"Thunder Pyramid"

Route: Traverse from Lightning
Posted On: 6/5/2023, By: VeraUndertow
Info: After climbing back to the Thunder and Lightning saddle, we debated the best way to traverse the ridge and potentially bipass the crux towers on the ridge. The snow on the east side, which holds the normal traverse route, with the gully bipasses, was absolutely not gonna be supportable and had high potential for wet slide activity. This left basically one option, climb the ridge in trail runners, with a bail out from ridge proper on the west side I had spotted on topo and on the way up earlier. The good news is the east side of the ridge is mostly dry with just two main snow patches to contend with, because the west side is all death exposure for the first third. During the first bit the climbing was actually really fun, class 4 navigating ledges to traverse and climb up and away from the saddle. Around the second crux tower the climbing started to get a lot harder, and the rock more brittle, flaking off in little chips and big rocks moving as well tested them with no joke exposure on all sides. Luckily from here we quickly got too my saving grace sneaky west side bipass ledge, which to be fair was still exposed and loose rock but at least it was generally flat and 3+ feet wide. Once we rounded the corner we had a few more levels of class 4 and maybe some class 5 before we were able to get back to boots and crampons and the relative safety of supportable snow. From here we quickly climbed up to the ridge, which took us to the furthest climbers right hand snow gully top out rather uneventfully. Then we climbed around this little ridge bump, to where the regular middle branch of the coulie tops out and just followed the standard route up. There were one or two little moves that were challenging but nothing major and the snow was almost entirely avoidable. Stoked to have made this rowdy traverse possible, while avoiding sketchy snow faces. We proceeded to down climb the summit direct couloir which had snow the highest level and I was pretty done with loose rock for the day. We had to front point down the first 400 feet since the snow was still pretty firm and this pitch is the steepest snow we climbed all day. The other two branches are less steep by a lot but also are about 150 feet of rock before you hit snow from the ridge. Once we got to where the summit direct line links in to the standard lines we were able to plunge step and glissade down being very cautious of our speed since the line ends in a cliff. Once we bipassed the cliff we linked back up with our route up the gullys from the morning and the snow was amazingly supportive and on the way out we found a crossing using avy debris across the river. Glad to have linked these two amazing peaks in great conditions on a beautiful day. 

Route: West face snow climb
Posted On: 5/30/2023, By: gluckhikes
Info: Started from Crater Lake camp at 3, followed the trail on hard snow in the dark (gps necessary). The turn-off to begin the climb is not at all obvious. We put crampons on an navigated around a few cliff bands before the sun came up. At dawn we saw the route ahead and climbed up the first (right) snow gully, then crossed the large rock band at C2/3, entering the main gully just above the waterfall. Then it was a sustained 3000' of climbing on hard snow with some surface hoar to the saddle just south of the summit. We delicately stepped onto the loose ridge and reached the summit without much trouble. We found one C3 chimney which appeared relatively well-traveled. Spent a half hour on the summit from 7:30 to 8 or so, then returned the way we came. The entire main gully descent was side-stepping in crampons. I made a couple bumpy glissades at the bottom of the peak. The trail was sunny but still supportive without snowshoes at 9:30-10. 

Route: West Face
Posted On: 5/28/2023, By: slawrence2011
Info: Great booting conditions all the way up the west face, started from Maroon Lake around 4, summit just before noon. Sun did hit the W face sometime after 10, so must have had some S exposure. We followed snow from the basin all the way to the ridge, with the exception of to get into the final couloir, you have to traverse on rock ledges, easy class 2/3, to gain a 1500-2000 foot couloir that goes all the way to the summit ridge. From the ridge, about 30 minute hike, with the highlight being some exposed class 3 moves to gain the step, I saw cairns past this, but the snow made that route inadvisable. Started skiing around noon to perfect conditions through top couloir, a little soft in lower couloir, but nothing too bad. I was surprised at how moderate of a ski descent this was compared to other elks, nothing seemed much more than 40 degrees, and often less. The upper couloir does have a cliff at the bottom, which makes that ski interesting, but low angle and good conditions. You can find snow in the basin to about the junction of the bell cord if you hike high on that (E) side of the basin. 

Route: West Face
Posted On: 9/19/2022, By: ablocki
Info: We took Roach's West Face route up and down Full summer conditions on Sunday 9/18 until about 13,250-13,500. A couple inches of snow on the upper ledges that made things a little more interesting on the loosest section of the route. Once on the ridge, it was dry again to the summit On this route in general, we were very surprised at how much better the rock was than expected and how short the ridge traverse was. Once we found the white gully, the rock was pretty solid with kitty litter sprinkled throughout. The white rock took us to about 13,500 which, even after reading the Roach description seemed way closer to the summit than expected. Gaining the ridge was probably the worst rock of the day but that was only for about 300-400 feet of vertical. The route is undeniably steep though, about 3k feet of gain over a little less than a mile on the map 

Route: from lightning
Posted On: 8/20/2022, By: zootloopz
Info: 13,631 to Lightning to Thunder traverse. Maroon creek crossing has logs laid down to facilitate dry feet. Plenty of water running here and up higher in Len shoemaker. Carried 1.4 liters and a water filter in a vest, worked out great. Traverse is loose and spicy. Not as bad as teakettle on looseness but damn close. Lots of bypass options but ridge direct is certainly 4th to low 5th in plenty of places. Test everything, trust nothing. Pretty much descended straight off Thunder. Multiple gullies go on the way down. Terrible descent, but obviously expected. 11 hours RT / 13.4 miles / 5.4K gain (maybe more here, felt like 6k) 13,631 is missing paper but has pens and a metal container. Colorados_mountains packed out the old shitty container that was missing the lid. Lightning needs more paper, and currently has a mechanical pencil. Register container is pretty small but secure. Also another old container that could be packed out here. 

Route: West Face
Posted On: 7/5/2022, By: Danger_D
Info: Followed the West Face route described by Roach. Crossing W. Maroon Creek required taking off my boots and fording, but you might be able to find a place to rock-hop if you go further up or down stream. Two small snow patches between the main trail and the white gully, microspikes helpful but not strictly needed. In the white gully proper there are two long and thin snowfields covering about 700ft of vertical. Snow is kinda rotten for the climb, but it made plungestepping on the way down easy. I added a more detailed Trip Report if you want more info 

Route: Thunder/Lightning couloir
Posted On: 6/11/2022, By: Geckser
Info: Went up the couloir between a thunder and Lightning Pyramid. It was a very nice day and I am quite happy to have one of the more worrisome centennials out of the way. We camped at crater lake the night before and started moving around 5:30. The lake was very full and required some avoiding. The river crossing has a stable snow bridge for now but it is melting fast. Gaining the upper basin was mostly trivial with pretty solid snow in the morning. The snow from Lenshoemaker to the ridge was still descent but melting extremely fast. When we ascended 8:30 ish it was solid enough for decent cramponing up. Thunder Pyramid from the pass was fun and airy 3/4th class. We headed back down and bagged Lightning. The descent got a little sloppy with the snow growing significantly more slippery as the day progressed. The stretch down to Maroon Creek was even worse with soft and slippery snow even at 12:30. Generally good day. I don't think this route will have worthwhile snow in 2 weeks but some still holds on for now 

Route: West slopes
Posted On: 6/5/2022, By: Trotter
Info: Trail is basically clear all the way to turnoff. We crossed the avy debris logs just after the south maroon trail turnoff. Snow was extremely hard and icy at 6 am, had trouble getting crampons and axes to bite. Took one of the gullies until we could get onto the waterfall ledge, then took the more solid rock ribs to about 13,000, then got onto snow. Took the standard right path, it ends about 200 feet below the ridge with some extremely loose rock and scree. Ridge is basically snow free, and doesn't exceed class 3 in my opinion. On way down, couldn't glissade or even plunge step top half of snow due to it being too hard and icy still. Was finally able to glissade some near the bottom. Snowshoes not ever needed. This peak is serious. 

Route: West slope
Posted On: 5/28/2022, By: jbealer
Info: Some snow on trail after crater lake, lots of streams running through trails. Used downed trees to cross stream and avy slope of downed trees to get to first snow field where we put crampons on. Snow was hard all day but does not reach top of ridge, shitty loose scree accent at end. Ridge is dry to summit. We lucked out and the 40+ winds did not show up today! Storm did look like it was moving in for tomorrow. Only 3 of us ladies and a father son team on the peak today. No avy signs on thunder but lots of activity on the bells side. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 5/16/2022, By: Flyingfish
Info: The trail to Crater lake has large amounts of snow still coving it which was generally supportive even on the decent around noon. Probably not very supportive mid afternoon. Muddy around the lake and had to follow through avalanche debris above the lake. The snow bridge is a snow super highway at a couple hundred yards wide. Complete coverage up the headwall. only the farthest south gully still has snow coverage at the entrance. Some rock and tundra ribs to cross but they are easy. Good coverage to the ridge and essentially dry on the ridge. 

Route: White gully to direct branch
Posted On: 1/23/2022, By: blazintoes
Info: From Lazy T 7 ranch it's a 10k to the main TH. My partner and I were passed by two skiers on a snowmobile by 0500. I biked, he skinned but biking is faster. The hut is now locked. In years past it was open with propane tanks so you could boil water. The snowmobile skiers put in a nice track all the way to the Bell Cord. We spotted them going up the Garbage Chute on South Maroon. The Bells looked fat with snow and awesome to ski with good conditions. We continued past Minnehaha Gulch and onto West Maroon creek where there is more downhill than up. Skis win. West face direct on Pyramid is full of new snow for those itching to climb Pyramid in winter. We approached Thunder Pyramid via the white gully and the fresh snow had a thin layer of ice underneath because it rained first then snowed so slippage occurred often. Snowshoes win. It took a long time to get above tree line and when we did we decided to take a nap since we were both sleep deprived from the awful drive to Aspen from the Front Range the night before. I70 was a mess. The sun was warm and wind nil so we took a 30 minute power nap. We took a long look at the face and there are 3 ways to go. The standard right branch, left or direct. We chose direct because it had a longer continuous snow line for skiing. At this point we are 0.75 miles from the summit but 2500' below so with 2 axes and crampons we trudged on up. We punched through to our knees the whole way and got on rock when we could to practice dry tooling. The final section was painfully slow. By 13,000 my partner decided to put on skis and have the best ski descent of his life. I don't blame him. Winter mountaineering is dumb. I watched him float away and I scrambled on rocks to the top and didn't enjoy my summit because the sun was setting and I wanted to get down ASAP so I could plunge step in the soft snow vs. wait until it froze. The scramble down and plunge stepping were fun. I took some screen shots from the one video I took then didn't stop until our trails merged with the Bells skiers tracks. Skis won on the descent! The snowshoe hike back sucked big time and there is more uphill on West Maroon trail. Every time I've been on it in winter it always puts me in a bad mood. I finally got my bike and blasted back to my car. Bikes win on the road. The Elks are still fresh after the recent storm and another coming on Tuesday. There's a sweet track all the way to the Bells and most of the way to Pyramid for the 14er seekers. But I think it'll be perfect next weekend. 

Route: west face
Posted On: 8/22/2021, By: ScottLovesRMNP
Info: Still full summer conditions. Even with recent reports in hand, I had a few issues with the route down low near Maroon Creek, trying to find the right path through the willows to the gullies that access the basin above. Fortunately, it is probably only 100-200 yards of bushwhacking through willows from the creek to the rock field if you aren't really able to figure out a good trail. Once above the vegetation, the route (white gully) is in good shape all the way. No harder or more dangerous than Pyramid or North Maroon in my opinion. 

Route: West face / white gully
Posted On: 6/13/2021, By: SionaRW35
Info: Snow is melting fast. Two groups on this peak climbed the snow w/ crampons & ice ax and found decent, but not ideal snow despite it being very warm. I however stayed off the snow on the way up and instead climbed the rock rib to the right of the gully to about 13,450' where I crossed 15 feet of snow as I dropped into the gully. From there to the summit was dry. Summitted at 9:30am. I did use crampons & ax on the snow on descent. Snow bridge is fading, but was still solid at midday. I suspect it'll last 1 week. 

Route: South Ridge to West Face
Posted On: 6/7/2021, By: Anima
Info: I did the "Tour of Thunder" by climbing up the South Ridge and descending the West face. See Lightning Pyramid report for information on the approach to the lightning/Thunder Saddle. The Ledges on the South Ridge were completely dry but the scree gully was still full of snow. I climbed up rock on the right side of it until I was forced into the gully where I found snow with a slurpy-like consistency. Gross. Once back on the ridge It was completely dry to the summit. The West Face route still has plenty of snow and is quite a bit simpler than the South Ridge route. The bottom 200 feet of the west face are now completely melted out but easy class 2 ledges/grass slopes will get you to the beginning of the snow. 

Route: West Face
Posted On: 6/2/2021, By: Wentzl
Info: No need for snowshoes. Snow bridge over creek should be good for another week or even two. Crampons used on early morning ascent, but just plunge stepping down in afternoon. Started 6:30 a.m. summit at Noon and back to car by 3:30 p.m. Tricky route. Trip report to follow.