The Hat Trick. Oh what a lovely route. I skied the hat trick this winter (first solo) so was quite stoked to put up this FKT today. I followed the same route as Joseph DeMoor in summiting South Maroon, North Maroon and Pyramid Peak in that order.
My start to the day was rather casual with a 6am wake up and starting running at 7:49am from the Bells Parking Lot. 5 days prior to this, I ran Telluride Mountain Run and have been doing a bit of activity since so my legs are still quite filled with lactic acid and that sensation was prominent throughout the entire day-pins and needles hard core.
The run up to Crater Lake and up West Maroon before jutting right straight up the east side of Maroon Peak felt rather good. I was enjoying the running. Typically, I find myself loving the straight up effort up South Maroon, however today was different. The fatigue in my legs and body at large had me struggling to move uphill with explosive motion in the legs. I definitely was able to move efficiently, however it was undoubtedly uncomfortable and no sense of lightness was achieved on the uphills throughout the day. The Bells Traverse was rather fun however, mixing in some scrambling to give the body a rest was lovely. Also, moving down North Maroon was actually rather fun and got me thinking of skiing as I whipped out the poles. Then the up and down Pyramid was definitely hot and filled with exhaustion. Thus, I opted to move continuously at a relatively easy pace to save some gas for the descent. No luck in saving gas ha. My legs were very achy and rather unbalanced on the descent from Pyramid but I guess the whole mind over body tactic worked.
This is a great route that definitely tests one's capacity to move directly up and downhill efficiently. There really isn't much flat. I calculated 9,300' vert which I think is actually quite on point when looking at the elevation differences from valleys to peaks. Nonetheless, it's hard to say exactly.
Here are my rough splits:
Maroon Peak Summit: 1:48
North Maroon Summit: 2:11
Crater, buckskin JCT: 2:58
Pyramid Summit: 4:27
Bells Parking Lot: 5:34
I ran in La Sportiva Mutants
Used Ultimate Direction Schlarb Shorts
LEKI Fx.One Superlite Poles were quite important for me and got my lats pumped since I didn't wanna use my tired legs (oh boohoo)
Mixed Spring Gels with Skratch Superfuel and one Maurteen Caffeine from the Feed