Carly Kovacik and I reached the summit of North Maroon Peak via the Northeast Ridge during early/mid August. I made an attempt on this mountain nearly 10 years ago, but got cliffed out near 13,000 feet and lost the route. Carly and I didn't have that problem, as we found a weakness through the cliff bands and ledges and reached the northeast ridge. We then strolled to the 20-40 foot class 4 chimney. At first I was afraid I wouldn't be able to down climb the chimney, and was reluctant to ascend. But, I reasoned there would be a way down and thus went on up. The toughest part of the chimney was a ~5 foot stretch at the top from one side to the other...it was a bit un-nerving due to the amount of air below my body, but otherwise completely doable.
The remainder of the route to the summit involved a walk across the precipice, which was admittedly awesome and exhilarating being next to such a profound drop-off. Then, the final push up the last couple hundred feet of the mountain involved additional ledge traversing and slogging up loose rock and dirt. Carly and I reached the top in 6 hours. We soaked in the views from the summit and then began the grueling descent. I lowered myself down the top part of the chimney to a ledge 5 or 6 feet below the rim, and then made easy work down the rest of the crux. Thereafter, the remainder of the descent was generally miserable due to the steepness of the route and the loose nature of the rock. We made our way down gulley number 2, then traversed to gully number 1, then traversed to the rock glacier, and finally began to relax as we made our way to the tourist trail. Our elapsed car-to-summit-to-car time was 12 hours.
YouTube video is here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj7_qaL993Q]. Google map location is here.
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