Oops, I Blogged It Again: Check it, the Maroon Bells

Here’s s a few pictures from the trip I took this weekend to the Maroon Bells wilderness area well as a mini trip report.

South Maroon was probably the most hardcore mountain that I have climbed to date and it’s reputation as one of the more deadly mountains in Colorado is well received. Anyone attempting to summit this mountain will encounter steep, loose scree fields that never seem to end, cliff bands made up of rotten, crumbling rock, and a maze of cairns that litter the upper half of the peak, making them almost useless in one’s way to the top.

I felt strong the entire climb and was surprised at how fast I made my way up the first half of the mountain. I read that most of the first half was mostly class 2 but almost everything I encountered was closer to class 3. Once the introduction was over and I hit the rock cliffs, the route finding began. Working my way across the southeast ridge involved a frustrating traverse where elevation was repeatedly gained then lost until South Maroon’s summit buttress was finally reached. At this point I ignored all of the cairns and just worked my way up the mountain. Working my way up, every hand and foot hold used had to be tested before placing any significant amount of weight on it. Eventually, I regained my position on the southeast ridge and regained some confidence as the summit finally presented itself. A quick hop, skip, and a jump later (about 30 minutes of hopping, skipping, and jumping) I was standing at the top. Woo hoo. There were two points in the climb where I had to change my shorts and they both happened on the way down. The first of which being when I decided to take a short cut down a gulley that looked doable until I was actually inside of it. Knowing I had no business being where I was, I did a traverse along the side of the mountain to work my way back to the south side. This cliff traverse was narrow and filled with loose rock. Any mistake here would have meant a one-way trip to dirt town by way of a 500 foot or so drop. When I finally reached the end of the cliff traverse, I had to do about a 30 foot down climb Stallone: Cliffhanger style. The second close call happened moments later when I went a little too far down another gulley filled with a bunch of scree garbage that completely fell out from underneath me. I slid about 15 feet and only stopped when I was able to grab onto a rock that was solid enough to support my weight. Good times. I eventually got back on the right path and made my way down the mountain relatively unscathed. Once I was safely back at the campsite, I boiled up some water and destroyed a serving or two of Nissin Cup O’ Noodles before crashing out.

The original plan was to summit North and South Maroon as well as Pyramid Peak, but with the loss of both climbing partners, I was only able to knock out South Maroon. I gave a good go with Pyramid Peak on Sunday morning but couldn’t find the trailhead and in blazing my own trail ended up on the wrong side of the amphitheater. Since I couldn’t figure out how to get to where I needed to be, the decision was made to call the climb.

It was a fun climb and I’m glad I was able to summit one of the bloated beasts in the Maroon Bells wilderness. There’s two more mountains waiting for me back there and I will be back to attempt both of them. Montoya out.