6/8/2012 Route: White Gully Posted On: 6/8/2012, By: Matt Lemke Info: Climbed Thunder Pyramid today. Nice climb...not anywhere near as loose as I thought it was going to be. It was actually easier than South Maroon IMO. Snow free almost the entire way except for some avoidable snow in the white gully itself. We tended to stay on the more solid ribs just to the right of the white gully looking up. Very beautiful day and calm. Gorgeous views of the bells. I have pics but they are still on my camera and I‘m using the Aspen library now so I can‘t upload anything. I‘ll post pics sometime Sunday night. |
|
5/27/2012 Route: White Couloir Posted On: 5/28/2012, By: Monster5 Info: Same as previous. Trail approach is dry or consolidated (make sure to stay high over the Bell Cord fan). Snow bridge ~100 ft upstream for the crossing. Axe/pons recommended for gullies up to Len Shoe. basin. The grassy ledge entrance to the White Gully is dry. Crampons/axe needed for couloir. Saw a few rocks fall - evidence suggests goat suspects. We ascended the left branch to the saddle and descended the right branch. The terrain above the right branch is far easier and cleaned out. |
|
5/20/2012 Route: White Gully Posted On: 5/22/2012, By: Wyoming Bob Info: Climbed Thunder Pyramid on Sunday, 20 May. Found USAKeller's report to be informative, accurate, dead on, without fault, get any better than that? Conditions are about the same, just about ten days less snow, the snowfields are a bit less expansive but we still found hard snow perfect for cramponing in the early morning and we too killed an hour on top to let the snow soften enough for a secure heel plunge step. Even so, got to practice my arrest technique toward the bottom where the hardest snow was found. We experienced the same 13 hours to climb the route but instead of cutting right at the fork to arrive at the ridge to the right of the summit, we opted to climb straight up and intercept the ridge to the left of the summit. No issues from the ridge with regard to either difficulty (class 3) or route finding. |
