Page Type:
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Route |
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Lat/Lon:
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39.04712°N / 106.9589°W |
Route Type:
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Hiking, Mountaineering |
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Time Required:
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Most of a day |
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Rock Difficulty:
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Class 3 |
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NE Ridge
12 miles and 4,100-ftBring Helmet-
Starting at Maroon Lake TH (9,580-ft) follow the West Maroon Trail as it climbs the aspen laden benches above Maroon Lake. Continue about two miles to Crater Lake where you will come to a junction in the trail. Take the “West Maroon Trail” and follow it another 1.5 miles to a place where the trail will cross West Maroon Creek. This is the same spot where South Maroon’s standard route leaves the West Maroon Trail
Cross the creek and hike the West Maroon Trail another 50 yards and look sharp for a small cairn on the left. This marks where you leave the comforts of the trail. Find a faint trail and follow it to a boulder field that rests below the first set of cliffs. From here, try to locate a boulder-strewn gully that provides a steep passage up through the cliffs. Hopefully you have spotted this gully from below on the W Maroon Trail. Once out of this gully, find yourself in another boulder field with a second set of cliffs above you. Locate the second gully to the left. You can hike on grassy slopes up to this gully. Climb this loose gully and reach the comforts of grassy benches that will escort you to the tundra filled Len Shoemaker Basin.
The route from here to the nasty slope below UN13,631 is easy tundra. Hike the steep, loose slope to an obvious saddle just north to the summit ridge. The summit ridge is class 3+ on semi solid rock. There are two crux’s.