Maroon Peak Trip Report 09/19/2010

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Maroon Peak - 14,163 feet North Maroon Peak - 14,022 feet
Date Posted	09/19/2010
Date Climbed	09/17/2010
Author	oldschool

Bells Traverse
The Bells are some of the prettiest peaks in Colorado. In the fall, the yellow aspens and Maroon Lake make for some of the most famous, well known photographs. I was trolling the Forum on 14er's and saw Tom (tommyboy360) was going up and looking for partners. I said I would go. A few more joined before the trip happened. Diane (dmathis), Jeff (Slimshady), and Luke (Chary) were in too. We met at the trailhead at about 5:15am on Fri. We packed up and headed off for the traverse....going from Maroon to N. Maroon and down the NE Ridge off N. Maroon. Off we went with headlamps, stayed on trail, and got to the bent tree and the up-climb soon enough. Up is an understatement! Up to the saddle Passed a group of 3 goats on the way up too. Beautiful animals. We kept on and got to the saddle soon enough. At the saddle This is when things get good! We started to work our way around.....interesting terrain. Handling the Class 3 and 4 in stride The cairns were here and there and we tried our best to stay on track. I was surprised as to how much traversing there is on this route...you go around the mountain a lot before going up. Around and up...and around and up Things got narrow, exposed, but still fun and we were making good time for a party of 5. Along the narrow parts..almost there Soon enough we made the summit of Maroon. Token summit shot! Now we had the "traverse"....the hard part from what I knew. We saw some climbers on top of N. Maroon and some people down at the bottom of the downclimb from Maroon. We didn't want to knock any rocks down so we waited for a bit for them to clear. Off we went and again I was surprised as to how far we had to traverse around and route finding was not straight-forward...but we found our way. Nice and airy...Capitol and Snowmass in the background As usually happens...we made the North Maroon summit! Summit of North Maroon We chilled for a bit on the summit, ate and drank, then headed off down the NE route back to the lake and the trailhead. The views from up there were awesome....the fall colors kicking butt! Fall in Colorado is a great place. Fall colors Throughout the climb, I felt the presence of Pyramid Peak. It dominates the Valley and held a strong position during the climb. It is never far away! Pyramid in charge! All in all this route is tough, route finding can be difficult but if you stick with your gut instinct on where to go, it all makes sense. The rock is good in places and very bad in others. Be careful of knocking rocks off on others, take your time and follow the cairns as best you can, and do your homework. There is solid Class 4 and some Class 5 moves on this route..be prepared. Thanks to Luke, Jeff, Diane, and Tom for a nice day in the mountains. Colors of Fall Colors of Fall All on track...... Jeff doing the pose! Cap and Snowmass..going back on the 24th to finish the traverse! Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Bells Traverse

The Bells are some of the prettiest peaks in Colorado. In the fall, the yellow aspens and Maroon Lake make for some of the most famous, well known photographs.

I was trolling the Forum on 14er's and saw Tom (tommyboy360) was going up and looking for partners. I said I would go. A few more joined before the trip happened. Diane (dmathis), Jeff (Slimshady), and Luke (Chary) were in too.

We met at the trailhead at about 5:15am on Fri. We packed up and headed off for the traverse....going from Maroon to N. Maroon and down the NE Ridge off N. Maroon. Off we went with headlamps, stayed on trail, and got to the bent tree and the up-climb soon enough. Up is an understatement!

Passed a group of 3 goats on the way up too. Beautiful animals. We kept on and got to the saddle soon enough.

This is when things get good!

We started to work our way around.....interesting terrain.

The cairns were here and there and we tried our best to stay on track.

I was surprised as to how much traversing there is on this route...you go around the mountain a lot before going up.

Things got narrow, exposed, but still fun and we were making good time for a party of 5.

Soon enough we made the summit of Maroon.

Now we had the "traverse"....the hard part from what I knew. We saw some climbers on top of N. Maroon and some people down at the bottom of the downclimb from Maroon. We didn't want to knock any rocks down so we waited for a bit for them to clear. Off we went and again I was surprised as to how far we had to traverse around and route finding was not straight-forward...but we found our way.

Nice and airy...Capitol and Snowmass in the background

As usually happens...we made the North Maroon summit!

We chilled for a bit on the summit, ate and drank, then headed off down the NE route back to the lake and the trailhead. The views from up there were awesome....the fall colors kicking butt! Fall in Colorado is a great place.

Throughout the climb, I felt the presence of Pyramid Peak. It dominates the Valley and held a strong position during the climb. It is never far away!

All in all this route is tough, route finding can be difficult but if you stick with your gut instinct on where to go, it all makes sense. The rock is good in places and very bad in others. Be careful of knocking rocks off on others, take your time and follow the cairns as best you can, and do your homework. There is solid Class 4 and some Class 5 moves on this route..be prepared. Thanks to Luke, Jeff, Diane, and Tom for a nice day in the mountains.

Cap and Snowmass..going back on the 24th to finish the traverse!

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

tommyboy360	Party of Five! 11/30/2010 5:28pm Thanks for posting a TR, Mike. A Great Traverse and a Great Team. 2nd time meeting up with 14ers.com members and it worked perfectly. "OldSchool's" leadership and tales from the LAND OF SCARY GENDARMES, "DMathis" brought the GIRL POWER and inspired big time climbing confidence on this sketchy terrain, "Chary", MR. I've climbed Denali 2X's, and have NOT posted a TR on 14ers.com... and the endless entertainment, speedy pace, and style of the "Slimshady." September weather in the Elks was B.E.A.utiful! Who's down for a "Party of Five" great traverse reunion next summer on LB/Blanca??? btw: we also crossed a solo hiker making the ”Triple Threat.” I was wondering when Doggler and Crossfitter will get after this route...
realhillboarding	nice to meet you 2/5/2011 12:22am congrats on the traverse, it was good climbing with all of you on the top part of maroon!

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