TR: Maroon Peak (6-8-2008)

**mtnbikerskierchick** · 06-09-2008, 10:38 PM

TR: Maroon Peak (14,156')
6-8-2008
mtnbikerskierchick, cjw, AgaveAfish, Dynasaur

What does it mean when your friends pick you up for the weekend ski and ask you if you've brought a salty glass because they have a pitcher of margs to drink on the way up? Is that a good sign or a bad sign? Only time would tell : )

Well, the signs weren't so good when we arrived to the Maroon Lake parking lot at 11 pm and it was raining. The forecast of 20% precipitation seemed like a bit of an understatement. We went to sleep and somewhere in the night rain turned to snow. We woke up at 2:30 in the morning to snow falling from the sky. At this time of the morning (or is it still night?) motivation is always lacking, and the snow didn't help. Most of us had thoughts of bagging the trip and just sleeping in for a bit. But we have Dynasaur to thank: He motivated us to get going. "We're here right? We might as well go check it out."

The recent snowfall made it difficult for us to find the trail in the morning. We lost the trail a few times in the darkness, adding to our time. By the time we arrived at Crater Lake, it was light enough to turn off our headlamps.

When we arrived at the Garbage Chute (which is just below the East Chutes and the Bell Cord), we could barely see that there were even mountains above us.

This was the time of critical decision. Do we go up? Or do we turn around. And then a good thing happened. We saw blue sky!

We figured the front must be breaking up. So, up we went.

Agave

The bit of snow and light clouds created some beautiful light. Every time I looked back down the valley, I was stunned by its beauty.

Dinosaur leading the way up the East Chutes.

Agave Afish.

Part way up, we started encountering snow that was difficult to boot pack in. The rain and clouds prevented the snow from freezing well the night before and we were postholing in "cement". Around then, jwproulx and August caught up to us. At that time, I was leading the way, but getting tired from the conditions. As soon as August passed, though, I was thankful. He lead the rest of the way to the top at a good pace for the rest of us to follow.

August

View of the valley from the top of the East Chute. The snow that had fallen in the valley was rapidly melting away.

At the top of the chutes we swung around to the SW side of the mountain and scrambled our way up to the summit.

AgaveAfish and cjw.

cjw approaching the summit.

Me on the summit, Pyramid behind.

The Elks still look spectacularly coated with snow !

jwproulx

I tried to rally the group to ski the SE face. It looked so sweet!

But, the group consensus was for the Bell Cord. It's a classic line, of course, and I didn't want the group to split up. So, to the Bell Cord we went!

Skiing the ridge to the East Face (which precedes the Bell Cord).

Agave skiing from the summit.

cjw got some great shots of me skiing off the top of that face. (Thanks!)

Agave (taken by cjw)

cjw.

Dynasaur.

**mtnbikerskierchick** · 06-09-2008, 10:39 PM

Agave Afish says she can't take a picture to save her life. I think she's lying. I handed her my camera for a bit and this is the results.

Dynasaur (by Agave)

Entering the actual Bell Cord couloir (by Agave)

Agave skiing down the Bell Cord.

Dynasaur

jwproulx

cjw.

The bottom of the couloir was a bit runneled and laden with debris. But the top was great! When we got to the bottom of the Bell Chord we enjoyed some nice corn in the apron. We hopped over a few deep runnels in search of better snow, but all in all, it was still fun!

It wasn't long before we found ourselves back at Maroon Lake, with all the tourists asking us "Did you ski?" "Where did you ski?" "You left at what time???" "You did all this just for one ski run?" "How did you see where you were going in the dark?" "It snowed this morning?"

Sometimes you think the snow will never melt (end of April):

But, somehow, sadly, it usually does.

Our line, as seen from Maroon Lake.

All in all, it was a great day out. The snow was some of the best snow I've skied on all spring! Thanks to cjw, Agave Afish for a fantastic ski. Extra thanks to Dinosaur for motivating all of us. And it was great to meet up with August and jproulx on the mountain. Thanks all!

View jwproulx's TR here: http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...d.php?t=125128

**highflyingpilot** · 06-09-2008, 10:51 PM

Great stuff. The steady stream of TR's from you makes me wanna be back in CO!

**Ville** · 06-09-2008, 10:58 PM

[QUOTE=mtnbikerskierchick;1881684]

Entering the actual Bell Cord couloir (by Agave)

[/QUOTEmm]

I like this one. Nice line also.

**Spark** · 06-09-2008, 11:02 PM

WOW .... another awesome adventure!!!

**LeeLau** · 06-09-2008, 11:16 PM

arg - need some of that blue sky and visibility thingy. Thanks for that shot in the arm b

**Pow4Brains** · 06-09-2008, 11:30 PM

I agree. This pic roolz!

**FrontRangeDrummer** · 06-09-2008, 11:48 PM

Great TR!

Adimmen and I saw your tracks from the other side of the valley today.

What time did you start skiing? Do you think the East Face or the Bell Chord will be worth skiing in another week or two?

**mtnbikerskierchick** · 06-10-2008, 12:13 AM

^^^ Where did you guys ski today?

Both look like they will be able to be skied in a week, probably two. There is plenty of snow, but runnels are a concern. The narrower the area, the more runnels. The runnels we saw, however, were pretty big. The benefit to this is that they are so big, they prevent smaller runnels from forming around them. On some more open areas, this allows you to easily stay away from the runnels. But when it gets narrow, there's one HUGE runnel going down the middle. I think this will really only affect one small part of the Bell Cord in the next two weeks. My understanding about the SE face is that there really is only one choke to worry about as well, and there could be a similar problem there as well. The E face above the Bell Cord was absolutely fantastic. There's no signs of any runnels at all, and very little debris.

We started skiing late, around 11 am. We got a later start than we wanted, due to the snow. We also had trouble finding our way on the trail in the dark because of the snow, and had some difficulty boot packing. All this lead to a later ski time. Thankfully the fresh snow kept the snow from warming too much. We also didn't get sunny skies until about 7 am, and then it snowed again for about an hour on the way up. So, this was to our benefit, helping us have a later ski time. I would recommend skiing the Bell Cord around 9 or 10 am in most cases for this time of year.

**Hicks** · 06-10-2008, 12:46 AM

Very nice!

**TDJ** · 06-10-2008, 03:25 AM

Nice! Great pics.

**Alpine Dreams** · 06-10-2008, 06:33 AM

Way to slay another one! I'll look forward to your next TR!

**altabird92** · 06-10-2008, 06:47 AM

amazing...

**Dynasaur** · 06-10-2008, 07:09 AM

Excellent pics and TR, MSBC!. It was great skiing with you and the rest of the distinguished crew.

One note on Bell Chord Couloir--Lou Dawson describes it as a shooting gallery and I can personally attest to the veracity of that statement. I got nailed in the knee by a basketball-sized rock in one of the chokes. For a while I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to ski out on my own, but after a few minutes I determined that no serious harm was done. A massive amount of loose rock sits above this line, so the earlier one gets down this, the better, and spend as little time in the chokes as possible.

**adimmen** · 06-10-2008, 07:14 AM

Originally Posted by mtnbikerskierchick

^^^ Where did you guys ski today?

Hit a variety of targets over the weekend. SW coulie on Maroon, Snowmass, and Thunder Pyramid's west side.

The SE face of Maroon was fun when we did it, but the snow looks better on the upper part of the face you did. We encountered lots of rocks and runnels.

**cptpowder** · 06-10-2008, 07:19 AM

Wow inspiring as always. Well done.

forest · 06-10-2008, 09:15 AM

awesome, looks like its actually good skiing still. very jealous..

**BurnHard** · 06-10-2008, 09:24 AM

Very cool!

Looks like incredible conditions for June skiing! Congrats on a cool mountain.

**tone capone** · 06-10-2008, 09:45 AM

Oh my god, that close up picture of mbsc skiing is so awesome. Her form is not the only thing that is on fire!

Noice! Looks like quite a festival up there these days. Plenty of good times to go around in Colorado this spring.

**Sutter** · 06-10-2008, 09:48 AM

Wow! Great surprise day, sick.

**P_McPoser** · 06-10-2008, 10:34 AM

^^ That picture looks fucking fake. I want it on my wall.

**powdork** · 06-10-2008, 10:55 AM

i think Agave Afish is an excellent photog.

but then again, i imagine it's not hard to make you look good.

**jwproulx** · 06-10-2008, 11:18 AM

Originally Posted by mtnbikerskierchick

Every time I looked back down the valley, I was stunned by its beauty.

No kidding! It's impossible to put it into words, or even pictures. The views from the upper face almost made it hard to concentrate on the skiing!

On the other hand, the illusion that there's really no 500 foot cliff at the bottom of this is really convenient for boosting the confidence. (At least, I thought so!)

**FrontRangeDrummer** · 06-10-2008, 12:01 PM

MBSC~

Thanks for the beta. I'm trying to decide weather to ski those lines now or just go rock climbing and come back next April. It definitely looks like it was worth it for you!

**BurnHard** · 06-10-2008, 12:55 PM

Originally Posted by mtnbikerskierchick

Me on the summit, Pyramid behind.

B.T.W.... You need to take that helmet and those goggles off for the next summit shot, seriously, I don't wanna see that pretty smile half-hidden by helmet & goggles!