Pacific Peak East Ridge

The east ridge of Pacific Peak is directly north of Quandary Peak in the Ten Mile Range near Breckenridge, CO.  The first four pictures are from August 7th, 2009; the rest are from a week later, August 13th.

Begin near the end of McCullough Gulch Rd. Head uphill. After some brief bushwhacking you will end up on a gentle meadowed slope, continue upwards, you will eventually reach the beginning of the ridge.
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When you reach the beginning of the ridge, grass will be replaced with rocks, and you will be able to see Pacific Peak ominously looming in the distance.
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The ridge is a great, fun, class 3 climb! Eventually the ridge will pitter out and you will arrive at the plateau beneath Pacific Peak which houses Pacific Tarn, a great place to eat lunch and take a break. From here, according to the Colorado Scrambles guidebook, the peak is attained with “an easy scramble to the top.” The remaining trek to the summit, though not technically difficult, is quite strenuous, but the views at the top are worth the hike.
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The decent takes you down an extremely unstable scree slope (we chose to go one at a time down…) into a boulderfield. Eventually, vegetation returns, but the car is still forever away (see that road in the distance? The car’s at the end of that.).

See the Pacific Peak east ridge page at summitpost.org

See this route in Colorado Scrambles by Dave Cooper.