Pyramid Peak Trip Report 10/05/2016

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Pyramid Peak - 14,029 feet
Date Posted	10/05/2016
Date Climbed	10/01/2016
Author	andrew85

To Pyramid and Back!
After having to work pretty much every Saturday this month, I finally got a full weekend off and with a clear forecast from at least three different sources (http://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Pyramid-Peak/forecasts/4273, http://www.hikercast.com/plots/14ersdash.html, and http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/aspen-co/81611/weather-forecast/56510_poi--well this one said chance of thunderstorms at 2PM but I figured if I started early enough I could beat that), l figured there may not be a better opportunity to get Pyramid before the year's end. Was hoping to start at 4AM Saturday morning, but I overslept and only left Colorado Springs at 1:30. Got to the trailhead around 4:45 and only ended up starting at 5:17... First light! North Maroon around the corner as the defined trail nears its end So marks the end of the trail with Pyramid dead ahead--pretty much bolder hopping and trail fragments going forward If there's one thing I can say about the overall climb is to not underestimate the overall difficulty based on the round trip--8.25 miles may not sound like much but once the trail splits from the Crater Lake trail after about 1.25 miles, it's pretty much continuously uphill and frequently steep the whole way with very few letups, one of those being the talus at the base of the amphitheater. There's a "trail" along the right side through here Crossing over to the amphitheater, things got sketchy with all the frost on the talus. Was concerned going forward, but it wa Up until now, conditions had been fairly favorable, but here I found myself sliding quite a bit on what appeared to be frost (as opposed to light or fresh snow) as I tried to navigate through. The temperature noticeably dropped to freezing around 12,000, which caught me unprepared as I left my heavier gloves behind and I couldn't feel my fingers through my climbing gloves. I had to stop for about a half an hour trying to shake warmth into them again before proceeding up the amphitheater. They started to go numb again as I neared the saddle to the extent that I thought about turning around (seeing as I knew there'd be climbing ahead), but I figured the sun was up above the saddle and I'd likely be in better shape once I was out of the shade. After sitting on my hands for about 20 minutes, it was clear that it was beginning to warm up and with clear sight of the summit at this point, I was like "alright, I can do this." The remaining trail from the saddle Fortunately all this snow was away from the route The route into the final 1,000 ft was fairly well carined. I had heard about this "leap of faith" and while it's narrow enough to take a long step across and guide your momentum accordingly, I felt more stable taking a controlled jump... The cliff ledges approach The leap of faith Lol, not the end of the world if you fell here, but I imagine you'd get pretty banged up Shortly afterward was the entrance to this wall of green rock, visually one of the most intimidating sights of the whole route. The green wall--fun, stable climb but an intimidating sight for sure (the angle's not this extreme, was just trying to get it the frame) From everything I'd read, you pretty much have to climb at least some of it, but it looks like there have been attempts to establish an alternate route alongside to gain more elevation before crossing over (I saw a stray carins while climbing the green rock seemingly leading to nowhere and tried out one of them on the descent just to be sure). The final push to the summit was pretty much a free for all. The carins that were there served as good checkpoints, but they were so far apart that they were easy to lose sight of and I found myself backtracking after cliffing out to figure out where the next one was. Looking down after ascending the green wall Still ice and snow around on the route, though few and far between (even this I could have gone around) I get the feeling this is a taste of what the Bells are like Summit in sight! I think I made a lot of my own route through here, but I was able to find where I was supposed to be (looks like there are many options to gain the summit ridge, though the one in the route description is probably the easiest one). But finally, at 12:35, I summitted! Lol, not the best of times I imagine (not to mention losing about an hour trying to rewarm my hands and trying to be extra careful on class 4 terrain), but I'll take it! I definitely soaked in being on the summit for a good hour with some of the best views of the Elks one could ask for. The Bells from the summit First time seeing a summit benchmark! The others were always covered in snow. Forgot my marker and had to buy a sharpie at the gas station--I was able to get it off though My old traveling laptop bag makes for a nice day pack--able to fit whiteboard, camera, tripod, folding helmet, two bottles of water, a bottle of Gatorade, a Lifestraw bottle, various snacks, microspikes, and a small first aid kit--didn't even need the trekking poles or the ice axe, or so I thought... lol, more on that later. Looking across to Snowmass and Capitol, I saw what looked to be some intimating clouds accumulating and I was getting nervous, especially when I saw that the clouds were slowly moving toward me. Clouds accumulating over Snowmass and Capitol are looking rather intimidating I started descending around 1:30 and was trying to get down as quickly (but safely) as possible but the whole time,any clouds that came just passed over--no density, no precipitation, no thunder! Lol, guess that "chance" of thunderstorms kept me on edge a bit and though I was fortunate it stayed clear, I'd have been breathing much easier had the clouds kept their distance... Looking down towards the saddle toward the amphitheater during the descent My one disappointment up to this point was that pretty much every trip report of Pyramid mentions goats and to this point I hadn't seen any. I had just finished descending down to the saddle before the amphitheater and there stood a goat standing between me and the remaining trail. I moved ahead slowly and she (I think this one was female) circled around me, joined by her kid as we exchanged platforms. From a distance, I'm trying to get good pictures and video but she keeps coming closer. I step back, she moves closer (lol, I don't know--maybe she didn't like me taking pictures). I was running out of space to back up safely at which point I put the camera away and continued toward the amphitheater, thinking I'd left them behind. But sure enough, I get further down the trail and I see this goat gaining on me on an upper ledge. At this point, I'm getting kind of nervous--some of those youtube videos of mountain goat fights were playing in my head as I couldn't figure out why this goat kept following me so once I got to the flat portion at the top of the amphitheater, I decided to make a stand. I assembled my trekking poles (next step was going to by my ice axe if it came to that, but I was hoping to get her to back down as peacefully as possible), pointed one at her, and held my position hoping to convey that I wasn't backing down any further. After about a 45 second staredown, she walked down to the lower ledge, and looked like she wanted to sleep--until her kid came and woke her up. At this point, I figured this was my chance to sneak down the amphitheater--little did I know they'd be waiting for me about 4/5ths of the way down but when I noticed them, they turned around and climbed back up. Once I got to the bottom, I figured I'd check my backpack because something must have been making them follow me like that--sure enough I had a half eaten cheese stick and a half eaten powerbar with the packaging still open, so I can only conclude that the scent must have been drawing them to me--lesson learned! Lol, they look kind of peaceful in these pictures, hardly representative of my ordeal with them-I'll see if I can post a video later Well, that about did it for my adventure--the remaining downclimb was pretty uneventful outside of soreness and fatigue finally beginning to settle in. One final look back on the way down After sleeping in the parking lot for about an hour and downing a bunch of warm energy drinks, I still recovered enough to make it back to Colorado Springs Saturday night so all in all, still managed a day summit! Overall, my sixth summit was a fun and challenging experience. I'll say doing Capitol last year definitely helped me know what to expect from class 4 terrain and I think moreso than Capitol, I got exposed to this loose maroon rock that I can expect from the Bells whenever I get around to attempting them, though I would really like to get Snowmass behind me before anything else. I attempted it on Independence Day but with the approach being so long, by the time I got past Snowmass Lake and actually had to begin climbing, I was completely drained and I was getting sick as well and ended up turning back. I've been able to day summit everything so far, but if I have the opportunity to go back out there again, I may have to camp that one :/. Anyway, that's my first trip report! I know I have a tendency to be longwinded, but hopefully it was helpful. Lol, I'll try to be more concise next time. PS: Just remembered that miraculously I started getting reception again from about 13,500ft on up--I heard a bunch of notification chimes going off and saw that I had a pretty decent signal! Now how I'm able to get a signal at the summit, but it's completely useless at the parking lot is beyond me... Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

To Pyramid and Back!

After having to work pretty much every Saturday this month, I finally got a full weekend off and with a clear forecast from at least three different sources (http://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Pyramid-Peak/forecasts/4273, http://www.hikercast.com/plots/14ersdash.html, and http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/aspen-co/81611/weather-forecast/56510_poi--well this one said chance of thunderstorms at 2PM but I figured if I started early enough I could beat that), l figured there may not be a better opportunity to get Pyramid before the year's end. Was hoping to start at 4AM Saturday morning, but I overslept and only left Colorado Springs at 1:30. Got to the trailhead around 4:45 and only ended up starting at 5:17...

North Maroon around the corner as the defined trail nears its end

So marks the end of the trail with Pyramid dead ahead--pretty much bolder hopping and trail fragments going forward

If there's one thing I can say about the overall climb is to not underestimate the overall difficulty based on the round trip--8.25 miles may not sound like much but once the trail splits from the Crater Lake trail after about 1.25 miles, it's pretty much continuously uphill and frequently steep the whole way with very few letups, one of those being the talus at the base of the amphitheater.

There's a "trail" along the right side through here

Crossing over to the amphitheater, things got sketchy with all the frost on the talus. Was concerned going forward, but it wa

Up until now, conditions had been fairly favorable, but here I found myself sliding quite a bit on what appeared to be frost (as opposed to light or fresh snow) as I tried to navigate through. The temperature noticeably dropped to freezing around 12,000, which caught me unprepared as I left my heavier gloves behind and I couldn't feel my fingers through my climbing gloves. I had to stop for about a half an hour trying to shake warmth into them again before proceeding up the amphitheater. They started to go numb again as I neared the saddle to the extent that I thought about turning around (seeing as I knew there'd be climbing ahead), but I figured the sun was up above the saddle and I'd likely be in better shape once I was out of the shade. After sitting on my hands for about 20 minutes, it was clear that it was beginning to warm up and with clear sight of the summit at this point, I was like "alright, I can do this."

Fortunately all this snow was away from the route

The route into the final 1,000 ft was fairly well carined. I had heard about this "leap of faith" and while it's narrow enough to take a long step across and guide your momentum accordingly, I felt more stable taking a controlled jump...

Lol, not the end of the world if you fell here, but I imagine you'd get pretty banged up

Shortly afterward was the entrance to this wall of green rock, visually one of the most intimidating sights of the whole route.

The green wall--fun, stable climb but an intimidating sight for sure (the angle's not this extreme, was just trying to get it the frame)

From everything I'd read, you pretty much have to climb at least some of it, but it looks like there have been attempts to establish an alternate route alongside to gain more elevation before crossing over (I saw a stray carins while climbing the green rock seemingly leading to nowhere and tried out one of them on the descent just to be sure).

The final push to the summit was pretty much a free for all. The carins that were there served as good checkpoints, but they were so far apart that they were easy to lose sight of and I found myself backtracking after cliffing out to figure out where the next one was.

Looking down after ascending the green wall

Still ice and snow around on the route, though few and far between (even this I could have gone around)

I get the feeling this is a taste of what the Bells are like

I think I made a lot of my own route through here, but I was able to find where I was supposed to be (looks like there are many options to gain the summit ridge, though the one in the route description is probably the easiest one).

But finally, at 12:35, I summitted! Lol, not the best of times I imagine (not to mention losing about an hour trying to rewarm my hands and trying to be extra careful on class 4 terrain), but I'll take it! I definitely soaked in being on the summit for a good hour with some of the best views of the Elks one could ask for.

First time seeing a summit benchmark! The others were always covered in snow.

Forgot my marker and had to buy a sharpie at the gas station--I was able to get it off though

My old traveling laptop bag makes for a nice day pack--able to fit whiteboard, camera, tripod, folding helmet, two bottles of water, a bottle of Gatorade, a Lifestraw bottle, various snacks, microspikes, and a small first aid kit--didn't even need the trekking poles or the ice axe, or so I thought... lol, more on that later.

Looking across to Snowmass and Capitol, I saw what looked to be some intimating clouds accumulating and I was getting nervous, especially when I saw that the clouds were slowly moving toward me.

Clouds accumulating over Snowmass and Capitol are looking rather intimidating

I started descending around 1:30 and was trying to get down as quickly (but safely) as possible but the whole time,any clouds that came just passed over--no density, no precipitation, no thunder! Lol, guess that "chance" of thunderstorms kept me on edge a bit and though I was fortunate it stayed clear, I'd have been breathing much easier had the clouds kept their distance...

Looking down towards the saddle toward the amphitheater during the descent

My one disappointment up to this point was that pretty much every trip report of Pyramid mentions goats and to this point I hadn't seen any. I had just finished descending down to the saddle before the amphitheater and there stood a goat standing between me and the remaining trail. I moved ahead slowly and she (I think this one was female) circled around me, joined by her kid as we exchanged platforms. From a distance, I'm trying to get good pictures and video but she keeps coming closer. I step back, she moves closer (lol, I don't know--maybe she didn't like me taking pictures). I was running out of space to back up safely at which point I put the camera away and continued toward the amphitheater, thinking I'd left them behind. But sure enough, I get further down the trail and I see this goat gaining on me on an upper ledge. At this point, I'm getting kind of nervous--some of those youtube videos of mountain goat fights were playing in my head as I couldn't figure out why this goat kept following me so once I got to the flat portion at the top of the amphitheater, I decided to make a stand. I assembled my trekking poles (next step was going to by my ice axe if it came to that, but I was hoping to get her to back down as peacefully as possible), pointed one at her, and held my position hoping to convey that I wasn't backing down any further. After about a 45 second staredown, she walked down to the lower ledge, and looked like she wanted to sleep--until her kid came and woke her up. At this point, I figured this was my chance to sneak down the amphitheater--little did I know they'd be waiting for me about 4/5ths of the way down but when I noticed them, they turned around and climbed back up. Once I got to the bottom, I figured I'd check my backpack because something must have been making them follow me like that--sure enough I had a half eaten cheese stick and a half eaten powerbar with the packaging still open, so I can only conclude that the scent must have been drawing them to me--lesson learned!

Lol, they look kind of peaceful in these pictures, hardly representative of my ordeal with them-I'll see if I can post a video later

Well, that about did it for my adventure--the remaining downclimb was pretty uneventful outside of soreness and fatigue finally beginning to settle in.

One final look back on the way down

After sleeping in the parking lot for about an hour and downing a bunch of warm energy drinks, I still recovered enough to make it back to Colorado Springs Saturday night so all in all, still managed a day summit! Overall, my sixth summit was a fun and challenging experience. I'll say doing Capitol last year definitely helped me know what to expect from class 4 terrain and I think moreso than Capitol, I got exposed to this loose maroon rock that I can expect from the Bells whenever I get around to attempting them, though I would really like to get Snowmass behind me before anything else. I attempted it on Independence Day but with the approach being so long, by the time I got past Snowmass Lake and actually had to begin climbing, I was completely drained and I was getting sick as well and ended up turning back. I've been able to day summit everything so far, but if I have the opportunity to go back out there again, I may have to camp that one :/.

Anyway, that's my first trip report! I know I have a tendency to be longwinded, but hopefully it was helpful. Lol, I'll try to be more concise next time.

PS: Just remembered that miraculously I started getting reception again from about 13,500ft on up--I heard a bunch of notification chimes going off and saw that I had a pretty decent signal! Now how I'm able to get a signal at the summit, but it's completely useless at the parking lot is beyond me...

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

MtnHub	Nice job! 10/5/2016 7:11am Nice report on this marvelous Elk! I think all of your descriptions are spot on with how I experienced them. I also have trouble keeping my hands from freezing up (worse the older I get probably due to poorer circulation), so I aways keep a good pair of mittens in my pack now as gloves can sometimes make it worse. Maybe the goats could smell your cheese, etc, but I wonder if they were just waiting for you to pee. They are so starved for salt in their diets and they know human urine is high in salt content. As far as cell service, I'm not a techy, but I've always thought signals get blocked down in the trees and valleys, so when you're up high in a more unobstructed line to transmitting towers, you get better signals. Thanks for sharing your trip! :D
Jay521	Very nice! 10/5/2016 8:46am Very nice first report - I hope you will do more. And to echo what MtnHub said - on my aborted attempt @ Pyramid a couple years ago, a goat at the saddle wouldn't leave us alone until one of us peed. Next time I try Pyramid, I'm going to take along some salt tablets.
swampthing	Mama Goat Don't Play 10/5/2016 10:07am They sure can be pesky! I loved your write-up and I really appreciate your photos. The "Leap of Faith" seemed a lot worse in my mind. Definitely will reference your report when I get brave enough to try Pyramid someday
maxhikes14ers	Awesome 10/5/2016 2:59pm Great job, sounds like and amazing trip! That is so funny with the goat! Back in 2012, when I was 11, I had a similar experience being chased by a goat on the summit ridge of Pyramid. Every time I climbed onto the final ridge, it would start jogging toward me, so I'd retreat. It wouldn't let me on the summit :lol: ! A minute later, when the rest of my group caught up, we all went up together and it left. I love mountain goats
Rambler	Great report 10/5/2016 10:46pm I climbed Pyramid 9/17/16 and you are pretty spot on, especially about finding your own way after the green wall. Carins were hard to see from below but much easier to find the right path going down. I ran into the exact goat/kid friends at that exact spot. We shooed them away buy being loud and banging our trekking poles together. I think it's because everyone takes a break (and probably pees) right after getting up the 'gully from hell' at that saddle. Such a tough mountain (consistently steep) but the views of the Elks and diving board can't be beat. Congrats!
andrew85	Thanks! 10/7/2016 9:40am Thanks for the input! Yeah, they're probably so used to human traffic through that area at this point that they know where to wait for us--salt tablets sound like a good idea, may divert them long enough to make a getaway if they're being persistent :). But yeah, I'd definitely like to write more of them--lol, it's just a matter of getting them up in a timely manner (had wanted to do one for Capitol, Grays & Torreys in winter but I figured so much time had passed that by the time I got around to posting, I didn't think it'd really be useful anymore).
Marmot72	great pics 10/11/2016 11:28am I enjoyed your shots from the summit of the surroundings and the goats. Pyramid is one of the best fourteeners -in my top five. You'l find either Bell by its standard route easier than this. The traverse, on the other hand...anyhow, thanks for posting!

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