North Maroon, CO

1 Aug 2000 - by Donna Brockman

After climbing Pyramid Peak on Friday we took a much deserved day of rest on Saturday. My husband and I did some sight seeing around Aspen and I ate a lot of food.

Again we left the trailhead parking lot at 4:30am. Cameron was our guide on this climb also. He told us that he thought we did a great job on Fri. and that we were in great shape for "our age." Jack and I are both in our 50's. Cameron is 35 years old and had a hard time going so slow for us. He also mentioned that he was glad when he heard we were CMC members. He knew we would be in shape and have knowledge of what we would be getting into. Last week Cameron took a man up South Maroon and when they were on the summit his client just lost all his energy and his legs froze up. He had to lower him 3,000ft on rope. After that he felt he really had an easy time with us.

What can I say about North Maroon that you haven't heard before? Dangerous and loose about sums it up. We did rope in once to do the 4th class rock climb. I probably could have done it without the rope but it sure felt good just to feel it on me. That was the first time in doing 53 of the 14'ers that I used a rope.

Our guide did another good job and led us safely to the summit at 10:15am. What a beautiful day, not even a cloud in sight, just a small white puff that wasn't big enough to be called a cloud. We didn't want to leave the summit, it was so warm and relaxing we could have stayed for hours. We stayed for one hour then forced yourselves to get moving, we still had a long way to go to get to the cold beer in my car. The descent was easier going than Pyramid, there is a lot more tundra to hold the ground together, that means a lot less slipping and sliding, which is good!!

Another long day of 10:30 min. Again my husband, who has better sense than to do this, was waiting for me. We sat at our cars and shared a beer and talked of the days events. I'm sure there are many of you out there that would never consider using a guide to do a mountain. Having a guide worked out great for us. I would never do either of those mountains alone and it is hard to find someone to do them with that knows what they are doing and won't just get lost along with you.

The guide service we used was Aspen Expeditions. If you have any questions about them I will be glad to answer what I can.

Now I'm off to do Mt. Wilson next Saturday, my LAST 14'er. I never thought I would get here. Now I can quit bagging the peaks and just enjoy them.


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