Maroon Pk – South Ridge – Attempt

Date: July 3, 2004
Elevation: 14,156′
Rank: 25th
Route: South Ridge, Grade II, Class 3, 10.0 miles, 4600ft vert.
GPS: N 39° 4.25′ W 106° 59.35′
Team: Matt Esser (Toid), Colleen Rickard, Jennifer Rickard and Andrew Tobin

Pre-climb: Colleen and her sister Jennifer wanted to go camping for the Fourth of July weekend and so we planned on heading out to the Maroon Bells area to get an idea of how steep the ‘Bells really are. We weren’t dissapointed.

Climb: We left for Aspen at around 10pm from Colleen and Jennifer’s apartment, and arrived at the trailhead at 2:30am. Soon after, we were hiking by moonlight to Crater Lake where Andrew Tobin had already set up camp. I’ve climbed with Andrew previously on Crestone Needle and Pikes Peak.

We arrived at Crater Lake in an hour with all our gear and started setting up camp, and at first we couldn’t find Andrew, but eventually we did and without any sleep Andrew came and got me for the hike up Maroon Peak.

We made good time to the turnoff up the steep slopes of Maroon Peak and then things got tough. The climb is very steep, a la Massive’s Southwest Slopes, although this time it’s over cliff bands. By 8:30am, after only two and a half hours of hiking, I was tired from backpacking in the night before and not having any sleep and wisely turned around at about 11,600ft a mere 0.7 miles from the summit. I had three blisters on my feet the size of nickels. And they hurt just trying to descend. But the bottom line was that I was tired and didn’t feel like it would be safe for me to keep pushing it.

Andrew made it to about 13,300ft before he turned around at 10:30am. He saw the final route to the summit and decided the smart move would be to save it for another day. He too made a smart decision not to climb beyond what he thought was safe.

As I was making it back to camp, Colleen and Jennifer were waking up from their sleep and had started hiking around the lake. I went back to the tent and made lunch, then took a nap for a while. At dinner time, the four of us just sat around Crater Lake and enjoyed the simplicity of being out in the wilderness with no work to do, no computer, no tv and nobody else.

After telling a few stories we went to bed and Andrew went and successfully climbed North Maroon, although by that time, Colleen, Jennifer and I had backpacked out to our car, and were driving back home to Boulder to watch the fireworks that evening.

On the way home we stopped at Independance Pass and took some pictures. It was fun to finally get to take a different route through the mountains.

The Bell’s standard routes are pretty much clear of snow, and they are steep. But the important thing to remember is that when climbing your primary goal should be to have fun and make it back down safely, with your secondary goal to be making the summit.

It just bugs me that the first thing people ask when you say you went camping/hiking/climbing is: “Did you make the summit?” When, if you really knew anything about climbing, you’d ask: “Did you have fun?”.

Drive: 4.5h
Ascent: 2.5h
Summit: –
Descent: 1.5h
Drive: 5h
Total: 4h