Matt Lemke - Aug 6, 2015 12:51 am - Voted 10/10

If you are looking to do this peak without traversing the entire Eldorado ice cap (Inspiration Traverse) then you must approach via Thunder Creek and head up the lower north ridge of Tricouni Peak. There is a bridge over Thunder Creek to the McAllister camp so no need to ford it. The route up the ridge has a boot path that is somewhat easy to follow but easy to lose in a couple spots. It gets very steep in one spot to weave through some cliff banks and between 4,900 feet and 5,000 feet where the ridge is flat, the trail can be hard to discern. Once at the Borealis Lake, you have two options for "getting to" the peak. If you come in early season, the snow hike up to lucky pass is easy and the class 3 east ridge is trivial. However in late season, this mountain is becoming harder and harder every year. People do not go up to lucky pass much anymore unless you want a days worth of ice climbing. Instead, you can hike way off to the right and go up a grassy ridge with some larch trees and cross the north ridge at its low point (see my TR attached to the mountain page). From there you can make an ascending traverse up the small glacier on the NW side of the peak and ascend a hideously steep gully and loose ledge to a small 8,200 foot notch in the west ridge where an easy walk brings you to the summit. This route would probably go at low 5th class...we had to make a 50 foot rappel to reach the glacier heading down this route on the Inspiration Traverse.

Moral of the story, do this peak in early season! In late season this peak (as well as the entire Inspiration Traverse) becomes much more difficult.