Elks 14ers by difficulty, your experiences

[handonbroward]

Geez what happened on Pyramid? Rock fall induced by another party or a goat? Typically the only real rockfall there is all the way to the back of the amphitheater, where no human being short of one with a death wish should ever venture.

A runner disregarded warnings of people below him in the gully while he descended and trundled a half dozen bread loaf size boulders down on us; one ricochet'd off my helmet top and it's impact cracked the front of my helmet that was pressed into one of the rock bands I was hugging.

Sounds pretty ignorant and stupid. Did you confront him or exchange any words?

[bigredmachine]

Easiest to hardest - haven't done capital yet

-castle/conundrum
-pyramid
-snowmass - s ridge
-N maroon
-maroon

I felt Maroon was a significant step up from the others in both effort and danger. Starting with the 2800 ft of suck you have to stay very alert of someone shooting a rock down on you from 2,000 ft above; and that gulley on the backside was the sketchiest area I've been in yet. I'm surprised I haven't heard more concern from others about that gulley. I Did Longs peak two weeks prior and Maroon made Longs feel like a simple walk in the park.

[NickJ]

I agree with Big Red Machine. I thought Maroon Peak was significantly more difficult than the other Elks Mtns. And I went to Reds games at Riverfront Stadium in the mid-70s which is why we must agree. Haha.

[wildlobo71]

A runner disregarded warnings of people below him in the gully while he descended and trundled a half dozen bread loaf size boulders down on us; one ricochet'd off my helmet top and it's impact cracked the front of my helmet that was pressed into one of the rock bands I was hugging.

Sounds pretty ignorant and stupid. Did you confront him or exchange any words?

He had plenty of people yelling - he saw what was happening but just kept right on going.

[myfeetrock]

Hard to easy
1.Capitol- Because of K2
2. Maroon- 2800 feet of suck, and loose rock after
3.Pyramid- Green section + goats = unhealthy combo "ROCK!"
4.North Maroon- The chimney is the only thing that comes to mind
5.Castle/Conundrum- Fun easy hike with cool views

[SteveBonowski]

Easiest to hardest (includes 2 climbs each of Pyramid & Snowmass): Castle, South Maroon, North Maroon, Snowmass, Capitol, Pyramid.

Notes: don't consider Conundrum as a separate 14er due to proximity to Castle. If I was to add to the 55, I would add N. and S. Massive instead of Conundrum & N. Eolus. Did the old Borneman south ridge route on S. Maroon. Rock was generally stable altho tested everything in chutes when changing ledges. Biggest pain on the south ridge route was all the extra cairns, and this was in 1992. Most fun part of S. Maroon was the "moveable tundra" on the lower reaches of the south ridge. Haven't found that kind of tundra on any other peak.

N. Maroon in 1996 wasn't all that difficult altho horribly exposed in the grassy gullies (don't stumble or trip!). Looked at the traverse from the top of each Maroon and said "no way." CMC friend of mine died on the traverse several summers ago, and he was extremely experienced. Snowmass wasn't a big deal; just a lot of tedious hand over hand & banging knees on rock; on the summit ridge. Agree with the comment about the gully going up from Snowmass Lake. Knife edge on Capitol wasn't a big deal compared to the bad rock after the Knife Edge. Summit was anti-climatic; a forty foot walk-up on hard dirt.

And I also attended Reds games in the old Riverfront Stadium back in the 1970s.

[Vermont Mike]

Easiest to hardest (includes 2 climbs each of Pyramid & Snowmass): Castle, South Maroon, North Maroon, Snowmass, Capitol, Pyramid.

What made Pyramid the hardest for you? It's the only peak I've climbed in the Elks and I thought it was rather straightforward, with climbing the headwall to gain the ridge the most grueling part. Routefinding on the way up mostly involved backtracking if getting into too difficult of terrain, but the rock was pretty solid and routefinding on the way down was much more obvious and kept the difficulty and exposure to a minimum. In contrast Capitol and N. Maroon appear to be a much more serious endeavor both from a routefinding and exposure standpoint. Just curious why you ranked it harder than those peaks.