Climbing and Skiing Cathedral Peak in Colorado's Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness

I climbed and skied Cathedral Peak in early June 2025. Cathedral Peak is located in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness near Aspen, Colorado, in the Elk Mountains. At 13,952 feet (4,252m) tall, it is among the 100 highest peaks in the state.

To reach the summit, the first several miles are up an easy trail to near Cathedral Lake, which is when you leave the maintained trail and the adventure begins. From there, you can either cross the creek twice, or bushwhack through the willows around the creek. After escaping the willows and the creek, we had to scramble up some steep, but stable talus before reaching snow around 12,500 feet.

From there, I skinned to the bottom of the couloir where we transitioned to crampons to ascend the 500-foot steep gully. After topping out, the final push to the summit is about 500 more feet of steep scrambling on class 2 and class 3 rock.

For the ski descent, the snow was already really difficult to ski in the couloir by 9 a.m. from the sun-heated rocks surrounding it. I ended up side-sliding down much of the couloir, which was also difficult because of how sticky the snow was. But near the base of the couloir, I had good skiing conditions to end of the snow around 12,500 feet.

The hike out was beautiful and easy and passed through several thick aspen groves.