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So I guess we should call it...The Sextonal Traverse?
On Sunday Marmot72 and I tied together a nice run of peaks starting with the Sleeping Sexton north of the Bells and ending with the unnamed duo northwest of Willow Lake. True to form, it was a long and somewhat tedious linkup, but a nice way to take advantage of a picture perfect weather day in the Elks.
To uphold the tradition of naming long ridge runs around Maroon Creek after the highest peak in the set and tacking "-al" onto the end, we arrived at the elegant and perhaps somewhat provocative sounding, "Sextonal Traverse". In all seriousness this ridge run is not nearly as cool or grand as its big brothers (the Pyramidal aka "Megamydal" or "Maroonal" traverses) but it was a nice way of combining some lesser-climbed Elk 13ers from Maroon Lake. A link to the TR for anyone interested is below.
I was actually looking at something like this recently. Cool to see how it actually goes. Do you know anything about the trail from Willow Lake that heads down to the north (not the one you took that goes over Willow Pass)? Willow Lake has been high on my list of places to visit but I can find zero info about that trail even though it shows up on all the maps. I think it comes in via the ranch farther down Maroon Creek road but maybe it's behind private property?
Jon, I was wondering the exact same thing regarding Willow Creek. Looks like it pops out near the T Lazy Lodge. I'm guessing you'd be able to park somewhere around there and head up that trail if you wanted to. Whatever the access situation is down there I think getting to Willow from Maroon Lake up and over Willow Pass would be much easier. That drainage looks long...
Brings back memories of the 4 Pass Loop-al. That picture of Steve on the ledge is bad ass. Also liked the flower caption. Nice work gentlemen and quality report Mr Conners.
The Sexton was the highlight; the rest was just a grunt. That ledge was not 1/10 as scary as the nasty loose junky northeast slope of whichever damn bump along the ridge between Buckskin BM and UN 020. I'm not even sure it's avoidable, because it seems like that, if we'd swung out further to the left (west), we'd have still been traversing loose crap waiting to spill us over a cliff. Forget El Punto; the only thing I've seen worse than that is the ill-conceived traverse around Coxcomb's north side, running west to east to gain the ridge that connects over to Redcliff.
Thanks Rob. Dillon, for sure. I definitely thought about the 4 Pass as well and our 45 min round trip quad burner up Buckskin BM. That sure was a fun trip. Fire, thanks! Was a neat way to see that basin. It's definitely worthy of a visit. Steve, agreed. Really makes me look forward to Punto...
I'm just now exiting my baby hibernation and read this TR. Good work. That ledge looks crazy. I'm afraid to go on anything that scares Steve.
Let's get something on the books soon!
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Looks like a good time, though!
