North Maroon Peak

Route: Bells Traverse
Posted On: 7/30/2021, By: kalestew
Info: Ascended Maroon and descended North Maroon- route is dry and well cairned. There are some pieces of climbing gear left along the traverse (webbing around a rock at the top of the second spire, a cam above the left side of the third) but you don't need them to gain the c5 sections. Had to move slow down North Maroon's second gully to avoid dislodging all those loose boulders. Was a really fun and scenic day, but as many others have said that descent down North Maroon is soul crushing after the fun traverse. That final wide talus field before you're back to treeline starts stable but becomes increasingly loose the closer you get to grass. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/13/2021, By: William Musser
Info: Last bit of snow at one place on trail was punched out and fell away. No snow at all. Rock gully area and grass gully had according to my expert companion, more small rock than normal because of all the rainfall this spring and so more loose material than normal. Groups above us kept knocking rock down on us. Soft feet critical. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/10/2021, By: durkan
Info: Full summer conditions. Ice aforementioned at the base of the chimney is gone. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/5/2021, By: heathcliff
Info: The route is great condition for summer. Recent rainfall Saturday morning made things a little slicker. There was no snow to cross, except there is about a 2x2ft ice area at the base of the chimney which makes it a little harder to descend. Hiking poles (or the axe that I had) help with balance and traction in the mud, but no foot traction needed. Good bit of rocks falling down the gullies, even being the first climber of the day with nobody above me..so bring a helmet! 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/23/2021, By: sarahw
Info: Summer conditions. Several snow patches, all can be avoided. Took spikes and axe but used neither. Mound of snow at base of chimney can be stood upon and makes entering the chimney a bit easier, but exiting a bit more difficult. 

Route: Bells Traverse
Posted On: 10/23/2020, By: jmctigue
Info: Summer conditions. The odd patch of snow that could easily be avoided. Snow is forecast this weekend, so this information probably isn't very useful.

It was very gusty in the afternoon, so extra care had to be taken on the scrambling.

Roach's book mentions a place to rappel, and there is currently a sling around a large rock here. I was able to downclimb just before this: I thought the scrambling could be kept to class 4 with careful route-finding. There are quite a few cairns to help.

Descended the south ridge of Maroon Peak. The ridge itself was pretty good fun, but the descent off the ridge was interminably steep and loose. 

Route: Bells Traverse
Posted On: 10/4/2020, By: bmcqueen
Info: Did South Maroon standard route, Bells Traverse and descended North Maroon standard route yesterday. No meaningful snow on the route and the N Maroon descent chimney is dry. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 9/29/2020, By: skyjumper
Info: Was able to Summit on the 9/26. No snow on the mt until Chimney. The Chimney had no ice/snow. Section after Chimney had minimal snow. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 9/27/2020, By: JIntfen
Info: Route is clean to the Chimney. Some snow after the chimney until you regain the ridge, clean after. If down climbing the chimney seems sketch with snowy shoes there's an easier class 3 downclimb about 150' before you get to the chimney (Theres an anchor rope at the top of both). 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 9/20/2020, By: Geckser
Info: There was snow from 13,000 feet up. No major difficulties regarding snow outside of the chimney which was slightly icy but certainly doable. I don't really know how hard it would ascend the chimney as we only descended on it but I was able to hop down relatively easily. No worrisome snow outside of that. Microspikes could help on the chimney but nowhere else. Aspens were nice on the way down. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 9/17/2020, By: Makbrad
Info: A lot of snow has melted since the last conditions report below was posted. Almost all of the traverse itself is dry with the exception of a few patches and pockets, some avoidable, some not. The chimneys on the spires are dry.

The downclimbs off both Maroon and North Maroon are holding snow and some pockets of ice. These are currently the two cruxes of the climb.

The downclimb off Maroon toward the traverse is pretty hairy in a few areas. Spikes are helpful. There are a couple of small pockets of ice on some of the rocks. Downclimbing snow and ice sections took the most time outside of route finding along the traverse.

The biggest crux is the class 4 chimney downclimb off North Maroon as it is still holding a small amount of snow and ice on each step of the 20 foot downclimb. We climbed down this chimney in spikes very slowly and carefully. Doable, but gnarly and sketchy on some of the moves. Beyond this, there is still snow as seen in the photo with the goats above my partner.

Full Trip Report:
https://makbrad.com/14ers/curious-bells 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 9/12/2020, By: Christensenje
Info: Traverse over from Maroon Peak...

Down climb on traverse was gnarly. Thought about throwing in the towel but felt like we mitigated the risk well. Lots of proper down climbing because of the snow and ice.

Once the down climb was over, the rest of the traverse had some snow but didn't feel like the snow made it any different than doing the traverse dry. But it's still real. Snow will take maybe a week to dry off the down climb.

Scariest part of the day was definitely coming down North Maroon. The crux chimney was not down climbable without a rope to repel due to snow and ice, unless you really wanted to put yourself at risk. Group coming up decided to call it quits there because they couldn't climb up. Found a spicy down climb a little to the right going down. Don't suggest it but it was that or calling for a lift off the mountain and we felt it was within our limits.

Rest of the way down was pretty dry. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 9/4/2020, By: Paula
Info: There's a little bit of ice and snow above 13,400'. It's mostly avoidable and not a problem, but there is a small amount to be careful of in the crux. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 8/29/2020, By: PikaSteve
Info: No crowds, no smoke and no snow (yet). Aspen leaves still 99% green, but some alpine grasses and willows turning golden. Pikas busy harvesting.

At 4:30am, only 8 cars in day use lot due to parking reservation system. I was alone climbing North Maroon. I passed three photographers at Maroon Lake, saw one headlamp ascending Pyramid and later met eleven climbers traversing from Maroon Peak.
CFI trail from Minnehaha gulch to rock glacier was almost a paved stairway. This would have been easy to navigate by headlamp if I had left an hour earlier.
Chimney was a good challenge made easier with approach shoes and helpful trip reports (thanks Daway8). Route finding above chimney was made easy with 14ers.com.photos.
Didn't see any goats until descent where goat family quietly watched climbers from cliff above crossing from Second Gully to First Gully. Reached bottom of "First Gully" just as first downpour started. Rain stopped enough to make a double rainbow below rock glacier, then resumed to make a sloppy trail back to Maroon Lake where the final crux move was avoiding the moose. 

Route: Bells Traverse
Posted On: 8/7/2020, By: Clint the climber
Info: The traverse is a fantastic climb! All of the cruxes are on great rock and its completely dry. Overall it's a relatively easy climb with a bit of exposer. I descended the northeast ridge which is a nightmare. Imo the traverse is the better way to climb North Maroon. Just thinking about the Northeast ridge and its two gullies makes my skin crawl...