Peak Fifteen

Route: South left from New York basin
Posted On: 12/23/2025, By: blazintoes
Info: From New York Basin, head straight uphill from the New York Creek camp. There is a flat, established campsite at approximately 9,200 feet with a reliable water source.

From camp, the route gains roughly 1,700 feet in 0.8 miles. There is one headwall to bypass around 11,000 feet, followed immediately by a significant avalanche trap. This entire lower section is south-facing. During a previous winter visit in a similarly low-snow year, this terrain was largely dry. Above this, about 1.5 miles of trees and shallow ravines involve straightforward bushwhacking, with knee-deep snow in places. I chose not to bring snowshoes—postholing was preferable to hauling them through deadfall. The upper basin is also south-facing but doesn’t get sun, additional postholing ensued.

At approximately 12,300 feet, the climbing begins. Based on satellite imagery, I anticipated either hard slab or a potential ice climb on the right. Instead, I ascended high to the first gully, then downclimbed about 30 feet to place ice tools and crampons into the snow. Conditions were excellent—firm, supportive snow throughout. I continued upward, ultimately climbing 1,200 feet of south-facing snow in ideal conditions.

The couloir is divided into four distinct sections. The first begins moderately and steepens to roughly 40 degrees, trending left. The second section eases considerably and is the widest portion of the climb. The third tightens again and, in a heavier snow year, could present small bergschrunds. This section also includes a mandatory off-camber rock step with limited handholds and poor rock quality, followed by another leftward jog. The final section turns sharply right, steepens, and offers better holds, leading directly to the saddle.

From the saddle, approximately 350 feet of solid, enjoyable rock climbing leads to the summit. Protection opportunities are plentiful, though the climbing is easy enough to free solo. I carried rock shoes, a full rack, and a 40-meter rope—but ended up using none of it.
Will post more later especially info on this new route that was established by me, Supra and Whiley this summer. It is an excellent alternative to Peak Fifteen that bypasses Ruby Basin and the Little Finger saddle. 

Route: South Couloir via Ruby Basin
Posted On: 9/25/2025, By: Skimo95
Info: Could use paper. Came from turret saddle, what a day! Will post more later. Snow on Monitor group.

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Due to lingering snow in the little finger gulley, I opted to approach from the turret saddle. Thanks to Mr Kirk for his LOJ gpx track. Few ups and downs but overall a straight forward cliff traverse. The gully/couloir was wet which made things interesting. Bypassed the 5.4 crack on the side to a similar grade solo. 5.2 crack was easy as 5.2 gets, and it was a great ascent from there. Thanks to the Chicago Transplant picture of the G&M route, it made things obvious. I appreciated having a few rappel stations in decent shape, and was able to get out without issue. The gulley is a bowling alley and I would be hesitant to climb with others I don’t know personally in it/following another group (which would be extremely rare). This peak lived up to its hype, and the traverse from turret was jaw dropping. 10/10 

Route: South Couloir via Ruby Basin
Posted On: 7/7/2024, By: supranihilest
Info: We didn't actually climb Fifteen or the couloir, this is just a beta pic of the Little Finger access couloir, which is still holding snow. 

Route: From New York Creek
Posted On: 9/10/2023, By: Will_E
Info: Daytrip to Peak 15 yesterday from Purgatory. I bushwhacked up New York Creek, which was absolutely miserable, just like Preston told me it would be;)

Rap stations (4) all looked good to me, I only used the one near summit and the first one in the gully. The gully had small water flows in much of the steep sections. 

Route: South Couloir via Ruby Basin
Posted On: 9/26/2022, By: JDroz
Info: After the two previous days of heavy rain, the rock in the area was saturated, crumbly and icy in spots. After finishing the Eolus's without any hiccups, we dropped into New York basin and ascended the south couloir, topping out on Sixteen; however, we ultimately decided against Fifteen (and onto Turret and Pigeon) given the wet and deteriorated rock quality we found in the couloir. Water was running through the gut, so we had to find 5.notchill work-arounds to avoid the moisture in areas. We would have felt comfortable completing the route if we brought pro, but only had our trail runners at the time and felt bailing was most pertinent to our situation. The next day on the Monitor-Thirteen-Animas traverse, conditions were drier but one still needed an abundance of caution on shaded slopes. 

Route: South Couloir via Ruby Basin
Posted On: 7/12/2022, By: Wildernessjane
Info: Summited Peak Fifteen from Ruby Basin. There was snow in the scree/approach gully but it was avoidable. The lower half of the couloir was pretty wet in sections but doable. Took the Garrett and Martin variation instead of the standard slabs, which was easy enough to locate thanks to the Chicago Transplant's Summitpost picture (many thanks!). Used Metolius UL cams #7 and 8 in the first anchor and #1 and small black Tricam in the second (would take a third small peice if doing it again and bringing up followers - #2 was too big). I also used a couple small/medium sized pieces (#2 or 3 and 5 to protect my seconds on the traverse). We used a 60 meter half rope folded over, which was great for the first pitch but needed to simul a short distance to get to a decent anchor on the second. Leader is basically soloing the crux section but rock quality was pretty good here, especially relative to the rest of the mountain, and it is short. We reinforced/backed up a couple of the rappel anchors and carried out some old tat. I would recommend taking some extra webbing and examining the conditions of the anchors. Storms are building really fast right now. We had clear skies on the summit but got rained/hailed on as we were scrambling down to the last rappel station in the couloir. Fortunately the storm moved through pretty quickly. I also think this gave us better traction on the approach/scree gully as this descent was much more pleasant than expected. 

Route: South Couloir via Ruby Basin
Posted On: 8/4/2021, By: Shattuck311
Info: South Couloir has running water but no snow left. All rap stations on the way down have good slings. Summit register needs a pen/pencil if anyone is willing to carry one up :) 

Route: South Couloir via Ruby Basin
Posted On: 7/31/2021, By: tjf242424
Info: The approach gully from Ruby Basin is dry. There's actually snow buried under the gravel, but we didn't even realize until we were plunge stepping on the way down and uncovered the snow. But no need for any special gear. The south couloir between Peak Fifteen and Sixteen is obvious when you've reached it. There is lots of water running down the gully and both 4th class sections are very wet but climbable in approach shoes. The exit from the gully is fairly obvious, but I have no idea where the best line for the crux pitch might go. The line we climbed was easy, but the rock quality was pretty poor. After unroping, the rest of the way to the summit was obvious. There's no writing implement in the summit register. We made multiple rappels on the descent, including down the wet 4th class sections of the gully. The water would make downclimbing fairly tricky. Once back to the Little Finger saddle, the descent back to camp goes quickly. We did it in 8:15 camp to camp.

Photo: Leave the Animas River Trail where a long line of tree branches placed end to end point the way to the start of the Ruby Basin Trail. 

Route: South Couloir via Ruby Basin
Posted On: 6/25/2021, By: desertdog
Info: We hiked in from Purgatory Flats TH. Lots of downed trees after the Columbine Carving on the Aspen Tree. This made following the trail tough, so there was some bushwacking. It took us 9 hours to reach the lakes. There is snow both on the slope to the saddle and the gully to the technical section. I think this made the climb to the saddle a bit easier. We used crampons and our axes in both areas. Also water is running down the gully. We descended in a light rain. Get ready for a long day. It took us 12.5 from our camp at the lake. 

Route: South Couloir via Ruby Basin
Posted On: 9/9/2020, By: Marmot72
Info: Route was as dry as could be wished for, with only a few traces of water in the ascent gully, but then the peak got 6-12 inches of snow on 9/8. Register has no writing utensil. 

Route: South Couloir via Ruby Basin
Posted On: 8/16/2020, By: angry
Info: Hiked in 17 miles from Purgatory to camp at ~11,400. Ascended the couloir east of Peak 15 between Little Finger and Point 13,290 which was crap scree. From the saddle, we made a descending traverse to about ~12,500 to the south facing col. There was some water running in the class 4 section but it is easy climbing so we just scrambled up. We traversed over to the 5.4 crux pitch and that is when we brought out the rope, placing only one nut for pro. This was also very short and easy. From there, a quick jaunt to the summit. On the descent, we missed the first rappel station and ended up down climbing to the rap anchor that puts you at the 15/16 saddle. A quick ascent of 16 and then we down climbed to the top of the wet class 4 section and used the two rap anchors there to descend. 

Route: South Couloir via Ruby Basin
Posted On: 7/1/2020, By: Jakomait
Info: Bit of snow and wet rock up the S Couloir, upper part is totally dry. Rap anchors are in OK shape, most have some new steel biners on them, thanks to who ever did that. 

Route: South Couloir via Ruby Basin
Posted On: 7/3/2018, By: illusion7il
Info: The peak is so dry there wasn't even a trickle of water in the couloir. Took a beating pushing my way up and down the New York creek drainage. All rap stations had 4-5 pieces of webbing/slings and I'm sure they are all from last year, but they obviously all held me. Smoke got very dense in the afternoon. Summit pic was at 2pm. Big thanks to Hoot for putting up the route description as it worked perfectly. The republic of Texas summit register is in rough shape. John Kirk started a new one last year is the only signature.

Thoughts: The rock quality is horrible. I can not believe how many hand and foot placements just crumbled away. Hopefully I cleaned up the climb a little for the next person. There is no way I could have climbed this without rock shoes. A 60m rope worked great for all the rappels. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 8/10/2017, By: Stratosfearsome
Info: Peak 15 today from camp at Ruby Lake. Animas and Monitor on Tuesday after I aborted my first attempt on fifteen because of 8am rain storms. Too dangerous. Wednesday it rained at 6:30am. Took a rest day. Not a drop all day today, Thursday, 8/10/17. Backpacked out to Purgatory Flats after the climb. Ouch.

Anyways, Peak 15 is a chossy, steep, complex beast. The 15-16 couloir has zero snow, but quite a bit of water running down it. Various places on the face were wet from monsoon seepage, but avoidable. The gully up from Ruby Basin, east of little finger has some snow coverage but I bypassed it easily on the left (east.)
Free solo up, rappelled one 70 foot section back to 15-16 saddle. Bring your A game.
Also, strangely, there was a Republic of Texas Mountaineers summit register up top. Wonder how that got there...