It was a week and a half until my bday when I asked Jess if she would join me on a backpacking trip to the Maroon Bells. She said no because she wanted to go on a relaxing vacation ever since Alessandro came into our lives. So she told me, you go on your weekend with the Boyz and when you come back we go on our own little get a way vacation (it wasn’t that easy honestly, but almost).
So instead of going with jessi I reached out to the twins and Enric to see if they would join me on a three days trip with a two day notice heads up. Fortunately for me, they all said yes. Pays off to have self employed and friends who live in Colorado. PS: the twins brought along cousin “Z” (Ezequiel) – a living legend from Argentina who was doing a road Trip through the states as a graduation trip.
If by now you don’t know what or where Maroon Bells are…. well it’s that famous screen saver/wall paper shot in all Windows computers of those breathtaking mountains with the panoramic lake in the middle of them, and its actually located in Aspen, Colorado.
The Maroon Bells is considered to be one of the most beautiful and scenic hikes in the states (based on a bunch of posts I read haha). It is a 28mi/44k loop, including 4 mountain passes – West Maroon Pass 12,465ft, Frigid Air Pass, Trail Rider Pass and Buckskin Pass 12,463ft. People tend to do it anywhere between 2-4 days usually, but it is more than possible to do it in one push. I actually believe it might be easier to do it in one push, since you will be traveling very light instead of carrying your heavy pack for 2-4 days over those steep passes. Again, based on what I read, most people tend to do it counter-clock wise, instead we decided to do it clockwise.. don’t ask me why, because I don’t know.
And that’s exactly what we did. We set up camp at crater lake, just a short 1.7 miles into our hike from the car and that’s exactly where the actual loop starts and finishes. We started our hike/run at around 5:45am. Took us around 30 minutes to set up camp and eat a fast dehydrated breakfast to then start our little adventure.
Our first pass was West Maroon Pass (12,465 Feet). Approximately 5 miles from where we set up camp and maybe anywhere between 2-3 hours. Enric and I waited around 20 mins at the top of the pass for the twins and Z and discussed that at this pace we weren’t going to be able to complete the loop without having to walk a long ways in the dark. So Z thought about it twice and luckily for us decided to go back down and the twins, Enric and I decided to run in the downhills and flats and push as hard as we could in the uphills hiking.
Our second pass, Frigid Air Pass (12,405 Feet) wasn’t far from West Maroon Pass. Just at 2.5 miles from West Maroon Pass, a short but steep descend and then half not so flat flats and a short but steep section put us in top of Frigid air pass… Don’t think it took us more than 1.5 hours from pass to pass. Again, we stopped and rested approx 15 mins, had something to eat and decided to push back down again.
Now, to get to Trail Rider Pass (12,45 feet) and Bucksin Pass (12,462 Feet) it was more of a longways stretches. From Frigid Air to Trail Rider Pass you have to descend into Fravert basin, which is a beautiful flat valley running parallel to a beautiful river where you will find plenty of opportunities to refill water and refresh from hot days. We actually stopped briefly twice to cool down ourselves because of how hot it was getting around mid-day.
Before starting the long climb to Trail Rider Pass there is a much bigger river crossing where you will have to get at least your legs wet. Again, because of how hot it was, how fast we would dry ourself by running every time we had a chance to dip in any kind of water body we would do it, at least Enric and I…. Ale didn’t do it because of blisters and Tommy did do it a couple times actually – Cero maricoteo Tommy, full maricoteo Ale.
The climb up was tough. Its actually the first time I started felling tired. A short 2.7 miles effort up, but trust me when I tell you it was steep. We passed some parties on the way up and it felt quite good (Not a lot of traffic as we would expect based on the reviews we read). Don’t be fooled by a short downhill looking into a small calm lake (perfect for our third deep in the water). This break was much needed for me, as I felt I was about to bunk. Water was freezing, but fells so good to dive in an alpine lake after a strong push.
Keep in mind that we made the most stupid decision of not bringing any real food for the entire day. Since we left all real food at camp, we had to survive on gels and gummies and waffle energies. That would be the only thing I would have change about this entire expiernce….. Bring some real food snacks such as sandwiches, prossciuto, cheese, etc.
After Enric and I cooled ourself down, Ale and Tommy made it. Honestly we were expecting for them to take much more time making it to this point, so for us it was a pleasant surprise how fast they had climbed so far. As their brother would have said, very “respetable” the pace they were maintaining without killing themselves. We took quite a long break here for around 20-30mins. Then there was this second part of the push to get to the top of the third mountain pass, Trail Rider Pass. Short, but again steep.
Tommy and Ale met us at the top of the pass a few minutes later and decided to separate because of how late it was getting. We would push on our way down and then push on our way up to the last peak, so we had to say “see you at the douches” – Lance Armstrong.
It was a very long run downhill. It felt like we were descending as much as everything we had climbed so far, so it was kinda frustrating just to think about all the altitude we were going to have to gain again…. the more we descended, the more we knew we were going to have to climb up. Views were breathtaking, don’t get me wrong, but again, as I told Enric, after KM 30, 35 is when and where the real race/battle/suffering begins, and so I was right. That last push to the top was kinda hard, but the last descend was truly painful and honestly it felt like the longest kms in my life. We had some laughs on the way down, having nonsense conversations about the most random things you could think of…. Once you start being so tire and the lack of real food made us really have none sense, but funny conversations we had.
We finally made it back to camp at lake crater after 44kms and 12 hours of elapsed time (9 of moving time). We met with Z who had been napping for around 4 hours non stop. We were starving and excited to be able to eat something, but when we asked Z if he had a lighter so we could warm up our food, he said the twins had the much needed lighter…….. we couldn’t believe it. Enric started worrying about the twins, but I knew they were some tough mofos and that they were gonna arrive to camp anytime, honestly I wasn’t worried. As a matter of fact, they got to camp laughing and with very positives vibes… quite opposite than Enric and I who got to camp quite miserably. The twins finally made it back to camp a couple hours later… We had some more dehydrated food for dinner, and went inmediatly to bed. None of us could sleep that much honestly after such tough day. Specially Enric, who’s sleeping pad got a whole and was sleeping flat on his stomach with no isolation…. hahahaha funny now, but felt terrible for Lagana e perro at the moment
This was the second time I had run more than 42kms in my live. It was both harder and easier at the same time. Harder because of the altitude and altitude gain, but easier because of cooler temps. The first time I ran an Ultra was at sea level, where not much altitude was gained, but temperatures and humidity were way higher. And views were definitely not as pleasant and motivating as the ones here.
It was an honor to share the mountains and experience going that extra mile with this crew. Missed some of the usuals, but couldn’t have asked for more.
Woke up at around 7am, or at least we each left our tents at that time, immediately packed our camp and headed down the 1.7 mile hike to the car so we could have a full breakfast in Aspen. We had breakfast at this “Local Coffee” place, where the coffee was amazing and the Avacato Sandwich was realllyyyy good. Once we got there, we realized the place was PACKED because of the wine and food festival in aspen. Bunch of celebrities where there, so finding a place to crash the night and finding reservations to restaurants wasn’t that easy. We ended up staying at the “mountain Chalet” which we loved. Kinda looked and felt like an European Mountain Hotel. Had some amazing pizzas at Aspen Tap/Brewery room and at night had some delicious sushi at Kenichi (must go). Later that night part of the crew went out for drinks, while the others (married ones) decided to call it a night and went back to the hotel.
Epic weekend, epic run, epic crew, epic mountain passes, epic food, epic early bday celebration. Thanks for the experience guys!
MiBiCi Adventures 