"Ribbed Peak"

Route: Point 13,002, actually
Posted On: 9/5/2023, By: supranihilest
Info: This CR is actually for Point 13,002, 13,085's/"Ribbed Peak"'s nearby LiDAR promoted neighbor. On maps this peak is incorrectly given the elevation 12,977. From Savage Lakes trailhead take the trail and veer off onto the Carter Lake trail when you reach the junction. Approximately 0.4 miles into the Carter Lake trail is some of the worst blowdown I've ever experienced. Tons of giant trees were blown down in every direction, stacked on top of each other willy nilly, just awful. The trail was completely wiped out and it looks like they've given up on attempting to cut a new trail. The downed trees continue all the way to the lake, including completely covering the switchbacks. Don't bother trying to follow the trail, there is no trace of it whatsoever once the downed trees begin. You're in it until Carter Lake, so bring high morale for this one. The trail picks back up at Carter Lake, wraps around the south side (not the east side like maps indicate), crosses Carter Creek on a solid log jam, and then continues around the west side of the lake. There's some sections where the trail is hard to follow but mostly it's fine, certainly a godsend compared to the downed tree area. The trail crosses Carter Creek twice, first from west side to east, then back again. Views are superb along the trail. Eventually you'll pass by not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, but SEVEN upper lakes. An obvious grass and willow ramp leads through cliffs to a higher, boulder covered bench. From the bench aim for a V-shaped notch to climber's left of the saddle northeast of 13,002. Don't go to the saddle, you'll just have to scramble below the ridge to reach the notch anyway. The notch is steep Class 2+, maybe some Class 3, and loose. From this notch scramble ledges to the summit at Class 2+/Class 3. There's some exposure here and some loose rock so be careful. In general though this is another great Holy Cross wilderness scramble. Reverse the route, being mindful of the time consuming downed trees. 

Route: Southwest Face
Posted On: 9/5/2023, By: supranihilest
Info: This peak is a super fun scramble - go do it. We'd heard horror stories about the Eagle Lake trail being a mess of avalanche debris and hard to follow but it was actually pretty cruiser. It's great to Eagle Lake where you rock hop on the west side of the lake (now on the north side of the drainage), and it's intermittent from there to Fairview Lake (we did not go further). Cairns and cut trees/branches were the primary signs of trail when we otherwise couldn't find it, which was really only a couple of spots. The trail mostly bypasses all the avalanche debris. Before reaching Fairview Lake we ascended a boulder-filled gully to an upper bench shown on maps, then traversed roughly northeast across another gully and into a third. This third gully is directly above Fairview Lake and basically goes all the way up to the ridge. It's huge and hard to miss. The gully consists of a mix of grass, boulders and talus, and slabs. Beware the slabs, there was a lot of running water and they were slick. The gully can be kept to Class 2+ to the summit ridge. On ascent we ascended straight up the gully to the top, staying to climber's left of a huge tower at the top. It is easily bypassable on the left. From there the fun scrambling begins! Solid Class 3 ledges take you up and across the south face. If it ever gets too hard there's an easier way, just drop down or climb up and find something easier. Mostly Class 2+ with some Class 3 sprinkled in, on solid, beautiful Holy Cross Wilderness rock. We reversed the upper scramble down and instead of going around the tower again we went to descender's left below it, in a loose gully. You could also ascend this gully if desired. We then reversed our route down the rest of the gully. Whiley cut off and did Point 13,100 and Eagle Peak B, I descended all the way to Fairview Lake and took the trail back. 

Route: from Woods lake TH
Posted On: 9/15/2021, By: SnowAlien
Info: Hiked Ribbed and 13,100A via the ridge. Started at Woods lake. For a mile+ the trail skirts around the private property, then the trail is pretty good to the Eagle lake (although we briefly lost the trail just before the lake due to some down trees). Trail deteriorates between Eagle and Fairview lakes due to 2019 avalanche debris, pretty slow going trying to locate some sporadic cairns. From the Fairview lake (took us ~4 hrs to reach it) we ascended the steep south facing gully that terminated directly at the summit. Fairly solid rock and sections of class 3-4. Didn't see a register. Traverse to 13,100A took almost 2 hours. We tried to stay on ridge proper, but had some unavoidable downclimbs. Overall ridge difficulty is fairly similar to Gold Dust-Pika ridge, maybe more route finding. We skipped unranked Eagle in the interest of time and descended the wide gully between Eagle and 13,100A, which worked reasonably well until we ran into some slabs just above the Eagle lake, resulting in a few complications. We finally ran into the trail and cruised it back to the car. 5,100 & 11 miles. 

Route: South Gully from Fairview Lake
Posted On: 9/23/2019, By: Chicago Transplant
Info: This is the 13er commonly known as "Ribbed Peak". I know some people climb it from Fairview Lake. Hiked the 12ers across the valley, then came back down from Strawberry Lake. Once we hit Fairview Lake, the next ~1.5-2 miles to Eagle Lake is decimated by avalanche debris, several different paths over that stretch. Nothing is cut, nothing is flagged. It is very time consuming and the trail is nearly impossible to follow, as a previous report noted its a jungle gym. Expect the approach to take significantly longer for possibly the next several years as this is not a maintained trail beyond Eagle Lake and I doubt anyone is going to cut these trees out anytime soon if at all. Some photos attached, generally taken around Halfmoon Lake, which the avalanche crossed over the lake. Recommended route instead is to approach from Missouri Lakes/Pass and traverse high tundra. PM me if you want more route info for the Missouri Lakes approach. 

Route: Fairview Lake
Posted On: 9/1/2019, By: nilaoire
Info: Ribbed Peak - Multiple avalanche paths obscure the trail. Deep avalanche debris made the journey from Eagle lake to Fairview lake long and difficult. While difficult this year, nxt could be worse once the snow melts- we walked on terrain elevated by up to 10 ft of snow maybe more which made the climb over downed trees not as high as it otherwise might have been. Think jungle gym.