I realize it has been quite a while since I have posted any trip reports and general outdoor fun, but I’ll be honest; I have just been having some trouble getting motivated to get out and climb when I know that I have to walk back down hill.  I’ve been focusing on rock climbing, playing ultimate, and weddings I suppose.  A couple weekends ago I finally went for a hike up Sopris; but even that was only because I was guiding for Aspen Alpine Guides. Fast forward to this past Thursday and I was finally making plans of my own.  I called my buddy Nate to see if he was interested in a “big” hike on Saturday.  He was in, though I’m not sure he knew quite what he was “in” for.

Saturday morning came and I picked Nate up in Snowmass around 2:20 AM.  We drove on up to the parking lot and were without a doubt the first ones to hit the trail around 2:50 AM.

0 Miles  0 Vertical ft  gained

I’ve always found that mileage goes quicker in the dark.  I think it is because you just put your head down and focus on not tripping over the rocks as you go.  We were passing Crater lake in no time and headed up the switchbacks towards Buckskin pass.  We hit the cairn that marks the turn off to North Maroon and hung a left.  I haven’t been up North Maroon in dry conditions in a couple years, and the climbers trail has become much more defined as it crosses the talus fields and climbs up a shelf.  Still completely dark, we continued up the grassy gullies.  We were alone…that is except for the mountain goats who seemed to climb with us on our way up.  We reached the top of the grassy gullies as the eastern sky was starting to glow.

We reached the summit at 6 AM, just 3:10 after leaving the pitch black parking lot.

4.7 Miles and 4500 Vertical Feet Gained

I had been in my normal t-shirt and shorts attire since the parking lot, but the chilly breeze on the summit finally got to me and forced me to put my jacket on.  We sat around and had some food and water and headed off on the traverse to South Maroon.  The sun finally came up and made taking pictures less of a challenge.

I think Nate is holding out 2 fingers here for number 2 on the day:

An hour and twenty after leaving the summit of North Maroon we were hanging out on the summit of South Maroon with about five other people who had just come up the South Maroon Standard route; how sorry I felt for them!

5 Miles 4970 Vertical Gained

I’m not sure whether it was excitement for heading down or what, but we really didn’t even take time to take any pictures on top of South.  We just turned around and headed back for North Maroon.  The South Maroon side of the traverse really is the easy part of it.  From the summit down to the top of the Bell Cord couloir really takes no time at all.  After that we re-climbed the two sections that we had opted to rappel on the way over we completed the traverse and found ourselves hanging out on top of North Maroon again.

The exposure on the ridge is thrilling:

We only hung out for a few minutes as we knew there was much work to be done.

5.25 Miles 5240 Vertical Gained.

Nate was pretty much out of water so when we hit the talus field and found a couple accesses to the stream, we filled up, treated the water and we were off again.  A short while later and we found ourselves at the turn off for Pyramid.  I had left a couple of liters of water here early in the morning, so we topped off the water bladders again.  This is the hardest part of the climb; convincing yourself to make the turn and head up another mountain.  Your thinking “my knees hurt, my feet hurt, what the hell am I doing?”  But either way it was Noon, nine hours after our start and ready to really put the hurt on.

8.35 Miles 5240 Vertical Gained

At this point we certainly weren’t setting any speed record, but we were really just trying to complete the trio.   We crossed the flat area and headed up the switchbacks.  Upon arriving at the amphitheater it was time for a break.  Food and water for a few minutes, and back at it.  There is still snow in the bottom of the theater and we watched as people enjoyed themselves boot-skiing their way down.  We started the arduous task of putting one boot in front of the other boot and before too long we found ourselves below the North West Ridge.  It was here that we ran into my friends Tyler Christoff, Catherine Berg, and Betsy.  Tyler offered what was left of his water, we gladly accepted, and further loaded him down with the rope.  We headed up the insanely loose slope that leads to the North West Ridge.  Nate decided to work climbers left and climb on the more solid rock, I chose to work climbers right and head up the grassy slopes where I seemed to remember a faint climbers trail.  I eventually found it, but was still longing for the top of this section.  Finally topping out I think Nate was pretty grateful.

We bounced along the ridge for a while from one saddle to the next for a bit and took another break.  Nate is holding up 3 fingers…but we aren’t there yet, doesn’t he look excited!

We followed cairns for a while and at one point they seemed to disappear, I felt like I remembered the route from last year, and came pretty close, with only a couple minor detours to some harder climbing.  I’m not sure if Nate enjoyed hanging his ass over some major exposure, but he handled it pretty well.

We snaked our way around and after some final exposed climbing we finally found ourselves on the summit.

Pain or Happiness?  You decide:

Three is the magic number:

10.85 Miles  9,040 Feet Gained

“Ok, I thought, just make it back down this last hard section safely.”  We did.  We met 3 more people still coming up, one of which was also doing the 3 peak challenge.  What I forgot to mention is that we ran out of water about 500 feet before the summit of Pyramid.  We were parched.  We still had half a liter left down at the trail junction and that is really all we could think of.  We scurried down the steep loose trail that leads from the northeast shoulder to the amphitheatre.  Crossing the talus field we caught up to another descending group who had succesfully summited; what a perfect day for it!  The snow was a Godsend!  It felt so much better to shuffle/ski/slide down the snow than to pound down the rock.  We reached the end of the amphitheater and just kept moving.  Let the knee pounding continue!

The last picture I bothered to take:

Nate was on a mission, he wanted nothing more than a drink of water and it showed as he bounded down the trail ahead of me.  Although, when he got ahead of me on the flat section he took a left when the trail splits, while I continued right.  Ha! I beat him to the water!  He came plodding down the trail a couple moments later and I gave him his share of the water.  1.5 Miles left!  We didn’t slow down, we just wanted to be done.  It took another 15 minutes to get to the lake and we were done.  We went straight to the water fountains and drank our weight in water.

14.85 Miles 9,040 Feet Gained.

A quick soak for our feet in the river and it was time to go home.  A good day, a nice thing to have under our belts, but I’m not sure I would say that fun is the operable word.

A big congrats goes out to Nate on having the 14ers be all downhill from here as these were just his 2nd, 3rd, and 4th 14ers.  Way to kill em man!

Thanks for reading,

JW