This guy ended up being a really fun ridge, one I’d absolutely repeat again. I found zero beta on the ridge save for a single mention of it being class 4, so I was excited to try it out and see what I’d find.

TL;DR – a great fairly sustained 1000+ vert class 3 scramble with a few optional spots of class 4 on mostly solid rock, guarded by a crappy talus/scree approach from South Colony road.

• Date: September 6, 2025
• Mileage: 6.8 from upper Scolony TH and up to camp at lower Scolony lake (add on another mile or two if returning to the TH)
• Vert: 4,100 from upper Scolony TH (3,500 if returning to the TH)
• Class: 3+ (low 4 if staying ridge proper, bypasses likely exist to keep it cl3)

The weekend began with a Friday night pack in from the lower South Colony TH to camp with friends at the Upper TH. I hate Scolony road because I always see Subarus at the upper TH and then feel like a weenie for not trying to make it up. Saturday I got a leisurely start at 7:20am; the weather forecast was good until late afternoon and friends were having a chill morning cooking breakfast so time wasn’t of the essence and an alpine start wasn’t needed. The hike up old Scolony road was uneventful though longer than I remembered and I dropped my overnight pack at the closed upper upper TH/Humboldt trail junction, around an hour into the climb. I continued on the road to just past the creek crossing at a little above 11k, where I left the trail onto talus and the unknown began.

The approach kinda… sucked. I had started the off-trail portion so high up to avoid an unknown bushwack that looked kinda heinous from the road, so the entire thing would be on talus and I needed to backtrack around ½ a mile east to hit a gully I’d spotted to reach the ridge. I made the mistake of going to high to start, ascending on talus up to 11,700. This left me with ¼ mile sidehill east to hit the gully I wanted, all on talus and loose scree. It’s usually better to ascend or descent than sidehill talus, so this traverse over was brutal. Like take-a-step-and-have-the-mountain-slide-out-underneath-you type brutal. Fun. I’d highly recommend my descent route instead of this ascent, where you’d stay right next to treeline on much lower angle talus up until almost underneath the gully, then go straight up, which avoids the nasty sidehill

After a few choice words, I made it to the base of the golden ticket gully at 11,800. The gully was all scree, which was actually a lot better than the mixed talus/scree. A very faint trail also exists in here, which sort of shocked me. I guess it’s an ascent route to Hanging Lake? After about 100 feet in the gully I ditched my trekking poles and hit the ridge, 2 hours 15 min into the climb.

Given part of the reason this ridge was so fun for me was the unknown aspect, I’ll try to keep beta light to preserve that for others. The scrambling starts just above 12,000 and is semi-sustained class 3 on the ridge proper up until about 12,400. Staying left of the ridge could keep it class 2. The rock in here isn’t really crestone conglomerate but is still decently solid, fractured rock. 12,400 to 12,600 is a steeper section with conglomerate appearing and class 4 if staying ridge proper, though bypasses can keep it class 3. After 12,600, the ridge steepens. This was my favorite part as it was sustained scrambling for the entire section up to a bit above 13,100. I weaved between ridge proper, just left of ridge, and just right of ridge to find paths of least resistance; my line was largely class 3 with a few spots of 4 for fun. Staying proper the entire time might even offer a few low class 5 lines. The views on the ridge are incredible, looking up the ridge is beautiful and looking to the right at any time means great views of the Needle and Broken Hand Peak.

At around 13,100, the scrambling subsides as the ridge intersects with Marble’s W ridge. This also provides the first views down into Sand Creek basin, opening up a new host of peaks to marvel (marble?) at. From here it was an easy traverse to the true summit of Marble Mountain. I summitted Marble at 11:15, 4 hours in.

The easiest descent of Marble would be to descent it’s proper NE ridge, which has detailed beta and would drop you back down at the Rainbow Trail TH. I think this would make a nice loop overall from the Rainbow TH and would give a nice easy descent to cap the day. However, I was meeting friends up at the South Colony Lakes to camp out for the evening, so I needed to descent back into Scolony basin. I began descending the NE ridge but quickly veered left to descent the north slopes. In general this was a pretty easy part to descend, mostly just steep grass. Towards the bottom things got a bit steeper and rockier as I cut left to head towards Hanging Lake, but still wasn’t too bad. Once in Hanging Lake’s basin, I did a quick bushwack through the willows and krummholz on the lower (northern) side of the lake at a bit below 11,800. Not super fun but was only ~5 mins or so of bushwacking. I then re-ascended ~100 feet and contoured a bit west to make it back to my trekking poles and the top of the gully back into the talus field. The gully was very scree skiable down, so I dropped the 100 feet of it in no time

As mentioned before, my descent route was much better than my ascent route. After the gully I pretty much scree skied straight down. I’d call this a blue square scree ski, as it’s a bit steep and there are a decent number of rocks to contend with. Once at the bottom of the slope, at around 11,300 and basically at tree line, I contoured west on a level mix of talus and tree bushwack. Before long I was back at Scolony road and then quickly back to my pack at the upper upper trailhead.

My pack was heavier than usual thanks to some rocks my friends put in it on their hike up (which I found immediately). My legs were tired after 3k+ of ascent thus far, but it was an easy pack in from there up to camp near lower Scolony lake. The afternoon was spent relaxing by lower Scolony lake, watching friends and losing at Spades. Sunday morning was an ascent of Humboldt with the squad, a pack out, and a ride in a Taco truck bed from upper to lower TH.

All in all a great weekend in the Blood of Christ mountains!