North Maroon Peak

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 8/5/2026, By: ColoNativeGal
Info: Celebrated Colorado's Birthday on this fun peak. We had a goat guide both ascending and descending. Route is pretty straight forward. The crossing of the talus field was a bit confusing, but you figure it out. The upper part of the chimney is challenging, long stretches and reaches but good hand holds. Face in to down climb the upper portion. We had some rock fall in the second gully from other climbers. I would recommend wearing helmets from the second gully up and until you get back down. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/28/2026, By: kmoss2
Info: Having just done Pyramid yesterday, wanted to offer some perspective while it's still fresh in my mind..
1. I found route-finding to be considerably easier on North Maroon than Pyramid -- CFI has done an amazing job with the trail! It really is quite straightforward in & around the gullies
2. If you can do the scree slope on Pyramid, the steepness in the second gully here is no big deal :)
3. I feel ignorant for saying this but I had no idea Maroon Lakes was such a busy area.. you start on an uncrowded trail and then it's like dodging Yellowstone crowds by the time you're back for your final mile.. the audacity I had to assume the only people parking at the trailhead were here for 14ers... embarrassing to admit but now I know. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/26/2026, By: spen_c_boy
Info: Summited N. Maroon Peak morning of 7/25. Hit the trail from the parking lot at 2:50am, back at the car at 10:50am. Took 4 hours 20 minutes getting up, and 3 hours 40 minutes coming down.

The approach to the first gully is very straightforward. Ditched my poles at the beginning of the second gully and I have no regrets about it; they wouldn't have come in handy from that point on.

The technical moves on this route weren't too bad. I accidentally made a class 3 move into a class 4 while in the second gully, but if you stay right on route this should be avoidable.

No snow anywhere on the route.

Test your holds - slow and steady! 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/19/2026, By: Istoodupthere
Info: No snow on route. Steep and loose are the key words. Check your holds. I had multiple large boulders that looked safe move. Remember where you cross the rock glacier. I followed some misleading cairns lower on the way back and it was a mistake. 7 people summited. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/13/2026, By: 40isthenew20
Info: Very small snowpatch at the base of the chimney - not really an issue but I did have to step one foot on the snow. One other very avoidable small snowpatch above the precipice. There's a rap anchor at the top that looks very new, but there was no hand line hanging down. Also - I e-biked up at 3:30am from the Buttermilk lot, couldn't get the e-bike entry kiosk to work. Beautiful day - smoke was not an issue at all. FWIW, years ago, I did the Bell Cord Couloir and over (South) Maroon, and I remember places where holding onto loose blocks was unavoidable (or I could have been off route). This was my first time up N. Maroon, and I found there was solid rock everywhere you needed it on steeper ledges, etc. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/12/2026, By: MaryinColorado
Info: Of note, the chimney still has a decent pile of snow at the base. It gets the boots a little wet and slick for the first moves, and on down climb lowering onto the snow was its own adventure because of how slick it became baking in the heat. So just be extra careful. 

Route: Bells Traverse
Posted On: 6/28/2026, By: ajtrezco
Info: Only snowfield on the way up south (before ridge) has melted enough to make it treacherous—footsteps are almost gone, snow is bulletproof in the early AM. Bring spikes if you don’t want to hike down and around. Smoke is also really bad in the area; worst I’ve probably seen in the last 20 years. Blew away by the time the sun came up this morning with the high winds, but was moving back in by about 5pm, just as bad as the evening before. Otherwise, traverse is still perfect conditions, descent down North has about the same amount of snow in the chimney, which wasn’t enough to cause any problems. 

Route: Bells Traverse
Posted On: 6/22/2026, By: calhack7
Info: Traverse was clear. There was a snow patch along the ridge that had good tracks across it, and there was some snow at the base of the chimney. There is also a fixed hand-line in the chimney 

Route: Bells Traverse
Posted On: 6/13/2026, By: macg91
Info: There is snow from the summit to the notch entering the second gully. Ice axe was helpful; the snow was soft enough descending at 10:30am that traction was not necessary, but probably would be necessary if ascending earlier in the morning while it's still frozen. Minimal snow in both gullies was entirely avoidable. There were several easy snow crossings between the bottom of the first gully and the trail back to the lake.

Ridge on the traverse is entirely snow-free. 

Route: Bells Traverse
Posted On: 6/9/2026, By: Connor1
Info: Started the hike at 0545 was moving pretty slow for myself. Went up the Maroon Peak South ridge route. There was a few sections of snow on the way up. The weather was 50 degrees at the base when I started so the snow was not to firm. Snow climbing was easily boot packable and wet but good enough. It was not to much easier than just walking up nest to the snow but it still had mandatory snow crossings. From the ridge to the summit it was dry. Route finding was not the easiest. I kept climbing to high and making my own route. Through out the climb up Maroon it was constantly loose especially in the gullies.


The traverse was fun. Many options for different routes with variations. I picked whatever line looked the most fun to just spice it up a little. I kept the major difficulties to mid class 5. Although you could take some time to find the easiest line over or around them. The traverse was almost completely snow free. I think there was just 1 section that had some snow but it was easy to navigate through.

From the summit of North Maroon it was very snowy for the first few hundred feet of the down climb over steep class 4 with cliffs below. Once the trail banks east it was snow free again for most of the down climb. Then snow again much lower as the trail traversed the lower north slopes. Then snow free after a large creek crossing for the last few miles back to the car.

In total 11.8 miles and 5755 ft elevation gain. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/7/2026, By: shelly o
Info: Snowier than we anticipated but also melting quickly. At least one required snowfield crossing. Other, smaller patches could be bypassed. I had microspikes and an axe and would have been happier with crampons. Wet/muddy in gully 1. Gully 2 looked relatively clear. Did not see route beyond that. 

Route: view from the hills
Posted On: 3/30/2026, By: WillRobnett
Info: Bells are starting to show consolidations and wet slides up high already.

Y Couloir left chute: 2025 went up one of the last days it was still connected, July 12th.
Y Couloir right chute: disconnected on July 12th 2025 and recently consolidated.
Bell Cord: recently consolidated down to the apron snow field below. Climbed it a few times in 2025, last climbed July 19th.
Maroon Bells Standard Routes: after the lake, looks like there's still a good amount of approach snow.
The North Face of North Maroon: climbed the face 4x times last year. Spring conditions held to July 5th. 

Route: Gunsight Couloir from Snowmass Creek TH
Posted On: 2/12/2026, By: jacolc
Info: Changed my plan from Snowmass to NMaroon after seeing avy/weather forecast (green, low wind). I trenched alone to Camp at 11000' for 8 miles above trail split. Next day no alpine start, so reaching Gunsight Couloir (2miles 2k') in soft snow take me 5h. Above Notch to summit and back to notch, 4h. Down to camp 2h. One short section bypassing Gunsight Tower was almost snow free and really NO Fall, front pointing on moss with no real handholds.
Hope I generate my first TR soon 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 12/25/2025, By: paulbarish
Info: After summiting Maroon and returning back to the top of the bell cord I started the traverse. I was nervous having never done it before but conditions were spectacular with actually usable snow and all 3 of the cruxes were dry. Overall I was feeling a lot stronger than expected but I thought crux 2 was the trickiest and gave me some pause to figure it out. The exposure was magnificent and getting to the summit was the realization of a climb I had wanted to do since I was 15! The summit was glorious but I didn’t stay long. I didn’t bring any ropes or anything so I could be lighter and the downclimbing went well, maybe easier than the way up. Once back in the bell cord, I plunge stepped and glissaded back to my camp. Round trip from camp was 10 hours flat. When I got down I made some delicious ramen with chicken in it and had a good laugh when I realized I was cooking where I had been peeing out of my tent. I didn’t care at all lol I was so unbelievably excited and proud! By far my favorite winter solo of this project for me! 

Route: The North Face
Posted On: 10/21/2025, By: WillRobnett
Info: Light snow covers the rock glacier and as it's beginning to fill in Bergschrund gaps at head of the snowfields. Freeze thaw surface goes to about 13k on the north aspect. There's about a half foot of fresh snow throughout the north face with deeper sections along in the snow bands near the summit, 1-2 feet. No signs of sugar or hoar however there was a lot of windblown surfaces in the week since the storm. Most of the Water Ice above 13k is getting constant spindrift and sluff right now. Water Ice sections at 12,500ft to 13k were in better condition than above 13k.