Lightning Pyramid (13,722′), East Face Ski Descent, 5.16.08

This past weekend Andy Dimmen and I camped up at the mouth of East Maroon Creek and ticked off a couple of fun ski lines. One of my goals for this season was to complete the Pyramid Group by making a summit descent from Lightning Pyramid’s east face. Two seasons ago Mark Cavaliero and I skied the Landry Line off Pyramid Peak. Last season I skied a first summit descent off Thunder Pyramid’s west face solo. The Pyramid group holds some of the most aesthetic and technical lines in the state. Most routes involve 4,000′+ of consistent vertical skiing from top to valley floor, high exposure, and lots of cliff bands and steep skiing.

The upper face:

There are several potential ski routes off Lightning Pyramid. The west face offers up some tight and steep couloirs dropping from the summit, while the east face is a good mix between a fluted Alaskan face and the cliff riddled north face of North Maroon Peak just across in the next valley. We opted for the east face as coverage was much better on the east side and it offered up more vertical than the west side. We also wanted to get a glimpse of the current conditions on the east face of Thunder, as that was one of Andy’s goals for this trip as well. Just a few weeks prior Chris Davenport and Ted Mahon skied a 1st descent of the east face of Thunder. After seeing photos from their trip the urge to get back up on that mountain heightened and so a plan was put into place.

With hot weather on the horizon and a 10 day ski trip to the PNW coming up the following weekend we were in a crunch to get this one done. This was really the final opportunity of the season to get after it. The goal was to ski Lightning earlier in the season, but due to scheduling conflicts and weather, Andy and I had to put it off more than a few times. It felt good to finally get it done, even though the conditions on the steep upper face were a bit sketchy to say the least.

We rode the sleds up Maroon Creek road and arrived at our camp sometime around the 11 o’clock hour Thursday night. The plan was to skin all the way up to the base of Lightning so we could get a quick jump on it the next morning, but since I had so much shit along with a Granite Gear pulk sled, our plan foiled quickly and we setup camp at the mouth of the creek. There was no way that sled would make it through the steep bushwhack up the creek in the middle of the night. Or should I rephrase and say that I wouldn’t have made it up as I had a whole bunch of luxury items in the sled and nowhere near packed for a light outing. So, after setting up camp really quickly we went to bed and set the alarm for 3:30am.

We awoke a few hours later and worked our way up the valley. Once you get into the valley proper it is a pretty flat and basic skin up to the base of the peak. From camp to the base it’s a good 4.5 mile skin with only a 1,000′-1,300′ gain in vertical. Not bad at all, but a lot of side-hilling if you choose to follow the trail.

The morning brought low clouds and mild temps. “Where the hell is the forecasted sunshine?” Andy said as we started our climb up the east face. Well, at least the sun wasn’t heating up the snow too fast, but due to the cloud cover the snow never really locked up tight overnight.

Andy skinning up towards the main face:

Fog began to roll in and out shrouding over the summit tops of the Pyramid group. It was a bit mysterious at times as it appeared we were being engulfed by the mountain.

Andy climbing the lower section:

Andy about 3/4 of the way up:

Scenery part way up:

Another view:

We continued to climb and made it to the summit right around the time the clouds broke and the sun came out. The climb up the face was fun and steep. The snow got deeper the higher we went. A good 18″ or so of wet snow had fallen a few nights prior, making for some rather tough climbing conditions up around the top.

Andy nearing the summit:

Andy walking along the narrow ridge with Thunder in the background:

We hung out on the summit for a good 45 minutes or so as the weather was near perfect with no wind and mild temps. By this time the sun wasn’t directly hitting the east face. With the cloud cover earlier in the day we figured the face needed a little more time to corn up.

Andy on the summit:

After eating some lunch and signing the register we got in position and made our descent down the gut of the east face. I dropped in first and found interesting snow conditions. The new wet snow was still moist and hadn’t setup since it fell a few nights prior. The underlying layers were fairly solid, but there was no telling what that new snow was going to do. So, we took it easy on the upper part of the face, skiing from rock band to rock band as carefully as possible.

Dave near the top:

Andy coming off the top:

Further down:

Once we got down a few hundred vert the snow was in much better shape and we were able to let our guard down a bit to ski more aggressively. The cliffs on this face are quite large. Anywhere from 50′-200′, do you definitely gotta have your route planned ahead of time as everything from above looks continuous.

More skiing:

The further we worked our way down the better the snow skied. We cranked fun GS turns on the long apron all the way down to the valley floor.

Further down:

The slog out was a bit nerve wracking as the sun had turned all the snow into sloppy and collapsable mashed potatoe soup. I think it took longer to get out than to get in, as we were constantly falling through trap doors and onto our faces. Not much fun at all. All in all it was a super fun day, and I’m glad we were able to get it done. I’d imagine that face is melting pretty fast with all the warm weather we’ve been having as of late. Definitely not a slope I would want to be on during a widespread wet slide cycle.

Pyramid Peak sunrise, day 2:

Sunrise and the Bells: