Ripsaw Ridge Traverse

July 10, 2021

Ripsaw Ridge, 14 miles, 6,200’ elevation gain

Peak “C” -13,220’

“C” Prime – 13,100’

“D” – 13,047’

Sub “E” – 13,100’

“E” – 13,220’

“F” – 13,230’

“G” – 13,260’

Laura and I have never explored Colorado’s Gore range. We thought we would plan a trip to the cabin for the weekend and drive over to the Vail area to see what they’re all about. We had heard that there is a lot of good scrambling and the rock is mostly solid, however the range is somewhat of a secret and is not highly trafficked since none of the peaks reach the magic 14,000’. 

Piney Lake

Scoping our route up Peak "C"

So with a few pictures and a map, we started from the Piney Lake trailhead at 6am. Smoke from nearby fires filled the air as we began our hike up the trail toward our main objective for the day, Peak C. I had found some information on a route up the northwest ridge that was mostly scrambling but included a few pitches of climbing up to about 5.4 so this was our plan for the day. I brought a short rope along with five cams just in case we were not comfortable at any point during the climb. We passed one group who indicated they were headed to Ripsaw Ridge but as we ascended the trail toward the saddle between Peak C and Mt. Powell, they followed us. The normal way up Peak C is not where we were headed, so Laura and I assumed that they were going to attempt to follow our route.

NW Ridge of Peak "C", our objective for the day

Harnessed up just in case we decided to rope up

Easy scrambling low on the ridge

Easy friction pitch where we decided to rope up

More scrambling high on the ridge

As we accessed the ridge, we climbed for several short pitches but mostly soloed the 4^th and low 5^th class terrain. We reached the summit at 9:45 am. The climb was enjoyable and there is certainly some possibility of more difficult routes on this mountain. After relaxing for 15 minutes on the summit, Laura and I decided that since it was still early in the day and there was a zero percent chance of rain that we should continue along the ripsaw ridge. We did not have any information on the traverse but looking out it appeared that we could bail down our choice of gullies at any time. 

Looking down Ripsaw Ridge from Peak C

C Prime, the crux of our route

Scrambling along the ridge

We decided to head across the long ridgeline and soon were looking up a chimney leading to the summit of C Prime. The climbing here was as difficult as we had encountered all day but with a few scary moves and pulling on some grass and loose rock, I was able to safely chimney my way through a short 5.8 section of climbing. I tossed the rope down to Laura and she followed. Soon we were on summit number 2 of the day. 

More scrambling

Fun scrambling on Ripsaw Ridge

One of the summits along Ripsaw Ridge

More scrambling

Wasting no time, we started down and rock hopped and scrambled our way to the summit of Peak D. It was 11:30am and we were moving along at a good pace. We noticed that the group who followed us up Peak C was now on the summit. They indicated that their plan was also the traverse; however they took almost 2 hours longer than we did on the easiest peak of the day. We were happy to see they descended peak C rather than attempting to do the ridge traverse. Laura and I continued on. 

Summit register on Peak E

Summit register dated Aug. 7, 1948

More fun scrambling

Justin trying to count how many summits we have tagged today

We passed over Sub E and then moved on to Peak E where we found a CMC summit register from 1948. There were few pages filled in and the history here was really cool. It was 12:25pm and we still had a long way to go to Peak G. Off we went, across and up over Peak F. 

Another summit

One more summit, nice place to relax

We relaxed here for a few minutes and then moved on toward what would be our final summit of the day. As we ascended toward Peak G, I crossed over a short rock band while Laura continued up a gulley. She encountered some scary terrain, so I went around and threw her the rope from above. Tying it around her waist, she was able to safely climb through the difficult slab while I belayed her from above. We finished the short scramble to the summit by 3 pm. 

Tricky slab

Final summit, looking back at our route

Okay, let’s get off of here! We looked around and chose what we thought would be a safe descent gulley and started down. We rock hopped down for about 1,000’ and then crossed over a ridgeline and into another gulley. Reaching treeline, we thought we were close to down, but still had a long bushwhack to reach the creek and a good trail. We eventually reached the trail and hiked several miles before connecting back into where we had cut off on our approach to Peak C early in the morning. The last 3 miles were tough as both Laura and I were dehydrated and moving at a slower pace than normal. I found some joy in the wildflowers and a large grouping of sunflowers that reminded of my Dad. 

We followed this creek for a few miles on the decent

Beautiful flowers along the way

Can see Piney Lake in the distance

We reached the car just after 6pm. Gulping Gatorade and water, we made the hour and a half drive back to the cabin where Hazel, Big Momma and a much needed warm meal was waiting for us. We relaxed with Hazel and had a beer before resting our heads for the evening. While the Gore range was fun, we felt like today we pushed ourselves pretty good. We enjoyed the wild beauty and solitude of the range and will hopefully make our way back in the future.