The Four Great Traverses of the Colorado 14ers: Part 1, The Maroon Bells

This is part of a series of blog posts from attempting the 4 great Traverses of the Colorado 14ers. Our trip occurred in August of 2018 but I wrote them in April 2021, so some details are fuzzy.

In August of 2018 I had a trip planned with a buddy from the PCT. He was traveling to Colorado to stay with his girlfriend (at the time) before driving up with her back to school. I had convinced him to set aside a week or two for a scramblin’ ramblin’ good time trip through some of the mountains in the San Juans of Colorado. Our original plan was to plan a high-route through the Weminuche Wilderness. I had read a few blogs, seen some photos, and been in the area a bit to have some considerations on how to do it. After picking him up we realized that even though I had planned something on a map, it didn’t mean it would go. We didn’t want to burn our trip up with scouting passes and potential routes, especially as the Weminuche is remote. Pretty quickly we scuttled the original plan and turned towards the “Four Great Traverses of the Colorado 14ers.” These routes were something I had been conscious of for a number of years while working on my list of hiking the other 58 Colorado 14ers. We had nearly two weeks of time, a car full of gas, and the ever classic Gerry Roach Colorado’s Fourteeners book to guide us to the top, across, and down. We packed up and headed to Aspen where we stayed for a few days with a mutual friend.

First: Maroon Bells traverse South to North

Click here for a description of the routes and a map from 14ers.com

After a couple days in Aspen, we took advantage of a good weather day. My buddy Whistler and I teamed up with a couple friends of our Aspen friend who had some experience on the Bells. They also lived in Aspen and were psyched for a long day in the Aspen high country. We set out early, pre-dawn, in order to get a coveted spot in the Maroon Lake parking lot. We had an overall enjoyable but very goofy climb up S Maroon. We summited S Maroon sometime after the sun broke the horizon and only saw a few other folks on the way up. We took some photos (that’s me with a fresh mullet and pink shorts), ate a few snacks, then looked out at the traverse to North.

Per the guidebook, our knowledge of the route was to stay mostly on the west (left) side of the ridge after downclimbing to the bell cord couloir. As soon as we stepped off the summit, I was viscerally reminded of the rock quality of the Bells and the greater Elks range. Thankfully the initial downclimb was short and we came upon the more difficult section quickly. Having 4 eyes to route find through the traverse was helpful as we were able to scout different directions and find the best path through. At one point, one of the guys decided that a small roof overhang was “not the route, but I am going to climb it regardless” ….alright. Thankfully, he pulled through, though I was certainly gripped watching him! We had a good time traversing to north. About halfway through a guide with a client passed us- fast! I was amazed at how quick they moved through the terrain with a short rope out, here we were eating their dust without any ropes slowing us down! We reached the summit of North and ate and chatted some more. Weather was holding steady so it was time to start the descent. Because of the infamy of the traverse, we had all focused on reading beta for that section, not so much for the route down North. We picked our way down, following cairns and our best judgement. The last bit was a slog back to the car but we made it without needing to turn on our headlights! Whistler and I spent another day or two in Aspen before jettisoning south to the San Juans.