North Maroon Peak
The colorful Maroon Creek Valley may be Colorado�s most beautiful mountain scenery accessible by car. It is certainly the most photographed mountain scenery. For photographers and climbers, the obvious area trophy peaks are the famous Maroon Bells and Pyramid Peak. Both massifs are well known and well deserving of any recognition and accolades they receive.

What about all of those other peaks residing in the Maroon Creek Valley? Other nearby mountains include Belleview Mountain and Buckskin BM, UN13,336 and UN13,039, Sleeping Sexton, Thunder Pyramid, and Willoughby Mountain. Some occupy space along the Maroon Creek Drainage with the two big fourteeners. Others reside in the pristine Willow Lake area; a place that resides directly north, 2000-ft above the tourist laden Maroon Lake. All of these mountains are officially ranked thirteeners with stunning views.

It makes sense that other nearby mountains boast even more of that beautiful sedimentary rock left behind from the Permian Age; beautiful to look at but a pain in the� to hike or climb on. For climbers, it�s the classic double-edged sword: sort of a love/hate relationship. First, we bow mercifully for the plentiful tundra it left behind and next we find ourselves cursing the crappy handholds. Second, we eagerly applaud that red, silky silt for its flowery lushness and next, we secretly pray that a nearby mountain goat selects a route anywhere but directly above our heads.

UN13,336 Overview

UN13,336
From Willow Lake, the view of UN13,336 or "Willow Peak" is nothing short of the word �stunning.� I still can�t fathom why this mountain is not officially named; it may be the most beautiful mountain I have ever climbed. On a sunny spring day, expect an explosion of brilliant colors. The view is complete sensory overload. Stay away from the polarizer when taking photos up there unless you want shots of Dorothy and Toto dancing down the yellow brick road.

UN13,336 is a prominent mountain that shares a connecting ridge with the more popular Buckskin BM. The mountain is horizontally split in half with two different types of geology. The bottom half is the red sedimentary rock of the Maroon Bells and the upper half is the whitish, fractured rock of nearby Capitol Peak. The west and east faces are ribbed with steep gullies that descend from the upper half to the lower half of the mountain. The color contrast from the white talus run outs within the red lower half of the mountain makes for some very cool scenery.

Maroon Creek TH at 9,590-ft

Approach "Willow Peak" from the Maroon Lake TH (9,590-ft.) From Aspen, locate a roundabout a half-mile north on Hwy 82 and drive west on Maroon Lake Road for 9.4 miles to the parking area. From mid- June through October 10th the Maroon Lake road is closed from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM. During these hours a shuttle can take you to the trailhead from Ruby Park in downtown Aspen. The shuttle ride is free. Call RFTA at 970-925-3445 or the White River National Forest at 970-925-3445 for schedules.

Author: big_g
Date: Aug 08, 2005 8:19 PM
The road up to the trailhead is restricted to day trippers only. Backpackers and climbers are welcome to drive up (in case they need to exit due to emergency after the shuttle service has stopped).

No promises that you'll find a spot at the end of the road, but you should be able to find something at either the East or West Maroon Wilderness Portals. The bus can be flagged down anywhere to take you the rest of the way.

The following was updated 6-30-2005 by Aaron Johnson

Several Colorado wilderness areas now require a free user permit to be in the wilderness, or shortly will require same. The wilderness areas are Holy Cross, Maroon Bells/Snowmass, Mount Evans, and Mount Massive. Permit tags are available at trailheads and are a two part tag. The white part goes in the box provided and the card portion is to be attached to the outside of your pack. There is currently no penalty if one does not have a permit. However, large fines could be levied within a few years for non-compliance. The preferred method now for dealing with violations is education of the users.

The reason for implementation of this required permit is the Forest Service has been unable to obtain accurate data on use patterns from the voluntary sign-in system. The estimated compliance range is currently 10-30%.

The hope is to obtain better data with this new method. While some may feel this is a precursor of some kind of quota system, the opposite is actually true. Accurate information on visitor use patterns will allow the forest service to attempt to evenly distribute impacts and encourage use of alternate trailheads for the same destinations. However, given the magnitude of the state's continuing population boom, folks should not be surprised if quotas in certain areas become a necessity.

Thanks to SP member mtnhiker13 for supplying this vital update via the Colorado Mountain Club's email service.

Specific information can be viewed here.

Maroon Bells Snowmass Wilderness

See Getting There

Maps: Maroon Bells, White River National Forest

Aspen Ranger District Office
(970) 925-3445

USDA Forest Service
White River
National Forest
P.O. Box 948
Glenwood Springs CO 81602

Forecast for the Maroon Creek area

Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC)

Click image to enlarge

Click here to view a 7-day forecast for UN13,336

topo

We all know that large glaciers carved up the West Maroon Valley some time ago; it�s what makes the area so dramatic. Taking center stage is a couple of beautiful fourteeners, however it won�t take long to notice Sievers Mountain as well. Siever�s flaunts a ton of character and fits in perfect with the other Maroon Lake peaks. Its red, pinnacle-ridden summit area shoots towards the sky some 3,600-ft directly north above Maroon Lake. Some 3000-ft below the soring summit, rests an absolutely gorgeous stand of aspen trees, made up of some of the tallest aspens around. In fall, this is stunning mountain scenery.

In my heart, Sievers Mountain will forever be one of my favorite mountains. Maybe I�m feeling sorry for Sievers. I have faced the truth; Sievers cannot compete with Pyramid or the Maroon Bells. For certain, those two mountain massifs are incredible displays of erosion. However, Sievers views compare favorably and may be better than its higher neighbors. It�s one of the best views that I know.

People know Sievers by sight, not really by name. It�s tough to forget the magnitude of the Maroon Bells and easy to forget the elegance of Sievers, sheer magnitude always prevails over sheer elegance. It�s the nature of mountain scenery. Sievers Mountain is actually an enormous mountain. Sievers runs parallel to the Maroon Creek Road from around the Silver Bar Campground all the way to Maroon Lake. It is a very interesting mountain as well. It consists mostly of gentle, rounded ridges and steep tundra and aspen-laden slopes. Then, from out of nowhere, its summit pinnacles climactically soar to the sky above the emerald green Maroon Lake.

There has always been a bit of confusion as to what is the true summit of Sievers. From the lake, the highest, most intimating pinnacle is the true summit. The updated USGS Maroon Creek Quads shows a summit of 12,773-ft just north of the true pinnacle summit. If you stand on Point 12,773, you can tell that the pinnacle just south is higher by a few feet, eight feet to be exact. In a short conversation I had with Ken Nolan in 2004 he notes, �For Sievers Mountain, the point that extrapolates to 12,780, just south of the 12,773 point, is the high point. The map is missing a contour line for the pinnacle just west of, and actually slightly higher than, the 12,773 point.�

From the lake, the true summit seems like it would be a bit exposed. Well�looks do not deceive in this case. Attaining the summit requires some tricky route finding, and steep class 3 climbing on blocky terrain. Before you tackle the summit pinnacle, you must negotiate a strenuous 3,500-ft of tundra in 1.5 miles. Sievers�s unrelenting southwest slopes are ridiculously steep and will test your physical conditioning from the get-go. There is no rest for the weary until you finally attain the rounded ridge crest just north of Point 12,770.

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