February 11

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.........................................experiences from the Sierra Backcountry

February 11, 2006

Pyramid Peak, and a Desolate Neighbor to the North

Joe, Toby and Buddy

Pyramid Peak and Peak 9,685' with our routes in blue (ascent) and red (deescent).....yep, they were good. Picture taken from Echo Peak on January 21, 2006.

Pyramid Peak (9,983') is the kingpin of Desolation Wilderness. It is highly visible from the central valley and foothills of Northern California to the West, Sierra at Tahoe and Highway 50 travelers to the South and the Lake Tahoe Basin to the East. From each angle it presents the uniform, symmetrical shape of a pyramid, go figure. It is unlike many of the local easy hit peaks in Tahoe where a half day or less is all that's necessary to climb and ski them. Pyramid demands some commitment with it's long and challenging approach. Toby and I had a hunch (which was confirmed by a recent first hand report) that it was in prime shape to be easily accessed via Twin Bridges. The more standard approach from Pyramid is a more direct line up Rocky Creek. The recent warm spell has had Tahoe in a state of Cornicopia. Although we are usually spoiled by deep powder in mid February, Ma Nature was serving corn, so Toby and I began to dream about the South and East facing slopes of the great Pyramid in Desolation.

I had been up Pyramid a couple of times during the summer months, most recently with my 8 year old daughter Lissie during a backpacking trip to Lake Aloha. Both times I promised myself I would return to the ancient pyramid of snow in the winter months with my sacred skis. Toby was beginning to buckle with the guilt of not having skied such a prominent Tahoe peak either, so we both set out from Twin Bridges with a long overdue mission on our minds.

Lover's Leap just before sunrise (above). Buddy on the beginning of the ridge with Pyramid in the background (upper right). Some close to the road serious lines off of the Ralston ridge (lower right).

The first 2,000' are the crux of the ascent. Down low we dealt with a canyon of exposed granite and manzanita, followed by steep and firm snow slopes to be booted. We skinned through the trees to the top of the main ridge (all of these pictures are from that ridge).

Once we reached the terminus of the ridge near the base of Pyramid Peak (8,800'), we crossed a long and moderate plateau towards the south ridge of Pyramid. Toby and I enjoyed the leisurely pace while we hoped for the morning snow to soften. Buddy was bored.

Although Pyramid looks huge and steep from this plateau, it is actually less than 1,000' to the summit. When Lissie and I were on the final summit scramble last Summer, she looked back at me and said, "Come on Dad, you've got to push through the pain!"

The super views from the top of Pyramid. We couldn't help but check out a couple of exciting potential lines while there.

From the summit of Pyramid, Toby spied a very nice line off of a sub peak (9,685') just north on the ridge leading towards Agassiz and Mt. Price. The line was basking in the sun, and appeared to offer steep and silky bliss. It took very little convincing from Toby to get me to agree to ski the SE aspect of Pyramid and then traverse to the base of the ridge leading to the top of 9,685'. I took the honors of first turns off Pyramid, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the huge and long slope of 35 degrees had ripened a fine harvest of Sierra corn. Halfway down I remembered to stop and take a few pictures of Toby.

And below us, there were.....more turns:

The mighty fine Northeast and North faces of Pyramid:

So we skinned up and then booted the increasingly steep snow ramp to the top of 9,685'. We were glad to have our whippets drawn when we encountered the bulletproof rain crust ice layer beneath the 2" of corn.

Now it was time to ski the run of the day. The steep Southeast facing pitch had transitioned to 2" of uber-ego, velvet perfection cornification. The line was steeper than it appeared from Pyramid, it seemed to reach 45 degrees in the middle choke section, then slowly eased flatter on the long apron below. I grabbed shots of Toby and Buddy dropping in first, and then succumbed to my own desires by going left of Toby's tracks next.

Our lines - Pyramid on the left, Peak 9,685' on the right:

After harvesting the sweet corn for many more turns down the apron, we started a hard right hand traverse back towards the original ascent ridge. We skinned up for the third and final leg of the day to gain the ridge.

We found an east facing line off the ridge that appeared to be holding some buffy wind deposit snow. Since we both still needed to feed that insatiable desire, we dropped the sweet and steep pitch. We then resumed our long traverse headed South.

Toby and Buddy:

After a long but easy traverse (which would not be advised during avalanche conditions), we reached our skin track. We followed a steep and bony gully headed down towards Pyramid Creek. With some good luck and a little reckless skill, we linked together a number of patches of snow and did not have to dismount our skis until we were within 1/4 mile of Highway 50.

Horsetail falls with a huge Spring like flow in mid February

After a workingman's day of 5,000' and who knows how many miles, we arrived at the truck. But neither of us remembered to bring beers. So much for perfection.

Pyramid Peak from Sierra at Tahoe - 2/12/06:

Good times!

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