North Maroon Peak

North Maroon is a famous Colorado 14er in the Elk Range.
It along with Maroon Peak encompass the famed Maroon Bells, two of Colorado's most iconic peaks.
North Maroon is the more difficult to summit. From its base it looks unclimbable without ropes.
The two Bells are separated by about a third of a mile and both are usually counted as 14ers despite the sub-300 foot prominence of North Maroon.
The traverse between the two Bells is one of the four great Colorado 14er traverses. Summiting both Bells in one day via this traverse is known as "Ringing the Bells".
The view of the Maroon Bells from the Maroon Creek valley is one of the most famous scenes in Colorado and is reputed to be the most-photographed spot in Colorado.
These mountains are often called "The Deadly Bells" due to the loose, unstable, maroon-colored rock found on all routes. Many have died.

Routes

Northeast Ridge via Maroon Lake TH

3 summits • 14.1 mi • 3,570 ft gain • Class 4

North Maroon Peak 12.9 mi route

1 summit • 12.9 mi • 4,284 ft gain • 12 hr 33 min

Latest summits

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"WOW. Hard to describe this "great traverse" of the Maroon Bells without writing a novel, so I'll sum it up briefly- Godawful long and steep ascent, awesome class 3-4 ridge scrambling and route finding in a rock climbers playground (lots of variations), with a few class 5 moves, then another godawful long and steep descent. This was my first time leading a group across some gnarly class 4-5 , and I had never been on it before, but this was absolutely amazing. This peak taught me a lot about myself, and that is saying something! " — LGH-Dan • Sep 7, 2021

"Completed the Maroon Bells traverse from Maroon Peak and down the standard route of North. All in all this was one of the coolest days I've had on a Colorado 14er. North Maroon definitely has a real mountain feel to it." — Yosemike • Aug 17, 2013

"A classic route up a classic peak and an outing that taught me some lessons. From our campsite above Maroon Lake, North Maroon looked incredibly intimidating. It just didn't seem possible that a non-technical route somehow made its way up the sheer face we were staring at. We had brought a short route description from the Roach map booklet but other than that had zero beta (a pop in to the local Aspen mountaineering shop the day before yielded no info on current conditions). After a bit of hesitation in the morning (should we go for it? Yeah, let's just check it out), we reached the end of the climber's path. It was go time. We pieced our way up the route, cairn-by-cairn, through rotten rock shelves, hanging by every word in the couple paragraphs of route description. Staying on route is key; it's Class 4 but can easily disappear to reveal 5th class moves. After a bit of snow on the summit ridge, we reached one of the best summits ever. We were elated, it was the hardest 14er we'd done to date. This outing taught me a few things: 1. Going in, I didn't even know how to properly secure my ice axe in the ice axe loop (I was threading it through in the wrong direction). My axe fell o..." — scott • Jul 9, 2005