North Maroon Peak was my first Class 4 hike. Leading up to this trip I read a TON of trip reports on this site and reached out to some folks about their experiences on this mountain. I made the parking reservation in April, and by August I was feeling really excited about the hike.

I planned this trip with my friend Nick who was surprisingly not very apprehensive, given this would be only his 2nd 14er hiking trip. A wrench was further thrown in, in this aspect, when Nick called me the day before we were set to leave to let me know that his friend from LA, who had never previously hiked at altitude, would be joining us. I called him and gave him a stern talking to, asking him to make sure his friend knew exactly what he was getting into. Nick assured me he sent his friend (Mike) numerous trip reports and youtube videos detailing the more technical portions of the hike. A little weary of this still, we set off on the evening of the 18th, heading to our hotel in Snowmass.

After some stops for food we made it to our hotel around 9:30PM the night before our hike. We were all feeling a little restless and anxious, and poked around our gear until about midnight. A quick alarm set for 3:00AM and it was lights out. Per usual before a big hiking trip, I slept somewhere between 0-90 minutes, unsure if some of my dozing was actual sleep or not. Alas, I have two young kids so I am comfortable operating on minimal sleep.

Soon enough the alarms sounded and we parked at the trailhead at 4AM. Interestingly, there was no one at the guard shack so I just drove right in and parked. I called the day before and was told that someone would be there to check my reservation and that I did not need to display anything in my car upon parking. In actuality it was as if I never needed a reservation to begin with.

We stepped off shortly after 4AM, and it wasn't long before we got to the unmarked trail junction at Crater Lake. At this point, the sun was beginning to come up. I hoped to time the sun rise with entering the first gully given the 50% chance of t-storms after 12PM, but c'est la vie. After making our way across the stream and thru the initial push of elevation gain, we were at the rock glacier.

I figured I would hate the rock glacier when prepping for this hike, and I was right. I would rather do something that is more exerting than trivial rock hopping across smaller rocks, where any misstep can lead to a rolled ankle. And per usual, it took longer than it should've to cross.

Once we crossed the rock glacier we were greeted by a momma goat and her two babies. We decided this was a good time for our first break of the morning, allowing us to grab a quick bite and snap some pics of the goats in the morning light. My companions, despite their inexperience with 14ers, were humming. Even more impressive was Mike setting the pace. Not only did he come from sea level the day before, but he spent the week prior on Diddy's yacht in Italy (long story). After about 10 min we headed into Gully 1.

Gully 1 was uneventful, not terribly steep. I did turn off slightly too early on an inviting ramp that I thought was the proper crossover. It only took about 100 feet before I cliffed out over a VERY dramatic drop and realized we needed to get back into the gully and climb up one more ledge.

A quick course correction had us on the crossover to Gully 2. I cannot overstate just how beautiful this part of the state is. The combo of the sheer terrain and epic views is unmatched in my short 14er'ing career. Once we finished the crossover and Gully 2 was in full view, we Gu'd up and got to climbing.

From afar, Gully 2 looks almost unclimbable, but it's not as bad as it looks. Until the top of the Gully 2, the main danger is folks above you kicking rocks down. As we were preparing to enter Gully 2 we heard the sound no one wants to hear on a peak like this, "ROCKKKKKK!" I watched as someone toward the top of the gully sent a microwave sized boulder all the way down, it continued for what felt like a minute out of sight, for all I know that rock is still rolling downhill somewhere. That definitely upped the pucker factor a tad.

Gully 2 is relatively easy to navigate, it is best to stick to the left side. At the top of the gully the terrain steepens quite a bit and some Class 3 scrambling is required to gain the ridge. I found this portion of the day to take the longest, compared to expectations. It is easy to get a little off route on these ledges which can force you to make some uncomfortable moves.

Once on the ridge, the remaining scramble to the chimney is evident. Being over 6 feet tall, I found the Chimney to be one of the easier scrambling moves of the day. It took about 30 seconds to get to the top.

After the Chimney, there is some additional hiking/scrambling to gain the precipice. At this point, Mike's body was starting to give up on him. Nick, being a better friend than me, offered to hang w/ him on the precipice while I went on to the summit, figuring it was a better idea to rest a bit before the long downclimb rather than continue to push it. Mike's head and abilities were in the right place, but his body was no longer feeling the prolonged up-climb.

The scrambling from the precipice to the summit is very similar to the scrambling at the top of Gully 2. Before long I was on the summit.

I sat on the summit for maybe 5 mins before heading back down to join my friends on the precipice. We opted to take the Class 3 workaround rather than the chimney on the descent, but in hindsight I thought this was sketchier than the small Class 4 required in the chimney.

The downclimb, as most downclimbs go, sucked. It was tedious and time consuming. I think it took 1:30 to descend Gully 2. There were ppl climbing up so we were really careful to not dislodge anything too big. This down climb is just one of those times where you have to embrace the suck and keep on keepin' on. We had a snack break at the crossover back to Gully 1, and saw another pair of mamma goat/babies.

It's funny, the excitement and the adrenaline really helps on the way up. On our way down we kept saying, wtf did we really climb up this much? In my mind we just had to descend both gullies, and I completely forgot about the rock glacier and additional steep down climbs that precede Gully 1. We were all a little grumpy for the last 3-4 miles but eventually we made it back to the car.

What a day.