North Face, Lone Eagle Peak - Indian Peaks

5.7, Class III, 11 Pitch, Adventure Climb
(Multiple scramble pitches, a lot of loose scree)
​Mountain Project Link: Click here

State: Colorado
Town: Boulder
Season: Late June - Early Oct (late snow melt)
Time: 4.25 hr hike to camp (8mi), 1 hr hike to base (1mi), 7.5 hr climb, 2 hr decent, 1 hr hike (~1.5mi?) back to camp. 5.5 hr (8mi) hike out. (Note: slow-moderate hiking pace, route finding issues and roping up on sketchy areas w/ 3 people, water collection breaks).
# Climbers: 1 - 4
Belays: good ledges
Style: trad, adventure, scramble, hand crack, stemy, juggy

Extra Info:
Camping Availability Call: 303.541.2500
Camping Reservation: Click here
Permit required June 1 - Sept 15
Camp in Crater Lake (preferred) or Cascade Creek

Leader:
Confident 5.8 trad climber. A lot of easy run outs with consistently good holds. Study route beta to prevent wrong turns. Recommend learning mountaineering coil for simo climbing, body belaying (shoulder), and munter hitch for quick belays. Click on the technique to see a YouTube video.

Follower:
All range levels. pick variations based on climber skill levels. Many variations available. Non-confident climbers will require roping up on multiple 5th class sections during scrambles.

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Approach:
​Two options Monarch Lake or Pawnee Pass trail. For Pawnee Pass, go to the Brainard Lake Recreational area and continue to the long lake trailhead. From long lake trailhead parking lot head toward Lake Isabelle and Pawnee Pass. Parking lot side of Pawnee Pass has good trail signage (stay right at each of the Wyes). After reaching Lake Isabelle take a hard right at the sign toward Pawnee Pass. Cross the river a few times (this is your last water source before crossing the pass). There is a sign located at the top of Pawnee Pass. Continue past the sign and work your way down into the next valley (do not go up hill again, those are trails to hit the summits of surrounding peaks). There is no signage on this side of the mountain till you reach the turn off for crater lake. Proceed down the mountain and stay right at any trail splits (first trail split once you are in the trees will take you down to Pawnee Lake). Once the trail meets up with the river, cross it to the right. Note: watch out for toe smasher root once the trees start to thin out and there are very large boulders. At the next Wye the left turn will take you to an over look over a river with Lone Eagle Peak directly in front of you (almost perpendicular to the cliff, not the closer right peak). Take a right and continue to the next river crossing, the next junction will have a sign for Crater Lake and Cascade Creek shortly after the river crossing. Setup camp somewhere in the vicinity of this junction for cascade creek or continue to Crater Lake where there are the designated #'d campsites.

At the junction with the sign head toward Crater Lake, Mirror Lake will be the first lake with the iconic view of the peak. Hike the trails to the right to the end of the lake. Cross the river at the log jam between Mirror Lake and Crater Lake. Find the trail near the water (to the right after crossing the log jam) that goes up a ravine between the trees and the edge of Lone Eagle Peak.

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Route Start:
​Once you get to the top of the ravine (that is between the trees and Lone Eagle) it begins to fatten out and turn into a scree field, look for the 5th class scramble up a ledgy black rock section with a gap in the trees at the top. There is a piton about half way up the rocky section. This is considered P1 (I would call P1 - P4 approach pitches). ​

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Anchors:
​No fixed anchors or rap stations. Random pitons throughout route.

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Belay Stations:
P1-P4 good ledges, P5 grassy ledge, P6 grassy/sandy ledge, P7 good ledge, P8 grassy ledge, P9 good ledge, P10 grassy ledge, P11 top out.
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Route Notes:
​Route doesn't get much traffic, there is a lot of loose rock and dirty holds. Multiple variations available, all of which look like they follow about the same grade maybe 5.8 or less. Simo the easy pitches to save time. Body belay easy ramp scramble pitches if required to save time.

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Pitch Description (climbers perspective):
​P1 (5.7) starts up the black rock and onto a ledge with a piton just above head level. committing move to more jugs and grassy ledge and dirt trail up between the trees. Belay off of tree at beginning of dirt section (if required). After passing through the trees there will be a very wide rocky ramp to your right (this goes right around to the north face and other possible looking routes). To your left there will be a lower ramp mid ramp and upper 5th class looking ramp. P2-P4 (5.6) Take the upper ramp going left around the mountain. This will take you along a 4-6ft wide ramp through trees all the way to the end of the 4th pitch. There are two sections that might require roping up for ease of mind. Continue until you get to a grassy ramp with a long section of 5th class scrambling up rock. Setup belay or Simo from here. get up the scramble and to another ledge with a body width chimney/scramble above you. Setup belay here. P5 (5.7) Two route variations, continue all the way up the chimney to the next big grassy ledge (looked easier to top out on) or get up to the base of the chimney on a sloping ramp that goes right about 20 ft to a corner route with jugs. Top of this pitch is walking on thick bushes on a slope, be very careful as there is no pro here. Suggest going between the tree like bushes on the left and the spikey (ouch) juniper shrub on the right once you get to the vegetation. Setup belay at the blocky ledges. P6 (5th) aim for going between the two peaks up a scree and slab scramble to the base of a ramp that splits the peaks. There is a fun looking chimney and crack (maybe 5.9 or harder) with an amazing looking roof at the top to the left 15-20 ft of this ramp. Pick which ramp variation (left corner, middle slab, or right corner) you want to do and setup belay at the base of the ramp. P7 (5.7/5.8) left variation doesn't look fun, middle variation looked run out, right variation looked fun (we went with the right variation in the corner). Work your way up the crack and ledges to a small bulge (crux). Protect high before going through this, harder than it looks. Get to the ledge where it flattens out. set belay or combine with P8 (4th) continue working your way up and to the right. Setup belay at the base of the vertical wall section near the top of the knoll that you are on. There will be a 5th class scramble down and to the right along the wall to get down to the lower ramp. Looking straight up from here there will be a piton maybe 30 ft up and slightly to the right up some slaby ledges (possible run out route?) With a vertical crack about 15' to your right. P9 (5.8) money pitch, down climb 10-15' to the right to a horizontal crack that allows you to traverse into the vertical crack. Protect at the same elevation as the belay to help with rope drag. Get to decent belay ledge on your left. Setup belay here. P10 (5.7) possible link with P9, two variations, continue straight up and pull spikey roof or go right along diagonal ramp/crack (I went right). continue along the ramp and work your way up to top out on wide grassy ledge below the summit. setup belay. P10.5 (3rd) walk to the left and around the summit to the opposite side. Setup belay at the base of the left diagonaling ramps. P11 (5.7) Work your way up slaby left diagonal corner crack, poor protection in some spots. Get to the top and setup belay at the rectangular catwalk blocks.

Side note: Alternative P11 Option One: Once you top out from the money pitches just below the summit. there is a double vertical crack (looks amazing) leading into a wedged roof block, I attempted summiting with this but got stuck at the roof (maybe 5.10 5.11 section?), and my followers were not capable. Two: there is a single flaring hand crack (looks decently fun) to the left around the corner of the dual hand crack after pulling some blocky ledges. Getting into the crack was at least 5.9 maybe 5.10, I attempted but got stuck before getting into the crack, and my followers were not capable. Before attempting these make sure you bring your belayer up to the grassy ledge for communication purposes. I got myself into a very stupid decking situation after attempting both of these.

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Decent (looking downhill perspective):
Your at the top! You're not done climbing yet. Walk along the catwalk toward the rest of the saw teeth peaks, drop down and left along a shallow narrow ramp not too far from where you belay. To ledges and trails. Everything you can see is considered the first valley. Stay high and work your way along caryns and trails to the scree field (150 yards). On the far end of the valley there are two cutouts at the top of the scree field that take you up and over into the next valley. We split up and took both paths. Left path seemed easier than the right. Both have very large loose rocks and 5th class scrambling. Be very careful. Top of both cutouts meet up. At the top go down and left toward triangle lake. Follow trails. In general side hill to the right and don't cut straight down. Eventually you will cut back to the left once you can see a path all the way down.

Get into the trees around triangle lake, looking down the valley go left or right to avoid cliffing out. Get into the boulder fields and work your way down to the grass. To keep from getting wet, stay long the tree line and follow random trails. Once you cross the river get back onto the main trails during the approach.