Music Mountain

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/5/2024, By: GREEN
Info: Summer conditions. Beta and GPS file here are good. Route is Class 1/2 until notch, 3/4 after that depending on your route. Some loose rock on the ridge, but avoidable. Generally speaking, stay to the right or on the Apex of the ridge. No snow. 

Route: North Ridge of Tijeras Peak and South Ridge of Music Mountain
Posted On: 6/17/2024, By: supranihilest
Info: From the Tijeras/Music saddle the route up Music looks quite absurd but it's an absolutely gorgeous scramble on bomber rock. The initial scramble is Class 3 up grassy ledges and eventually the ridge narrows and steepens enough that there's really nowhere to climb except essentially directly on the ridge crest. The white granite that makes up the ridge is super solid, grippy, and beautiful. The slabby Class 4 section is short, otherwise the ridge is sustained Class 3 with perhaps a move of Class 4 thrown in here or there depending on route finding. Beyond the slabby spot we deviated from the ridge to the west/climber's left onto easier grass ledges. The remaining route was much easier and we hit all the bumps along the ridge since we weren't sure which was highest. The south ridge is a 5-star scramble in my opinion. The east ridge descent also looks somewhat improbable but it isn't that hard, just kind of tedious. The entire ridge to the escape gully is steep Class 3 grass ledges but nowhere near as good as the south ridge scrambling. Route finding basically dictates just taking whatever is easiest, it's not like there's a ton of options. There's ample loose rock on the ridge, especially lower down, so be aware of that. Once we reached the escape gully the rest of the route back to the lake was easy, there's plenty of options to get there, just avoid the cliffs. 

Route: North Ridge of Tijeras Peak and South Ridge of Music Mountain
Posted On: 8/7/2023, By: FoxintheForest
Info: We descended the east ridge. Already some great, recent insight on here, so I'll just add a bit to this. The 13ers page for this route is ridiculously incorrect. GPS estimated it was around 4700 feet of gain and 10 miles car-to-car - we clocked 5100 and 12 miles car-to-car (took us 9 hours at a leisurely pace). Also, neither one of the gullies is a couloir - they are gullies and both are very doable without snow - maybe 200 feet long...maybe. I'd be hard-pressed to ever call this a snow climb. The left gully is solid and what we took (the right one looked like a loose rock canon and it's harder to see on the approach). It had a VERY suspect anchor in it (photo attached). I've done plenty of technical alpine climbs and this is one of the more eyebrow-raising anchors I've seen... We didn't have ropes, nor do you need them (gully is class 3 with maybe 2 class 4 moves at the bottom), but if you're planning on pitching it out for whatever reason, I wouldn't trust that anchor at all - basically some webbing squeezed under a microwave-sized boulder. If the boulder slips off or the anchor is shock-loaded, there's no positivity on the back side of the rock and the anchor will fall right down the gully. If you brought a lot of cordage (like 20-plus feet) you could probably sling something more substantial and positive nearby - I saw a few areas that would require a bit of creative backup - I'd bring nuts you wouldn't mind leaving. But again, you REALLY don't need ropes, imo it's safer to just scramble up there. Downed trees, nipple-high grass, and willows make this an adventurous approach, but it's an amazing route! Go get it! 

Route: South Ridge
Posted On: 8/1/2023, By: SavannaLittle
Info: Music Mountain South Ridge from Music Pass TH Condition: Summer, No traction needed. Class: 4 Exposure: High (Maybe Extreme in 1-2 spots) Commitment: High (Extreme?) Route Finding: High Rockfall: Moderate ***this is how I would rate this climb; not an official rating*** Ill start by saying this ridge is incredible! My favorite to date. The rock is SOLID. The scrambling is FUN! And the exposure is SPICY! We packed in to Lower Sand Creek Lake from the Music Pass TH Sunday night. Our original intent was to do the traverse from Tijeras, but after seeing the apparent scree field suck fest that is Tijeras Summit, we decided to just do the South Ridge of Music Mountain from the saddle. Monday morning; we headed north from the lake to the cliff bands below Tijeras. Its a typical lesser traveled 13er approach. Bush whacking, willows, creek delving. Once out of the willows we located the Left Ramp on the cliff band that gains access to the basin between Tijeras and Music. The Left Ramp is class 3, we started up climbers left - staying out of the crack - and found solid, easy going scrambling to the top. Deciding not to go for Tijeras - I hadnt read about much fun or scrambling to be had above the basin and it appeared to be not much more than a class 2+ scree field - we aimed for the low point of the Tijeras/Music Saddle and then worked along to the south ridge of Music. The first look at the south ridge had me both excited and scared haha. Its a proper looking ridge. But once the scrambling started it was 100% stoke! The first 1/4 of the ridge is easy going class 3 on some grassy ledges a bit right of ridge proper. We moved to ridge proper as soon as it made sense to us. About 1/3 of the way you reach what I would designate the crux. Its a few super exposed class 4 moves. But the rock is SO solid. With good class 4 route finding, we actually felt this obstacle was a bit overstated in the reports we had read. We found it pretty easy going with a few super exposed moves slightly left, then up and over. We stayed ridge direct the rest of the route, with the exception of topping out at the big V notch which appears to require a 5th class down climb. After realizing that, we back tracked a few feet and down climbed a short 4th class section to the left, we descended about 60 into a grassy gully thats mostly 2/3 class to bypass the big knotch and regained ridge direct as soon as we cleared the apparent 5th class moves on either side of it. Near the south summit it mellows out to a still good closed class 2 catwalk with a few class 3 moves laying around. The scramble from the south summit to the 3rd summit (we arent sure which one is the true summit so we hit all 3?) 3rd class. We stayed ridge direct again even though the go-to seems to be a drop down left to bypass a knife edge! We found the knife edge really fun - so fun and solid we down climbed it on the way back too haha! Our descent route was via the standard route (East Ridge - Class 3) from the south summit. It feels more like a steep grassy gully than a ridge. The further skiers left we got the more solid rock could be found. Once in the basin, we followed a creek all the way back to the lake, which avoided the willows but had its own grievances. We only left the creek just above the waterfall, traversing left and down through the woods until we intersected the lake. Overall it took us about 5 hours to complete at a casual pace with immaculate weather. 

Route: North Ridge of Tijeras Peak and South Ridge of Music Mountain
Posted On: 7/4/2023, By: Nathan Hoobler
Info: We climbed Music Mountain today via the South Ridge from Lower Sand Creek Lake - then descended via the East Ridge. Both ridges are terrific, exciting, and solid - the beta in Cooper's guide and the TRs on this site were very helpful. Cooper talks about the two gullies to sneak through the cliff bands above Lower Sand Creek Lake - he recommends the one on climber's left for Tijeras and one on the right for Music Mountain. As of today, both still have significant snow coverage. We brought crampons and axes anticipating the need to climb steep snow. However, when we arrived at the base of the right gully, we decided to climb the exposed rock on the left side instead. This worked well - solid class three (maybe easy four) and felt safer than snow climbing. The crampons stayed in the bottom of the bag the whole day and the only time we used the axes were for a little glissading to return to the lake hours later. See pictures for details on the gullies. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/26/2023, By: JakeByk
Info: Road to Music Pass is passable for 4WD vehicles, tho you may want a decent amount of power and clearance too. Path is free of snow to Lower Sand Creek Lake. There's a snowfield below the face of Music and the northern slopes of Tijeras, which blocks access to the South Ridge route on Music and the standard on Tijeras. It does not appear to be melting fast. I accessed the East Ridge via sidehilling and talus hopping up the slope directly north of the lake and mounted the East Ridge at the saddle of Point 12,whatever. East Ridge goes. Really fun. The upper traverse from the top of the East Ridge is the crux, very hard to keep it to Class 4, I ended up doing some low Class 5. Amazing basin, you'll likely have it to yourself! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 9/18/2021, By: ScottLovesRMNP
Info: Really fun route, and a great intro to class 3, as the climbing is not terribly exposed and the handholds are excellent! Once on the false summit, it's a bit more of a chore than it looks to traverse over the true summit. The route drops down a ways on the west side of the summit ridge, mainly following grassy segments. Cairns are few and far between, but you shouldn't need to do anything harder than Class 2+ or easy Class 3 to work your way over to where you can climb up to the true summit. From Lower Sand Creek Lake, this took me 3 hours roundtrip and I wasn't going terribly fast (this was the day after I did Tijeras --> Milwaukee --> Pico Aislado --> 13,020, so I was pretty sore! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/28/2021, By: JasonKline
Info: Summer conditions. Route was entirely dry. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/21/2021, By: Jenna N S
Info: The route is almost clear of snow, but there are a lot of downed trees blocking the trail in the forest below Lower Sand Creek Lake. 

Route: North and East ridges
Posted On: 6/13/2021, By: Stratosfearsome
Info: Music is dry from Milwaukee Mountain and all snow is easily avoidable to attain east ridge from Lower Sand Creek Lake. There are plenty of annoying snow drifts below the lake down to the valley before linking up with Music Pass trail (which is totally dry up to pass). I attached a photo of Tijeras, too, to show the access gullies, which are still snow-filled. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 9/21/2020, By: Tony1
Info: Summer conditions on both the south and east ridges of this peak. 

Route: South Ridge
Posted On: 6/15/2020, By: rivrrapids
Info: Clear on S. Ridge and E. Ridge. 

Route: From Tijeras
Posted On: 5/29/2020, By: WildWanderer
Info: Ridge down from Tijeras clear of snow everywhere that matters, as well as up to the summit of Music and back down the east ridge. Still snow around treeline and in the willows. See Tijeras conditions report for photos.