This was nothing short of a spectacular day. From the day we first skied Pyramid together two years earlier, we had been talking about Thunder Pyramid. It’s East Face is actually split into two by a ridge, leaving it with two, distinct, easterly faces– the Northeast Face, which is easily observable from points on Aspen ski areas and looks rather perilous, and the Southeast Face, which though still really steep, is at least continuous.

From a pre-dawn start at T Lazy 7 Ranch, we snowmobiled up the road to Maroon Lake, and began up the west side summer route from Len Shoemaker Basin. It’s pretty easy travel to the Basin, after which any number of west facing couloirs will get you up on the ridge near Thunder Pyramid’s summit. Just to share for others, we opted for the prominent couloir that splits Thunder and Lightning Peak. It’s easy to climb, and will get you up on the ridge, but for skiing and climbing’s sake, it puts you a bit too far to south, and a route more to the north should be chosen. We ended up doing a rather large traverse of the East Face to get to the summit.

However you get to the summit, get ready for a super-steep, committing descent, 4,000 feet to the valley floor. This is a true gem of the Elk Mountains and Colorado, one of the most aesthetic, long steep descents you can find.

The photos can fill in some details.