MAROON PEAK 8/12/90

MAROON PEAK 14,156'

Mountain........Maroon Peak
Elevation.........14,156
Rank...............25th
Range..............Elk
Trail length......6 miles
Elevation gain..4000'
Difficulty..........****
Comments........Don't ask me for directions

TRIP REPORT

8/12/90

I checked out of the Glenwood Springs Holiday Inn at 4:15 a.m. and drove in a driving rain to the Maroon Bells parking lot. By 6:00 the rain had lightened up and I ventured out of the car and up the trail.

I hiked up to Crater Lake and then beyond for a mile or two until I found a decent place to cross the rain-swollen stream on the right. I angled up the steep, slippery grass slopes of South Maroon (or just Maroon) Peak until I topped the ridge south of the peak. From there I attempted to follow cairns up, down, and around a maze of ridges, couloirs and small peaks. Somehow I managed to do a circle and found myself heading back down without having seen the summit.

So I reversed myself and tried again, this time having better luck, and approached the summit just as a thunderstorm came roaring over from Pyramid Peak. I ran the last 200 vertical feet, spotted North Maroon Peak across the ridge, couldn't find the summit register, quickly shot a short movie clip (the thunder on the soundtrack is pretty impressive) and then jumped off the summit to (relative) safety as lightning blasted the peak and hailstones rattled on the rocks.

I was so eager to descend that I missed the exit from a large couloir and was headed down the wrong side of the mountain (toward Snowmass Peak). By the time I figured out where I should be, I had to reclimb several hundred feet to rejoin the trail. The first thunderstorm had passed and I was able to cross over the ridge into Maroon Valley safely, but as I was beginning my descent another storm hit. Rather than staying out on the open grassy slopes, I found a small gully next to a ridge and descended as quickly as I could, keeping my head low and staying as flat against the rocks as I could. Lightning was striking so close that I could hear the rocks sizzle.

I finally reached the trees near the bottom and wound up slogging through a swamp and splashing across the creek to get back to the tourist trail. I was pretty tired and my feet were in bad shape from the steep up and down climbing and being soaked, so I hiked out slowly and stepped cautiously as the storms subsided. I got to my car at 6 p.m. and drove to the Christiania in Aspen where I took a long hot shower and had pizza and a sub in my room.

The next day I scouted the trailhead for Snowmass and found that without a jeep I could not get to it from the Redstone/Marble/Crystal side. I had dinner at Little Annie's and called a high school classmate of my wife who was now an architect in Aspen. He was not able to provide any help with routes for Pyramid or Snowmass. I made preparations for Pyramid and went to bed.

The next morning I started up Pyramid at 5:30. It is a very steep climb to the bouldery amphitheater below the peak, and a steeper climb up to the ridgetop on the left (13,000'). The ridge was OK for the next 200' vertical, then the route became unclear and I was having trouble with loose and rotten rock. Also I had a strained thigh muscle, clouds were rolling in again, and nobody else was up there. And the exposure on the ridge didn't help. I decided to retreat. I descended carefully in a steady rain and drove down to Glenwood Springs. For dinner I finished off my backpacking provisions (from the Blanca excursion).

The next day I had a huge breakfast at the Pancake House, then drove around sightseeing and playing "get lost". Never was really lost though. Then I set up for an assault on Snowmass.