One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: June 7, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1986_0629_ChasmLake.htm)
(A
Fourteener
trip report.)
This was the summer when I decided to push hard and finish climbing all of the 54 (at that time) Colorado Fourteeners. It felt like it had been a very long time since my first, Longs Peak in September 1977. I'd already been up a few repeats (Democrat, Lincoln, Bross) in June, and now got serious with (South) Maroon Peak on the 4th of July (after a failed attempt the previous year).
(Remainder originally posted to internal newsgroup:
/* hpfcla:hpnc.general / ajs / 2:49 pm Jul 8, 1986)
After a year of planning and trepidation, along with Ed Ogle and Dave Morse, I climbed (South) Maroon Peak (14156'), the left-hand of the Maroon Bells, on Friday, the Fourth of July. It was as long and challenging as I had expected, but not nearly so hazardous or scary. I suppose I was getting used to these tough peaks -- was that a good thing, or a bad thing?
Thursday, July 3: We left Fort Collins at 0800 and took our time getting to Aspen via Independence Pass. As a result there were no campsites available in the Maroon Lake area at 1400. They filled up at noon. Ed and his wife found a site at the Difficult campground, which was five miles west (the wrong way) out of Aspen. My wife (Spring Carlton) and I gambled and succeeded in getting one of the overflow sites the camp hosts held aside, by being quick up the road when it opened at 1700. We kept it for the 3-day limit in fact, a very nice site (#43) just above the upper parking lot.
Last winter had been a bad one for avalanches in the Elk Range. One came across the Maroon Lake upper parking lot and took out a lot of the beautiful tall aspen trees below the lot... A sad act of nature.
By 1830 all three of us were ready to take off backpacking -- Dave joined us in his Jeep. The hike in past Crater Lake took the expected 1.5 hours. There was significant trail damage in spots due to small avalanches, tree falls, and over-use, which the rangers didn't think they'd do much to repair.
At about 2000 (8 pm) we studied the east bowl below Maroon Peak and reluctantly decided to climb the mountain via the very long south ridge instead of one of the steep, narrow saddle couloirs.
(Last year after doing the first 90% of the gain on the ridge, I'd concluded that the only sane way to climb the peak was via one of the couloirs, early enough in the year that the snow was good, like that week. Later I was not so sure of it. If you backpacked in as far as you could and got an early start, the ridge might be just as good.)
We found designated campsites in timber a short ways further on, near Maroon Creek, and almost got a decent night's sleep. "Almost", because in the middle of the night we had to fight off porcupines that nibbled on boots, ice axe covers, and other things! That was pretty scary. I was afraid the scratching sound at the tent entrance was a bear, and was ready to fight for my life with my ice axe. But with one flash of light, a bushy tail disappearing was all I saw.
Friday, July 4: At 0600 the next morning we started up-trail under some scattered clouds. After about 15 minutes, at 10500', "fearless leader" (me) decided it was time to turn up the east slope of the south ridge. There was no marked route; you'd just cross-country up to the ridge. We should have gone a little farther, to the place Borneman suggested in his book (as I did last year), because the ambitious start up put us on irritating talus for the first 500' or so.
Once on the higher grassy slopes we angled slowly up to the south. We gained height fast, and it wasn't too hard, with many places being firm, stair-step rock. It was a steep and tiring climb but the view got better with every step. (Maroon Valley must have been one of the most beautiful places on Earth.) A number of times we used ice axes to go straight up snowfields, which varied from slightly icy to just right.
We attained the south ridge after almost four hours of climbing, somewhat north of the real start, by route-finding a shorter way to it. Suddenly as we came over the top, Snowmass Mountain and Capitol Peak took our breath away. They remained in sight as we worked north along the back (west) side of the ridge.
Having been on this ridge before I could do some directing, and found it not nearly as tough as last time. Still it was a long way with many false routes and summits. It was complicated enough that several times I could only toss up my hands and set us all off looking for cairns. After almost two more hours at 1135 we reached the 13700' south saddle where I turned back last year.
The clouds slowly thickened, so we wasted no time. The last 500' of vertical took us almost an hour, route-finding our way up the back side of Maroon Peak. There were lots of cairns, but they were hard to spot in a few places. The trick was that the route veered sharply onto the narrow summit ridge twice as it reached rock walls. The ridge itself was a wide highway of fairly flat rock, with terrific cliffs on both sides, quite a thrill to hike across.
I reached the summit first at 1222 (6:07 to climb 3650', with some drops along the ridge). The summit was not as impressive as that on North Maroon Peak. Rather than being a pinnacle as it appeared from below, it was a long, fairly wide ridge with cliffs on both sides. There was a huge snow cornice on the Maroon Valley side, so we had to go down to the north to see below, which however was quite a sight.
We spent only about half an hour on top, and departed under light rain with a thunderstorm starting up about 10 miles away. The trip down to the saddle was fast, reasonably easy, and uneventful, taking only a half hour. After a long break there we agreed to descend the direct way, via "my" snow-filled couloir straight down to the valley. When you looked at the peaks from Maroon Lake, or on most photos of them, you'd see this as a broad snowfield that appeared almost vertical. But it was not; I measured it at 45-50 degrees.
This descent was much the same as the last year, hard but suitable snow for kicking down backwards, one step at a time, using an ice axe as a brace. It was slow, tiring work, and it took more than 1.5 hours to get to where it was easier to walk down. Some things were different such as, the snow gullies were not as pronounced -- not as many rockfalls? -- and one particular crevasse below a cliff was so wide (4') and deep (20-30') that two of us went up and around rather than jumping across. The snow lower down wasn't great for glissading either -- a little too "fast" (hard packed).
The return to the trail took us almost four hours total from the summit, until 1650, with some better rides towards the bottom. The rain came and went, but fortunately no thunder-busters drifted over.
After returning to camp, Dave Morse elected to stay another night; Ed Ogle headed out quickly; and I packed out in heavy rain from 1810 to ????. My digital watch finally died by drowning! It must have been about 1950 (13:50 since leaving the backpack camp?) when I got back to the car camp, to find my wife and daughter gone with Ed's wife, and our jeep waiting -- with Ed sleeping inside!
So we cruised into town for a late dinner and watched an impressive fireworks display from the restaurant -- and a phenomenal number of people packing into town for the celebration. I took Ed out to his camp at Difficult, drove back up to Maroon Lake again (an 11 mile drive from town), set up a tent, and finally crashed at 0030.
Saturday, July 5: It rained a lot that night, most of the next day, and the next night. We had the mountain to ourselves on the 4th, but several parties were going in that evening. On the 5th, despite the rain, a group of six climbed the steeper couloir to the center saddle between the Bells. While descending the same way at about 1430, one of the party was struck on the head by a "basketball sized rock" in the narrow part of the couloir.
I heard about it the next day from one of the other people in the group. Apparently his helmet and climbing rope, strung over a shoulder, saved his life. He slid unconscious so far that it took an hour for his buddies to reach him, and he wasn't rescued off the mountain, with a concussion, until around midnight. The climbers only had about 10 seconds warning from hearing the first crack of falling rock, and the unlucky person had less.
Such are the risks of climbing these tougher peaks. We also wore helmets (in my case a bike helmet, being what I had available), and were very careful about dislodging rocks plus watching for them. It's just as well I guess, that we didn't climb the center-saddle couloir!
(Next trip report: 1986_0706_ConundrumPeak.htm)