Pagoda Mountain

Other routes I've climbed on Pagoda:

Crescent Ridge / South Ridge (5.6) • North Buttress (5.7, 6p) • NW Face (5.4) via "A Walk in the Park" Traverse (aka "The Great Wheel") (~15 miles, rock up to 5.4, 13 hours car to car) • NW Face (5.4) via Estes Skyline High Route (~50 miles, rock up to 5.4, 3.5 days)

Category: Colorado (RMNP)Summit Elev: 13,497 ftRock Type: Granite
Date: August 17, 2023 (Thu)Trip Report #: 639Partner: Nate Arganbright

Route: North Buttress (5.7, 6p)

A classic moderate route to the seventh highest summit in RMNP. And a couple of nights in the beautiful Upper Glacier Gorge.

Intro

The summer of 2023 seemed to be on a repeating pattern of 2 rainy days followed by 5 sunny days. So, in mid-August, following another weekend shutdown, Nate and I decided it was high time to play a bit of hookey. I booked off two days of work and we got ourselves a bivy permit for Upper Glacier Gorge. Nate and I bivied up there for two nights (Tuesday and Wednesday nights) at one of our favorite bivy locations near Frozen Lake below The Spearhead.

On Wednesday we set out to climb Flight of the Kiwi (5.10d, 6-11p) on the intimidating Northwest Face of Chief's Head, a route that had intrigued us for quite some time. But the first pitch was a bit moist and pro looked scarce, so we re-routed to a route called House of Cards (5.10, 6p) on McHenrys. But this was not our day. When we arrived at the 5.10a fingercrack on Pitch 4, we could not find good protection and with some sharp flakes below it seemed unsafe. So we escaped off left, hiked back to our bivy boulder, and spent the evening reading and enjoying warm dinner and hot chocolate.

On Thursday, feeling like someting fun, we decided to climb the North Buttress (5.7, 6p) of Pagoda Mountain, an RMNP classic moderate route which neither of us had climbed and now seemed like a great opportunity to do so. The rock was good, the position excellent, and the climbing fun and easy. It was a nice day of exercise in the mountains. (As a bit of trivia, Pagoda is the 7th highest summit in RMNP. Top 10 highest smmits in RMNP: Longs Peak: 14,259'; Mt. Meeker: 13,911'; Chiefs Head Peak: 13,579'; Hagues Peak: 13,560'; Ypsilon Mountain: 13,514'; Fairchild Mountain: 13,502'; Pagoda Mountain: 13,497'; Mummy Mountain: 13,425'; Rowe Peak: 13,184'; McHenery's Peak: 13,327'.)

The following page gives an overlay and pitch-by-pitch photos of the climb of the North Buttress (5.7, 6p) of Pagoda, and below that a photo smorgasbord from our mini work vacation hanging out in Upper Glacier Gorge. Enjoy!

Route Overlay

Time Stats

Glacier Gorge Trailhead to bivy in Upper Glacier Gorge (overnight packs): 2 hours 35 minutes
Bivy in Upper Glacier Gorge to base of route: 40 minutes
Climb route: 2 hours 32 minutes
Descend to bivy in Upper Glacier Gorge via Northeast Ridge and North Gully: 1 hour 12 minutes
Hike back to trailhead (overnight packs): 2 hours 23 minutes

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

2nd-4th

From Green Lake in Upper Glacier Gorge, scramble up the lower North Gully and then up to the base of the buttress just above a band of dark rock. The route begins below a series of left-facing corners.

At lunch, Nate went to the backcountry office to get us a bivy permit. He stopped at Country Supermarket and picked up a couple of sandwiches for a pre-approach meal. Country Supermarket in Estes Park makes the best sandwiches.

Granite sidewalk on the approach, shortly before reaching Black Lake.Photo by Nate.

Approaching Pagoda from our bivy in Upper Glacier Gorge. Keyboard of the Winds are to the left of Pagoda.

Scrambling up to the base of the route.

Almost at the base of the route. The shadows of the Keyboard of the Winds below,

Pitch 1

5.5, 150'

Start in the left of three short, left-facing dihedrals and continue up the main corner to a stance.

We climbed Pitches 1-3 as two long pitches with a little bit of simulclimbing on each.

Looking up Pitch 1.

Pitch 2

5.6, 160'

Move into the next corner on the right and climb to a ledge (120 feet). Work up and left across a slab, and belay at a short left-facing dihedral.

We climbed Pitches 1-3 as two long pitches with a little bit of simulclimbing on each.

Looking up Pitch 2. I linked this section to just above the square-capped roof with Pitch 1.

Nate nearing the end of our first pitch. This is halfway up Pitch 2 by the route description.

Nate starting up our second pitch. This is halfway up Pitch 2 by the route description.

The last part of Pitch 2 in the route description.

Pitch 3

5.7, 150'

Climb the dihedral to a roof and continue straight up to a stance at the top of the inital ridge crest.

We climbed Pitches 1-3 as two long pitches with a little bit of simulclimbing on each.

The diehdral of Pitch 3.

Pitch 4

5.4, 130'

Traverse up and left to a big grassy ledge below the upper band of dark rock.

We linked Pitches 4+5 with a little bit of simulclimbing.

In this photo Steph is at the start of PItch 5. The photo was taken from the top of Pitch 3. Pitch 4 is the section inbetween.Photo by Nate.

Pitch 5

5.7, 150'

Climb up and right on white rock, traverse left under a roof, and continue to a good stance in a chimney. This was my favorite pitch on the route.

We linked Pitches 4+5 with a little bit of simulclimbing.

The start of Pitch 5.

Pitch 6

5.5, 150'

Work up the chimeny, continue up a slab, and arrive on the open crest of the upper ridge.

Nate starting up the chimney of Pitch 6. He soon cut left onto the face to avoid loose blocks,

The end of Pitch 6.

Scramble

4th, ~500'

Follow the ridge crest to the summit.

We unroped and scrambled to the top in approach shoes.

All I had left was six expired meat sticks, so Nate kindly gave me one of his extra Justin's peanut butter packets. These are much better than Goo.

The upper ridge. We unroped and scrambled this to the top in approach shoes.

The upper ridge.

Photo taken from the summit of Steph on the upper ridge.Photo by Nate.

Top

13,497 ft

Enjoy the view from the seventh highest summit in RMNP.

On top. View east towards Longs Peak.

On top. View west towards Chiefs Head.

Summit register. There was no writing utensil.

Descent

2nd

Descend the Northeast Ridge (2nd) to the Pagoda-Longs Col, and descend the North Gully (2nd) to Green Lake in Glacier Gorge.

Descending the Northeast Ridge towards the Pagoda-Longs Col.

Descending the North Gully back into Upper Glacier Gorge.

Back at Glacier Gorge Trailhead / Parking Lot.

PHOTOS FROM our two days and two nights in GLACIER GORGE

Our bivy

If you are climbing a route that is at least four pitches, you can get a bivy permit to camp up high in the park. Upper Glacier Gorge is one of Nate and my favorite places to bivy. There are bivy sites nestled under boulders. On this trip we stayed at one of our favorite bivy locations underneath a giant boulder.

Our bivy under a giant boulder.

Our bivy with Keyboard of the Winds and Pagoda behind, lit by the evening sun.

Inside our bivy.

Nate reading a book and enjoying the late afternoon sun.

Another nice evening at the bivy. When you know you will stay dry, the storm clouds are not threatening.

Nate's dinner. Some sort of pasta melange.

Morning coffee. One Taster's Choice Hazelnut plus one Starbucks VIA is my drug of choice.

My meat sticks are over 3 years expired....

...but I am determined to eat them all, so I brought these for snacks on this trip.

Bone broth + Cup-a-soup + Miso soup. Yeah, I am going to blow up like a balloon.

Soup close-up.

There was some snowmelt near camp. I made it a bit easier to collect with a stick.

Morning sun on McHenrys and Arrowhead as seen from our bivy.

Do you see the Rorschach face on Arrowhead? (Hint: Right side of photo.)

Scoping out a route on Chiefs Head, climbing up and around on McHenrys Peak, and reading books at the bivy

We had planned on two days of climbing. For the first day, our plan had been to climb Flight of the Kiwi (5.10d, 6-11p) on the initimidating Northwest Face of Chiefs Head. But when we arrived at the base of the route and looked up Pitch 1, we were hesitent about the apparent lack of pro for at least 30 feet combined with some wet rock. We decided to save Flight of the Kiwi for another day and do a route on McHenrys or Arrowhead instead. I had left all of my guidebook beta at the bivy, but I had the area data and photos loaded into the mountainproject app on my phone. Seeing climbers on Arrowhead, we decided to climb a route on McHenrys. House of Cards (5.10, 6p) sounded like a good one. But when we arrived at the 10a fingercrack on Pitch 4, we could not find great protection, despite the first ascentionist's claims that the pitch took good gear. There were giant flakes below the finger crack that made a fall dangerous. So we retreated, rappelling off of two nuts. We climbed a few more pitches of moderate climbing to get to the 3rd class ridge (if we had had the guidebook information we may have tried to find Dog Star (5.8, 9p) and climbed this to the top). We hiked back to our bivy, our heads hung a bit low and feeling frustrated by the events of the day. But we regrouped and enjoyed an evening in the mountains reading books and eating dinner and drinking hot chocolate. We decided to climb something fun and easy the next day (and hence enused our ascent of the North Buttress (5.7, 6p) of Pagoda).

The intimidating NW Face of Chiefs Head. There is no easy way up this face. The most popular is Birds of Fire (5.11a R, 9p), which Nate and I climbed in July 2020.

Steph at the base of Flight of the Kiwi (5.10d, 6-11p).Photo by Nate.

Looking up Pitch 1 of Flight of the Kiwi (5.10d, 6-11p). There doesn't seem to be much protection for awhile.

Headed over towards McHenrys Peak to find a route to climb.

Queen's Crown.

This rib of granite is a cool feature.

Arrowhead.

McHenrys Peak. I have drawn the route for the first three pitches of House of Cards (5.10, 6p). We climbed these pitches before retreating.

Pitch 1 of House of Cards. Fun 5.8.

Pitch 1 of House of Cards.

Pitch 1 of House of Cards.Photo by Nate.

The first part of Pitch 2 of House of Cards.

The 5.9 R section of Pitch 2 of House of Cards. We broke this pitch into two leads so the belayer could have a visual on the leader for the 5.9 R section.

Giant flake at the top of Pitch 3 of House of Cards.

Steph starting up Pitch 4 of House of Cards.Photo by Nate.

The 5.10a fingercrack on Pitch 4 of House of Cards. Despite the first ascentionist's claims about good gear, it seemed to be more of a seam than a crack, and we didn't feel too safe leading it.

Rappelling off two nuts below the fingercrack on Pitch 4.

We climbed a few pitches to the left to get to the 3rd class ridge of McHenrys.

Some pretty Parry's Primrose high on McHenrys.

The climbing to get to the 3rd class ridge was a little untravelled, but actually not bad.

The descent gully from Stoneman Pass.

Clouds building over Longs Peak. Nothing ever materialized.

Hiking back to our bivy below Spearhead. Longs Peak and Spearhead in distance. It felt like a bit of a walk of shame, but at least it was in a beautiful location.

Wildlife

In the summer, the elk move to the high country. I think the ones in Upper Glacier Gorge have chosen the primo location. We also had a rare sighting of a pine martin on this trip.