Route: Bells Traverse Posted On: 2022-07-31, By: MountainBuhn Info: Shuttled in Saturday and camped at Crater. Rain pretty much all evening/night worried our chances for a Sunday attempt at the traverse. Woke up Sunday with beautiful conditions and nearly spotless sky until 10am. Summited Maroon at 7:15. NM at 8:50. 1:20 traverse time. Traverse Notes: Downclimb from maroon should not be overlooked. Definitely some class 4 moves, not even mentioning the one to the Cord. Rock is pretty good on the first spire. Even on the exposed ridge. Downclimb off the ridge prior to 2nd spire was not bad at all. 2nd spire has great hand and foot. Only slight movement on the rock. I thought a little overhyped tbh. 3rd spire, higher 5 option was definitely the most difficult of the day. Still not bad when you know the move. Under the green rock overhang look and maneuver left to climb the exposed corner. Great holds this way. Loose rock rest of way, but easier climbing. This was our 3rd traverse (Crestone and Diente). Definitely most technical, but Diente was far more exhausting and the last 40 feet of Crestone had more exposure imo. This was short and took no time if you know route. 56, 57 in the books. Only Little Bear left. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-07-14, By: E_A_Marcus_949 Info: Summer conditions! No snow on route. Creek/stream crossing flowing but doable. |
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Route: Bells Traverse Posted On: 2022-07-11, By: Will_Quillman Info: Summer conditions up South Maroon, across the traverse, and down North Maroon. This traverse was freaking awesome. Make sure you pay attention to the route for the way down off South, we got ourselves into a little bind hanging too far hikers right. The rock was pretty loose, make sure holds are solid before you pull. Took us roughly 2 hours, would have been 1.5 if we didn't get into that bind on the descent from South. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-07-05, By: demmons1 Info: 99% summer conditions. Creek still running a little high. May take a little scouting to find a place to cross with dry feet. Rock glacier can be traversed snow-free. Chimney has a little sniff of snow at the base just enough to make your shoes slippery for the ascent. However, by the time you get there, the snow will be melted away. See pictures describing above. BTW....better get to the summit soon before the peak has crumbled to less than 14k ft. It's a mess. Wear sunscreen and a brain bucket. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-06-29, By: JROSKA Info: There are two minor snow fields to cross in the rock glacier. Crossed both carefully with just one pole and no traction. There is still some snow and ice at the base of the chimney. Other than that, summer conditions on this route. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-06-26, By: Wimyers Info: Brought crampons and didn't use, brought and used the axe but it wasn't helpful because the remaining snow was rotten and unsupportive (though we were up there pretty late). The route is nearly snow free, though. There is a good anchor above the chimney if you are inclined to rappel that section. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2022-06-10, By: bmcqueen Info: Snowshoes not needed, but crampons and axe still recommended. The rock glacier is still mostly snow covered with a couple of traverses where the axe was nice. Gully 1 is almost entirely snow free. Gully 2 has some snow left, but it's melting fast and is mostly avoidable if you follow rock bands up. The ridge has a decent amount of snow left. The bottom of the chimney has snow that actually made the entry easier. Exit of the chimney was dry. The rest of the route was a mix of snow and rock. Added a pic looking across at Thunder. |
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Route: Standard to Trigger Finger Couloir Posted On: 2022-05-13, By: Will_E Info: Summitted N Maroon today, road is closed 5.5 miles from Maroon Lake, but 100% dry. Trail starts dry, then intermittent snow, full snow coverage begins just before branching off and crossing the creek. I went along the standard route, branched off at Trigger Finger Couloir, then along the West ridge to summit. That West ridge is spicy. I only used snowshoes a short distance, snow was pretty good, even late morning. I went up the couloir around 4 am, nice and stiff. Came down around 9-10 am, it was just about perfect. Needed Crampons from base of Couloir, along the west ridge, and back down. Will add pics later. |
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Route: Stammberger Ledges (North Face) Posted On: 2022-05-02, By: dweiss45 Info: Mix of snow and dry on the approach starting at Maroon Lake, continuous snow at the river crossing to enter the North Maroon amphitheater, Corn snow (when timed right) in the amphitheater, variable snow up to the 2 cliff band, packed powder above that to the summit. Should be good skiing on a warmer day! We dropped at around 11, but it never warmed up. |
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Route: North Face/Stammberger Ledges Posted On: 2022-05-02, By: ClimberSkierDave64 Info: Skied the North Face on Saturday, it definitely lives up to it's reputation! Continuous snow for skinning doesn't start until right before crater lake. The ski descent goes from the summit all the way down currently. Punk Rock is a little thin but it wasn't too difficult to billy goat through it. The middle choke on the way down the face has a good bypass skiers right of the main choke point. The exit chute is currently only 3-4ft in width for a small section so a short straightline is necessary. There was one or two other groups skiing it as well, and another group skiing south maroon which looks pretty sick! Snow was chalky and velvety pow down the face and then corn on the ski out. |
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Route: Bells Traverse Posted On: 2021-10-05, By: kciarlet Info: Up South across traverse and then down North. Done with a rope but a crampons and an axe would have been nice. South was clear until you crested the ridge to the west side, but all manageable without a rope or gear. We roped up for the decent off to the saddle and downclimb to the top of the couloir. Some of the easier routes on the west side are packed with snow so we went east a few times to avoid the snow but on harder climbing. About 6-10 inches of snow present coming down off of north. If climbing up the fourth class chimney I would have wanted the above gear for sure, but we were able to rap off of a previously made anchor. Looks like one person and a dog turned around coming up here the same day. Clear of snow from 12500ft down. |
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Route: Bells Traverse Posted On: 2021-09-26, By: rebeccasimeone Info: Did the traverse from South to North. As we started heading down the traverse from S Maroon, there were some patches of snow but totally manageable. The rest of the traverse was dry. Lots of carins as well. On the descent from N Maroon, similarly there were some patches of snow up high. The block in the middle of the 4th class downclimb was covered with snow so we went right and bypassed this section (probably 3rd class). Above the 4th class section someone left anchor material, a locking carabiner and a BD .5 C4. Microspikes not needed yet. Leaves are unreal. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2021-09-13, By: constipated_pete Info: Climbed the northeast ridge, semi-suspicious looking clouds through the day. We climbed the crux and saw storm clouds around Snowmass and couldn't see capitol fifteen minutes later. Turned around at 13,700'. Tough |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2021-08-30, By: taylorharris50 Info: Recent trail work around the boulder field. Summer conditions. Epic peak. |
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Route: Bells Traverse Posted On: 2021-08-02, By: Been_Jammin Info: The Bells Traverse is closer to 12 miles round trip from TH to TH. Not the 9.5 listed in the route description. This makes sense when you cross reference the Bells Traverse route stats with Maroon and North Maroon stats. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2021-07-30, By: Camden7 Info: Route is totally dry. Creek crossing is very easy. Honestly one of they easiest high peaks in the elks. Not much to it. |
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Route: Bells Traverse Posted On: 2021-07-30, By: kalestew Info: Ascended Maroon and descended North Maroon- route is dry and well cairned. There are some pieces of climbing gear left along the traverse (webbing around a rock at the top of the second spire, a cam above the left side of the third) but you don't need them to gain the c5 sections. Had to move slow down North Maroon's second gully to avoid dislodging all those loose boulders. Was a really fun and scenic day, but as many others have said that descent down North Maroon is soul crushing after the fun traverse. That final wide talus field before you're back to treeline starts stable but becomes increasingly loose the closer you get to grass. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2021-07-13, By: William Musser Info: Last bit of snow at one place on trail was punched out and fell away. No snow at all. Rock gully area and grass gully had according to my expert companion, more small rock than normal because of all the rainfall this spring and so more loose material than normal. Groups above us kept knocking rock down on us. Soft feet critical. |
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Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 2021-07-10, By: durkan Info: Full summer conditions. Ice aforementioned at the base of the chimney is gone. |
