|
|
The Maroon Bells are considered a couple of the most difficult fourteeners in Colorado to climb. Much like Pyramid, they contain alot of exposure, loose rock, and very steep terrain. To bag both peaks at the same time makes for a very long day as well. We started from the familiar Maroon Lake trailhead. We have been here before to attempt the bells, and to climb Pyramid. Crash has also been here to attempt the Bells on his own a few times, and I have been here on a motorcycle trip in 2002. We got started hiking by 6am and made good time past the lakes and found the place where the trail breaks to the right (west). Finding the next turn was a little more difficult as we had feared that we passed it, but after a very short detour we stayed ojn the trail and found the creek crossing to the South. Th trail climbs steeply up a forrested hill, till we were nearly at treeline and then had to cross several boulder fileds and a 'rock glacier'. Above I am checking out the map and Crash is crossing the 'rock glacier'. To the right Crash is traversing a log that has become part of the trail. The trail then winds around the mountain and comes to a steep gully. Once we got there, I took off up the gully and found a relatively easy path crusing right to the top. Then it breaks South and there are a few class four moves involved, but I though it was much easier than advertised. Once at the top I waited for an hour for crash to summit - he had taken a wrong turn - and i met plenty of people coming from South Maroon (which is where we were headed).
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|  |
|
From the top I had plenty of time to inspect the 'traverse' (shown in the very bottom left pic) which is basically a rocky and uneven catwalk between the tow mountains. When Crash arrived we started on the traverse, and it was a little easier than I expected as well. Many people were using climbing equipment. I can say that comoing from the South to the North would have been more difficult. There were at least three major drops that would be climbs going the other way. Above and left are pics of me and Crash at one of the drops. Above right is a shot from near the top of North Maroon looking back down to Crater Lake and Maroon Lake. Below are the summit shots of Crash on top of North Maroon looking North, and both of us on top of South Maroon looking Southeast. The climb up South Maroon wasn't too bad, but we were getting tired so that made it worse. We summitted around 1:30pm.
|
|
|
|
The hike out was slow, we were tired and had to scale along or near the ridge for quite a while on South Maroon. Once we got to the slope where we could go straight down to the creek, it felt like we were almost there - but we weren't. We had both nearly run out of water, so I took the empty bottles and headed down to the creek to wait for Crash. The trail down the hill is only a mile, but it drops 3000ft in vertical, so it is very steep and very slippery. By the time I filled all the water bottles and had a snack, Crash came along and it started to rain. At least we were off the steep part, and it was just a 'walk in the rain' from here. I got back to the car just before dark, and Crash made it along a while later. Then we had the three and a half hour drive back to Denver. Below is a shot of South Maroon and the traverse. To the right is me on the traverse, and bottom right is the valley to the south west of the bells. Two more off the list!
| |
|
|
|
|
