One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: March 30, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1985_0609-16_MLW,StormPeak.htm)
(A
Fourteener
trip report.)
(Originally posted to internal newsgroup:
/* hpfcla:hpnc.general / ajs / 5:27 pm Jul 8, 1985...but saved as filename "Elk_Range".)
Here's a report on some climbing in the Elk Range (Castle Peak and Maroon Peak) and on lodging in Aspen.
Sunday, June 30: I, my wife Spring Carlton, and daughter Megan Silverstein drove over Independence Pass to Aspen. This was as pretty and interesting a drive as I remembered it from years ago. Just west of town there was a well-marked left turn which led to Castle Creek (another left) or Maroon Lake (straight ahead). We went 10 miles up Castle Creek on a paved road to the point where it was closed(!) for mining operations. Just before this was where the dirt road (jeep trail) mentioned in "A Climbing Guide to the Colorado Fourteeners" took off to the right.
The road up Castle Creek was generally good and took us the way to about 12400', even farther than shown on the topo map. But there was a bad stretch less than a mile up, at about 9800', where ordinary cars had to call it quits! A Forest Service ranger admitted to me that they intentionally don't grade the road, to discourage non-4WD vehicles.
This was not nice, along with the fact that "the whole valley is off limits to camping" below about 10000'. At least that's what a local resident told us. The same ranger disagreed and said you can camp anywhere in the valley on Forest Service land.
Just to make things more confusing, there was a sign up the road which said, "End of No Camping Zone" (just past the little pond shown on the map), but no corresponding sign for the start of the zone! "So be advised, take 4WD or be prepared for hassles, or an even longer hike than from 9800'."
Monday, July 1: Anyway I started up the road on foot at 0600. There were bridges across Castle Creek where necessary, but I chose (for obscure reasons) to instead stay on the right side of the creek. After three hours of steep, treacherous, foolish bushwacking traversal across rugged slopes, I rejoined the Montezuma Mine road, then followed it.
The road was closed by a snowdrift at about 12200', less than a mile from the end. From the end it was solid, wide, deep snow all the way up to the summit ridge at about 13800'. There was a spectacular, deep turquoise pond, surrounded by snow, in the bottom of a bowl below the ridge.
The last bit of ridge to the summit of Castle Peak (14256', the same elevation [before USGS revisions years later] as Longs Peak) was not especially tough, just tedious. It gave me a good taste of how crummy the rock can be in the Elk Range. I enjoyed the scenery from 1230 to 1400 under clear skies and cool breezes, with few other people around. I was almost surrounded by high altitude rock and snow except towards Aspen to the north. The other Fourteeners of the Elk Range were clearly visible, but bunched surprisingly close together in the distance to the west.
Coming down was great fun. I dropped the distance from the ridge to the pond in just 45 seconds of glissading -- must have been quite a sight, whizzing down under a cloud of flying snow and ice! The bowl was big and devoid of rocks or other obstacles. Below the pond there were several more fast, fun drops on wide open snow before rejoining the road for the descent.
Total time on trail was 10.5 hours -- yes while my wife and daughter hung out and waited for me at camp. With a 4WD vehicle (and an open road) that could have been as little as four hours.
We found a great place to stay in Aspen: the Christiania Lodge. They had a jacuzzi, sauna, small heated pool (with diving board), simple continental breakfast, and a variety of rooms, no two of which were alike. Their best rate (for any room, any season) was $32 for a small poolside room with double and single beds, plus color TV, HBO, phone, plenty of towels, nice bathroom, etc. The same room was $40 during summer "high season", and even more in the middle of the ski season.
[I wrote back then:] "If you stay there, be sure to chat with assistant manager B.J. Solak. This guy, age 76, is an amazing goldmine of information on local geology, flora, fauna, skiing, hiking conditions and trails, etc. He is an exceptional photographer, and has climbed North Maroon three times recently. Ask to read his 30-page notebook of general advice."
Tuesday, July 2: We drove up to Maroon Lake, also about a 10-mile drive from the turn west of Aspen, to get a camping permit for the night. This area was very crowded and we had to get there early (like before 3 pm). Also had to be sure you visited your campsite and marked it somehow so the "campground hosts" didn't give it to someone else (even after you paid $8 for it!)
Maroon Lake (9580') was the trailhead for Pyramid Peak and the Maroon Bells plus a great deal of beautiful virgin wilderness area. My impression was that very few of the people parked there were hiking or camping up the valley. Most car-camped, explored the lake, and that was it. The campground was full, but there were few people beyond the lake.
In Aspen I did a lot of asking around for snow conditions and good advice on climbing the three Fourteeners in the Maroon area. B.J. gave me detailed instructions for North Maroon Peak, and it sounded hairy. One mountain shop guru said he thought Maroon Peak would be the easiest of the three -- and to my chagrin I believed him.
Wednesday, July 3: I got a late start (0630) on the trail to Maroon Peak. After a couple of miles I passed Crater Lake (10500'). The valley was very peaceful and lovely early in the morning.
Further up the trail at about 10600' is the point where I stopped strolling and started working -- the hillside was very steep from the beginning. There was no clearly marked route up the south ridge of Maroon Peak either.
I followed the sloping rock layers, along various steep ledges, mostly on grass, dirt, and good rock, but often crossing snowfields and climbing gullies. The mountain got continually steeper, and the rock worse and more exposed. It was easy to knock down large, firm-looking rocks from outcroppings -- not very good footing. But an exhilarating, steep climb!
It took me two hours (going slow) to start up the mountain, and three more to reach the top of the south ridge at about 13200'. From here the rest of the route seemed easy - 3/4 mile and 1000' up the ridge. For a while it was nice, but then it got worse -- much worse. The best description for this ridge was "fractal": Each step closer to it increased the visible complexity.
Rather than clean couloirs, ridges, and ledges, the ridge was a complicated, hard-to-visualize mess of steep, loose rock, blind gullies, forks and joins, and outcroppings -- you get the idea. The route was poorly marked with cairns (which were hard to spot anyway), and seldom obvious. There were some very steep and precarious spots along the way where moving slowly and gracefully was essential. And this time of year there were several snowfields to cross very gingerly too.
At 1300, after 6.5 hours of climbing, and wondering how much farther the summit could be, I came upon a saddle at 13700', more than 400' and a good distance from the summit. Talk about frustration! With great weather, still some energy left, but running out of time, and terrified of the trip back down the ridge, I decided to stop there. I was hiking alone, and saw no one else on either peak the entire day. (A ranger later told me that he saw no one else either!)
At 1400 I made a tough decision, to descend via a snow couloir from the saddle rather than return on the ascent route. The "Hitchhikers Guide" to the Fourteeners says of that couloir: "It should only be attempted by experienced parties equipped with ice axes". Well carrying a $3.99 folding ice axe, and having no better choice, I decided to go for it... Hairy, scary kick-stepping down a steep snowfield where slipping meant a good chance of losing control (and about a thousand feet). First I had to descend about 50' of near-cliff under a light spray of water to avoid some really bad snow.
But after that -- fun stuff! On the way up the trail I had checked out (with binoculars) a possible descent route this way, and I used it. About an hour of soft-snow glissade took me down a massive snowfield, across a short ledge, and then another ramp, which dropped me almost at the trail in the bottom of the valley. This almost erased my disappointment and the discomfort of the upper couloir. (It certainly numbed my bruises!)
Mountains like this one only heightened my awe of and respect for people like Rich Carr, who had climbed all 54 of Colorado's 14000' peaks. I'd done fewer than half of them, but I could see that it was a staggering, overwhelming lifetime accomplishment, however invisible to someone who didn't know. Maroon Peak (or at least the first 90% of it) was the hardest, most challenging climb I'd ever made, an 11.5 hour marathon.
[I wrote back then:] "If you seek to climb Maroon, I suggest you do so early in the season when the snow is good, with an ice axe and possibly crampons, going up the saddle route. [And a year later, with two friends, we didn't do that after all, but we did descend the same way again.] It's much more direct and not much more dangerous than the south ridge. In any case you'll have to do some terrifying rock climbing for the last 400'. And this is not a mountain to do alone -- if nothing else, climbing partners would have helped me find the route and make sane decisions. Talk with me for more advice if you plan to climb either of the Maroon peaks."
[And I added:] "Does anyone read these reports? If so, I sure wish you'd post yours! It would be a fine way to share valuable knowledge."
Alan "26 done, 28 to go" Silverstein
(Next trip report: 1985_0727-28_SnowmassMtn.htm)