Maroon Peak, Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness, Aspen, Colorado

We climbed Maroon Peak via the standard South Ridge route starting from Maroon Lake trailhead. The Maroon Peak is one of the most difficult 14ers to climb due to loose terrain and route finding challenges. Together with its sister peak North Maroon Peak, they have earned the nickname "the Deadly Bells" due to a number of climbing fatalities over the years. One can keep the difficulty at class 3 if one manages to stay on-route. We did that for the most part, but had to resort to a few class 4 moves to go over more solid rocks instead of negotiating with loose scree. We went up second gully and came down via the 1st, and found both gullies equally loose and somewhat dangerous. Overall it was a hard climb but views along the way more than made up for it. The bear sighting at the end was icing on the cake. Total stats: 12.5 miles with 5000ft elevation gain

Music:
‘Filament’ by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

‘Adrift Among Infinite Stars' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

#14ers