Pyramid Mountain - 13,054 ft. | Stuck in the Rockies

A look at the start of the ridge to Pyramid Mountain — The start of our ridge traverse, from just beyond the pass where we left the trail. Pyramid Mountain is out of view to the left of the photo.

Pyramid Mountain, 13,054 ft., is an off-the-beaten-path 13er in the Sanger de Cristo Mountains. It’s the high point of a long cirque that frames a beautiful area known as Groundhog Basin.

The North Crestone Lake trailhead, located just north of the town of Crestone, offers the best access to Pyramid Mountain. Hike up the good trail to a well-marked junction known as Three Forks and orient yourself. One trail heads southwest to North Crestone Lake, the second fork climbs northwest to Comanche Pass, and the third fork—the one for Pyramid Mountain—climbs north towards Venable Pass.

Follow that trail further up the valley and plot your route to Pyramid Mountain. There are several options to gain the ridge; they all involve some XC travel. In our case, we followed the trail to the pass between the North Fork of the Crestone Trail and the San Isabel Trail. At around 12,500 feet from that pass, we began climbing up to the southwest and quickly reached the start of the cirque.

Bypassing the pinnacles on the backside of the cirque.

As we made our way around the “C” shaped cirque, we encountered some fairly steep and exposed sections, forcing us to descend on the backside of the ridge (NW) to find an easier passage. Once past a few gendarme-like crux sections, we regained the ridge and continued to Pyramid Mountain.

Traversing to Pyramid Mountain — The final section of the ridge, Pyramid Mountain is the high point out in the distance.

The north ridge of Pyramid Mountain — Looking back at the ridge we traversed to Pyramid Mountain. We were on the shaded, middle ridge in the photo. You can see the series of pinnacles that we passed lower, and behind.

Christy and Ted Mahon on the summit of Pyramid Mountain — On the summit!

Not surprisingly, we didn’t see another soul. After enjoying time on the quiet summit, with pretty amazing views of the Northern Sangre 14ers, we descended southeast off-trail and found our way back on the trail near Three Forks. The descent was a bit unpleasant at times, but it was a very expeditious route home.

A view of the northern sangre de cristo 14ers — The view of northern Sangre 14ers and adjacent peaks. Mount Adams, the Crestones, Kit Carson, and Challenger, left to right.

Our route was about 13-14 miles with almost 5,000 feet of vertical gain. It was an awesome day up high. We were glad the weather was clear and sunny; it might have felt different if we had been on that ridge for so long and threatening T-storms were in the area.