| Peak(s): |
North Maroon Peak - 14,022 feet |
| Date Posted: | 08/05/2013 |
| Date Climbed: | 07/30/2013 |
| Author: | Tornadoman |
| Additional Members: | ethanlion |
| Peak(s): |
North Maroon Peak - 14,022 feet |
| Date Posted: | 08/05/2013 |
| Date Climbed: | 07/30/2013 |
| Author: | Tornadoman |
| Additional Members: | ethanlion |
| Kansans Ringing the Northern Bell! |
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Climbing Statistics Start time: 4:04 a.m. Reach Summit: 10:24 a.m. Left Summit: 11 a.m. Reached TH: 3:38 p.m. My friend Ethan (ethanlion) and I (Andrew) have known each other for a few years, and are both Kansans who love climbing the 14ers. We both had over half of the summits to our credit going into this climb, but had never had the opportunity to climb together. Ethan had climbed Maroon Peak a couple years ago, and was anxious to ring the 2nd bell. I also wanted to test myself in the bells, so a plan was hatched to climb North Maroon Peak as well as a couple other of the difficult Elk 14ers. Due to stormy weather conditions North Maroon ended up being our only 14er summit of the trip, but it is an awesome mountain! Lots of rain had fallen the previous two days over the higher terrain of the Elks, but plenty of stars were visible this morning. However, the "Deadly Bells" sign was still wet and eerie when illuminated by headlamp.  The trail from Maroon Lake to the turnoff to North Maroon (before Crater Lake) is wide and gentle, slowly gaining just a bit of elevation. The turnoff is well marked and soon we were making our way on the Maroon-Snowmass trail. Another 3/4 mile later there is another trail junction that is unmarked. The left fork will take you toward North Maroon Peak. By the time you reach this fork you will be hiking away from North Maroon, and both Ethan breathed a sign of relief upon seeing the turnoff as we were a bit concerned that we had missed it. A while after crossing the creek, we somehow lost the new trail that the CFI constructed. In hindsight, the new trail switchbacked right in a rocky area, and we continued straight, heading toward a pink ribbon in a small evergreen tree. To the left of this tree we found a trail and took it. This turned out to be the old trail, but we didn't know it at the time. It was pretty easy to follow overall although faint in spots, and soon we found the small class 3 wall in Bill Middlebrook's guide. After another couple hundred vertical feet we re-encountered the newly created trail and were greeted with this outstanding view of North Maroon Peak.   Shortly after this we headed across the rock glacier, where terrain become rocky and rough. This section was no big deal on the way up, but was quite annoying on the descent!  Soon after the rock glacier you traverse into the first gully.  I was surprised by some pretty serious exposure in this area that I never remember reading about in any reports.  The first gully was fairly steep, but not that bad. A trail wound through the gully, and was generally pretty easy to follow.   As you get higher into the gully, look for an escape above you and to the left before you reach the more serious terrain above.  When I first saw the 2nd gully I knew that things were now becoming much more serious, and I did have a brief moment where I wondered what I was doing trying to climb this peak. Although steeper than the first gully, it is not NEARLY as difficult as it looks!  There is actually a trail through a good portion of the 2nd gully. It can be hard to follow at times, but if you lose it, just continue to work your way up, heading toward the base of the cliffs above.  We generally found cairns through the cliff bands and ledges at the top of the 2nd gully. When we lost the cairns we carefully wound our way through the path of least resistance and ended up finding additional cairns. The terrain here is steep and a bit more complicated than we expected, but with slow and steady progress we made our way through the difficulties.   At the top of the cliffs, great views of Snowmass and Capitol appear.  We found a cairned route on the right side of the ridge and followed it. There were certainly areas of loose rock, but we found the route to be quite reasonable, and the rock was fairly solid on the steeper ledges (where it needed to be).  Suddenly, and much to our surprise, we realized that we were approaching the precipice. Where on earth was this chimney that everyone talked about? The cairns that we had followed had taken us around the chimney. Although we both had originally planned on climbing the chimney, we were excited to be above it and approaching the summit.  I think it was at this moment that we both realized that we were going to be able to summit! Some exciting terrain still separated us from our goal. Some tough class 3 to perhaps marginal class 4 moves were encountered in this area.   Below the summit the terrain eased and the two of us climbed together to the summit!  The summit consisted of the usual: celebration, resting, eating and of course summit pictures!   The only people we encountered all day were a couple at the turnoff before Crater Lake early in the morning. We never saw them again, and enjoyed the summit to ourselves. There were a few people on the summit of Maroon Peak.  The weather was a bit cold on top with clouds and gusty winds. Although it was a great place to relax, the chilly weather stirred us back to life, and we started our descent back through some of the tricky terrain.   On the way down we followed cairns and came across the chimney. Neither of us felt a strong need to downclimb it (especially after not climbing up it), so we followed a path around the obstacle.  Soon after this I made a bit of a mistake. I lowered myself by sliding several feet down onto a lower ledge thinking this was the correct way down. Once on this ledge I could clearly tell that there was no way down. I needed to get myself back to the ledge above, but it was probably 7 feet between ledges and there were no good holds! I am not blessed with the greatest upper body strength (i.e. scrawny, don't do any gym work ), so this looked to be a bit tricky. There was one small foothold to my right, but the area was wet and covered with a bit of moss. Not a good option, but it was all that I had. I tried using this hold and quickly fell back. I threw my pack up to Ethan and tried again. This time I got my arms over the top for a moment, but pulled down a loose rock and fell backward. (Fortunately the ledge that I was on was nice and wide so I was not at risk of a serious backward fall). I mustered up the energy for a 3rd attempt, and used the wet foothold to the best of my ability. This time I was able to get my arms up to my elbows on the ledge above. I probably could have pulled myself the rest of the way to safety, but Ethan grabbed my hands and pulled me over the ledge. A minor knee scrape and a scare was all that resulted from the incident, but it was a good reminder of the care needed on this peak! I had not worried about downclimbing something that I couldn't get back up, but when lowering yourself down steep terrain make sure you have enough holds to get back up! My heart pounding from the prior incident, we continued to make our way down, having no additional trouble staying on route.  We took a slightly different route into the ledges at the top of the 2nd gully than we did on the ascent, and this route seemed to be more heavily cairned and a bit more straightforward.   Once into the 2nd gully we encountered a couple of mountain goats. They followed us down the remainder of the 2nd gully and into the top of the first gully. Fortunately, they did not kick any rocks on us!  Once into the 1st gully things were very straightforward. The descent took a while, but the major difficulties were behind us and we were able to relax. It felt good to cross back over the Minnehaha and reach the gentle terrain of this area. Here is one last picture looking back at North Maroon.  From here to the bottom we made good time on the easy trail, encountering more and more tourists as we headed back to the parking lot. Final Thoughts: North Maroon Peak was not as difficult as I expected. Despite the one incident described above, we found the routefinding to overall be fairly straightforward. Although there was plenty of loose rock around, it was generally stable on the ledges themselves. There aren't really any sheer drops on the route, so although there are plenty of places where falling would be a bad idea, the exposure was manageable. We also were lucky not to encounter other climbers, thus reducing the rockfall risk. With careful routefinding and good weather, I thought North Maroon was a reasonable and fun challenge, and I hope to climb it again in the future! Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow): 
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