The mileage and elevation gain estimates are measured from what we call the "Storm King" pass which is the saddle between Storm King and Peak Nine. If coming from the suggested campsite at the twin, small lakes at 12,200 ft. above Balsam Lake and about a mile west of this saddle, then the one way mileage is about 1.5 and elevation gain is 1400 ft. with an additional 200 feet of gain on the return. In 2005 when we climbed Peak Nine, we camped at the Trinity Creek-Vallecito Creek trail intersection, so that is what we'll use for the primary approach for this summit, however, we're also posting "The High Traverse" as another possible approach for anyone trying to come from the vicinity of Jagged Mountain, and there is also access via Leviathan Creek and an non-maintained trail in that drainage as well. See notes regarding access via Trinity Creek made from a 2022 climb of Peak Eight that summer. Beetle-kill in this area has rendered this approach almost impassable.
From "Storm King" pass, head west, dropping down close to 200 feet in elevation on whatever trail you can find through the rubble. The immediate goal is to get to the saddle between Peaks Eight and Nine. A contour over from Storm King Pass may seem possible, but you'll likely waste a lot of time navigating all the loose rock. It's best to just go ahead and lose the small amount of elevation and then climb back up to the saddle. In later July, we found a large snowfield that funneled us up into a couloir that went up to the saddle. Early in the morning, the snow was still hard and frozen so ice axes were handy as well as microspikes. The USGS map makes this saddle appear to be a fairly wide and gentle place. What we found was the narrow head of the couloir that opened immediately on the south side to a large basin. At the time we made this climb, the route information in "Guide To the Colorado Mountains" was basically useless. G&M had nothing on it and Rosebrough's book only mentioned a route up from Leviathan Lake utilizing the SE ridge with precious little detail to help. We offer thanks to Dave Goldwater and Jack Dais who shared the following route with us, which is probably the least technical way to reach the summit.
Peak Nine is one of those mountains you have to respect just by looking at it. Much of it appears to be a mangled pile of great rocks and slabs. Its rock is reputed to be dangerously unstable. (Same goes for Peak Eight.) Both the north and south faces are near vertical walls of rock stretching up for hundreds of feet. The summit is nothing more than the highest point of an elongated, very narrow ridge. Viewed from the north or south, while dwarfed by neighbors like Storm King or Silex, it deserves certainly no less respect, and frankly, more respect than those neighbors. This is the kind of summit you may "worry" about the night before. Be on the lookout for friendly mountain goats who want to lick your pee and make off with any unguarded, salty items.
From the saddle, drop directly into the basin below on large, broken rubble. In our mid-July trip, there was still a crescent shaped snowfield that delineated the edge of this basin before it dropped off to the south. Head over to the left walking SE either above or along the snow. Be careful not to drop off the edge, but you'll still need to descend following the bowl down by about 200 feet. The key to this route is a "green ramp" that heads SE along the face of Peak Nine. Do not head up too early, tempted by an area of greenish-colored rock above. Walk to the extreme eastern end of the flat, bowl area and perhaps drop down on snow or rock a little. Suddenly, the green ramp will come into view and it will be quite obvious when it does. Cross over on snow/rock to the beginning of the ramp. Pass by a rock outcrop and begin hiking up the steep ramp. It's easy at first with a little 3rd class scrambling. After following it a few hundred yards, we came to a large cairn. Decision time. You can continue SE along the ramp as Goldwater and Dais did, and intersect the SE ridge. From there, you nearly reverse direction, heading NW up along the ridge to the summit. More about that in a minute. The other choice to head up a large couloir that came just after the large cairn. This couloir shows on the USGS map, but that map provides no real clue as to what you will encounter there. The Google Earth view of this south face is almost useless for actually identifying the couloir.
If you choose to head up the couloir and you still have ice axes with you, don't necessarily ditch them as we did. Even though it had a southern exposure and it was the 3rd week of July, we still found icy snow in a section of this tight-at-times gully. We scrambled up the first 100 feet on very steep rock with all kinds of broken rock shards, and then encountered the frozen snow which we could not see from below. The snow filled the couloir upwards for the next 50 feet. Without ice axes, we had to wedge ourselves between the rock wall and the edge of the snow that had pulled away from the rock. This technique worked except for one brief slip. At one point, we had to push ourselves out of the gap, onto the snow for a few steps and then drop back into the gap between snow and rock. Above the snow, the couloir widens out some and you will come to a place where the main couloir turns right. Looking straight ahead, it opens up into a steep bowl surrounded in part by the summit cliffs. Going straight up appeared technical so we followed the right branch up, with the angle of ascent steepening more. You'll need to take care here not to knock rocks down on each other. Helmets are highly advisable as well as appropriate climbing protocol. Midway up was a 12 foot wall that proved to be the 4th class crux. Above this wall, we continued for a brief distance and emerged onto the SE ridge through a small opening. The view back down the ridge was intimidating making us wonder how Goldwater, Roach and Dais managed to do it without aid or protection, You be the judge.
Once on the ridge, continue toward the summit on the ridge as best as you can. We encountered one place where we had to go off to the left for a brief, difficult stretch, then regained the ridge for the strolling finish to the narrow, rocky summit. On this ascent, we had brought a 100 foot piece of not-so-trustworthy rope we had brought for "emergency" use, 40 feet of 1" webbing, some biners and rappel setups and "swami" seats. We never used the rope, did not do any rappelling, but did use the webbing for a handline at the crux move. Again, we do not consider ourselves to be bold rock jocks by any means. The crux move did make us somewhat uncomfortable. There was all kinds of broken, loose rock, so you had to watch every step carefully.
The view makes you feel a little dwarfed by such towering neighbors like Storm King and Silex. It was mostly a sense of relief we had in making it to the summit in one piece. For the descent, we did notice a rappel station that had been used multiple times that would drop you back down into the couloir we had come up. But we did not have enough rope for the distance so we down-climbed the entire route back to the green ramp and returned across the bowl to the Peak Eight-Nine saddle and then back to our campsite, which on this trip was at the Trinity Creek-Vallecito Creek trail intersection.
Links to other information, routes & trip reports for this peak that may be helpful.