This one has been on the list for a long while, ever since FireOnTheMountain allegedly traversed from Silver to Palmyra years ago. It was reportedly "gnarly."

I was planning to ride the gondola up from Telluride, but Carhenge was closed, so I drove up to Mountain Village, parked in the garage, and gondola'd to San Sophia Station from there. Instead of taking See Forever all the way, I decided to start on the Wapiti trail, which was nice until I had to grovel up a ski run to regain the ridge.

After Gold Hill and the catwalk I soon encountered the major buttress on the NE ridge. As is customary I went in blind and only discovered afterwards the NE ridge of Palmyra is documented here on 14ers.com. My version was a bit different. Though I went up the "tan colored, grassy chimney" many would consider 4th class, it appeared climbing the next gendarme would require an immediate descent off the other side, so instead I dropped down and contoured around it via a wide sandy gully. The documented route looks more engaging, but in fact the whole works can be bypassed east (left) and the NE ridge can be had at class 2+.

From Palmyra I met the crux of the traverse to Silver straightaway, a notch at the head of a steep-sided chute transecting the ridge. I located a narrow path into the notch on the east side, then dropped down the chute 50 ft. or so to a prominent corner, and contoured back up from there. For the remainder of the descent to the saddle, I was either on the ridge crest or traversing marginal ledges on the east (left) side to bypass drops. One 10-ft. blob I downclimbed directly, which sucked. From the saddle, the climb up to Silver was straightforward.

The whole ridge is cliffed on the west side, and the exposed eastern flank is composed of loose flakes stacked at 45 - 60 degrees, so while the going is mostly class 2+, it's fairly gripping for the grade.

From Silver I descended east briefly, then circled back down a ramp to reach a talus gully leading to Lena Basin, which I followed down to the Wasatch connector trail, returning via See Forever and an ill-advised detour on West Drain.