Maroon Peak
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The route first climbs steeply to the south ridge of the mountain.
There is a well cairned trail that ascends the slope while consistently
traversing somewhat to the left (south). The trail hits a gully on its
way up and actually follows this a short stretch up on loose gravel. At this
point there are also cairns indicating a route that just crosses the gully,
however, this trail vanishes a bit later. (We just crossed, lost the trail,
ascended further and recovered the trail as it continued to traverse
south higher up.) The trail finally reaches a distinct ridge at approximately
3910 meter. Follow this ridge further up until it tops out in a small
distict col. From here, turn right and hike along the top ridge until the
trail will take you a bit left below the highest crest of the ridge.
Quickly, regain the top ridge by climbing up an easy, distinct
V-shaped rock feature. Continue on the ridge until it steepens and the
cairned path again takes you left into a very complicated face.
Follow the cairns (beware of cairns that lead nowhere) and the trail
on a traverse into this face, along the way you will cross a number
of smaller gullies. Eventually, the trail/path will hit a relatively
narrow, distinct gully with medium (not scree) sized rocks. This
gully goes high up the face. Climb this gully until a very
distinct ramp/ledge that exits to the left. The exit is well marked
with cairns. Continue to follow the trail/path/cairns traversing until
entering a larger gully with smaller rocks (scree) that tops out
at the sky (the main ridge). Climb this gully until about 15 meters
from the top, the last obvious exit before the top. Again, move left and
continue along ledges while climbing higher whenever convenient until
reaching the main ridge again. Follow the main ridge a short way,
then exit left again. Follow new ledges further left, while gradually
climbing when feasible. Eventually, you will again reach the main ridge,
this time it can be followed about 100 meters to the summit.
Note:
We followed a good route to the summit, but still managed to get
a little off-route while descending. There seems to be three gullies
involved, let us call them 1,2, and 3 in order of ascent. We must
have climbed either 1 or 2, then 3. On descent, we first
descended 3, we then descended gully 2, it was wide in the
upper part, but then narrowed further down and had a well cairned
exit (to the left when descending) that reminded us about
our ascent route. However, we then came to gully 1, where a clear
and heavily used trail crossed and continued horizontally.
Unfortunately, this trail seemed to lead nowhere and we quickly
observed the correct route significantly lower. A somewhat tricky
downclimb brought us back en route. It is quite possible that
a descent of this gully 1 would have been correct, but then there must
also be an alternative route descending from gully 3 to
gully 1 (crossing gully 2) thus avoiding the
descent in gully 2. (Since we only climbed up in two gullies when
ascending.) Alternatively, the route crosses gully 1, then
ascends to the low entrance of gully 2 along a route that we
missed on descent.
The above discussion should make it clear that this route is quite
complex. However, there is at least one, possibly a couple of
class 3 routes and any experienced climber should be able to
find his/hers way. If needed, one should backtrack and try an
alternate route. It seems that the most common mistake is ours,
ie., find yourself a bit too high while descending.
Comments:
I did this climb with my son Pål Jørgen, age 13. We started
from a camp right where the climbing trail starts (see above) at 0600.
We climbed 500 vertical meters in the first hour and reached the
summit at 0910 (3 hours and 10 minutes). We enjoyed the fantastic
scenery and the perfect weather for one full hour. We left the summit
at 1010 and arrived back at camp at 1300. Few people climb this peak
even in mid-July. Only one person the day before us,
when we descended we met a single
young man that would be the only other person to climb the peak
this day.
Another observation, I walked the very beginning of the traverse across
to North Maroon. The first section descending from Maroon Peak seemed
quite straightforward. The main difficulties are clearly further along
the route.