NORTH MAROON PEAK 8/1/89

NORTH MAROON PEAK 14,014'

Mountain........North Maroon Peak
Elevation.........14,014
Rank...............50th
Range..............Elk
Trail length......3 miles
Elevation gain..4,000'
Difficulty..........*****
Comments........Wow!


TRIP REPORT

8/1/89

Between climbs of the Wetterhorn and North Maroon, I made an unsuccessful attempt on Capitol Peak with my friend Mitch from Boulder. That story is recounted under Capitol Peak.

So anyway, after ordering a pizza for dinner from my room at the Christiana Lodge (my favorite place to stay in Aspen), I slept and got up at 4:20 and drove to the Maroon Bells parking lot where I arrived at 5:00. For the first hour I hiked in the dark with a flashlight. Then as the first light of day diffused the darkness I turned right at Crater Lake and followed the trail uphill until I found it blocked by a huge porcupine. I yelled at the little prick and rattled my car keys and eventually it shuffled off the trail and I passed by.

A few hundred feet above Crater Lake I left the trail and headed left down to a tricky stream crossing, then back up through mud and wet willows to the rock glacier on North Maroon's flank. I leaped across the precariously balanced boulders and soon arrived at a sketchy trail across a grassy slope. The trail traversed to a gully which I headed up until just below N. Maroon's main ridge. Then I cut left across the bottom of a whitish cliff (mentioned in most guidebooks) to a narrower, rockier, less stable gully that I climbed very carefully (taking note of turns & exit points for the descent) until once again reaching the main ridge, this time 1000 feet higher up at about 13,600'. I was just pulling myself up to the top of the ridge when a hummingbird flew into my blue helmet (zzzzzzzTHWACK!). It hovered nearby for a second as I shook in my boots, then it dove down the gully toward greener pastures as I gained the ridge top and crossed a narrow but flat knife edge to the base of the cliffs just below the summit.

Things got a little tricky here as I looked for an easy scramble up the cliff - I couldn't find an easy spot, so I carefully climbed some small protruding holds and finally collapsed just atop the cliff.

I had been in a cloud since reaching the ridge - visibility was nearly zero. After a brief rest to calm my nerves I stumbled the last few feet up to the summit cairn and had a small breakfast. I signed the register and noticed that no one had been there for a few days due to the rainy weather. Nobody else was up here today either. Because of the poor visibility and route-finding problems I decided not to go near the ridge over to South Maroon and very, very carefully retraced my steps back down to Crater Lake.

Here the sun finally broke out and I encountered lightly-dressed tourists in shorts carrying coolers and wearing Walkmen. I was still in my heavy raingear from the climb and felt a bit conspicuous as I returned to the parking lot. Back in Aspen I cleaned up and went to dinner at the Cantina for margaritas and a Mexican salad (very good). The next day I drove down to Glenwood Springs for breakfast, then headed back to Telluride for a quick attempt on El Diente.