Route: Maroon Lake to Len Shoemaker Basin Posted On: 6/10/2023, By: TheHikingTexan Info: Was able to summit Len Shoemaker Peak yesterday. Trail is wet and muddy or snow covered after Crater Lake. I camped at spot 10, was nice and quiet. Creek crossing has a huge snow bridge several hundred feet wide to access the Len Shoemaker gullies. Those were snow filled, ice axe and crampons needed. No snowshoes needed in the basin. Ridge to the summit was spicy! |
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8/18/2022 Route: len shoemaker Posted On: 8/20/2022, By: zootloopz Info: 13,631 to Lightning to Thunder traverse. Maroon creek crossing has logs laid down to facilitate dry feet. Plenty of water running here and up higher in Len shoemaker. Carried 1.4 liters and a water filter in a vest, worked out great. Traverse is loose and spicy. Not as bad as teakettle on looseness but damn close. Lots of bypass options but ridge direct is certainly 4th to low 5th in plenty of places. Test everything, trust nothing. Pretty much descended straight off Thunder. Multiple gullies go on the way down. Terrible descent, but obviously expected. 11 hours RT / 13.4 miles / 5.4K gain (maybe more here, felt like 6k) 13,631 is missing paper but has pens and a metal container. Colorados_mountains packed out the old shitty container that was missing the lid. Lightning needs more paper, and currently has a mechanical pencil. Register container is pretty small but secure. Also another old container that could be packed out here. |
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5/16/2021 Route: Len Shoemaker Basin Posted On: 5/16/2021, By: bmcqueen Info: Booted up the start of the Thunder route up nice styrofoam snow, then branched off to Len Shoemaker Basin for 13631. Continuous snow to the saddle as well as up the ridge to the summit. We topped out 10:25 am - things were getting a bit gloppy on the way down. Wore snowshoes from Crater Lake to the base of the first steep gully when we switched to crampons for the rest of the climb. Register was sopping wet - could use a new one. |
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8/13/2020 Route: South Ridge Posted On: 8/13/2020, By: Flyingfish Info: All around no fun with the loose scree and working through cliff bands. Probably goes as really loose class 3-4. There might be a better route but I didn't find it. |
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6/20/2018 Route: Standard Posted On: 6/20/2018, By: illusion7il Info: All clear. All skree. |
