13085

[RyanSchilling]

The Ormes guide refers to 13085 as Ribbed Peak. It seems an appropriate name! Check the attached photo taken from Whitney Peak. The guide calls it a technical climb from either Fairview Lake or the ridge connecting it with Eagle Peak.

It also gives the name Hammer Peak to 12973, another technical climb.

The pointy peak in the top pic is Hammer; the lower pic is Ribbed.

[John Kirk]

Thanks for passing along the info.

[TeresaGergen]

Pt. 12,980 is the more interesting of that group of High 700 12ers.

I soloed the Pt. 13,100-Ribbed traverse and also the 12,977/12,973/12,980/12,935 traverse and never was on terrain I would call technical, although I suppose you could find some if you wanted to. The peaks are sustained Class 3 with some Class 4 and the routefinding is time-consuming. I believe Mike Garratt discusses these 12ers somewhere on this forum.

[RyanSchilling]

Good info, Teresa, thank you.

One update to this thread. Ken Nolan explains that Ribbed does not have to be a technical climb.

[Mike Garratt]

Teresa's correct.
In the been there done that category...
Nothing (12ers or 13ers) in the Holy Cross Wilderness is more than a scramble if you do good route finding.
There may be a tendency among guide book writers tend to make things sound more difficult than they are to 1) protect themselves from liability issues and 2) make their feats of the feet sound more amazing than simple walking.

[John Paul]

Great information here folks. Thanks. Does anyone have information about climbing "Ribbed Peak" from West Cross Creek? How about the ridge from 12,935 to "Ribbed Peak"? Also, does anyone have information about the north ridge of "Ribbed Peak" over to Pt. 12,897 and Pt. 12,900A? Thank you kindly.

[Mike Garratt]

From West Cross Creek. From the lake E of the peak at 12220 go west to the saddle at 12780 SE of peak for the finish.

Have not done the ridge from 12935 to 13085.

13085 to 12897. From the top of 13085 going N go W of 12900 bump and W of 12820 tower in couloir on W side. From saddle you can stay onatop the ridge to 12897. Likely easier route finding going 12897 to 13085

12897 to 12900. Stay onatop the ridge.

[Mike Garratt]

13085 to Eagle Peak.

Did these one time from Blodgett lake. Cross the Middle Mtn saddle to do 13085 from the E. The traverse to Eagle over 13100 goes bypassing the bumps on the ridge on the S side. Drop N then NE then E off Eagle for the traverse back through the 12897/13085 saddle.

Eagle and Fools Pks also goes nicely along the E/W ridge from Mystic Is. Lk. from 12420 saddle W of Eagle.

[kirkmallory]

I did these, plus Fools Peak, last month from the Woods Lake area. The trail starts about a half-mile west of Woods Lake; is good quality to Eagle Lake (& beyond, so I've heard, but never was on that stretch). Shortly after Eagle Lake I found a good trail climbing steeply up towards Eagle Peak, marked with cairns & some weathered orange tape. When I got to Eagle, Fools looked very tempting, but I wanted to be sure I got the 13ers done before the storms, and I knew the ridge to Ribbed would be slow. It was easy from Eagle to 13100; then two hours from 13100 to Ribbed. I mostly followed wide grass/rock ledges & ramps, going up & down over multiple ribs, on the south side of the ridge. I did return to the crest after a wide grassy area to do an exposed Class 3 ledge which I later determined could have been avoided by dropping low. There was some Class 3 near the summit, but nothing too hard or exposed.

The clouds had popped up, but weren't getting any bigger, so I traversed back below everything, expecting to drop down when the weather looked threatening, but it never did! So I found myself on the summit of Fools Peak 4 hours after leaving Ribbed. The bushwhack down from there was steep & ugly in spots. It was a long, but rewarding day!