Date of climb: July 25, 2024

Climbers: me and my spouse (hiking/climbing/adventure partner), my little summit buddy "Roam"

Weather conditions: ideal; clear save for one brief amount of raindrops on the way down

Preparation: this was my 36th and 37th 14ers; prior class 3 and 4 experience included Crestone traverse (and others)

Gear: climbing helmets, approach shoes (not necessary, but I feel much more comfortable climbing class 4/5 with them), trekking poles for the ascent/descent; gpx on watch, route/pics from 14ers app, headlamp for the hike

Permits: parking permit for Maroon Bells Wilderness area obtained months prior (lucky for the weather!)

RT: 12.29 Gain: 5752 ft

The Ascent - We started around 3 am to have plenty of time to finish and be down off the 2nd peak by noon, even with a favorable forecast. This was one of the first trip in some time that I wasn't certain I could complete. The last was the Crestone traverse and that went ok taking it step by step with someone who was familiar with the route and my abilities. I decided to take the same approach. A summit of Maroon Peak in and of itself would be amazing. These were peaks I had seen at sunrise mirrored in the lake more than 10 years ago. I had no inkling that someday I'd be headed up there, to the "Deadly Bells". I didn't even know what a 14er was at that time.

The approach to the trail that starts up to Maroon is a nice, easy warm up and went by pretty quickly. It was still dark given our early start time. A bear was spotted by a party ahead of us, but to my relief only some shining eyes were seen briefly. Having the route mapped to my watch made sure I didn't miss the turn off. The elevation gain begins! I was aware of the steepness and just counted down the feet until I would meet the ridge, so I it didn't seem so bad.

Once you get on the ridge you get a great view of the path you are about to take. I have learned that mountains can look impossible and actually be quite tame, so I usually don't make a judgement so far away. But Maroon Peak looked undoable and unforgiving. I was already on the ridge, though, and I could see a really nice path to start with so the only option was to press on and see what was ahead.

Having studied the route description and following cairns, the initial route finding went well. I was able to recognize the gully options. I don't know if one is a better choice and the first option seemed manageable. We and started going up the 1st one, crossed over and then didn't go up quite high enough. There was a cairn, so we exited. We then saw the Robot Rock above on a higher ledge, so we backtracked and went up to the proper exit. This did match up with the elevation listed in the description when I checked my watch. After that, we wrapped around a series of ledges and climbed up following a cairn trail and made it to the summit of Maroon Peak. From the ridge to the summit looks like it took about 2 hours going at a careful pace.

It seemed it was time to start the traverse. There were some climbers at the peak which were finishing their 14er list and noted the traverse seemed too daunting, which gave me a moment of pause. This is a reminder to not compare yourself to others, even if they may seem fitter/better/stronger as it does not matter. We had a plan and the weather was good. Let's go.

The downclimb went fine taking it one step at a time. We stayed on the ridge a little longer than needed and had to do a quick class3/4 move to get to the trail near the Bell Cord, but it was no problem, and we could have hiked back up and around if needed. Now for the fun part of going up. We climbed up a few ledges and then started following cairns around to climber's left which seemed to be going ok. Even after looking at trip reports, pictures and watching videos, I couldn't picture where we were. Not every step of the way is always documented. The cairns led us a way that felt good and at any point we could easily turn back. We may have missed the initial climb up as we did not end up climbing over some short towers which I remember seeing in videos. We saw the ridge above us and started to look for a way up when we saw a climber coming from N. Maroon. There was a pretty easy class 3 climb, and we knew he must be on the path, so we met him. He was solo and had planned to head to Maroon, but ended up deciding to turn back and came with us. Finding a cairn is a good, but finding a human is better.

Right after that, I recognized the "2nd crux". The 2 others with me climbed up and made it look easy. Once we got past that, we followed the route to the "3rd and final difficulty". Our new climbing partner had somehow downclimbed this, which I was happy not to be doing. We chose the 2nd chimney since it looked like there would not be any potentially awkward moves. I was worried about it being too narrow and wearing a backpack. I had tucked my hiking poles within the main compartment so they would not get in the way. I started up, just methodically working on getting good hand and foot hold and got up to the top. My (taller) climbing partners climbed up some impossible looking angled rock and were back on the top of the ridge. I couldn't even reach the handhold and for a moment picture myself staying in that spot forever, unable to go up or down. But then they walked about 10 feet back on the ridge above me and I walked around a ledge and found an easier way up to meet them.

The "leap of faith", which for me involved no leap, was completed. Now we just had to revel in the beauty around us and make our way over to the final class 3 climbing up to the peak. Peak to Peak took approximately 2.5 hours.

I had quite a feeling of accomplishment. After years of working up to this, both physically but maybe even more mentally, I had completed the Maroon Bells traverse. Now just time to head down. I was slightly nervous about the descent since we had not come up this way, but had heard it was well cairned and the gpx route is really helpful. We made it to the chimney, and I climbed down with some help spotting foot holds. Now it was just a long way down on dirt, some ledges and then talus. I was getting a bit fatigued, and the adrenaline had worn off now. A few raindrops fell, though not even enough to make the rocks slick, thankfully.

We met up with the trail for the 4 pass loop and then soon after the main trail to Crater Lake. My energy was renewed knowing that the rest was easy hiking out. We had to stop to get a photo with the Bells in the daylight. They again looked to me like impossible mountains to summit, despite my evidence to the contrary.

Total time was just under 13 hours, which did include some breaks on the summits. This was definitely my most epic adventure so far and I almost wish I had saved them for later in my 14ers journey.