Circumnavigating the Bells

Hello!

I'm Art Escobado and have met a few of the photographers around here and have really liked watching these forums. I was wondering if anyone has circumnavigated Maroon Bells here. I plan on backpacking this "guy" in the first week of June and wanted to get some tips/links and converse with some people who have undertaken this trek before. If you have any information I'm all ears!

Sincerely,

Art Escobado

The Google Earth images of that area are outstanding and will give you a good aerial view of your trip. Be careful if you're doing any climbing, alot of the rock around there is rotted/unstable.

EDIT: Good to see you've got your website up...some really nice pics on there.

Art,

I've not done the hiking route, but have 4-wheeled the backside (Lead King Basin) up to the wildlife area boundary. I think you'll be in for a really nice trip. From the maps it looks like the trail network should be pretty nice.

Are you talking about the Four Pass Loop? I haven't done it, but have done parts of that route on a different backpacking trip. While on my trip, I ran into some folks who were hiking that route. It's a lot of work, but absolutely beautiful. Don't know about that time of year, though. I've been there around the beginning of August, and it was wildflowers-galore. You will probably be hitting a lot of snow in the beginning of June.

Google "maroon bells four pass loop" and you'll find lots of trip reports. It's a very popular hike.

I just saw the June thing too. I think you'll be fighting with snow on the trails.

Hey Scott,

Yeah, I just enrolled here at RMNP and used your name as a reference so look for the $10 referral.


Brent,

Thanks for the tip on the google search name and perhaps snow will be too tough...my friends are from Vermont and want to do this but June is the only time they have free. I hope it's traversable.

Any Maps/brand names that anyone's recommending for this trail would be appreciated...I'm so stoked right now!

Thanks for your input I appreciate it!

As others have mentioned, there will still be snow on that route the first week of June - maybe a lot of snow depending on the weather between now and then. Plan accordingly...

Hey Art,

I have backpacked the four pass loop and wouldn't recommend it much before the 4th of July - unless you plan on postholing up each of the passes. It's probably doable for the mongos out there - Jack Brauer would do it right now. How you go about this trip is up to you. Some locals do it in one day. Normal people take 3-4 days. I took five because my wife and I didn't want to leave.

I'm with Dave and others. You'd be nuts to attempt this hike before the end of June. Those passes are over 12K', and many have north-facing slopes that will probably hold hip-deep snow in early-June.

OK I got it, my friend wanted to do it last week of June but I want to be in Banff and Jasper then...so I will take your advice and move this idea further down into summer.

Thanks!

Any reason you couldn't just take some snowshoes? Sorry stoopid question from a desert rat.