Pacific Peak

Exit I-70 at Copper and follow CO 91 south for approximately 6 miles (or 4 miles north of Fremont Pass)to a large dirt parking area on the east side of the road. If you have 4WD and clearance you can drive up the valley for 1.4 miles to the ruins of the Boston Mine where you'll find parking for a small number of vehicles.

Taken from Atlantic Peak's west ridge,  1 shows Pacific's entire west ridge. This is not the standard route on Pacific but it provides a short, technical climb albeit on fairly loose rock. From the paved, 2wd trailhead hike or drive (good-clearance Awd/4wd) 1.4 miles up Mayflower Gulch road to reach the Boston Mine area, at 11,500'. Park on the side of the road or in one of the pull-offs near the gate, just below the mine.

Pass the gate ( 2) and before reaching the old mine buildings, turn left and walk over to the willows in the center of Mayflower Creek. Bash through 50 yards of willows and hike north to the other side of Mayflower Creek -  3. Continue north up through the trees on a faint trail, toward Mayflower Hill -  4. If you can't find the trail, no worries, just keep hiking north until you reach Pacific Creek, near 11,800' -  5. Follow the trail east along the south side of the creek until it disappears, near 12,100'. Follow the creek east up to 12,200' ( 6), turn left and continue northeast toward the base of Pacific's west ridge -  7,  8 and  9. Taken from Atlantic's lower west ridge,  10 provides another look at the remaining route.

Near 12,600', begin hiking up the steep, loose rock ( 11) to reach Class 3 terrain, near 12,800' -  12. Bypass an initial, prominent point on the right ( 13,  14 and  15) and carefully climb back to the ridge crest -  16. Continue around some small rock outcroppings and up another steep section of rock -  17. From approx. 13,000',  18 looks back over the initial difficulties. Continue along the Class 3 ridge crest ( 19,  20 and  21) and you'll encounter sections of ugly rock. More than half way up the ridge, the difficulties ease a bit but care must be taken as you work your way along the ridge -  22 and  23. Above 13,500', you'll encounter one more Class 3 section -  24. Stay just right of the ridge crest and angle left near the top of this section to climb a steep, short, Class 3 gully ( 25) to regain the ridge. Continue along the ridge ( 26 and  27) to reach a bump, just west of the summit ( 28) where you can look over Pacific's north couloir, down to your left. Drop a few feet into a notch ( 29) and climb a short pitch to reach the top.