Carrie and I headed to Moab to do some hiking with Dylan (a longtime friend) and his girlfriend Nicole.

On Saturday we scrambled up Peak 5212 on the Moab Rim to watch the sunset. Awesome peak and sunset and we did some exploring on the descent, which required some “water slides” down the dry canyon. The stats weren’t crazy for the peak, but Carrie and I were sore after the hike, mostly because the night hiking was jarring on the legs.

The next morning we headed south of town to climb Pyramid Butte. Pyramid Butte is a beautiful peak that does indeed look like a pyramid. The peak has a lot of prominence and is surrounded on 3 sides by the Colorado River.

Given it’s class 4 rating, I likely would not have taken this peak on myself, but Dylan was optimistic and said we’d take a rope and setup some handlines for the sketchy sections.

We drove almost to the base of the peak. We could pretty much see our route from where we parked. I was impressed by the peak, but not sure we could pull the climb off.

The hike to our ascent gully only took about 10 minutes across the sand and cactus. Once in the gully, we were facing the crux of the climb within another 10 minutes.

Dylan got through the crux on his own, then assisted the ladies by essentially pulling them up. I didn’t feel Dylan could pull me up given my size, so he through a rope down, which got me through. With the rope in place, we utilized it on the next 2 tricky moves as well.

Once above the tricky spots, we traversed quite a ways east until the terrain allowed us to move up and traverse to another tier and eventually into a gully. The gully had a few class 3 moves and then we popped out onto the flat bench that surrounds the peak.

We walked the easy terrain to the west base of the peak. The terrain here looks impenetrable, but Dylan and I could see a line crossing the face that looked like it’d go. The GPS track we had confirmed this, then cairns further confirmed it.

This line worked and got us to a second, smaller bench. Here another overhanging step sent me around to steep, but easier terrain, as the others continued straight up. Just below the summit, Dylan threw down a rope for one final step. That step wasn’t too bad, but given the loose nature of the rock, having the rope there made it feel better.

The views from the top were stunning! The river, the canyon, the red rock, the snow-covered La Sals, the beautiful blue skies!

The climbing on the way down went a lot easier, even the crux that had bothered me coming up.
As we sat at the truck after the hike we all agreed that the temperature, peak we’d just done, the views and the company were all quite nice… it was a great day!

We Google mapped “Pyramid Butte”, which, using Potash Road, got us due north of the peak. Once Potash Road turns west, we took the first dirt road heading south and towards the peak.

Potash Road is rough, but probably ok for low clearance vehicles with good tires and a good driver. You’ll feel better in a vehicle with high-clearance. If it rains, you will definitely want 4-wheel drive.

Pyramid Butte is a complex peak. With some craftiness, you can climb the peak without using ropes (although we brought a rope to help us out on a few sections).

The route utilizes the second north gully in from west. From there, the route is a winding line to keep things non-technical. The crux is early on and is a 6-foot v-notch where you will need to basically do a pull-up to get over. Luckily Dylan could make this move without assistance and sent down a rope for the rest of us.

I think the next hardest move is immediately after, but after that, the rest of the moves are class 3, although a bit exposed and sometimes lose.