Maroon Peak- Out of league, or worthy goal?

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mountainlover153
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Maroon Peak- Out of league, or worthy goal?

Post by mountainlover153 »

Hi, I have a question for those who have climbed Maroon (I'm sorry in advance..because its slightly lengthy)
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I live on the East Coast & come out to Colorado for 2 weeks per year in August to go climbing. I have relative's in my family who live there who have the climbing "bug" (Grandma, Grandpa, & Uncle "Climbed them all")...and as it turns out; I got it as well.

So, about 6 years ago (when I was 11), I made my 1st 14er attempt...on Grays (very easy). Me & my climbing partner (my mom) didn't make it:
Lesson 1: Start Early, Lesson 2: Hail is Painful, Lesson 3: When mom's hair stands on end...bad things may happen
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Attempt 2 on Grays (1 year later): Lesson 4: Start reallllly early (like 8 am)
Attempt 3 on Grays: Lesson 5: People with asthma (like me) may have very bad altitude sickness problems above 13,000 ft, Lesson 6: Call friends on summit, cackle about the fact that its snowing up there in august
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After hiking Grays...I took a couple years off (Throwing up enough times on a mountain...and in a rental car afterwords=bad)
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Then:
Climbed:
Quandary & Bierstadt
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Then:
Climbed:
Elbert
Sneffels
Lincoln, Bross, Democrat (Combo)
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Then (Last year- Aug 2009):
Climbed:
Training hike- Chasm lake
Torrey's Peak- via standard route...no not the saddle from Grays
La Plata Peak- (Lesson 7: When doctor gives you meds to make sure you don't have trouble with altitude sickness....its a good idea to actually *take* them...)
Wetterhorn Peak- (Lesson 8: Scrambling is reallly fun!)
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Okay; so at this point (IMHO) I've done a *fair* number of 14'ers which I have attempted to climb in logical progression of difficulty...while allowing me to make the most out of the 14 days per year I get to climb 14ers (hey!...in retrospect thats...oh nevermind)

With that background in mind I wanted to get the opinions of some on this board as to my planned climbs this year.

Please bear in mind the following:
1) I personally feel I'm capable of handling more than 3 peaks in 14 days (maybe I'm being cocky...but I'm 17 and have often found it takes me a very short time to recover)...BUT; my mom (who is my climbing partner...and is the benefactor of this trip of which I am the beneficiary...she's 55 and her knees are just beginning to show signs of weakness...so she needs at least 3 days to recover).

2) We'll be based in Castle Rock..so a mountain like Maroon would need *at least* the following:
1 day drive to mtn+ backpack into campground (3.5 miles)
1 day climb up, back down to camp, undo camp, back to car (afterwords I think we'd stay at a motel for the night)
1 day drive back
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For mountains which won't require backpacking...
1 day drive up, stay in hotel, 1 day hike drive back to castle rock.

Dates of travel: August 14th- Arrival, August 28th- Departure.
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Mountains proposed (In order of climbing date [potential]):
Training hike- currently undetermined
Mt. Belford (C2) or Mt. Harvard (C2) (1st 14er)
Mt. Of the Holy Cross (C2/Dif C2) (2nd 14er)
Maroon Peak (C3/Exp high) (3rd 14er/Final)
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Now, questions:
1) Given my level of experience, and the mountains I hope to climb to prep: would Maroon be "over my head" in terms of difficulty?
A) If yes: What specifically & any suggestions for alternative mountains
B) If no:
I) Recommendations for training (remember I live in the oxygen rich, low elevation east coast)
II) Campsite recs/ Climb time estimates (Realllllllly slow climber...b/c....well, where I live [Suburb of Philly] the only hill I can climb is on a Elliptical machine)
III) Anything to be extra aware of
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2) Any suggestions for a training hike...preferably 1 within 2-2.5 hrs of Castle Rock (and I've already done the Chasm lake hike twice)
3) Any other 14er's you think would be better/more fun than the one's I mentioned?
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Sorry for the surfeit length of this post. I'd be greatly appreciative for help with any of these questions,
Mountainlover
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Jon Frohlich
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Re: Maroon Peak- Out of league, or worthy goal?

Post by Jon Frohlich »

You're sure to get some varying opinions on this but I'll give mine. I'd probably say not to do it this year based on your limited Class 3 experience. Maroon is hands down the hardest 14er I've ever done. Nothing else in my mind comes close. The route finding is difficult. The climbing above the ridge at 13k is loose and nasty even if you do stay on route (and even the best can make mistakes up there). The descent if you don't do the traverse is physically punishing and cruel on the body. It took us 11.5 hours to do it from the parking lot. Even those of us that live here think it's hard and that should tell you something.

If you're coming out from the East Coast and with limited Class 3 experience I think you'd be better off doing another peak instead. Castle by the NE ridge is low 3 if you stay on the ridge and will give you a taste of loose Elk range crud. You can also traverse over to Conundrum as well. I'd even suggest Pyramid over Maroon Peak. Especially if you can find a good partner from here. If you want to hit a different area you could try Crestone Needle. That was my 2nd Class 3. The route finding there can be difficult as well but the rock is much more solid and reliable.

Just some ideas. Hope that helps.
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BAUMGARA
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Re: Maroon Peak- Out of league, or worthy goal?

Post by BAUMGARA »

So you got Wetterhorn under your belt? Well Maroon will most likely be like Wetterhorn's technical section but for a longer sustained period of time and far more exposure. In general you shouldn't take the Maroon's lightly.
Oh and I've done neither peak, but have been up N. Maroon and the Bell Cord......
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jf32
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Re: Maroon Peak- Out of league, or worthy goal?

Post by jf32 »

Some thoughts -

For starters during summer hiking I plan on hitting a t-storm by 1 pm. Which means I'm on my way down well before then and that usually involves a start around 5-6 am.

If you're worried about your mom's ability to recover you may want to skip holy cross as that's a lot of elevation in one day - maybe try pikes from the crags - that removes close to 1500 vertical from the 2nd trip and is a bit closer driving wise.

Also - you'd definitely want a helmet on maroon as the rock is loose.

Now to tackle your questions:

The difficulty with maroon is that the rock is loose and you need to spend a bit more time route finding than on any of your previous mountains. From my one ascent I noticed that there were 2 access points to the south ridge. A loose gully (that didn't look like fun but will provide you practice for what's ahead or if you stay left you hit the ridge over milder terrain - I stayed left but it was mostly by luck as I did this section before the sun rose. I also went with someone who had previously summitted and he kept pointing left). My opinion of this climb: a long draining slog to the ridge than a traverse and some climbing that is similar to but not as much as fun as the final 1000ft of pyramid. I would much rather re-climb pyramid over repeating this climb (and i didn't even descend it).

Now my answer to question 1. If you think you're ready give it a try. Do your research, study the route and go for it. Take it slow and spend time searching for the route (whether that be cairns or way points or landmarks) before advancing. Be honest with yourself and your abilities. If you're entering terrain that spooks you simply turn around before you get into trouble.

1BI - cardio - whether running or biking or the stairmaster or whatever. Having strong lungs helps a lot
1BII - crater lake has a number of good camp sites - campsite 10 or 11 gets you closest to the start of the hike to maroon
1BIII - loose rock = helmets. Also - post for partners and see if you can pair up with someone who's done the route before or has some experience.

2 - A training hike could be pikes to barr camp or a number or hikes in rmnp that don't lead to chasm lake - there are a ton of em.
3 - There's plenty of class 3 14ers to try that are a blast. The sangres have much better rock (particularly the crestones). You could also try Longs - a really fun mountain.
When you come to a fork in the road take it
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rolo tomassi
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Re: Maroon Peak- Out of league, or worthy goal?

Post by rolo tomassi »

I would recommend that you do some more "moderate" routes before attempting maroon. Not only will there be much more scrambling but there is the issue of route finding. with enough practice this almost becomes intuitive, but that is a skill that needs development.

Do some of the following:
Quandary west ridge
Democrat N. ridge
Longs- via the keyhole
Torreys -kelso ridge
Bierstadt- sawtooth.
etc...

if you feel comfortable on some of those routes then step it up to Maroon
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Re: Maroon Peak- Out of league, or worthy goal?

Post by Knockneed Man »

No offense, but if leaving "reeeally early - like 8am" is still the lesson... I'd say you have a few more to go before you tackle the Bells. Keep working your way up though. For some training for the harder peaks, I'd say the best thing you can do from Castle Rock is go to Co Springs and have someone get you on to some easy belayed rock climbing until you get comfortable with making moves in combination with exposure. Motivation is key, but a good mentor is invaluable. Charge on.
mountainlover153
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Re: Maroon Peak- Out of league, or worthy goal?

Post by mountainlover153 »

thank you for the responses:

A few things I wanted to mention-

For longs:
That was originally going to be my 1st class 3; (After Sneffels 2 years ago)...but circumstances ended up canceling that trip. Since then, I've used it as a training climb twice (to Chasm), so I kind of wanted a change in scenery this year (though I must say...that diamond....wow).
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For Crestone Needle:
Under advisement...again; been to that area many times in past couple years; and I thought that mountain was more difficult than Maroon????
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Wetterhorn (For me & my mother) was a very fun climb, though personally Mt. Sneffels remains my current favorite...so pretty, and a family of goats followed us along the trail ). For me; I've had a few years scrambling experience (though not significant amounts on "crumbly" stuff...other then this one short section of sneffels) so it wasn't that which was concerning me. It was a combination of exposure+class 3 moves (high concentration required) for an extremely long period of time. As I told my mom for Maroon;" I don't think a single part of this peak by itself is out of our range of abilities...what I think is more important is the combination; all together...would we be setting ourselves up for a dangerous situation". Everyone's climbed "crumbly" stuff...but as my Mom aptly points out "yeah, but not at 13,000 ft with a 1,000 ft drop off on the side of you". And, that is what I'm most concerned about. I'd like to think I'm a smart climber, I pack emergency supplies, have a GPS (ETC...); but no amount of gear can get you up something you aren't capable of doing (barring an elevator...but man would that be a heavy thing to lug to the mountain...and the installation afterwords..ugh).
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IF Maroon is like Wetterhorn, but longer... I think it'd be a lot of fun; Wetterhorn's class III section was (IMHO) wayyyy to short. BUT, if Jon's statement is anything to go by; I may not have enough experience at this point (which if I understand correctly comes from lack of experience climbing on loose, elk rock). If so, I may consider changing another 14er to one which would give me some experience, and serve as an indicator of capability...or I may postpone the peak.


In any case; I thank all that have thus far replied for their responses!

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Oh 1 update: I wrote the initial post with a bit of satire...so my "Lessons" are not entirely true...in a sense; these are things I already knew, yet were illustrated via specific climbs. Sorry if that confused anyone.
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Re: Maroon Peak- Out of league, or worthy goal?

Post by anthonylebaron »

You said your mom has knee problems, and for this reason alone I'd advise against Maroon Peak. There's a steep, loose 2700 ft slope to gain the ridge (we lovingly dubbed it the "slope of death") and I found descending it to be the most miserable part of any 14er climb I've done. I think the descent of that slope would be rough for anybody with knee trouble. I'll also echo what others are saying: Get some more experience with class 3 before tackling Maroon.
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gdthomas
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Re: Maroon Peak- Out of league, or worthy goal?

Post by gdthomas »

Many of your questions have been answered so at the risk of sounding redundant:

1. No matter what, you and your mother should stay together to the summit of Maroon Peak and back. If one of you can't make it to the top, neither of you should continue on.

2. Regardless of how much you train you'll likely feel the effects of altitude. Not necessarily AMS but short breath, headaches and lethargy are possible. Stay hydrated at all times and climb slowly but deliberately.

3. Maroon Peak is tough but by no means the hardest 14er. Nevertheless, only you and your mom can decide whether or not you're ready for it. Having climbed only 10 14ers by the time you attempt Maroon Peak will place you in the vast minority of climbers. Camping at Crater Lake the night before will definitely make the climb more manageble.

4. 8 am is NOT early. You should start hiking before dawn (4/5 am) if you have headlamps and by dawn (5:30/6 am) if you don't. Plan on an 10/11 am summit to reduce the risk of getting caught in a thunderstorm. Maroon Peak's ridge is no place to be in adverse weather.

5. Helmet are a must. If she hasn't already figured it out, your mom should strongly consider telescoping trekking poles. One of the toughest aspects of Maroon Peak is the descent to the valley floor - steep and hell on kness. Trekking poles will help tremendously.

6. Massive, Yale or Huron (nice view) might be better choices than Holy Cross. The 900 feet of elevation gain on the return surprises alot of people.

7. 3 peaks in 14 days is very doable.

8. Good luck.
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Re: Maroon Peak- Out of league, or worthy goal?

Post by travis19877 »

From my experience, its not the best idea to try and go alone. If you do so, stick together do NOT seperate. Know your route, over prepare, etc.

If you really want to do it, the best thing you can do is get a guide. Seriously, its a great way to provide safety and learn a lot you never would about the mountain.
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Re: Maroon Peak- Out of league, or worthy goal?

Post by bif »

Have you considered Evans-Bierstadt combo via the sawtooth,
Most have done this before Maroon, The sawtooth scares me.

bif
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Re: Maroon Peak- Out of league, or worthy goal?

Post by DeTour »

At the risk of providing you with a surfeit of opinions, let me join those recommending the Sangres. Beautiful peaks, much better rock quality, and, from everything I've read, not as dangerous as Maroon. My opinion of Wetterhorn was like yours: the only thing wrong with it was that the scramble was too short. Crestone Needle, IMO, is like Wetterhorn's summit stretch x 10. Loads of fun, and not nearly as hard as I've heard others make it out to be. Humboldt would be a fun warm-up if you're feeling OK (I was altitude sick), and there's actually a little scrambling on it. I guess you can go around the class 3 section, but everyone I saw on the mountain that day went right through it and liked it. Haven't climbed any of the other difficult Sangres peaks yet, but hoping to this August.

If you do decide on Maroon peak, here's a suggestion: As you make plans and preparation, refer to "the deadly Bells" every time you talk about your destination. See how Mom reacts to that.
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