Bell Cord Couloir and Maroon Ridge
North and South Maroon Peaks
Photography
Climbing & Mountaineering
Sierras / California
Colorado
International
As
I reread the drivel I’ve written from the past few routes, I wonder
where my anger has gone. This
city life, in Happy Boulder, is making me soft.
In goes the Good Riddance CD. Monotony,
easy living, the internet, fucking television – they all breed
complacency. They kill the
passion in people. Mine was
starting to slither away.
So I was starting to wonder when the hammer was going to drop and
all these easy mountain days were going to catch up with me.
Five and a half hours car-to-car on
Dave and I head up to
An 1,100-foot grunt up a lightly vegetated scree slope brings us to
the base of the couloir. I’m
disappointed by the low angle – no more than 50 degrees in the upper
third. If this was 70-80
degrees I’d by in heaven. Dave
gave blood a few days ago and its wasting him.
His labored breathing and slow pace is testament to his beleaguered
state. We shrug it off and I
cruise ahead into the narrowing couloir.
1,000 feet. 1,500.
The views back to
It’s a long way to the north summit.
Plenty of fourth class problems, dead ends, and mind-blowing
exposure keeps us on our toes. We
finally reach a dead end with ledges that go nowhere.
We find a dihedral system finally and give that a try.
I push a small knot of fear down into the back of my mind and lead
up, finding it goes easily at about 5.2, in forty feet or so.
We solo the moves, and it’s solid enough – just one small,
slopey foothold to worry about – but a fall would send the unlucky one
tumbling down the entire 4,000-foot east face.
I hope that Dave appreciates the seriousness of
soloing alpine terrain, regardless of its ease.
You give 100% of your concentration, energy, and effort or you
fail. 99% means that the game
is over – that long bounce down into the sky.
There is no “try,” only win or lose in this game.
One more dead end, and I finally find a weakness up
the west side of the prow, and solo a 30-foot section of steep 5.4ish
rock. A rap anchor and
On the way down to
Hiking out I think again about lifestyle choices.
Do I want to live the “corporate bitch, 9-5, weekend warrior”
lifestyle, working my ass off five days a week, finding solace in the fact
I can pound myself into oblivion in the mountains or climb some rock for
two days on the weekend only to repeat the cycle the next week, and the
next? Shoot me now.
What was it Twight said? “A
rut, or a grave, the only difference is one is a bit longer than the
other.” Or do I live on a
permanent road trip, like this gal, or like Stattman up in Estes Park,
paying $30 a month rent, married to a French lesbian for the citizenship
benefits, and working in a t-shirt shop nights to climb full time?
How am I going to break into high level alpinism, on par with
what’s going on in Alaska and Chamonix and South America while playing
these little games in the States? I’m
choking on my mediocrity. Ambition
is cruel. Maynard James
Keenan’s lyrics pound in my head:
I don’t want it, I just need it.
To breathe, to be, to know I’m alive.
Summary: 6/16/02
Bell Cord Couloir (14,156’, III AI2+, 2,300’)
Click on photos for larger versions.
The Maroon
Bells
South Maroon and the Bell Cord
In the Bell Cord
Dave Andrews in the Bell
Cord
On the summit of South Maroon
Dave Andrews on North Maroon, Pyramid Pk behind
On the summit of North Maroon
Snowmass
and Capitol Peaks