Lightning Pyramid - Thunder Pyramid - Pyramid Peak Traverse

August 8, 2020

Lightning Pyramid 13,722’ -> Thunder Pyramid 13,932’ -> Pyramid Peak 14,018’ Traverse

The Elk range is known for both its beauty and the loose, fragile, shale like rock that its mountains are composed of. These mountains would prove to be just that – beautiful and loose. Laura and I wanted to stand atop Thunder Pyramid since it is one of Colorado’s highest 100 peaks but we knew it would be a somewhat dangerous endeavor.

The mountain has claimed more than a single life and we did not want to be next. So, with the Maroon Lake trail head limiting parking and visitors this year, we figured it would be good to try the mountain hoping we would be the only ones up there. 

Turns out that was a good decision because we were the only ones on the mountains that day until we reached Pyramid. Isaac came up and climbed another 14er in the area so he dropped Laura and I off at the trail head at 5 am. We shouldered our light packs and off we went on the rocky trail that leads toward Crater Lake. Passing by the cairn that leads to Pyramid Peak and that would be our exit later that day, we made good time hiking along the mostly flat ground before reaching Crater Lake, the unmistakable bent tree and eventually crossing Maroon Creek and turning upward toward the tall pile of rocks we would climb that day.

Stopping for a break at 7 am, we discussed our plan to get to the scree gullies while I ate a peanut butter sandwich. Laura and I determined that we would climb around some small cliff bands and through a short section of trees to reach the upper portions of Len Shoemaker Basin and get closer to the gullies before choosing what route we would take to the ridge. We were efficient and didn’t get stuck in the trees for long before we reached a clearing and stopped to talk about the line we would ascend. We knew the standard route to Thunder Pyramid was to head up the obvious white gully but we decided to make a judgement call and head up the next gully to the South. The rock gully was partially filled with snow and looked as stable as the white gully from afar, but we were wrong. As we began ascending toward the snow in the gully we quickly figured out that we had made a mistake and should have traversed to the white gully. As we cautiously worked our way up, the mountain would move around us. One step and 20’ of rock would move below you. We decided to get out of the gully and work up bands of rotten rock that eventually lead us to the saddle of Lightning and Thunder Pyramid. 

The rock here was terrible and even testing every handhold and foothold wasn’t good enough as I pulled off large chunks while attempting to scramble the moderate terrain. 

I would guess it was mostly fourth class scrambling but included a few sections of 5.4 terrain. Laura and I knew we had made a big mistake and that we likely had cost ourselves and hour or two of time, but we also knew the safest way off was now up. We continued, climbing closely together and always trying to not have one of us below the other and reached the saddle around 9:15 am. We made the quick traverse over to Lightning Pyramid at 9:25 am and took a break for food and water. Looking through the summit register, there were only a few names, mostly ones I recognized or was friends with. It appeared that only a few people a year climb this mountain as the date on the bottom of the first page was 2018. 

The view of the Maroon Bells and the surrounding areas was amazing. This must be one of the best summit views in Colorado! Looking across the ridge, we knew we had a long way to go and a lot of loose rock ahead of us. The down climb off of Lightning was straight forward. We worked mostly along the top and sometimes on the east or climbers right side of the ridge as we scrambled toward Thunder Pyramid. As we neared Thunder, we ascended a gully that lead us to the top of the white gully on the other side of the ridge. From here the path seemed a bit more traveled as we found our way to the summit at 10:45 am. 

No time to waste here so we had a drink of water and began our climb down to the ridge connecting Thunder and Pyramid Peak. There is not a lot of information out there on this traverse, so we really didn’t know where to go except across. There were many ups and downs that we would navigate along the way. The down climb off of Thunder was 4^th class with only a few low 5^th class moves then we traversed maybe 100’ below the ridge on the east, or right side. We constantly discussed climbing the ridge proper but never really did. 

We would traverse the terrible loose rock upward and forward until we reached a point where we didn’t think that side would go any longer then we would find ourselves on the other side of the ridge crest. Crossing back and forth 4 or 5 times as we encountered difficulties along the way, we felt like our route finding was good and we chose a decent route that lead us to the final chimney leading to Pyramid Peak. 

As we ascended the class 5 chimney, we turned to our right and traversed the short distance over to the summit of Pyramid Peak where we saw the first person all day. 

It was 1 pm and we were supposed to meet Isaac at 2 so we got off the summit quickly. Both Laura and I had climbed Pyramid Peak several times so the route finding on the way down was easy for us. We descended through the green gully, across the traverse and step across and then around the corner to the saddle. As always, we passed some goats as we descended. 

The walk down the amphitheater was as terrible as I remembered and I hope that soon the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative will put some work in here since it sees a lot of traffic and is eroding badly. Down and through the boulder field we went and as we reached the trees and better trail we picked up speed and ran the remainder of the way out to the trail head. We were back safely at 3 pm. For as beautiful as the surroundings are, I would not recommend this climb to anyone unless it is done as a snow climb in the springtime. I was nervous before the climb and for good reason. It is dangerous and scary with some of the loosest, crumbly terrain I have ever encountered in the mountains. It is unprotectable and a rope would make the constant rockfall even worse. I was glad to have had Laura there with me on this one as she is always calm and makes good decisions and today all of that mattered.