Pearl Mountain

Route: NE bowl up to E couloir descent
Posted On: 6/8/2024, By: slawrence2011
Info: Needed a full night of sleep after my 1:30 start on N Maroon day prior, so this seemed like a good option, as most of ascent is not on avy terrain, and part that is is N facing. Started from just below campsite 1 at 5:30, left crampons and axe behind, but brought skins. Snow starts around 10,5 on road, continuous just above Pearl pass junction around 11,2. Very hard to follow snow covered road, a few tracks in spots, but generally following the basin based on the map. Had a pretty efficient route with minimal elevation loss. Started skinning just above continuous snow, because it was quite soft. And when I got within 10 ft of rocks, I would trapdoor even in skis. Skinned up to highest snow in NE face before it got 40+, then booted, initially up avy debris, then eventually launching left to a N aspect that hadn't slid, because the NE aspects gaining the ridge had cornices. I saw multiple wet sluffs while climbing, all pretty small and slow and natural, and all on E or NE aspects. Gained the summit just after 11, started traversing and skiing down the E ridge, my beta from the CMC book said to go directly E off the summit ridge, but there was a huge tower, and looked like it was cliffeed and discontinuous. So I went about 50 feet S until going further would have required down climbing. There was an amazing S couloir ramp that gained a continuous looking E couloir, but gaining it requires making one turn on 40 degree snow, where a fall would launch one over 1,000 ft of cliffs. Hesitated for several minutes, and finally committed, because I didn't want to reclimb the summit to ski NE face or downclimb the S ridge. Got through that Crux, several commiting turns down that until it went E, but it looked like it ended in cliffs, so I went over to the rib to the S, and connected to the continuous couloir. That traverse also was scary with the soft snow, hit a rock but kept going. Didn't take any pictures of the upper business for obvious reasons. Also saw a sluff causing moderate size rockfall in the E aspect couloir one line N of me (where I was initially before traversing). Then, once below the difficulties around 12,4, did what felt like flat/uphill all the way to make sure I didn't drop on the E side of the Pearl Greg Mace saddle. Wasn't really any elevation gain, but with very soft snow, poling all the way, then skied all the way to the end of snow at 11,2, walked in ski boots to the wooden bridge crossing, and skied mostly continuous snow til around 11,6. After I put hiking boots on, I realized I missed out on another 200 ft of road skiing, but not bad hiking either. Thanks to the family that gave me a hitch from CG 7 all the way down to my car when they already had 4 in an SUV. Back to car at 2:15. Probably should have dropped an E aspect at 8:30, 9 on a day like this, rather than 11:30 

Route: From Ashcroft
Posted On: 4/21/2024, By: 9patrickmurphy
Info: Castle Creek road is gated at Ashcroft until May 15th. Plenty of parking there. I walked up the road in trailrunners at 3:30am, making excellent time to the end of the pavement. The road is mostly snow covered still. I had plenty of momentum so I kept the trailrunners on until a bit after the creek crossing, then switched to skins. Cruiser up into the basin above the huts. I booted up a NE face on Oyster and kept crampons on until the summit ridge. I suck at using ski crampons but someone who knows how to use them may be able to skin all the way to the summit. I carefully skied down to the Pearl/Oyster saddle and switched back to crampons. Pearls NW ridge has a lot of cornices but nothing overhanging and it was never too steep or exposed to warrant an axe. I was at the summit soon enough. I skied Pearls bowl to some NW chites off a spur ridge. This let me stay high so I could find a drainage back to the road. I skied to base of Greg Mace Peak and took a gully North back to Castle Creek (thanks TakeMeToYourSummit for this idea). The road skied out easily enough, but I had to walk some sections of the paved road. This took me 7:20 car to car. A much quicker and easier day than I was expecting. 

Route: Pearl Pass Road
Posted On: 8/7/2023, By: angry
Info: Alpine start of 4pm. Dry to summit, no register. Some water flowing from the creek along the road but nothing to write home about. No problem driving to sites identified on the map as pearl pass dispersed camping around ~11,000 in my Tacoma. 

Route: From Pearl Pass Rd
Posted On: 5/8/2022, By: hr011242
Info: Pearl and Oyster both skiable from summits. Castle Creek Road closure starts at Pearl Pass Road junction. First ~2 miles of road does not have continuous snow. 

Route: from Oyster
Posted On: 1/16/2022, By: SnowAlien
Info: Great conditions on Pearl and Oyster. Three of us stayed at Tagert hut overnight and after some hot breakfast started around 9am (wish this was the case for all winter peaks, haha!). After taking advantage of a great skin track to the upper basin, we spotted a dry rib up Oyster. That wasn't particularly fun in my brand new ski boots and with a bum knee, but around 11.30am we were on the 1st summit. This was SarahT's 150th winter 13er overall and a rarely visited winter summit! Weather was great, albeit a tad windy. After a short stay, we continued to Pearl via the ridge. Couple spots were windloaded and postholey, but for the most part for snow was a mix of rock and firm snow. We even skied a section of the ridge down Oyster. Pearl was more of the same - great views, a tad windy. After some deliberation, Sarah and I skied the north facing gully just off the summit (ignoring old crowns), while SarahT wisely took the dry rock face down to the basin. Lots of old crowns in the cirque. Back at the hut by 3pm. Great trip with Sarah^2 although I am getting too old to keep up with them! 

Route: From Pearl Pass
Posted On: 10/24/2021, By: Will_E
Info: Summitted Oyster and Pearl Saturday. I started from Castle Creek, took the left up Pearl Pass Rd, then went up the ridge just north of Pearl, then across to Oyster. My directions are probably not great, see map for my route. Pearl Pass rd. was mostly dry, what snow was there wasn't deep. I didn't encounter any snow on the route that was more than mid calf deep. Took spikes and an axe, used neither. Cold and windy, I showed 31° at summit of Pearl, winds were as forecasted, around 30 mph above treeline. 

Route: From Castle Peak
Posted On: 10/4/2021, By: Grover
Info: Did NOT hike. Just posting some images of Pearl and Oyster from my outing up Castle Peak. I am hoping there is just one person out there thinking, "Man, I really want to get Pearl and Oyster this weekend but what are the conditions like?" 

Route: South Ridge
Posted On: 8/19/2020, By: Flyingfish
Info: From the Crested Butte side climb the grassy ridge leaving the pass around 12,400ft. Easiest decent is to retrace your steps 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 8/16/2020, By: Grover
Info: Reached Pearl by hiking the connecting ridge from Oyster. Snow free, straightforward ridge walk. Nice vantage point with views of seldom visited peaks like Star and Teocalli. Exited Pearl by making my way down the chossy ramp straight to the road. 

Route: From \"Oyster Peak\", Northeast Ridge/Slopes Descent
Posted On: 5/18/2020, By: supranihilest
Info: The ridge from "Oyster" is largely snow covered but in good shape. There's one short section of Class 2+/Class 3 down climbing on typical loose Elk rock along the ridge to the saddle but everything else is Class 2. The remaining ridge up Pearl has some narrow, exposed snow but nothing too terrible; an axe would be prudent, and maybe microspikes depending on comfort. The upper ridge is dry rock. From the summit we descended northeast down the ridge a bit then cut northwest down mixed rock/snow slopes and finally into the open northeast slopes. Nothing of real concern there. The remaining flats back to Greg Mace Peak (which we attempted; still enough soft snow to prevent an ascent) were snowy and soft. Lots of postholing. Descending the road was a nightmare. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/13/2018, By: TakeMeToYourSummit
Info: I started from the 2wd TH (my truck is in the shop) at 4:50 AM. Near continuous snow after the creek crossing near 10,200'. Options to walk large sections of dry ground at the side of the road are growing. After the Pearl Pass turnoff I crossed the creek almost immediately on a snow bridge just before the huts. Originally I was going to ascend the north bowl, but as I skinned higher in the basin gaining the ridge seemed to be the most direct choice. I brought crampons & splitboard crampons yet used neither. My axe was rather helpful as the snow varied from mid-shin deep kicks to near bulletproof. Thankfully most were that perfect ankle deep level. Gaining the ridge the wind increased & I made sure to have my axe planted or my hands on rocks. The final summit pitch was a short combo of snow & rock - topping out at 9:30. After a few minutes up top I carefully rode east down the ridge. Using my axe & moving very slowly I worked my way down a few feet into the bowl. The snow was near bulletproof for this entire section. No real exposure here - just plenty of rocks ready to ruin your day (or life). About a 100 feet below the summit the sun had done its work & everything was corned up nicely. A speedy cruise across the open basin & a 40 or 50 vertical foot hike had me near the base of Greg Mace Peak. A shortcut (I'd spied on the way up) down the northwest side of GMP offered plenty more corn turns. I hit the road about 10,950' & managed to ride 90% of it to the creek crossing. An easy road walk from there - I finished at 11:05. The strong wind did well this day at combating the solar heating - its worth considering when looking at less than ideal overnight freezes. 

Route: Pearl Pass Road
Posted On: 6/13/2016, By: piper14er
Info: Parked at Dispersed Camp 5 (0.25 miles before the creek crossing, hiked from there the 2 miles to Pearl Pass Road. You could drive an extra mile or so with the creek crossing before you hit snow. I started on the road and lost it fairly quickly as I continued up to 13,312, also known as Oyster Mountain and also seems to be called West Pearl by others. Snow was packed generally despite the warm weather on the way up, 90% okay, 10% postholing the slush. A steep rocky section along the northwest slope of the ridge going to Oyster. Snow to top it off. The connecting ridge to Pearl had some snow and a few obstacles that you could go over or around. Generally rocky. All good to Pearl, took a quick look past Pearl towards Pearl Pass Road but nixed that idea as too much snow and work. Headed back towards Oyster and dropped down the first gully past some corniced snow to where it looked okay. Glissaded down about 400 feet on 35% slopes to where the slope moderated. Headed back towards the south ridge of Glen Mace. Glen Mace looks rotten from the south but goes Class 2 from the north so you have to contour around. It took me a few minutes to figure that out. The rock around the summit is loose and not great. Dropped down below Glen Mace and passed on following the road, down a drainage where I put in my third glissade of the day of about another 400 feet catching the road about 0.25 miles below the Pearl Pass Road junction. Hoofed it back to the truck and had some rain along the last mile or so. 11 miles, 4000 vertical +/- Pics along the way.