North Maroon Peak

Zhen, my climbing partner for Pyramid Peak, and I planned to climb North Maroon Peak together, as this was going to be Zhen's finisher—the last peak he needed to complete climbing all 58 14ers in Colorado. I had purchased a parking pass for late June, but as the date arrived, the forecast was for rain all weekend. Climbing a Class 4 mountain with wet and slippery rocks (and still some snow) was not going to end well, so we rescheduled for the end of July. Then our July date had a forecast for a 90% chance of rain and thunderstorms: we postponed again. Monsoon season in Colorado is usually just a couple weeks in late July / early August. But the daily rain started very early this year and was still continuing into August. There was finally a window of opportunity with qualifiers like slight, possible, and "only" a 60% chance of rain. Zhen and I decided we'd give it a try.

The plan was to hike two miles up to Crater Lake to camp on Friday, then start early to try and get down before any afternoon weather on Saturday. During our drive to the trailhead we were watching the lightning storm ahead of us. As we neared Independence Pass, we were flagged down by another driver—there had just been a mudslide closing the road. It would be hours before it reopened. We turned around and took the three-hour detour, finally arriving at the trailhead around 1:00 a.m. At this point, it did not make any sense to try to hike in and set up camp, by the time we got settled it would be time to get up. So we just slept in the parking lot for a bit and planned to start earlier.

At 4:00 a.m. we donned headlamps and daypacks and started our hike. The first two and a half miles only gains 1200' of elevation as the trail heads toward Buckskin Pass and Snowmass Lake. This is part of the Four-Pass Loop, a popular 3-4 day backpacking trip through the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness area. As the sun rose, we left the trees and turned off the main trail to start the climb. From here it's less than two miles but over 3300' of climb to the summit.

There was a nice trail through the initial talus field that was sorely missed when we crossed the rock glacier a little later. While resting and watching a couple deer forage at timberline, a rockslide occurred on the north face of the peak—just in case we needed another reminder of the dangers we would be facing. As we crossed the rib to the east face, a mountain goat was standing on the trail, seemingly checking to see if we were prepared and worthy to continue the climb.

Getting past the mountain goat brought into view the next section of the route. This first gully climbs about 600' to the base of some cliffs before traversing over to a second gully. The second gully is steeper, has more loose rock, and climbs another 600' to reach the northeast ridge. Not to be outdone, somewhere above us in the first gully a lunch-box sized rock was dislodged and came flying down the mountain. The practical application of gravity to demonstrate exponential speed as it passed ten feet over our heads was amazing. And slightly scary.

Shortly after reaching the ridge is the crux (hardest part) of the route, a 20-foot cliff that spans the ridge from side to side. There is a Class 4 chimney (notch) that provides a route through. While waiting for a couple to descend, I discovered this was the same couple I had met on El Diente Peak a couple years ago.

From the summit the trailhead is visible just three miles and 4500' lower. We took lots of pictures, and rested a bit as there was no threatening weather anywhere in sight. The weatherman lost a lot of credibility on this day.

The descent was tricky as it's much harder to down-climb a cliff. By the time I got back to the rock glacier, my feet were complaining about every single rock underfoot. I was not feeling good. The last several miles took me three hours to go downhill, when it only took two hours to hike up it.

"It doesn’t have to be fun to be fun."
— Barry Blanchard

Pictures

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