My friend and I began our climb up Pyramid Peak in darkness at 5am. Pyramid Peak is often considered to be one of the hardest of Colorado’s 53 mountains over 14,000 feet due to its exposure near the summit. This mini-adventure begins as a hike in the Snowmass Wilderness, with our very first view being another 14’er; the Maroon Bells, photographed above.

The hike continues towards the Maroon Bells before you enter some forests made up of Aspen trees. As it turns out, there is a wide popular trail that begins at Maroon Lake and leads through the forests and eventually takes you to the base of Pyramid Peak. Somehow in the darkness we missed this trail, and had continued on a smaller footpath that eventually stopped. We had to basically make our own trail that morning to the base of Pyramid Peak through the woods. It didn’t take long for the woods to thin out and we could clearly see Pyramid Peak in the distance, so navigation was pretty easy.

Once at the base of Pyramid Peak, you begin a pretty steep climb upwards that changes back and forth from rocky terrain to a dirt trail. From here you can start to see some good views. As I got higher in the mountain, I began to notice the ground was being more frequently covered by flowers. There were a few areas that were covered in daisies and the yellow flowers seen above.

The steep trail levels off a bit after you enter the snowfield. Somehow I didn’t photograph it until the very end. While hiking in the snowfield I heard some loud crashing noises and saw these giant rocks falling down the mountain. They are a serious hazard here and there isn’t much you could do if they’re coming your way. When one of them hit the snow it made a huge splash. This is a smaller that I photographed above. It’s difficult to tell in the photo but it actually is over a foot deep in the snow from the impact.

Since we had seriously just flown from sea level the day before yesterday, my friend was feeling the effects of the altitude and decided not to continue on. Fortunately for me, I met two great people that I was able to tag along at the end of the snow field. You can see the summit of the mountain here, and why it earns its name Pyramid Peak.

From the top of the snowfield, you hike to the left of the summit and then up some very steep terrain to the top of the saddle. The saddle is located at about 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) and gives you another nice view of Pyramid Peak’s summit. Below is a photo of one of the towering rock formations found at the top of the saddle. From this point forward, the ascent of Pyramid Peak changes from a hike to a very exposed climb!

Before I continued on with the climb, I took this photo looking back towards the snowfield and at all the mountains that went back as far as I could see. The Snowmass Wilderness is definitely one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen in the United States!

One of the first dangerous obstacles was the snow slide as I called it. A steep section was filled with snow that requires you to walk across it. There is nothing to hold on to, and since few people use ropes here any slip would surely guarantee death. I’m not scared of exposure but I’m used to having some kind of back up system, so it was a bit uncomfortable. Trekking poles or even an ice axe would have been useful here.

The famous areas of Pyramid Peak came up shortly after this, called the Leap of Faith followed by the Ledge. The Leap of Faith wasn’t bad but further than I expected. You truly do have to leap across it rather than being able to take a very long step out. Following the Leap of Faith is the ledge where you hug the wall on a narrow ledge about four stories off the ground. Both of these were fairly easy.

This photo was taken with my go pro, which has a fish eye lens effect and exaggerates the terrain a bit. Regardless this is very steep terrain that must be climbed free handed. Your grip is pretty good here, so again while you’re very unlikely to fall, if you do it will certainly be fatal. It’s a bit intimidating for sure. The worst part of the trip was some time after the Green Gully. We had made it high up on a ledge and found ourselves on some very steep terrain covered in scree and sand that we would have to cross. To the right of the path was a drop to where you couldn’t see the bottom. On the left was some high angled shale rock that would come out in your hands if you grabbed it, and basically offered no good holds. I found this part to be terrifying. If you started slipping there was no way to stop yourself. I truly felt like I was at risk of losing my life traversing that loose scree. The two people I had met decided to turn around at this point. I seriously considered the same, but as I was close to the summit and I was aware there was a climbing group head of me I continued on. As it turns out from the other climbers that I later met, we had somehow been off the route and were not supposed to be on that scary ledge!

The final challenge was a little bit of climbing and then this ridge that leads to the summit. It’s another sharp drop on both sides but this was one of the easiest parts since you had plenty of room compared to other things I had just done on this climb. As a matter of fact, everything else going up and even all the way back down was a piece of cake when compared to that ledge we had been on.

The summit views were amazing, but with some overcast weather that had rolled in I actually got some more scenic views from the saddle! Above is myself at the top of Pyramid Peak, my first 14’er!