Monitor Peak

Route: Standard route from Ruby Basin
Posted On: 6/18/2025, By: bdloftin77
Info: The Ruby Basin valley is dry. The route is fairly dry with mostly avoidable snow. When you reach the diagonal ledge below Peak Thirteen, there's some snow inside at points, but it's mostly avoidable. There's one short but very steep stretch where we used both ice axes and crampons. The snow was steep and pretty hard. Upon descent, it was much softer and we only used axes. Near the low crux scramble on Monitor, there is a very small snow crossing that was easier than expected, using a boulder in the middle to aid in our crossing. Further up there are only occasional, small snowfields to cross. Ascending Monitor was much less of an endeavor than ascending Pigeon. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/7/2024, By: supranihilest
Info: Super fun scramble if you find the right way up it. This peak has a huge number of options and others have mentioned route finding difficulties in conditions reports and trip reports, so having a clear idea of what the route is beforehand is helpful. We didn't and we tried all sorts of scary stuff before finding a better way. From the basin below Monitor there are a whole bunch of gullies up the face. Some can be scrambled. We climbed one that went at Class 4/5.easy but bailed higher up, though we think it would go. We also scrambled up scary Class 4, down sloping, gravel-covered ledges a bit farther north. Those did lead to the right place between Thirteen and Monitor but holy hell they were scary. The easiest way up is to go all the way to the end of the basin, directly against the cliffs below Thirteen where there are large white streaks across the rock, and look for an obvious ramp there. Trip reports mention "two ledges" but this ledge is hard to see even from almost directly below it, so it doesn't appear that there are actually two ledges until you're on it. A better visual cue is to just go to the cliffs and hug the cliffs. That ramp will take you to the upper slopes between Thirteen and Monitor. From these slopes a number of huge towers and gullies impede direct ridge progress. Go to the first gully and look for a triangular shaped rock with a white dot on the upper tip. That rock is right below the crux Class 3 scramble. You'll have to find a way to down climb into the gully - Class 2+ to Class 3 on crummy ledges - and then across the gully to the triangle rock, then up the ledges to the right. As mentioned this is the crux, something like 30 feet of Class 3 on gravel-covered ledges. This leads around a corner to another ledge and gully. Basically stay completely level, do not go up or down! Continue crossing gullies until you reach a wide gully (the widest you'll encounter) with a very obvious vertical white dike running up and down the middle of it. This is the gully you now want to ascend to the ridge crest. The rock making up the dike is surprisingly solid and unique. It's only like a foot wide but the dike makes an excellent scramble. Take it to the ridge crest where more Class 3 blocks and ledges, now much more solid than the stuff below you, guide you to the summit. Carefully reverse the route exactly. While most reports call Monitor a Class 4 peak we didn't think it was harder than Class 3 if following this route - take that with a grain of salt. 

Route: Ruby Basin
Posted On: 9/20/2023, By: dwoodward13
Info: 2-4 inches of snow above 13k'. It looks pretty dry from Ruby Lake but don't let that fool you, the portions above the first gully are snow covered making for an incredibly tricky climb (also some wayward cairns didn't help...). We used a rope and spikes for this portion of the climb due to the downsloping rocks and slippery conditions. Would not have continued without the rope. More big storms after we left the basin probably added additional snow. Would not expect a snow free ascent until next summer. 

Route: cliffs below saddle w 13
Posted On: 9/9/2020, By: Marmot72
Info: Due to the snowstorm moving in, we cut short our stay in Ruby by eliminating Pigeon and Turret, and getting Monitor-Thirteen-Animas early before packing out. With headlamps, we explored the headwall beneath Thirteen-Monitor saddle and the third gully (closest to Monitor) is the one that goes at class 3-4, rather than mid-5. 

Route: Ruby Basin
Posted On: 8/16/2020, By: angry
Info: Spent a lot of time route finding. There were a couple cairns in places that didn't make much sense and cause wasted time backtracking. The crux was the down climb we used to reach the Peak 13 saddle which was very exposed and required extra caution. There probably was an easier way, but we didn't feel like climbing back up to find it.