"Peak C"

Route: Ripsaw Ridge (partial)
Posted On: 8/7/2026, By: sodomike
Info: Climbed Ripsaw Ridge (partially) via a camp in Upper Piney. For those intimidated by the stats of the full Ripsaw Ridge (like I was) this update is meant to shed light on the possibility of cutting it in half or making it a camping trip to lessen the burden.
Short story and purposely Gore-vague... you can!
Camping in the Upper Piney drainage is beautiful, but likely doesn't save you much effort. Gaining the basin below C and CC Rider is steep and difficult from Upper Piney.
Thanks to a very chill start at camp and the very time consuming scrambling along the ridge, we still had to cut the ridge short despite our head start and shorter miles.
While getting to Peak H and using the tamer grass on its south slope is likely 'worth it', we found numerous workable, albeit very steep exits from the ridge. We used the saddle immediately south of Peak E, descending entirely on grass, almost directly to our camp in Upper Piney.
I'll leave the rest to your imaginations, but for those less initiated (like me) you can still experience these incredible and historic peaks in smaller chunks. 

Route: Ripsaw (+ bonus Corner peak)
Posted On: 8/4/2026, By: Kbrown321
Info: Ripsaw Ridge redemption after only making it part way last year (the last peak C CR lol). C->H is a loong day (took me 16 hours from camp at 9800’ to car) but summer conditions and no harder than the grand trav if using west/south bypasses around the hardest points.

Bonus: ascended Corner Peak’s SE ridge (basically the ridge direct version of d_baker’s TR on the peak) which was a ton of fun. Ridge proper is a fun slabby thing that’s possible to keep 3rd almost all the way up (somewhat of a rarity in the Gores where ridges usually have a million towers). I did find d_bakers crux and leap-of-faithed it. Descending down Corner’s SW ridge was not bad at all by Gore standards and I even managed to find a trail around 10600’ cutting west-to-east back to the kneeknocker climbers trail, saving me from the worst of sub 11k Gore bushwack hell. Highly recommend this as an add-on to a Piney trip! 

Route: Partial Ripsaw
Posted On: 9/28/2025, By: Kbrown321
Info: Did peaks C&D before bailing due to snow and time. This portion of the loop was snow-minimal (all snow was on N aspects only, S aspects were snow free) with creative route-finding and low 4th with west-side bypasses in a couple spots.

Peak C ascent was almost full summer conditions, only snow was in the initial approach gully where it wasn’t high consequence. C to C’ had (1) frozen dirt in CC rider making the descent down to C’ gully annoying, (2) some snow in the right (N facing) side of the C’ gully, which we mitigated by routefinding on the left (W facing) sides. Skipped the proper C’ summit given time and lack of desire to slab climb with wet shoe soles. C’ to D was cruiser for the first 75% then got interesting near D. Snow on the ridge near D prompted us to take a snowy, unexposed traverse to the W until cutting back up on friendlier, snow-free gullies (some snow at the very top). C-D took nearly 3 hours with all the route-finding and E on looked even snowier, so we resolved to call it once we hit a part that felt too sketchy. That ended up being right after the initial down climb off D, where we hit a section beyond my comfort level with snow over exposure.

From the D-E saddle we bailed down a junky talus gully into the C-C’-D basin. We ascended a snowy slope to cross south into the basin below peak E, ‘schwacked 1000 ft down to the Piney trail, and took that all the way out. Awesome fall colors along Piney River on the way out!

This portion of Ripsaw gave me many flashbacks to the Grand Traverse. Save the junk gully descent (which could have been avoided going a bit further on the ridge to a west facing subridge), this actually isn’t a bad way to do a partial Ripsaw with limited time. Definitely want to get back for the full thing! 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 9/30/2023, By: Wildernessjane
Info: Climbed Peak C via the Northwest Ridge and descended the standard route. Route was completely dry and in the shade all morning until we reached the top of the 5.4 pitch. The first 5.2 gully is quite loose and we all decided because of this the Northwest Ridge would be a one and done route. It was mostly good rock above this though and there is some fun scrambling. The views are spectacular from the summit. 

Route: SW ridge
Posted On: 9/8/2022, By: SnowAlien
Info: SW ridge appears to be the easiest route up this peak. About 300 ft from the top you could go left and have 5.4 finish, shared with NW ridge or go right and avoid the difficulties. South face slabs, NW ridge and CC Rider (loose when dry) all appear to be harder routes than SW ridge, ~about class 3-4 briefly in the upper section. 

Route: Ripsaw Ridge
Posted On: 7/21/2022, By: -wren-
Info: Total summer conditions - west ridge to peak C, ripsaw to peak h, and back from piney lake TH. 

Route: SW couloir
Posted On: 6/25/2022, By: rachel
Info: Clear overnight, forecasted low of 35 at 12000'. Started from Piney Lake Trailhead at 0300 wearing trail runners. Trail muddy in a few spots. Transitioned to mountaineering boots and crampons at the base of the first NW facing snow-filled gulley. Ascended CC Rider couloir. Snow is not continuous and filled with rocks and suncups. Scrambled up the ridge. Summited Peak C at 0815. Descended the branching/ direct snow couloir as described in Cooper's Colorado Snow Climbs book. Snow remained firm as couloirs were shaded all morning. Back to car at 1215. 

Route: SW Couloir
Posted On: 6/5/2022, By: Sherwin
Info: Climbed Peak C SW Couloir (CC Rider) from the West Lost Lake TH. Road and Piney River Trail dry with some minor mud patches. Some soft snow patches just below treeline going up the Kneeknocker Basin trail. Full consolidated snow coverage from Kneeknocker basin over to the Peak C basin. The connecting couloir between basins was firm styrofoam snow. The SW couloir was the same with more texture from previous loose wet avalanche and rollerball activity. Good climbing conditions, poor skiing conditions. We were able to take a snowfield connecting the couloir to the summit with continuous good snow. The snowfield branches off NW approx. 200 vertical feet below the top of the main couloir with a short steep pitch between couloir/snowfield. A lot of snow in the SW Couloir, less on the snowfield. I think this route will be in for a few more weeks. 

Route: CC Rider
Posted On: 7/6/2021, By: hr011242
Info: From Piney River Ranch TH. Hiked to a meadow below Kneeknocker Pass and then ascended a short gully that gave us access to Tarn Basin/CC Rider. Still some snow in CC Rider coolie, didn't use traction for kicking steps but an axe added some confidence. The snow can probably be avoided if desired and the rest of the route through Ripsaw Ridge was dry. 

Route: West/NW Ridge
Posted On: 8/29/2017, By: MaxKugel
Info: I hiked up into the basin below Kneeknocker Pass and ascended one of the north facing couloirs up to gain the west ridge of Peak C. I took the west ridge up a ways, eventually connecting with the NW ridge route below the "5.4" pitch, which made me wish I had just taken the NW ridge the entire way. After summiting Peak C (where I hung out for quite a while to soak in the views), I attempted to climb the north face of C Prime, but turned around a little over half way up, because I didn't want to have to downclimb the ≈5.6 crack system. I now know I could have descended the west face which is reportedly class 3-4. Oh well, next time.

The southwest couloir wasn't terribly enjoyable coming down, and in retrospect I should have just taken the west ridge back down. Way better route. At the bottom of the couloir I *thought I remembered a report of a trail heading back down to the Upper Piney River Trail. If it exists, I certainly didn't find it (I descended basically due west from the small ponds in the basin below Ripsaw Ridge, which consisted of a lot of bushwacking, routefinding, and downclimbing several cliff bands. I would certainly not go this way again, nor would I descend the SW couloir without snow and skis). I eventually linked up with the trail and had an uneventful hike back to the car. For a relatively low-trafficked area, there was a surprising amount of trash. I packed out what I could. Gotta love the Gores! 

Route: View from SW Face of Powell
Posted On: 7/17/2016, By: WillRobnett
Info: Climbed Spider and The Fly 7/14
Scouting Kneeknocker Pass 7/15 

Route: SW Ridge
Posted On: 8/7/2013, By: Grover
Info: Instead of making a bid for the summit as a snow climb in April or May, I decided to go for Peak C after the snow melted out. You will pay for this decision by hiking and climbing the loose rubble and dirt filled gully leading to the prominent notch separating Peak C and C Prime. No snow remains in the gully at this time, so it is all rock and dirt.

The climb up the dihedral immediately after reaching the notch is Class 4. However, if this looks imposing to you, you can cross over to the east side of the notch, drop down about 10 or 15 feet, and then take a Class 2+/Class 3 route to reach the ridge run to the summit. This second option can be seen as you walk along the ridge after the dihedral. I climbed up the dihedral to the summit, then used the east side route on the way down. It's comparable to what you can do on North Maroon Peak, actually.

Helpful trip reports by Kevin Baker, d_baker, or jbchalk can be viewed for more beta if you are thinking of giving this awesome peak a shot during the summer or fall.

Photo 1: The upper third of the rubble gully
Photo 2: Looking up the dihedral
Photo 3: Looking down the dihedral

Personal Recommendation: If you enjoy snow climbs, I would save climbing Peak C until early spring when the rotten gully is covered with snow (much like Cathedral Peak). 

Route: Standard west ridge
Posted On: 6/17/2012, By: Matt Lemke
Info: Snow free all the way to basin below Kneeknocker Pass but muddy in spots. The access gully to the west ridge had snow in it but was mostly avoidable on the left side along the cliffs.

West ridge route itself was snow free apart from a couple very small snowpatches to cross. When you get to the summit area on Peak C head right up a gully to gain the last easy scramble near the SW couloir instead of left around to the cliffy north side (some low 5th class climbs head up but aren't recommended).

See Eagles Nest Conditions report for more info