Peaks: Pearl Mountain and Oyster Peak
Date: 3/28/2026
Trailhead: Ashcroft (winter closure before Castle Creek)
Mileage: 15.8
Vert: 4,900'
With: Kyra and Ryan

With the absolutely horrible snow this year we knew we needed to take advantage of what little snow we did have. This might be a report from March, but it felt a whole lot more like June. I mostly wanted to make the report to highlight the variety of ways to link these peaks with low snow, and also complain about my own lack of fitness which made this a lot harder of a day

We started off the day at Ashcroft ghost town. There were some no camping signs, but several people camped in their cars with no issues. This is where the winter closure for castle creek road is, and it adds about 2 miles of paved road walk each way to the base of the castle creek dirt road turnoff. A tedious addition, but the road miles went fast. We took off at 3:30 and made really quick work of the road. Up to the creek crossing there was scattered snow, but a good freeze the night before made for a supportive walk.

The creek crossing at 10,200 has a super solid foot bridge that is high enough above the water to avoid any icing. The good news is that past the creek crossing there was continuous snow all the way to the summit. It was pretty boggy on the way down, so I would expect some patches of dirt to break that up pretty soon.

Around 11,200 the Montezuma Road up to Castle and Conundrum splits off, but you can head straight/left on the Pearl Pass Road for a while further. Shortly after you will pass a flat section with the Tagert Hut. The snow was supportive the whole time so we had hiked everything in just our trailrunners, but shortly after the hut we stashed our shoots in a tree and switched to skinning.

Shortly after the hut is a small creek crossing. There were a few small snow bridges across, but these were small and might disappear soon. With some creativity you can get across dry. After the creek, the basin climbed with some undulating hills with decent snow coverage even if large grass/rock patches had to be skirted around. In theory you could follow the Pearl Pass Road, but we thought it would be more efficient to just point up the drainage.

After climbing a few hundred vert of rolling hills, we got our first look at Oyster. We had planned to ski the broad north face, but things had melted out so much that it would have been hard to find a continuous line. You might be able to find something, but not what we hoped.

We decided to hit Pearl first and bobbed and weaved through the basin. Sometimes your snow would run out and you might have to billy goat across a tiny bit of grass, but it was pretty easy to navigate. Our plan was to climb and ski the North Bowl on Pearl, so we skirted around left to join up the obvious gulley between the massive ridge on the horizon and the smaller ridge closer to the approach. I thought it was fairly obvious, but a gpx will point you to the right entrance

The gully is wide and pretty mellow to climb. You could probably skin quite high up the bowl, but the snow was supportive and we switched to our spikes around 12,600 since the snow was so supportive.

The upper bowl definitely steepened, but it never got extreme. I didn't measure, but I expect it maxed out around 35 degrees except for right below the ridge which we skirted around. We aimed for the snow band heading climbers-left right below the summit. I'm not sure how long that band will be around, but it was decently wide

The true summit was melted, but I could touch the summit block with my ski pole when I clicked in so I'm counting that as good enough in my book. Since we wanted to tag another peak we dropped in early at 10:00. The north aspects were rock hard crust which made the initial drop a little spooky, but once we crossed the bowl to the NE aspect it softened nicely. If you are planning to link Pearl and Oyster you can drop down some short, steep chutes on skiers-left to keep your elevation. These were extremely icy for us. After dropping down we tried to stay as high as possible and head west towards the Pearl/Oyster saddle.

Most years there will be several options to snow climb Oyster. With the low snow this year the most viable seemed to gain the Pearl/Oyster saddle and then snow climb the ridge.

We transitioned back to our spikes around 12,500'. There were some steep skin tracks that showed how some brave (aka talented) skiers skinned all the way to the saddle, but the snow was quite nice for a bootpack.

Once at the saddle there was a thin thread of snow connecting the Oyster ridge. In the morning it might have been fine to climb, but we were post-holing in the slush and decided to boot the rocks next to it. This thread will probably melt out soon.

Since this was our 2nd peak of the day it was later than we had wanted. On the Oyster ridge at 12:15ish there was a decent amount of postholing. You could probably skin most of the ridge, but we stuck to our boots and had to grovel slightly. The elevation gain wasn't bad, but the ridge felt longer than it looked. Finally we reached the summit and all the grumbling was worth it. Beautiful views of all the elks and some much needed calories.

In a normal year there would be a ton of different ski options off of the summit of Oyster, ranging from mellow to extreme. Unfortunately the N face was so melted that we opted to just ski the ridge back down to the saddle.

The ski back down the ridge was actually pretty enjoyable. There are a few short sections which might melt out soon, but if you are determined you could ski all the way to the saddle.

From here it was just a matter of picking our way back down through the basin. We stayed high and traversed around the Oyster headwall back towards the huts.

Very tired but stoked on bagging two different ski descents in a single day, we party skied back down. The rolling hills in the basin were fun, and soon enough we were crossing the small creek and retrieving our trailrunners. The road down to the creek crossing was a quick ski, even if there were some frustrating sections of slight uphill. After the creek crossing it was back to booting it, and the last 4 miles were easy but extremely tedious road walking.

Pearl and Oyster aren't exactly the most talked about peaks to ski, but they offer some stunning views and many, many options for not crazy technical skiing. Definitely worth a visit if you want to ski something up high and not hate yourself while doing it. I think things should still be in this year for a few more weeks, but things are melting fast. Get after it!