Maroon Bell Epic

[skier25]

3 thoughts:

I like how relentless Rastro can be!! Shakes things up a bit!
It seems like Peakmind was lucky during that climb.
I don't think I've ever drank 9 Liters in one day.

[Cowboyography]

I have climed the bells and it went very smooth but still felt epic (went with someone who had summited twice before). Soloing these peaks for the first time would be a risk I wouldnt take personally, however I wouldnt go as far as to call it moronic. You just better be prepared and experienced!

[MountainHiker]

peakmind, that was quite an adventure! The positive is you learned several things you are sharing with us.

My first time on each of the Bells was solo, however I wasn’t alone. Before meeting MountainHikerette I did a lot of peaks solo. It was typical for me to catch up with other hikers on the trail and would often end up doing much of the hike in their company. I made it a point not to be the last coming down the trail and kept a mental note of where other people were on the mountain. Also when solo it’s more risky to stray from well travelled routes.

[James Scott]

What a day- I really like the "rules" that you isolated in the text, especially:
Law of Disintegration:
large problems are made up of many little questions;
solve large problems by resolving easy questions

I will remember that on some mountain someday.

When I did the traverse, we left at about 5:00, summited North Maroon at 9:15, and Maroon at 11:00. Of course, we were thinking back to the car by 3 or 4. We didn't get back until after 6:00. It was an epic battle following the cairns on that long ridge off Maroon- we became convinced that marmots had started building cairns just to mess with us, leading to ridges that cliffed out. In hindsight, I wondered if it would have been more expedient to just turn around, go back across the traverse, and come down North Maroon instead. It took us 6 hours from the car, across the traverse, to Maroon, then it took us 7 hours to get back to the car. Is that just crazy thinking, or does it make some sense?

[peakmind]

What a day- I really like the "rules" that you isolated in the text, especially:
Law of Disintegration:
large problems are made up of many little questions;
solve large problems by resolving easy questions

I will remember that on some mountain someday.

When I did the traverse, we left at about 5:00, summited North Maroon at 9:15, and Maroon at 11:00. Of course, we were thinking back to the car by 3 or 4. We didn't get back until after 6:00. It was an epic battle following the cairns on that long ridge off Maroon- we became convinced that marmots had started building cairns just to mess with us, leading to ridges that cliffed out. In hindsight, I wondered if it would have been more expedient to just turn around, go back across the traverse, and come down North Maroon instead. It took us 6 hours from the car, across the traverse, to Maroon, then it took us 7 hours to get back to the car. Is that just crazy thinking, or does it make some sense?

When I went back to do NMB and the traverse, I did just that...I went back across the traverse to NMB rather than navigate the confusing, winding path down SMB.

[peakmind]

i say this from first hand experience - attempting Maroon Peak alone is idiotic. In addition, gaining the ridge before 11:00am is crucial. My first attempt on Maroon got me way off route approx. 500-750 ft. from the ridge, and I got myself into a steep gully to nowhere; I was thankful to simply get off the mountain that day. The following year I made sure I had a partner (however weak he ended up being) and successfully summited. Bottom line: although I've summited over half of my 26 peaks solo (including Kit Carson/Challenger) being on Maroon alone is extremely dangerous.

In my opinion, no judgment is possible without understanding the goals of the individual.
For example:

If the goal is to maximize the chance of summiting, then it would be prudent to eliminate or minimize as many variables as possible (e.g., use GPS plus "official" waypoints, go with someone you trust who has done it before, only go when weather is perfect). In this situation, the accomplishment becomes primarily physical, i.e., working very hard and using physical skills to hike/climb many miles and thousands of feet to stand on a spot where relatively few people have been.

However, if the goal is to solve complicated puzzles involving hard physical efforts and stressful emotional situations, then the individual has to find the right balance of risk versus reward for him/her. It is possible to make terrible mistakes, but that is what makes it so powerful. I believe that by learning and using physical, intellectual and emotion management skills, a person can find even more self-pride through harder challenges.

So it depends on what you want to get out of it.

Joe

[MUni Rider]

Great trip report. Glad you made it back in one piece.

I hear ya on the route discrepancies we find on the maps in guide books. I don't know how many times the routes on the maps will show a straight line leading up, when in reality the trail will zig-zag across switchbacks and meander around until it eventually works it's way up. It seems that the person drawing the route on the map does so a week later and at home; all based off memory after having climbed 6 more peaks since the time of the cimb that he's presently writing up? "Let's see now.... how exactly did the trail go again? hmmmmmmm, well it started down here, ends up on that ridge there, so I'll just draw a straight line between the two..... anyone hiking will be sure to figure it out."

That's what I like about the guides on this site. Photographs of what stuff looks like while viewed from positions along the trail, not just a satellite view of the whole region.

[Jon Frohlich]

I hear ya on the route discrepancies we find on the maps in guide books. I don't know how many times the routes on the maps will show a straight line leading up, when in reality the trail will zig-zag across switchbacks and meander around until it eventually works it's way up. It seems that the person drawing the route on the map does so a week later and at home; all based off memory after having climbed 6 more peaks since the time of the cimb that he's presently writing up? "Let's see now.... how exactly did the trail go again? hmmmmmmm, well it started down here, ends up on that ridge there, so I'll just draw a straight line between the two..... anyone hiking will be sure to figure it out."

There are a few reasons maps in guidebooks are wrong. Keep in mind that many 14er trails (Wetterhorn, Belford, and Massive to name a few) have been rerouted since the last editions of the guidebooks. Sometimes there are multiple trails. Using Maroon Peak in particular the one trail (that leads far right on the ridge as you go up) is not marked in any guidebook to my knowledge. In Roach's 14er book the map showing the old trail for Wetterhorn is just plain wrong (Roach notes this on his website) and the new trail was constructed after the book was published. Sometimes due to terrain complexity it's very difficult to draw a line that makes much sense compared to reality anyway.

I guess after enough centennials the exact line on the map doesn't bother me anymore. I've gotten used to finding my own way... :D My GPS track from Oklahoma looks like drunk wandering.

[MtHurd]

Did South Maroon solo, then a few years later did the traverse both ways in the same day solo. I guess I'm an idiot. :D

[BillMiddlebrook]

I hear ya on the route discrepancies we find on the maps in guide books. I don't know how many times the routes on the maps will show a straight line leading up, when in reality the trail will zig-zag across switchbacks and meander around until it eventually works it's way up. It seems that the person drawing the route on the map does so a week later and at home; all based off memory after having climbed 6 more peaks since the time of the cimb that he's presently writing up? "Let's see now.... how exactly did the trail go again? hmmmmmmm, well it started down here, ends up on that ridge there, so I'll just draw a straight line between the two..... anyone hiking will be sure to figure it out."

There are a few reasons maps in guidebooks are wrong. Keep in mind that many 14er trails (Wetterhorn, Belford, and Massive to name a few) have been rerouted since the last editions of the guidebooks. Sometimes there are multiple trails. Using Maroon Peak in particular the one trail (that leads far right on the ridge as you go up) is not marked in any guidebook to my knowledge. In Roach's 14er book the map showing the old trail for Wetterhorn is just plain wrong (Roach notes this on his website) and the new trail was constructed after the book was published. Sometimes due to terrain complexity it's very difficult to draw a line that makes much sense compared to reality anyway.

I guess after enough centennials the exact line on the map doesn't bother me anymore. I've gotten used to finding my own way... :D My GPS track from Oklahoma looks like drunk wandering.

Bingo!
One of the inherent problems with a printed guidebook. Plus, older books were generated without GPS data.

These are the reasons why I use raw GPS data to generate the lines I use on the 14ers.com route descriptions and then supply the GPS file to go along with it. Sure, the GPS files only benefit those with a GPS, but the GPS-generated topo map line is way better then old methods of guessing.

[Kovar]

Quite a day. Glad you got up and down safely. Thanks for the lessons - everyone should heed other's mistakes more closely. We'd all be smarter and safer.

[rastro]

I should clarify something about the target time to gain the ridge. When I climbed Maroon in '06 I felt that my partner and I left Maroon Lakes TH at the ideal time for us: 4:30am, reached the Bent Tree close to 6:00, and gained the ridge around 8:30am. My statement regarding gaining the ridge before 11:00 as crucial. I personally wouldn't want to be that late on the ridge with the the complexities of Maroon awaiting me, but that only puts you on the summit by 1-130. We summited before 11:00 and these ominous dark clouds started moving rapidly from the south. Only 10 minutes later we found ourselves descending on Maroon's unstable rock. I encountered I think seven or eight climbers that perservered into the gullies where we passed each other. All I remember thinking was how dangerous the ascent would be in those dire weather conditions, with the rain now starting to show some force, although for only a brief time. It continued drizzling as we carefully navigated ourselves thru the fun and rewarding sections of this class 3 bohemoth of a mountain. As we reached the ridge (I say "we", in reality I was pretty much solo most of the day, but I've already posted on the subject of this "Bad Partner". Nonetheless climbing Maroon Peak remains a solid top 3 of all the fourteeners I've had the priviledge of climbing. I"m not looking forward to descending that nasty and gnarly East Slope again, however I must admit when we finally made it back to the main trail by Bent Tree I felt an incredible sense of satisfaction of having just climbed Maroon Peak. the walk out I turned around to take mental snapshots that are simply priceless
~ village idiot ~