UN 13631 by Brian Schultz Monday September 19, 2011
Roundtrip mileage: 12 miles from Maroon Lake
Elevation gain: 4,300'
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz
Even with the forecast calling for sunny skies and no precipitation, we decided on an early start because of the long mileage of the route and the uncertainty of the snow depth up high. We awoke at 4:00 AM and drove from Carbondale to the Maroon Lake trailhead. There was virtually no traffic this early in the morning and we were on the trail by 5:30. We began by headlamp, hoping to get much of the trail done in the dark to West Maroon Creek, but our pace was perhaps too leisurely, as first light was already revealing the Maroon Bells when we reached Crater Lake. We noticed several signs warning of bear danger in the camp areas beyond Crater Lake and continued along the trail to West Maroon Creek. We crossed the creek at 7:30 and took a break before heading up to the basin above.
We were up here two years ago to climb "Lightning Pyramid" and easily remembered the route up the steep, loose gullies. We were relieved to find no snow in the upper basin but as we continued toward UN 13631 we did see snow on its slopes and wondered how deep it was. Tim led a nice route to a mini ridge that delivered us to the slopes, where the snow level wasn't very deep, but the steepness of the slope was a concern because neither of us brought our ice axes. The snow had a layer of crust though, just hard enough to make solid steps without slipping, and after a long steep grunt up the talus we arrived at the saddle at 10:50.
It felt good knowing the summit was within grasp but the ridge had more snow on it than the slopes below. We started up and quickly came to a vertical area that would've been manageable without snow but the rocks were too slippery to get good holds, even after wiping the snow away. Tim traversed around the right side and found a way up. From there we stayed mostly on the top of the ridge, finding one class 3 crux while slowly inching our way up, and finally stepped on top of the small exposed summit at 11:30. It was neat to sit on top and see how the recent snowstorm blew through the Elks, depositing snow in some areas but not others.
We enjoyed our stay until 11:55. The descent of the summit ridge went well but still took 25 minutes to get back to the saddle. The descent of the slopes went better and faster than expected and we took a short break in the basin before heading down to West Maroon Creek. The talus gullies slowed us down but we picked up the pace again after arriving at the creek at 2:35. Back on the trail, we saw the first of the tourists, three young men sitting on some rocks taking a break. We chatted for a few minutes with them before making our way to Crater Lake, and from there we passed a constant stream of tourists all the way to Maroon Lake. It was a relief to pull into the parking lot at 4:30 and get the boots off the feet, it was a bigger relief to wrap up our last Elk bicentennial peak under the slippery conditions.
Trailhead to summit- 6 hours
Summit to trailhead- 4 hours 35 minutes
Start to finish- 11 hours