30 Maroon Peak

Date to Climb: July 03, 2009

Date Climbed: July 21, 2009

Elevation: 14,156

Range: Elk

Latitude: 39.07080, Longitude: -106.98900

Route: South Ridge ll, Class 3

31 North Maroon Peak

Date to Climb: July 03, 2009

Date Climbed: July 23, 2009

Elevation: 14,019

Range: Elk

Latitude: 39.07595, Longitude: -106.98708

Route: Descent Northeast Ridge ll, Class 4

Pre-Approach Comments

Drive to Aspen. 200 miles. Shop, showers, and suds. Rest. I know it does not make a lot of sense going to Aspen for the fourth, but we are hoping to meet and climb with our good friend, Mark. There might be slight variations to the schedule if he is unable to join us. We will encourage Jon and Laura to do Sneffels before leaving the San Juans.

Post-Approach Comments

The schedule is all screwed up. We climbed Culebra on Saturday, the eighteenth, and declared we needed a rest before continuing. We went to Leadville. On Monday we drove to Aspen and finally found a campsite at Silver Bell. It was a walk-in site, but we were able to sleep in the car, as normal.

Pre-Climb Comments

These class 4 peaks have the reputation for being loose, steep, and hard to navigate. I could not think of a better person than Mark to climb with us. He likes loose nasty climbs. Weird, huh? We hope to start very early so that we are topping out on Maroon with the rising sun, then we will start the infamous traverse. It looks hard, but it is only class 4 so the looks must be deceiving. Jake will have to play down below with Jon and Laura, this is no place for a puppy that you like. There is a chance we might try the peaks in reverse so that if time and weather is in our favor we can try Pyramid also.

Post-Climb Comments

Mark was not able to join us, but we had Ray and Monica to hep us along. We did not do the traverse. We decided it would be safer to do the climbs individually.

With Ray and Monica climbing with us, we left for the climb at 4. After driving to the trailhead we started the approach hike. For our first hike in the area we were amazed at how wonderful the trail was around Maroon Lake. As soon as we left that trail (less than a half mile) the trail was dusty, rocky, and rough as we continued to Crater Lake.

A little passed Crater Lake was the trail for Maroon. It started straight up and then got steeper. The trail (if you could call it that) was the steepest and hardest walking we had done so far on the trip. Everything was loose and got worse the higher you went.

After finally reaching the saddle after clmbing 2,800 feet, but were less than a thousand feet elevation to the top. How hard could it be? Pretty tough was our answer. Cairns allowed you to go in any direction. All the terrain looked very similar. There was little elevation gain, so the altimeter did not help either.

We finally made the summit around eleven, but then had to go down. The traverse back to the saddle was as long as it was when we were going to the summit. We finally figured it out, but there was some head scratching going on.

The 2,800 foot slope we climbed was endless going down. Our aching knees complained, but thankfully kept bending.

Arriving back at camp at five, thirteen hours later, we found a happy dog, who had been by himself all day. What a joy to have him to brighten up our day.

Luckily we did not have any bad weather. We were happy we made the summit and made it back without serious injuries.