"West Partner Peak"

Route: S Ridge + N ridge of outpost
Posted On: 10/2/2023, By: Kbrown321
Info: Packed in up Pitkin Creek for the weekend. Saturday hit W Partner from the S ridge saddle then did the ridge all the way back to Outpost. W Partner side was fun and nothing crazy, crux was as described on SP. Outpost N ridge goes mostly ridge proper at easy 4th (alternatively 3.I had no beta + exposure on downclimbs had my nervous system working). Skirted the first two towers then took the rest head on. Crux is the climb and downclimb of the ridge highpoint / 5th tower (4th tower being the one with the big grass ramp in the center visible from pitkin lake), pictures show the climb and narrow ridge right before the downclimb. Most of the ridge was 3.grass but very fun overall, crux looked bypssable as well. Descended S then E down talus from outpost to camp at 10800. Sunday morning tried for E Partner but a brief snowstorm just before dawn made the rock on the ridge slick and I wasnt feeling great about that + 50mph winds at the summit + more snow around noon, so I turned around. There was only a bit of snow and these are south facing aspects, so hopefully will melt out quickly (though looked like more snow coming in the week). Fall colors were great on the way down. Overall a fun weekend in the Pitkin Creek basin! 

Route: South Ridge from Booth Lake Trail
Posted On: 9/18/2023, By: madmattd
Info: Virtually no snow/ice on the North side of I-70, unlike many places just South - still summer conditions. We took the "obvious gully" from just below 11,000' on the Booth Lake Trail; it is a very steep grassy gully (with some occasional rocky patches) climbing 1000' in ~3/10mi directly to the Outpost/West Partner saddle. Upon further review, we think the map shown in the Colorado Scrambles book takes a less obvious ramp/gully combo starting in the same area to much further North on the ridge to ~12,200'. Our way went, and gets a much longer, sustained ridge scramble (pretty easy to keep at solid C3), but the gully would be a pretty unpleasant descent route. We took the West ridge from the summit down to ~12,500 (mostly solid talus-hopping and minor scrambling) and then picked up a series of grass ramps down to the unnamed tarn around 11,900'. Easy cutover to just below Booth Lake and the trail from there. 

Route: from East Partner via the traverse
Posted On: 9/16/2023, By: Laxer04
Info: Traversed West to East. Incredible day, perfect conditions. The gores are bone dry! They avoided the snow that hit the central mountains. There is no parking at Booth Lake TH. We parked at Pitkin Lake TH and then went up to Booth Lake, up to East Partner, traversed over to West Partner and back down to Pitkin. The traverse took us just under 2 hours. We mostly stayed ridge proper but did drop down to the south side to avoid some nasty terrain at one point. Looking back it looked doable, likely low class 5. Mostly solid rock on the traverse. Just really good class 3/4 scrambling. We opted to downclimb a gulley from East Partner instead of taking the ridge. Bad idea. While it was a more direct route to Pitkin Lake the rock was awful and it was slow going. We didn't see a single person all day until we ran into someone who climbed East Partner solo. This is an incredible traverse, highly recommend. My Strava (not always the most accurate so take it for what its worth) came in at 15.32 miles 7540 ft of vert. 

Route: Partners traverse
Posted On: 8/19/2023, By: SnowAlien
Info: I didn't remember much from the same trip 5 years ago, so thought it would be fun to do it again. The descent route from East Partner is fairly obvious to the large grassy saddle and it pays to stay the ridge proper with just one significant downclimb to the north (right side of the ridge). We made it to the saddle in about the hour and took a little break. The main difficulties start right after. I'm glad we brought a 30m rope and a rap ring with some webbing as I ended up using it, while Grizzly Adams soloed everything. There is a slab downclimb which I soloed last time, but this time I couldn't see any big holds, so we slung a boulder and I rapped, while Shawn downclimbed. Last time we rapped the feature called the "Wedgie" as there was an established anchor, this time there was none. Bypass on north side on bad rock is not advisable. Difficulties after that become mostly optional, but Shawn made a point of skipping none. The pink slab and then white slab climbing is very memorable and high quality. I forgot how far back the true summit was where we arrived after 4 hours on the traverse. What a spectacular route. Again, no summit register. 

Route: South Ridge from Pitkin Creek Trailhead
Posted On: 9/29/2022, By: JasonKline
Info: Fine fall conditions. No snow or ice (for now), and the leaves are gorgeous. 

Route: -
Posted On: 6/30/2022, By: blueshade
Info: Traverse from East Partner - no snow on route I went down the SW gully/ridge to get to The Fly and The Spider - some snow to avoid or cross but not too bad with caution Since these aren't 13ers I'll post a short conditions report here Traverse to The Fly was nowhere near the quality of the Partners Traverse. Some snow at the passes and in the gullies. Mostly avoidable or easily walked (closer to the lake). On a side note, faces higher are a bit tedious with steep grass or steep rock faces to navigate. Ridge isn't recommended with at least one very difficult C5 downclimb 

Route: South Ridge
Posted On: 10/3/2020, By: supranihilest
Info: Much nicer route than "East Partner"'s South ridge. From our descent off "East Partner" we cut across boulders and grass around the north side of Pitkin Lake, then ascended the right of two steep, grassy gullies cut by a V-shaped slab. We continued basically straight up the slope, which was extremely steep and quite loose, until we hit the ridge crest. There was a short section of grass and then the ridge gave way to solid granite blocks and boulders. The initial section was Class 3, then the ridge flattened for a short bit (still scrambling across the giant boulders) before a notch halted easy progress. There's at least two ways down: a down-sloping knife edge, or a Class 3 crack/slab combo. For the latter there's a 20-foot awkward traverse on slabby rock to get to the notch. Immediately after, there's a fun, broken, Class 3 slab. Instead of ascending to the ridge crest after the slab we went west around the side and traversed on dirt and boulder ledges. This went basically all the way to the end of the ridge, which we weren't sure was the summit. There's also a short bump on the ridge about 200 feet from the end of the ridge, both appeared to be the same height. The bump was Easy Class 3. We descended the ridge to the saddle with 12er "Outpost Peak" then down a steep grass slope before traversing to the lake and trail. 

Route: Partner traverse
Posted On: 9/10/2019, By: tdawg012
Info: Lord Gore was merciful. Snow free entire route. Frayed red rap sling still in spicy gully btw east n west. 

Route: Partners Traverse
Posted On: 7/23/2016, By: WillRobnett
Info: Climbed West Partner via Partners Traverse 

Route: View from The Fly
Posted On: 7/17/2016, By: WillRobnett
Info: Climbed Spider and the Fly, view from The Fly. West Partner upper left in shadow, East Partner in the sun slightly to it's right. 

Route: south ridge
Posted On: 7/12/2015, By: k-berger
Info: Climbed West Partner from the Pitkin Lake side. Soggy conditions getting up to the lake but most of the snow up high is gone. Pitkin lake is completly unfrozen, booth is still half frozen. No ice axe needed, any snow still left up there is easily avoidable. Photos are looking down on Pitkin, looking towards Booth and looking east towards peak Q. If anyone wants any other photos let me know. 

Route: Booth Lake drainage/area
Posted On: 6/15/2014, By: d_baker
Info: No summit, but a conditions on the area and the coverage up high. Booth Creek/Falls trail is dry until the top of the falls overlook, where it becomes spotty with snow banks. If you're familiar with the trail, where it goes parallel and close to Booth Creek, that is where the snow starts, which is around 10,200/300' contour, and the trail is lost to snow, almost continuous to the Booth Lake area. Summertime trail has been mostly followed, but not always. Overnight freeze must have been good. Snow conditions were quite firm and supportable. Very minimal postholes on my exit from the upper reaches of the drainage around 12pm. No snowshoes. Pic 1: "Outpost Peak" high on the r., Booth Creek drainage below, and the ascent gully that accesses W Partner's S ridge route on the left (prominent snow filled gully, angling r. to l.) Pic 2: Another look at W Partner's access gully and drainage Pic 3: West Partner's SW face. The "S" couloir I climbed a couple of years ago, in mid-May, and it's as full now as it was then. Fun climb! Nothing real steep, but aesthetic with a scrambly ridge finish. Pic 4: Booth Lake Pic 5: Mount of the Holy Cross looking healthy. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 7/7/2013, By: Grover
Info: I camped at Booth Lake for two nights, and was able to make it to the summit of West Partner Peak on Saturday, July 6. Since I was at the lake already, I used the West Ridge to ascend and descend the peak. At this point in time, and I think for several more weeks, it would be wise to bring traction to walk on the multiple snow fields that persist on the route leading up to the West Ridge. I used microspikes on the snow fields going up and down. If you have traction, you can connect the snow fields to save time on the talus. If I had crampons, I would have been able to stay on the snow for longer periods of time. Instead, I went from snow field to talus to snow field to talus. I did not see any snow on the South Ridge route, so if you are looking to ascend via that ridge, you should be good.