6/11/2023 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 6/13/2023, By: bribaker2001 Info: Icy snowfield at steep angle halfway up to the boulder field/amphitheater made trail dangerously slick and near impassible with microspikes and poles. Could wait until later in the day for snow to soften up, yet then there's also higher storm potential. |
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5/28/2023 Route: Area Posted On: 5/28/2023, By: WillRobnett Info: Hiked up an Aspen hill this morning for a good view of Pyramid. Summer colors are starting to come out all over the valley! |
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5/28/2023 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 5/29/2023, By: 1nt3rn3tc0wb0y Info: Very firm snow the whole way, but post holed a few times in the trees. The trail to the amphitheater is ~95% covered. I turned around at the ridge. |
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5/20/2023 Route: Northwest Ridge/West Gulley Posted On: 5/22/2023, By: HikerBox Info: Semi-continuous snow from ~1/2 mile below Crater Lake. Multiple snow bridges across Maroon Creek, the first of which is just upstream of Crater Lake but the avalanche path just below the gulley is also bridged over pretty well. Snow in the west gulley that leads to the NW ridge was solid below ~12,000 feet but turned into a less than supportive crust over dry facets that lead to some random hip deep post holing and a lot of calf deep boot packing. The crust skied really well around noon on a partly cloudy day with solid freeze overnight. Occasionally your tails would break through. The "rubble gulley" to the notch was dry so expect loose rock there. We turned around below it, out of time and our weather window closed. |
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5/15/2023 Route: Area Posted On: 5/15/2023, By: WillRobnett Info: Amphitheater approach holding snow. Trail by Maroon Lake mostly melted out. |
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5/5/2023 Route: view from below Posted On: 5/6/2023, By: WillRobnett Info: road opening soon, hearing 5/15 |
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4/29/2023 Route: Landry line Posted On: 5/2/2023, By: rangercarl Info: The landry line was "in" on 4/29, but the sidestep/choke didn't have much longer on it before it is a significant dry ski...the road was showing some bare spots (100ft or less), but those will be growing quickly. |
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10/22/2022 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 10/23/2022, By: MrSmileweil Info: #58! Finished just before a week long winter storm that has set in, so this report is probably out of date. Class 4 was pretty dry, but the upper amphitheater and some stretches on the ridge and towards the summit had some minor, packed snow. Climbed the mountain in suits with thermals underneath, which ended up being surprisingly comfortable. Somehow hit a weather window perfectly and it made for a great day! "No Pain, No Gain, No Champaign" |
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10/10/2022 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 10/11/2022, By: Misi197 Info: Summer conditions to the top of the amphitheater, at which point snow patches start up. The gully is doable without traction, although spikes are helpful for the trip down as freeze/thaw gets rolling. About as much dirt/mud as snow in the gully right now. Spikes from the saddle to the summit advisable. Crampons would be overkill. Gaiters helpful if you are in low tops. A few calf deep spots but nothing deeper. Harder technical moves after the saddle are all snow free. |
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9/29/2022 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 9/30/2022, By: Colorado-Hawaii Info: Clear all the way to the summit of snow. We (my step son Dan) had flurries twice on the way up. Two other individuals were near us going up, Corey & a gal from Findland who also summited. We missed the first turn off of trail 1975 and caught the second turn; use your gps to catch it correctly. After you come out of the trees you will eventually need to find the DIRT trail on your right of the rocks; missed this going up. The leap of Faith isn't a big deal; it's the ledge after that....it's very thin and you could catch your clothes and loose your balance if not taken slowly. Took us 11 hrs total from the parking lot. The last 1000' was slow and challenging finding the best path up the loose rock. |
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9/17/2022 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 9/19/2022, By: andrewpatterson33 Info: Snow was covering most of the ridge above the saddle through the morning. Definitely made for a slick ascent. The way down was better as the sun started to warm the ridge, but still slow going. If any more snow accumulates traction will be crucial, was not necessarily helpful on the loose rocks yet though. |
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9/10/2022 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 9/11/2022, By: EthanBeltramo Info: Summer conditions and trail is dry. Not technical until the leap of faith, then it is sustained class 3/4 all the way to the summit on loose rock. Saw plenty of goats. They will follow you around and do kick down some rocks so bring a helmet and watch out. |
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9/1/2022 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 9/1/2022, By: HikesInGeologicTime Info: The Leap of Faith seems like it might have sustained some damage in all the heavy rains that have happened since I last crossed it in July 2021. Back then, I'd been able to scramble around the leap with a series of decent hand/footholds. Today, I had to stretch my 5'6”, largely inflexible legs into a splits to cross it. Shorter people take note and care! Route is completely dry save for a bit of moisture at the base of the amphitheater that stayed on the trail through noon that made that part of the descent a smidgen easier than the rest of that miserable slog. |
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8/29/2022 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 8/30/2022, By: csf-lhiver Info: Started at 4:02 AM. Party of 3. Some muddy conditions on the way to the trailhead split for Pyramid due to rain the night before. The split to Pyramid trail mentioned at photo #3 is easy to miss. Even in the daylight it could be easy to miss. We spent a moment looking for it, 3 others were passing by to get one of the Maroon peaks and they pointed it out to us. No snow over the rock glacier. The 1000' of fun up to the saddle is a bit loose in spots but not as bad as it looks from far away. The green rock section is pretty loose in spots so just go slow (you can by pass all of this if you choose to go the climbers right (ascent) and do the staircase portion instead of the green rock, which we did for the descent (climbers left)). After the green rock it was a lot of careful route finding. On the descent through this section it's easier to see where to go because you can see all the correct ledges to take. Good sunny day. Plenty of goats. |
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8/24/2022 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 8/25/2022, By: cougar Info: Snowfield in amphitheater is gone. Route is snow free. Recent rains didn't seem to affect much, besides holding the loose dirt together. Trail crew was working on section of trail just below the 'gateway cairns' at treeline. Goats were helpful for route finding. Not as fun as others have touted - lots of talus, steep loose dirt, scree, and minimal scrambling on rubble covered rock. |
