Maroon Bells, Colorado
by SCMA Member Steve Cole

Escaping the worst heat wave to hit Colorado in years (over 100 degrees for several days straight in Denver), Lou Wilson and I headed for Aspen and the Rockies over the weekend of July 17 – 20. After driving more than 4 hours from the Denver airport, we found our reserved campsite along Maroon Creek Road around midnight. Although we were only a mile or two outside of Aspen the wildlife was plentiful: many deer, a couple of foxes, marmots, pikas and even a porcupine! Lou thought he caught a quick glimpse of a mountain lion one afternoon along our climbing route.

Our goal on this trip: The Maroon Bells. (You Internet geeks can view a photo at http://music.transy.edu/~john/http/maroon.bells.html.) Both North Maroon Peak (14,014’) and Maroon Peak (14,156’) are among Colorado’s 53 (or 54, depending on whom you ask) 14ers. Depending on time/energy/motivation/aches & pains, we also planned to climb nearby Pyramid Peak at 14,018 feet. All three peaks were reputed to be among Colorado’s hardest 14ers, with much loose, very steep 3^rd and 4^th class and a few moves of low 5^th class thrown in near the summit for good measure.

This trip had a special significance for me. I discovered backpacking in 1974 while I was in grad school in Georgia. I spent 5-6 months leading up to my June graduation/liberation planning what would be my first real, honest-to-gosh backpacking trip. I collected and poured over hundreds of brochures, Forest Service maps, topos and anything else I could get my hands on that related to the few Wilderness areas in the country at the time. I spent months studying "topo mosaics" taped to my dorm walls and sketching out possible trip routes. Out of the hundreds of possible places I could have chosen to go for my very, very first real backpacking trip in real mountains (there are no "real" mountains back East where I grew up, with the exception of Mt. Washington), I chose the Maroon-Snowmass Wilderness outside of Aspen. In fact, Lou and I began our summit assault from the very same trailhead that I used as a green rookie 24 years ago. I even still had my old tattered topo with my 24-year-old route penciled in. Lots of nostalgia for me!

For our first full day in the Rockies, we planned to take it easy and acclimate. (Aspen is at about 8500’, our campground was near 9500’ and the trailhead was 9820.) We drove into town and had breakfast at a very nice European-style restaurant. After breakfast we went to one of the many mountaineering and sporting goods stores in town to pick up a few goodies. Then we strolled around town for a while. Aspen is a town that is, at the same time, both quaint and ritzy. On one hand it has the rustic charm of the Old West mining town it started as in the 1880’s. On the other hand, it is common to see shops, people and houses you’d expect to find on Rodeo Drive or in Newport Beach.

After our sightseeing in Aspen we drove to the trailhead at Maroon Lake for a short reconnaissance hike. Here we saw The Bells up close and personal for the first time¾ quite impressive and very photogenic with Maroon Lake in the foreground for a classic postcard photo composition. The trail at the lake was bustling with a hundred, slow-moving bumbly tourists. Lou and I eventually broke free of the molasses-like hoard and hurried up the trail. In about two miles we reached the point where the climbing route leaves the established trail. After studying the terrain and our route we headed back to our campsite

The next morning (Saturday) we awoke shortly after 4:00 am and were on the trail to N. Maroon Peak about 5:30. We quickly reached the point we left the main trail and ascended through a couple of nasty boulder fields. Routefinding wasn’t too bad since we had lots of company, many cairns and photos from a CD-ROM that Lou had found. After crossing a small snowfield we reached the northeast ridge proper where the real climbing started.

The NE ridge was very steep with many loose places (nasty shale). We ascended two steep gullies for about a thousand feet each and reached 13000’ by about 11am where we took a break. While we were sitting there, Lou accidentally bumped his pack and down it went¾ over 1000 feet! Retrieving it would have take a couple hours that we couldn’t afford so we decided to bail and head back to our campsite.

We rested again for a day before trying again. On Monday 7/20 we got up at 3:00 am and we on the trail by 4:15. We made great progress and reached the summit of North Maroon Peak about 10:30 am. We were treated to a terrific view of the snow-covered Rockies in all directions under a beautiful sunny sky. On the summit we ran into 4 guys from New Hampshire whom we talked to briefly before they took off on the 5^th class traverse to (south) Maroon Peak. Also on the traverse were two other guys who had passed us earlier in the day. Although Lou and I had also planned to do the traverse to Maroon Peak, we opted out after seeing the tremendous exposure and the fact that the other parties on the traverse appeared to be having difficulties. We stayed on the summit for over an hour before heading back down.

In many ways the descent was worse than the ascent (it’s always harder climbing down than up). Near the top there were a couple of spots that were clearly 5^th class (5.4 – 5.7). Once we got into the gullies, the down climb was very steep and loose hard 3^rd class and almost 4^th class in places. It was nerve-racking and treacherous for 2-3 hours since a slip could have sent us tumbling 1000-2000 feet just like Lou’s pack did previously. We finally got back to the car about 7:30 pm¾ 15 hours and 15 minutes from our start.

Great trip, beautiful area and a successful summit of another 14er¾ who could ask for more? I imagine that Lou and I will continue to lead more of these Colorado trips in the next couple of years since Lou has set a goal to climb all of Colorado’s 14ers. Hope some of you can join us in the future.

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