This past Saturday Phil Lakin, Keegan Young, and Malcolm McCollum, all from Tulsa, OK, joined CBMG Guides Jayson Simons-Jones & Ian Hatchett for our first guided climb of the season on the Maroon Bells. These flatland Oklahoma boys chose to tackle the incredibly aesthetic and ambitious line of the Bell Chord Couloir for an attempt on the summit of South Maroon Peak (14,156′). We were greeted with near perfect alpine conditions for great crampon and snow climbing, as well as encountering much mixed snow and rock on the summit ridges.

With Phil behind the wheel, the Tulsa crew left late Thursday afternoon and drove straight through to Aspen for a dinner rendezvous with us guides, and some quick gear logistics and orientation. Then it was off for some quick shut-eye and a 3:30 am departure from the Maroon Creek Trailhead. The morning dawned clear and cold and we were joined on the mountain with probably a dozen other folks skiing and climbing in the Bell Chord area and an Aspen Expeditions guided party on the South to North Bells Traverse. An incredible winter in the Elk Mountains this year has left much of the alpine climbing in the Bells area with great full snow coverage and minimal summer runnels in the couloirs. The Bell Chord proved to be in some of the best shape we’ve ever seen this time of the year, and allowed for some fast and efficient short-rope climbing.

After exiting a hot and rockfall filled climb of the Bell Chord we then climbed onto the North ridge to South Maroon and experienced full mixed rock and snow climbing conditions with crampons for the final 400′ push to the summit. Beautiful, calm, cloudless Colorado weather greeted us on the summit 7:30 hours after leaving the car. From here we enjoyed a lazy 30 min rest and lunch while taking in the views of the unbelieveable snow covered peaks at our feet, and then proceeded south down from the summit to the “Y” Couloir for a complete traverse of the South Maroon summit.

The descent to the “Y” Couloir off the summit was filled with more challenging technical mixed terrain, and was slow and tedious, and had everyone feeling tired from the hot sun and constant mental focus because of the nature of the terrain. After a few hours of rope work negotiating rock and snow filled steps we entered the steep and smooth “Y” Couloir and enjoyed 6 long pitches of roped glissading to reach the bottom of the upper bowl and the last steep snow slopes of the Garbage Chute before exiting back on to the trail above Crater Lake in the beginnings of the evening alpenglow.

Back down the trail at Crater Lake with South Maroon and the Bell Chord towering above us everyone was elated and happy at what we had accomplished, and the fact that although it was an incredibly long day, the weather was perfect, the climbing was fun and challenging, and the scenery and companionship was second to none. Tired and weary we walked the final 2 miles of dry ground in our wet boots back to the trailhead for some celebratory beers at the car 15 1/2 hours after departing.

Congrats boys on a great climb and summit push, and thanks for your motivation and fun-filled attitudes on a long mountain adventure.

Your Guides — Jayson & Ian

cbguides

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 15th, 2008 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Alpine Mountaineering, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.