Maroon Peak Trip Report 09/12/2008

Peak(s):	Maroon Peak - 14,163 feet
Date Posted:	09/12/2008
Date Climbed:	08/11/2008
Author:	Alpine

Maroon Peak standard route
I may be kinda slowish at climbing but I am even slower at getting TR's up. This is for a mid-August climb my son and I did. It is also a little verbose, but if I wait to get that fixed it will be next year before it gets posted, so here goes. Oh yeah, I just found out I cannot upload to PhotoBucket from work anymore, so I will attempt to add in from my PC. Maroon Peak 14,156' My 20 year old son Andy (who, by the way, just joined the 14ers.com forum as 'The Android') and I drove over to Aspen on Sunday August 9 with the intention to climb Maroon and North Maroon Peaks on Monday and Tuesday. I had not had a chance to get out yet this year, due to a heavy work load at the office. My youngest son Ben (15) and I had planned to climb Mt. Evans from Chicago Creek or perhaps West Chicago Creek back in July, but the forecast included thunderstorms and rain building early over most of the state, so we cancelled that and went on an overnight backpack trip northeast of Chambers Lake since the best weather possibility looked to be north. We saw a moose and caught some fish, and generally relaxed. By the time August rolled around, Andy had already climbed Quandary, Sneffels, Yale, and Longs, and he was ready for more, so we looked to the Bells, since neither of us had been on those. I had summited Pyramid a year ago, so had a reasonable idea of what to expect out of the Bells. Andy was excited to have a chance at two more peaks this summer, no matter what peaks they were. He and his friends had gotten off route on an early season climb of Sneffels, where they had accidentally started up what turned out to be the NE ridge of nearby Gilpin Pk, which had more than they bargained for in terms of steep, loose rock. So he was understandably a little nervous about the prospect of climbing the Bells, what with their reputation for poor quality rock on exposed slopes. We left Longmont on Sunday, unsure of what the weather would really be, since Sunday had been at 50% chance of precip for Aspen, with decreasing numbers for Monday and Tuesday - we were hoping for the weatherman to be correct. Turns out he was correct, and Monday and Tuesday were the perfect weather days of the week, with fresh snow all over the state the following weekend. The weather system moving out of the area left a spectacular view of Pyramid Peak as we drove up the Maroon Creek road - clouds blowing hard off the summit to the east. The short two mile hike in to Crater Lake was nice, and we met a doe and fawn coming at us down the trail. The main path along the lake shore offers beautiful views of the Bell's, Pyramid, and other peaks farther up valley. A little farther west from the main trail, a smaller path is used to access the campsites, and the campsites themselves are accessed by short paths maybe 100 yards long, off this smaller path. The sites themselves are well hidden from the main trail and from the campsite trail. The result is that one cannot tell from the campsite trail whether a site is occupied or not, so you have to walk up each path and find out. From a map on a signpost near the lake, we had pre-selected sites 9, 7 or 8, or 10 or 11, so we turned off at 9 first, and found it empty, which was a relief since it meant that one way or another we would have a site, However, site 9 is not ideal, as it lies on top of a small hill and is not well protected - not a really bad site, but not really good either. We could over to the north a bit and see a small path which I assumed to be a connecting path between site 7 and 8. We didn't see anyone down there, so we investigated and found both sites to be empty, and as they were both better than 9, we chose site 8. It is a large site, sufficient for several tents at once, with really nice large sitting logs, not far from a stream. Site 7 is just a few feet from the edge of a site 8, separated by some brush and logs, and is a small site, big enough for one or two tents. We were hoping to see some of the meteor shower that night, but it was too cloudy. Not long after we crawled into our bags, we heard an animal outside making a kind of snort-snort sound. It did not sound too threatening or large, so were not too scared, but neither did we know what it was. After listening got it for a bit, we looked out and it was a porcupine, sniffing around at our gear outside. We had our food strung up, but our helmets, water filter, etc were down, and it was checking those out. He did not leave for quite a while. We woke about 5 and hit the trail about 5:40 after a quick bite. The trail is easy to follow. We found the bent tree easily enough and the cairn for the turn off 50 yards or so further. This is the start of the real work, as the trail from here ascends vertically about 2800 feet. The climbing itself is not difficult - there is a trail of sorts all the way, and a few braided areas especially farther up. We did manage to get off trail once or twice, but it was easy enough to find the trail again. The climbing here never gets to 3rd class, mostly it is simply steep, loose, dirt and scree type 2nd class hiking. But it is STEEP and tiring. I actually put my helmet on about halfway up as I decided any rocks coming down would have plenty of speed by the time they reached me - and there was a party of four above us. Roach says it will test the success of your training program, and he is right. Fortunately both Andy and I did OK -Andy of course because he is less than half my age and rode his road bike to work every day this summer. I had been riding maybe 10 miles a couple days a week on my lunch, since February or March, but had not ridden for about 8 weeks because of my work schedule, so my training was what I would consider minimal - it did not seriously tire me, and I felt good at the top of the ridge once we had a breather, but it really was a lot or work just getting up there. The view from the saddle is spectacular - Pyramid rising to the east, the wonderfully green and wild Fravert Basin to the west, and Capitol and Snowmass Peaks to the northwest. Not to mention the rest of the route up Maroon Peak to the north. At first viewing, you might think there is no way there is a safe route to the top from this point, if you did not know otherwise. The entire western slope of the peak spreads up and out before you - all ledges, steep and loose, just exactly as described in the books. If you only want the briefest of route descriptions in order to enhance the route finding challenge, then only read Roach's book and nothing else. His book sort of dismisses the rest of the route by saying, essentially, 'oh, just kind of follow the ridge to the top, and good luck'. Bill Middlebrook's route description on his 14ers.com website is much more helpful here. There are several complexities to the route that are not immediately obvious from the vantage point of the saddle. Even with Bill's route description, there is still plenty of micro-route finding to do. We found the climb from the saddle to the top very fun and interesting. The trail is well worn enough that for the most part you could follow it without any guide book or route description. There are only one or two places where you might spend some time looking around if you did not know ahead of time generally where the route goes. I am not the kind of climber who needs to feel like he is forging his own path, or to feel like I must figure it out on my own. Left to me, this route would have taken years. I'm not proud - I was glad to have the route laid out before me to some extent. There are plenty of cairns, but I did not think there were too many. In this respect, I think the route finding on Pyramid was worse, because there were more cairns leading to more alternate routes. On Maroon, I felt that the trail was obvious enough - you could see where the main path was by all the flattened stones and trodden dirt where there was dirt. Where you did need to looks for cairns, it was easy enough to choose. There are two initial chimneys to climb - these were a lot of fun - solid 3rd class moves up a narrow chimney - maybe 3-4 feet across, with a 90 degree turn after the first to access the second. These were very steep, but with the close walls, it did not seem exposed, and there were plenty of handholds. There are several ledges along the route which are reminiscent of the ledges on Pyramid - narrow and a little airy, but plenty of handholds, and only a couple places where I thought something beyond normal mountaineering diligence was needed. The worst part of this climb (besides the trudge up to the saddle), was in the narrow gulley. Bill Middlebrook's description mentions two narrow gulleys, of which you choose one. If you take the first, once you ascend it a ways, you would then traverse to the left towards the second gulley. We took the second gulley, as I felt that the entrance moves to the first did not suit me. Both gulleys are chock full of bowling ball and bigger size loose rock - and the gulley is steep enough where we wanted to go one a time, one waiting in a protected place while the other moved up a section, in case a n entire section started sliding. I was never worried about exposure here, even though it was steep. If multiple parties are present in the gulley, extra care would be needed. As it was, the walls present plenty of opportunities to protect yourself while your partner climbs, if you want to do it that way. Perhaps the funnest part of the climb is the last major section. At the top of the last larger, less steep gulley Bill mentions, you can peer over the top through a narrow notch in the ridge, down to Crater Lake, before traversing hard left along a narrow ledge, and around a corner, to where you can see most of the remainder of the route. From here, there are many ways you could go. Basically, you just want to get to the ridge top. There are lots of ledges, corners, cracks, holds, etc. This is one of those places you can choose your own route without being too worried about getting seriously off track - just notice where you round the point (for the return), and shoot for the ridge. We stayed to the right, and made a couple 4th class moves where you could have skirted around on 3rd class if you wanted to. Once on the ridge, it is an easy follow to the top - kind of like the catwalk on Eolus in some ways. The summit is not too large, somewhat narrow and linear. It also presents a great view of the traverse if you are contemplating that. We summited about 11:20, for an ascent time of 5.5 hours. No speed records, but that was not our goal. The weather was still holding nicely, so we spent a good � hour or more on top. The descent required care, especially in the steep narrow gulley, and on a couple of the ledges. The worst part though, was the descent back to the valley floor. It's pretty much straight down the very steep slope, and requires almost as much effort going down as going up, in some ways. The clouds quickly started rolling in on the descent of the face, we got a little bit of grauple and rain, but nothing too bad. We were both beat after that. We spent the rest of the afternoon resting in camp. I have pretty bony feet, and because I had forgotten to protect my feet with band-aids or mole skin, I got some nice blisters on my toes and heels. I was hoping they would not be too bad, but I was pretty sure they were - I was right. The porcupine visited again that night, but was not as obnoxious. Tuesday morning, we got up and started out for North Maroon, but I knew I probably would not make it with the combo of a bloody blistered big toe and having not quite recovered well enough from Monday's effort. This was very disappointing, but what can you do? Some trips just don't work out the way you want them to. We spent the morning investigating Buckskin and Willow Pas areas - well, Andy did at least - I stayed near the trail intersection where I could see both passes and took a few naps while he pretty much ran up and did a circuit from Buckskin Pass around to the north and east, then descending to Willow Lake and back up Willow Pass and down to the intersection where I was waiting. After having heard about the Bells and thought about them much for many years, this climb was actually a nice surprise - outside the trudgery of the first 2800 vert, the rest of the climb is actually very fun. I never felt worried about the loose rock, or route finding, or exposure. Having said that, I would not recommend Maroon for a first class 3. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Maroon Peak standard route

I may be kinda slowish at climbing but I am even slower at getting TR's up. This is for a mid-August climb my son and I did. It is also a little verbose, but if I wait to get that fixed it will be next year before it gets posted, so here goes. Oh yeah, I just found out I cannot upload to PhotoBucket from work anymore, so I will attempt to add in from my PC.

Maroon Peak 14,156'

My 20 year old son Andy (who, by the way, just joined the 14ers.com forum as 'The Android') and I drove over to Aspen on Sunday August 9 with the intention to climb Maroon and North Maroon Peaks on Monday and Tuesday. I had not had a chance to get out yet this year, due to a heavy work load at the office. My youngest son Ben (15) and I had planned to climb Mt. Evans from Chicago Creek or perhaps West Chicago Creek back in July, but the forecast included thunderstorms and rain building early over most of the state, so we cancelled that and went on an overnight backpack trip northeast of Chambers Lake since the best weather possibility looked to be north. We saw a moose and caught some fish, and generally relaxed.

By the time August rolled around, Andy had already climbed Quandary, Sneffels, Yale, and Longs, and he was ready for more, so we looked to the Bells, since neither of us had been on those. I had summited Pyramid a year ago, so had a reasonable idea of what to expect out of the Bells. Andy was excited to have a chance at two more peaks this summer, no matter what peaks they were. He and his friends had gotten off route on an early season climb of Sneffels, where they had accidentally started up what turned out to be the NE ridge of nearby Gilpin Pk, which had more than they bargained for in terms of steep, loose rock. So he was understandably a little nervous about the prospect of climbing the Bells, what with their reputation for poor quality rock on exposed slopes.

We left Longmont on Sunday, unsure of what the weather would really be, since Sunday had been at 50% chance of precip for Aspen, with decreasing numbers for Monday and Tuesday - we were hoping for the weatherman to be correct. Turns out he was correct, and Monday and Tuesday were the perfect weather days of the week, with fresh snow all over the state the following weekend. The weather system moving out of the area left a spectacular view of Pyramid Peak as we drove up the Maroon Creek road - clouds blowing hard off the summit to the east.

The short two mile hike in to Crater Lake was nice, and we met a doe and fawn coming at us down the trail. The main path along the lake shore offers beautiful views of the Bell's, Pyramid, and other peaks farther up valley.

A little farther west from the main trail, a smaller path is used to access the campsites, and the campsites themselves are accessed by short paths maybe 100 yards long, off this smaller path. The sites themselves are well hidden from the main trail and from the campsite trail. The result is that one cannot tell from the campsite trail whether a site is occupied or not, so you have to walk up each path and find out. From a map on a signpost near the lake, we had pre-selected sites 9, 7 or 8, or 10 or 11, so we turned off at 9 first, and found it empty, which was a relief since it meant that one way or another we would have a site, However, site 9 is not ideal, as it lies on top of a small hill and is not well protected - not a really bad site, but not really good either. We could over to the north a bit and see a small path which I assumed to be a connecting path between site 7 and 8. We didn't see anyone down there, so we investigated and found both sites to be empty, and as they were both better than 9, we chose site 8. It is a large site, sufficient for several tents at once, with really nice large sitting logs, not far from a stream. Site 7 is just a few feet from the edge of a site 8, separated by some brush and logs, and is a small site, big enough for one or two tents.

We were hoping to see some of the meteor shower that night, but it was too cloudy. Not long after we crawled into our bags, we heard an animal outside making a kind of snort-snort sound. It did not sound too threatening or large, so were not too scared, but neither did we know what it was. After listening got it for a bit, we looked out and it was a porcupine, sniffing around at our gear outside. We had our food strung up, but our helmets, water filter, etc were down, and it was checking those out. He did not leave for quite a while.

We woke about 5 and hit the trail about 5:40 after a quick bite. The trail is easy to follow. We found the bent tree easily enough and the cairn for the turn off 50 yards or so further. This is the start of the real work, as the trail from here ascends vertically about 2800 feet. The climbing itself is not difficult - there is a trail of sorts all the way, and a few braided areas especially farther up. We did manage to get off trail once or twice, but it was easy enough to find the trail again. The climbing here never gets to 3rd class, mostly it is simply steep, loose, dirt and scree type 2nd class hiking. But it is STEEP and tiring. I actually put my helmet on about halfway up as I decided any rocks coming down would have plenty of speed by the time they reached me - and there was a party of four above us. Roach says it will test the success of your training program, and he is right. Fortunately both Andy and I did OK -Andy of course because he is less than half my age and rode his road bike to work every day this summer. I had been riding maybe 10 miles a couple days a week on my lunch, since February or March, but had not ridden for about 8 weeks because of my work schedule, so my training was what I would consider minimal - it did not seriously tire me, and I felt good at the top of the ridge once we had a breather, but it really was a lot or work just getting up there.

The view from the saddle is spectacular - Pyramid rising to the east, the wonderfully green and wild Fravert Basin to the west, and Capitol and Snowmass Peaks to the northwest. Not to mention the rest of the route up Maroon Peak to the north. At first viewing, you might think there is no way there is a safe route to the top from this point, if you did not know otherwise. The entire western slope of the peak spreads up and out before you - all ledges, steep and loose, just exactly as described in the books. If you only want the briefest of route descriptions in order to enhance the route finding challenge, then only read Roach's book and nothing else. His book sort of dismisses the rest of the route by saying, essentially, 'oh, just kind of follow the ridge to the top, and good luck'. Bill Middlebrook's route description on his 14ers.com website is much more helpful here. There are several complexities to the route that are not immediately obvious from the vantage point of the saddle. Even with Bill's route description, there is still plenty of micro-route finding to do.

We found the climb from the saddle to the top very fun and interesting. The trail is well worn enough that for the most part you could follow it without any guide book or route description. There are only one or two places where you might spend some time looking around if you did not know ahead of time generally where the route goes. I am not the kind of climber who needs to feel like he is forging his own path, or to feel like I must figure it out on my own. Left to me, this route would have taken years. I'm not proud - I was glad to have the route laid out before me to some extent. There are plenty of cairns, but I did not think there were too many. In this respect, I think the route finding on Pyramid was worse, because there were more cairns leading to more alternate routes. On Maroon, I felt that the trail was obvious enough - you could see where the main path was by all the flattened stones and trodden dirt where there was dirt. Where you did need to looks for cairns, it was easy enough to choose.

There are two initial chimneys to climb - these were a lot of fun - solid 3rd class moves up a narrow chimney - maybe 3-4 feet across, with a 90 degree turn after the first to access the second. These were very steep, but with the close walls, it did not seem exposed, and there were plenty of handholds.

There are several ledges along the route which are reminiscent of the ledges on Pyramid - narrow and a little airy, but plenty of handholds, and only a couple places where I thought something beyond normal mountaineering diligence was needed. The worst part of this climb (besides the trudge up to the saddle), was in the narrow gulley. Bill Middlebrook's description mentions two narrow gulleys, of which you choose one. If you take the first, once you ascend it a ways, you would then traverse to the left towards the second gulley. We took the second gulley, as I felt that the entrance moves to the first did not suit me. Both gulleys are chock full of bowling ball and bigger size loose rock - and the gulley is steep enough where we wanted to go one a time, one waiting in a protected place while the other moved up a section, in case a n entire section started sliding. I was never worried about exposure here, even though it was steep. If multiple parties are present in the gulley, extra care would be needed. As it was, the walls present plenty of opportunities to protect yourself while your partner climbs, if you want to do it that way.

Perhaps the funnest part of the climb is the last major section. At the top of the last larger, less steep gulley Bill mentions, you can peer over the top through a narrow notch in the ridge, down to Crater Lake, before traversing hard left along a narrow ledge, and around a corner, to where you can see most of the remainder of the route. From here, there are many ways you could go. Basically, you just want to get to the ridge top. There are lots of ledges, corners, cracks, holds, etc. This is one of those places you can choose your own route without being too worried about getting seriously off track - just notice where you round the point (for the return), and shoot for the ridge. We stayed to the right, and made a couple 4th class moves where you could have skirted around on 3rd class if you wanted to.

Once on the ridge, it is an easy follow to the top - kind of like the catwalk on Eolus in some ways. The summit is not too large, somewhat narrow and linear. It also presents a great view of the traverse if you are contemplating that.

We summited about 11:20, for an ascent time of 5.5 hours. No speed records, but that was not our goal.

The weather was still holding nicely, so we spent a good � hour or more on top. The descent required care, especially in the steep narrow gulley, and on a couple of the ledges. The worst part though, was the descent back to the valley floor. It's pretty much straight down the very steep slope, and requires almost as much effort going down as going up, in some ways. The clouds quickly started rolling in on the descent of the face, we got a little bit of grauple and rain, but nothing too bad.

We were both beat after that. We spent the rest of the afternoon resting in camp. I have pretty bony feet, and because I had forgotten to protect my feet with band-aids or mole skin, I got some nice blisters on my toes and heels. I was hoping they would not be too bad, but I was pretty sure they were - I was right. The porcupine visited again that night, but was not as obnoxious. Tuesday morning, we got up and started out for North Maroon, but I knew I probably would not make it with the combo of a bloody blistered big toe and having not quite recovered well enough from Monday's effort. This was very disappointing, but what can you do? Some trips just don't work out the way you want them to. We spent the morning investigating Buckskin and Willow Pas areas - well, Andy did at least - I stayed near the trail intersection where I could see both passes and took a few naps while he pretty much ran up and did a circuit from Buckskin Pass around to the north and east, then descending to Willow Lake and back up Willow Pass and down to the intersection where I was waiting.

After having heard about the Bells and thought about them much for many years, this climb was actually a nice surprise - outside the trudgery of the first 2800 vert, the rest of the climb is actually very fun. I never felt worried about the loose rock, or route finding, or exposure. Having said that, I would not recommend Maroon for a first class 3.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

cftbq	Verbosity OK 9/14/2008 4:58am Thanks for a very helpful description of the route. I still have this one to do and admit to being a bit concerned about the ambiguity and lack of detail in the available literature. It sounds much more doable now! Congrats on a cool peak. (And don‘t worry about the delay; I think it happens to just about everybody now and then.)
The Android	Nice! 9/16/2008 7:08pm I like it Dad!

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