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Ryan Schilling, Erin Burr and I had planned to climb South Maroon a couple weeks earlier,
and later Kurt Traskos opted in as well. Kurt suggested we do the traverse to North Maroon
as well. I had been planning on the Four Great Traverses at some point as a separate goal
from climbing all the fourteeners without traversing and 3k absolute gain for each. I think
it is an understatement to say that one would be missing out not doing a Great Traverse. I
was just waking up in my tent at 5:15 a.m. when Ryan, Erin, and Kurt showed up from Maroon
Lake. I told them I'd be ready to go, but they had to wait a few minutes. We were off at
5:30, and I enjoyed a tasty breakfast burrito Erin had prepared on the hike up. We reached
the creek crossing in a short amount of time and began the slog up the East Slopes of South
Maroon (photo on right).
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| This slope is exhausting and relentless, though never really exceeds class 2
difficulty. We were gaining about 1,500' per hour on the way toward the Saddle at 13,300',
a good pace. Route finding up this slope is not easy, though a steady momentum upwards will
attain the correct route at some point. The gain to this saddle is an astonishing 2,700'
and at a consistently unpleasant steepness, much like Mount Columbia's West Slope. It was
rather windy and somewhat chilly from about halfway up the slope to the saddle. The angle
eased up a bit near the saddle, and a more defined trail was available. We reached the
saddle an took in the amazing views of Capitol and Snowmass, Fravert Basin, and of course,
the looming South Face of South Maroon (photo on left). |
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After a short break, we began the ascent on the flat ridge and were soon away from the wind.
It didn't take long for the first few class 3 moves to show up. A couple short chimneys
led the way up to a series of ledge traverses North along the West Face. The route
continued North for quite some time with a few class 3 faces to attain the next higher ledge.
On the right is a photo of Kurt, Erin, and Ryan ascending a ledge section. This route has a
lot of fun scrambles that can be varied in difficulty depending on preference, as Kurt took
full advantage of, warming up for the traverse. Finally, we reached the infamous rotten
scree gully, and Kurt had the presence of mind to help us avoid it altogether by suggesting
we climb class 3 faces on the South side. This was a wonderful alternative, and we only had
a brief encounter with the nasty stuff just before the South Ridge proper.
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At the top of the gully, a short section of class 3 up the face took us up to the ridge.
The final push toward the summit went by quickly on the gentle ridge, and Pyramid Peak was
quite dramatic from this viewpoint. The route from the saddle is less than 1,000' elevation
gain, but took the better part of two hours to complete because of the route's complexity.
We finished this part of the route at 10:45 a.m., all feeling like we had good energy left
for the Traverse. The weather on the summit was outstanding, and there were few clouds in
the distance. On the right is a view of Capitol and Snowmass from the summit. We took some
photos and ate some fried chicken Kurt had brought up - very tasty after the long climb.
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The entire traverse is easily previewed from South Maroon's summit, and is an amazing view
to take in (photo on right). A large group of people was on the summit of North Maroon,
which I didn't think much of at the time, but as we would later discover, became quite a
problem. The downclimb of South Maroon was a little tricky in spots because of drop-off
slabs that were wet. The toughest portion of the downclimb was just before the first
saddle, with a chute to the West leading to the upclimb of the traverse. I didn't think
this was dangerous, but we later ran into a pair of climbers at Maroon Lake who were
off-route here and one had decent cuts on his knee and arm. We could see the large group
rappelling the two cruxes of the route ahead, seeming to take an extraordinary amount of
time. The first pitch has really good triangular holes in a near-vertical slab that was
easily ascended. We made our way steadily up toward the first crux of the route.
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On the left is a view of the crux. There was a serious bottleneck here, and Kurt tried to
communicate to the people above to move their rope as no one was rappelling. On top of this, the ropes were on top of the only reasonable routes to climb from South to North. Surely they could have set up rappel on a different section of rock. We did not receive any
cooperation, and Kurt lead the first pitch (photo). Erin went
behind Kurt, followed by myself and then Ryan. We made quick work of this section, taking
about 45 seconds as a group. The next pitch (photo) was a
little more problematic, as the overhang had a rope right in the middle of it. In the
photo, the guy in the green shirt was the culprit. After several long discussions with the
party above, Kurt decided to ascend while I held the rope out of the way. We ascended this
pitch in the same person order as before, though after Kurt and Erin ascended, the belayer
above gave instructions for someone to rappel. After this, I ascended and the rope became
wrapped around my pack and arm. I held on with one hand while I untangled the mess and
pulled myself to the brink. Ryan quickly followed.
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I have heard varying accounts of the classification of this overhang ranging from 5.4 to
5.6. The general consensus seems to be 5.4. Past the crux, I was looking forward to
getting to North Maroon's summit. The rest of the route was pleasant, and remained at class
3, with few difficulties, other than a gap that we jumped over. The final 100' was very
much like South Maroon, climbing up stair-like blocks. A final turn to the South put us on
the summit. This was an incredible route and certainly the most climbing I had done in a
day. Clouds were rolling in at 1:20 p.m. while we were on the summit, and we knew we had to
get down fast. We descended the easy terrain to what seemed to be the crux of the Northeast
Ridge route, which was a 15' chimney with good holds, although it was wet. It began to rain
once we were on easier ground again, which complicated our descent with slippery talus.
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We found ourselves off-route at a couple points, but we were soon able to correct our
direction. It was nice to arrive in the grassy couloir and essentially out of harm's way
(besides lightning and rockfall). A party above us had been sending down rocket-propelled
talus chunks. It had begun to hail in earnest once in the couloir, which was painful on the
neck and ears - at least we had our helmets. We crossed over to the North side of the
Northeast Ridge and the weather improved. Back at Maroon Lake, we departed to Aspen for
some margaritas and Mexican food at The Cantina to celebrate the occasion. It was raining in
torrents back at the Bells and in Aspen, and I didn't envy those who were still on the
traverse once we were going down North Maroon.
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