DATE: Saturday, July 4, 2020
DISTANCE: 19.79km / 12.3 miles
ELEVATION GAIN: 1,438m / 4718 ft.
TIME TAKEN: 10:35
ELDORADO NATIONAL FOREST
DESOLATION WILDERNESS
COUNTY: EL DORADO COUNTY, CA
SOUNDTRACK: War Master: Pyramid Of The Necropolis
SUMMITS:
• Pyramid Peak 3,042m / 9983 ft.
• Mount Agassiz 3,038m / 9967 ft.
• Peak 9686 “Crystal Pile” 2,952m / 9686 ft.
• ”Ellen’s Tower” 2926m / 9600 ft.
PHOTO ALBUM
MAP
...continued. Pyramid Peak, at just under 10,000 feet, is the high point of both the Desolation Wilderness, and the Sierra Nevada’s Crystal Range. It was always highly present throughout my childhood in northern California, glimmering in the distance, even visible from Sacramento on a clear day, lording to the north over my numerous Carson Pass hikes. I could almost see it from my parents’ backyard in Jackson. In my childish ignorance, I thought that Pyramid Peak and its associated Crystal Range WAS the High Sierra, mostly because they had the look: pointy, classic, Alps style peaks. Not the volcanic rubble I was used to climbing at Carson Pass. I didn’t even realize for the first few years that Pyramid wasn’t as tall as Round Top! But sometimes, image can be everything. And Pyramid Peak played the role of the shining, classically shaped mountain on the horizon, suitable for a cameo in a Paramount Pictures logo. It even had a cool name, one that evoked ritual and mysticism. Like many of these fascinating Sierra destinations of course, I never made it there as a child, hiking mostly within the Highway 88 corridor. Then I grew up and focused on studying art and being a touring musician for many years of my adult life. It was only when a global pandemic derailed my voluminous musical activities, as well as my day job, that I was able to find time to start exploring the classic northern Sierra peaks. I had been thinking about Pyramid for awhile, and it was high on the hit list. How would I climb it? Go up the Rocky Creek Trail? Through Desolation Wilderness? Preparation met opportunity when I found myself camped out in Kyburz for the fourth of July, just ten miles down the road from Pyramid’s main approach. And I had a semi-willing participant who agreed to drop me off at one trailhead and pick me up from another, hours later, setting the stage for an epic loop that would take in Horsetail Falls, Desolation Valley and finally Pyramid Peak it’s self.
Anyway, I woke up in Kyburz (I had managed to not party
too hard the night before), in Amber’s camper van, at about 5AM. Crawled to the driver’s seat and delivered mice elf up the road to the
Pyramid Creek Trailhead. Amber slept soundly until I pulled into the
parking lot. She mumbled “is there a bathroom here?” and my affirmative response roused her further. (there is no bathroom at the primitive camp in Kyburz). I parked the van, and left Amber to her own devices, setting foot upon the trail at 5:45AM. Even though it was the 4th of July holiday, I had
the place to myself at this hour. Not only would this be my first visit to Pyramid Peak, but also to Horsetail Falls, one of the finest Yosemite style waterfalls outside of Yosemite, one that I had admired from the road on several occasions. Is there a better start to a hike than following a rushing whitewater creek through the pines, going over open granite slabs, with towering cliffs
reflecting the early light of dawn? The trail was quiet and beautiful, and I reached the
Desolation Wilderness border at 6AM.
The trail followed next to or near,
Pyramid Creek, as it rushed down from the head of the canyon. Many sections over the open granite, the trail disappeared, marked with ducks and spray paint. The path grew ever more rocky and treacherous until it becomes almost a class 3 climb, and any sign of an official trail ends. By now, I had climbed past a few
different tiers of the
multi section waterfall, over 1,000 feet up from the canyon floor, and had an excellent view
back down the from whence I came. Rays of sunlight illuminated the mountains to the south. Just before 8AM, I made it over the lip of the waterfall cliff,
where it pours out of Desolation Valley, and suddenly, the
water was clear and calm. The first big climb was over, and I began picking my way through a chain of small lakes and their connecting streams. It was
a sleepy morning in the Desolation Wilderness, and
Pyramid Peak now came into view for the first time.
The sunlight was now melting over the eastern ridge, like butter on toast, illuminating the grandiose granite environment, the placid pools and the flowing streams. Due to the general popularity of Desolation Wilderness, and the fact that it was a high summer vacation holiday (Covid be damned!), I knew it wouldn’t be long until I came upon some campers. The first one I saw was squatting in the bushes, I began to shout “Hello!” until I realized what they were doing, and then I immediately scurried away, as quickly but as quietly as possible. Though there was no particular trail I followed, this was a civilized wilderness, and the cross country was easy, basically following the course of Pyramid Creek as it flowed in and out of a chain of alpine lakes: Avalanche, Pitt, Ropi, Toem, Gefo. I wasn’t following a predetermined path or GPS, so I chose my own adventure, as they say, and the one thing that was even close to a route finding mistake was taking to the wilder west side of Toem Lake instead of the east. I passed a large contingent of campers at Ropi Lake, and waved a good morning at them.
My first big decision came when choosing to follow the creek up from Gefo Lake, to the endless granite slabs leading up the east face of Pyramid Peak, or to gain some more easy elevation by going up to Pyramid Lake. I went with option two, which worked out pretty well, because I followed the creek that feeds down into Pyramid Lake (is this still Pyramid Creek?) up over the granite steps that lead in the direction of Pyramid’s north saddle. I mostly followed the cascading, zig-zagging creek up glimmering, countertop grade granite ramps, to a final, highest (unnamed) alpine lake, where I refilled my canteen. From here on up, it was all rock and snow. the granite fun was over, and now I was rock hopping up towards the saddle, angling as directly as I could. In the midst of that angle was a pretty steep snow field. Lacking crampons or ice axe at this point in my career, I grabbed the sharpest rock I could find, and plunged it dagger-like into the hard snow, as I dragged myself across, using it as an anchor to prevent a long slide down. After the snow, it was a little more rock hopping, and then there I was, at the saddle by 10AM.
I wanted to climb Aggassiz on this hike, almost as badly as I wanted to climb Pyramid, due to it’s distinctive diving board / wave / beak shape, so I decided to go for Aggassiz first. And then was immediately confronted by an ugly pile of granite on the north end of the saddle, I didn’t see any way around it, or any easy way up and over it. As I stood there scratching my chin, wondering if I should just head for Pyramid (that would have shortened my day a lot!), another climber came down from the south, and headed straight for the rock pile without hesitation. I asked him if he had ever climbed this before, and he said "no, but I think this is considered the crux." I watched him start to climb it, with confidence, and then disappear over the top. Emboldened, I began to scramble around, very slowly finding a way to go up, different than the guy. It was certainly class 3, possibly class 4, but like solving a puzzle, I found a way. After this challenge, my hope for an easy ridge walk to the north, just frolicking along from peak to peak, was permanently shattered: the top of the ridge was all fractured granite blocks, like it had been hammered to bits by a giant. I stuck to the top of the ridge on my way north, tagging an un-named sub peak (“Crystal Pile”) along the way. Excellent views back at Pyramid were had from here, naturally. In the distance, I saw the other climber ahead of me, going about twice as fast, rapidly shrinking into a dot in front of Mount Agassiz. The ridge top was all rock hopping, peppered with occasional class three downclimbs when I chose my path poorly. The going was so tedious, that I didn’t get to the foot of Aggassiz until almost 11:30AM, almost a hour and a half since the saddle. Ascending the talus of Agassiz was almost a relief after the rock hopping marathon. A little something different, ya know?
I caught the other climber one last time as he was coming Agassiz as I was going up. He described he summit block to me, and we briefly discussed us both saving Mount Price for another day. I never got his name. I went up into the summit rocks of Agassiz, and found the obvious class three way up. First, I went into the “mouth” of the beak formation, then up onto the top of it, for a sweeping view of Aloha Basin, and back down to Pyramid Peak, almost level with it, elevation wise. Now approaching noon, it was time to head back, retrace my steps, almost. I avoided the crest of the ridge, this time, to make faster progress, but it didn’t help terribly much. It was still boulder hopping, and about one in fifty of the rocks was found to be loose. One was VERY loose, and almost sent me down the slope with it when it dislodged. It took me an hour and fifteen minutes to get back to the north Pyramid saddle, including downclimbing the rock monster. It was now 1:30PM, and I still had Pyramid to climb. The trip up to Agassiz had taken much longer than I’d anticipated, and I was now already a bit beaten up. But there was no way out except to go up and over the Pyramid, so I got on with it.
It was steep, the rock stepping resumed, and though I had to pause to catch my breath rather frequently, I still made it to the top in 25 minutes. There was a crowd of about four or five up there, if you count the marmot! I signed the summit register, then diligently sanitized my hands and pen, had a socially distanced lunch of snacks, and took photographs in all directions (N-E-SE-W). I spent about a half hour at the top, and then decided to head down, because Amber was set to meet me at the bottom, down by the Rocky Creek Trailhead, at 3PM. It was all downhill, so I thought “how long could it possibly take?” and it was down, down, down the Rocky Creek Trail, into the woods, along the creek, the day grew warmer as the hour grew later and elevation decreased, but most potential discomfort was alleviated by the increasing tree cover. I realized I wasn’t going to make it to the bottom by 3PM, no way, but luckily I had cell reception, and I asked Amber to show up at 4PM instead. I was descending as quickly as possible, wondering what it would be like to ascend this way, using a found walking stick to keep from sliding on the really steep parts. Just before the bottom, there was a great view across to Lover's Leap. I burst from the woods at Highway 50 by about 4:15PM, and Amber scooped me up and took me back to our camp at Kyburz, where my brother Axell and his girlfriend Silver had arrived to join in the 4th of July festivities, such that they were.
...to be continued.
ON PEAK NAMES
Pyramid Peak: One of several Pyramid Peaks in California, this one is certainly deserving of the name, just as much as any of the others. The fact that it was called Pyramid, a descriptive name with associations of ritual and mysticism, added to its appeal when I was a child. It wasn’t called, like, “Smith Peak” or something boring. See? Names really are important!
Mount Agassiz: Named after the Swiss born American biologist and geologist Louis Agassiz. Even though “white guy” names are low on my list of peak name acceptability, the fact that he was a pioneering scholar of natural history made it more sensible than most, until... I found out that Agassiz was also into eugenics, craniology (the very un-scientific measuring of the skull to determine immutable racial characteristics), and white supremacy. Should Agassiz be cancelled? Should the mountains names be changed? (there is also another, taller, more famous Mount Agassiz in the southern Sierra, one of the twenty tallest peaks in California).
“Crystal Pile”: Peak 9686, I nicknamed it thus because it’s a pile of rocks on the Crystal Range.
“Ellen’s Tower”: Months after the day that I climbed over it, I found that someone had created an entry for this rock wall / pinnacle at the north end of Pyramid saddle. It sounds suspiciously like a white girl naming the rock after herself, so hopefully, I’m wrong! Please tell me! I love being wrong, that's how I learn!
FURTHER READING
•Tobias Flach: Trip report from someone who also made a loop with Horsetail Falls.
•The Outbound: Description of the Rocky Creek route
•Nor Cal Hiker: Another description of the Rocky Creek route
•Alltrails: Via Rocky Creek
•Pyramid Peak on SUMMITPOST and PEAKBAGGER
•Mount Agassiz on PEAKBAGGER
•”Crystal Pile” on PEAKBAGGER
•"Ellen’s Tower” on PEAKBAGGER
