Rowdy Ruby

Over Labor Day weekend, I finally made my first pilgrimage up to Ruby Basin. Over the past few years, I've gazed longingly out at the Weminuche from surrounding peaks. Whether it was the Kendalls, Ice Lakes, Vestal Basin, my eyes were constantly drawn to the Needles. I was sorta aware of what each peak was, recognizing different angles and features, but I was always perplexed where one peak/basin ended and the other began. I'd checked out the Chicago Basin 14ers back in 2019, but this year I knew I couldn't put off getting back there for another year.

My buddies, Jack and Wes, reached out about packing in a quick trip, when I got back to SW Colorado. I invited my roommate, Luke, and we settled on checking out Ruby Basin, with all of us psyched to at least try and climb Pigeon. We weren't initially feeling very ambitious, as we were hiking in on Friday Afternoon from Purgatory, and hiking back out on Sunday morning, leaving only Saturday to explore.

We set off from Purg TH around 3:45 and made the slog into Ruby. We got rained on most of the way, and showed up at Ruby Lake around 11 pm. We were honestly pretty worn out from the dark, wet approach, and collectively agreed to sleep in the next morning, knowing we had a perfect forecast.

Game faces

Pigeon coming out of the Clouds for a bit!

Rad sign, really nailed the shapes.

We woke up, dried out our clothes, and enjoyed a casual morning in the sun. We set off from our camp around ~10 AM (serious alpine start) It became pretty apparent that Luke and Wes were feeling significantly more worked from the long approach, so we decided to split up into two groups. This would allow Jack and me to potentially link in some other peaks, and for them to enjoy the day at a more relaxed pace. We split off right before the steep slope to the Pigeon/Turret saddle, and went on our way!

First Eyes on Peak 15. What a Hunk!

Pigeon's wild East face. One of the larger alpine walls in the state, it doesn't seem to host the rock quality necessary for any classic routes, but similar to the East face of Monitor, there is absolutely climbing history as well as potential on these remote walls.

We arrived at Pigeon's saddle, dropped pack/running belt, and started circling Pigeon towards the standard route. The standard route requires a big drop after reaching a notch directly south of Pigeon. I was feeling a bit stubborn, and not wanting to add in tons of extra gain on the way down/back up, I insisted to Jack that we try and find a sneak around pigeon, which could potentially drop us right along the standard route. We spotted a short headwall, which looked like it could deposit us onto ledge systems on Pigeon's west face. I followed goat tracks after the short headwall and found cruiser terrain along the west side, leading us to a notch on Pigeon's West ridge. We dropped shortly down the Notch and made our way along the 3rd-4th slabs in sight of the typical standard route.

Short 4+ headwall, leading us to Pigeon's West side.

What our route typically looked like. Pigeon's standard route would be just off to the left.

Looking down our route up Pigeon

We summited Pigeon at 1pm, 3 hours into the day. It was pretty surreal to finally be on top of a peak we'd been obsessing over for years. It truly has to be one of the most incredible summits and views around. We soaked it up for a bit, and reversed our route back to the saddle. I was pretty giddy to find that sneak and skimp out on a ton of the legwork.

Pigeon Summit

Summit block - bit reminiscent of Sunlight!

View of the day ! Engineer and Lone Cone lining up perfectly. We geeked out at this for a few minutes.

We arrived back at the saddle, hung out for a bit with our buddies, and decided to carry on to Turret. We were trying not to be unrealistic, but both of us were definitely keen on trying to link Pk 15 into it. We had one screenshot that showed there was a potential way to downclimb Turret's east side (?), but we both knew we would have to get eyes on it before we got too excited.

Heading Over to Turret - View back at Pigeon/Saddle

Beautiful rock on Turret

Summit of Turret! Looking over to Eolus - N Eolus. Peak 15 just left of center

Linking Turret and 15 was the crux of the day. Specifically, downclimbing Turret's East side, which was straightforward enough, yet highly exposed. The standard, yet still obscure way to link these peaks, is to drop down and around Turret's South side, from the saddle with Pigeon, and essentially go all the way into New York Basin. This allows you to avoid all the complex terrain and circumnavigate all the way to the standard route on Peak 15. Although it seems most people treat 15 as its own objective, understandably so. We scoped a good-looking line coming directly from the saddle with Turret, and figured if we could find our way to the saddle, we could give that line a try.

We took our time heading down Turret, exercising heightened caution with the infamous kitty litter, and found ourselves at the Turret/15 Saddle around 4.

Our line down Turret - Specific crux highlighted in red - Awkward transfer into another corner system, with pretty big exposure.

The line we scoped turned out to be surprisingly pleasant, consisting of mostly 4th - low 5th - with a 20-foot ~5.7 chimney crux. This deposited us on the S crest of Peak 15, which we followed up to the summit. Arriving at the top at 4:30, we chose not to linger for long, and turned right back around... soooo excited to go back up Turret.

Peak 15 - with and without our beta line. The chimney crux can be seen as a small dark shadow, right near the crest. We found a very old nut and carabiner, signifying someone had at least rappelled down this terrain before.

Peak 15 selfie!

Summit of 15 ! Looking back at Turret and Pigeon

Scambling up 15 - The line we descended on Turret, is bordering the right edge of the photo.

Scrambling down the S crest of 15 - Keeping an eye out for our chimney.

Animas - 13 - Monitor ... hmmmmm

Climbers across the basin, on top of Pk 13. Turned out they were friends! - @alexhenes!

Crux of our route on Pk 15 - Short and unexposed ~ 5.7 downclimb. The bail gear/rappel anchor was found in the crack on the left.

Wacky scrambling back over Turret - It's a bit difficult to comprehend the exposure, the kitty litter factor definitely amps it up.

By 5:30, we were back at the saddle of Pigeon/Turret. At this point, the fire was burning, and we were psyched! Our eyes shifted to the Monitor group, and we both felt like it was quite feasible to add them in. We started scheming and made quick work of the descent down into Ruby basin proper. We did a full pit stop at the creek, throwing down all the food and water we could, and started up Monitor at 6:30

Heading to Monitor

Sun is getting low, taken from the obvious ledge running underneath peak 13.

We had good beta for these three peaks, as Laura Clark wrote up a very useful report on Animas and Monitor. We utilized the same ledge under Peak 13, to access Monitor, and dropped our packs at the saddle between 13 and Monitor. By 7:30, we were watching the Needles absolutely light up on the summit. It was one of the better sunsets in my life!

We tried to take it in, but were conflicted by wanting to utilize the last bits of light, so we reluctantly headed back to the saddle. We didn't have much beta on 13 or how it connected to Animas, but it seemed straightforward, and we tried our best to analyze the terrain before things got dark.

Sunlight

Eolus + N

15 - Turret - and the La Plata's in the distance.

Beastly Jagged

Once we were back at our packs, we weaved around Peak 13, and summited via quality 3rd class on the ~ NE side of the peak. We enjoyed the very last bits of light, turning on our headlamps as we crested the summit. Dropping off 13 was a bit cruxy, and we encountered some 4th and low 5th, but this problem is likely avoidable with more info/sunlight. The section between Peak 13 and Animus went rather quickly, blocky class 3 with many options. The upper stretches did have a number of cairns, which we were able to follow. By 9, Jack and I were on the moonlit summit of Animas

Scoping out the drop, summit of Peak 13 - Animas in the center - Can spot the caribeaner and nut on my running belt... I think I accidentally dropped it on Animas's summit!

Descending Animas was a tad gritty in the dark, but once we stepped onto terra firma below the upper stretches, we knew the only way we could ruin our day would be wiping out from mentally checking out. So, we focused up and didn't rush the descent, reminiscing on the day and talking about the shmorgousborg we were going to assemble back at camp.

We arrived back at camp at 10:30, a little over 12 hours after setting out that morning. We feasted, watched shooting stars over Ruby Lake, and turned in for the night. The next morning, we made the knee-crushing trek down from Ruby Lake, and got back to Durango in the evening. The scenery, adventure, effort, company, and remoteness of the day culminated in one of the most memorable experiences I've had in the mountains. This zone is truly special!

Zen time

Last notes - I hope this report can provide some sort of usefulness, besides all the spray. I really wanted to highlight the terrain between Turret and Peak 15 for curious folks, especially because we essentially found nothing.

Peak 15 seems to have quite the reputation on this site, and I honestly think it's deserved. Although we did not take the standard route, all these peaks, especially 15, are complicated beasts. It's without a doubt one of the more difficult peaks in the state.

The kitty litter here is unforgiving, and it's ridiculously easy to lose your footing. Stay sharp!

I ran into a few friends up there and chatted with some strangers, who all felt like the approach took a significant toll and required them to scale back their expectations or objectives. It's good to keep in mind how deep you are back there!

Stats - Lotta Up - Lotta down