High Altitude Adventures

Chipmunk Challenge

The original plan was to do Mummy Mania in Rocky Mountain National Park. But after spending a day up on Lumpy Ridge we missed our chance at getting a Lawn Lake campsite and ended up with a site at upper Chipmunk. This is near the cirque of Mt. Chiquita and Mt. Ypsilon, just to the south of Ypsilon Lake. In turn we created the Chipmunk Challenge.

A group of us met in Estes Saturday morning and split up the gear before heading into the park.  We left one car at the Lawn Lake trailhead and headed up the Old Fall River Rd. for a gruelingly slow drive to the Chapin Pass Trailhead at 10600’.  This has to be one of the most tourist pack roads I have ever been on in the park. The fact that it is a dirt road makes the slow tourist drivers knock their speeds down to barely inching along. Make sure when heading up this road you leave early to beet the crowds because it is otherwise a nice drive.

From the trailhead you quickly gain elevation, within about an hour we were above timberline and on a rocky primitive trail. At the saddle of Mt. Chapin and Mt. Chiquita we tossed our packs down and headed up Chapin.  This is a great way to start the trip because atop the 12,454’ summit you can see the rest of the mummy range as well as great views of the Estes Valley and the lakes and rivers that flow out of the park.

From the Saddle up to Chiquita is one of the hardest parts of this route.  The elevation gain is a grinder. Going up 1000’ feet in .25 miles really gets your lungs working and your legs feeling like rubber bands especially with a heavy backpack on., the grind is well worth it though.  Atop Mount Chiquita you look down on a few beautiful high alpine lakes.  To the North you can see the Spectacle Lakes at the base of Ypsilon, in front of you to the east you see Ypsilon Lake and you can even barely make out Chipmunk Lake just slightly to the South East.

After our crew regrouped at the top of Chiquita and assessed the possibility of a rainstorm we made the decision to split up the group and go separate ways geared more towards each group’s goal.  One group decided that they had enough of grinding up hill in the elevation so three people set off down the Eastern ridge of Chiquita, well equip with a map and compass, to find camp and move at a more leisurely pace not having to be as concerned about the weather (this is the split in the pinl).  While myself and a buddy decided that we wanted to see more of the Mummy range especially what Ypsilon Mountain and Fairchild Mountain had to offer in terms of climbing so we took off North for the summit of Ypsilon(this is the continued red line).

The hike up Ypsilon is a much easier grade and more enjoyable than Chiquita although at this point any sign of trail has pretty much disappeared and I do not even recall seeing Cairns guiding the way.  But route finding is very easy and even pleasant as many grassy options wind their way through the rock.

In just a short time my buddy and I were staring down into the Y couloirs, which certainly did not have enough snow in them to even consider a climb.  Also there was still a large amount of the cornice hanging above the route looking ready to break off at any moment. We took a short break at the top of Ypsilon to grab a sip of water and determine the path that lay in front of us, to Fairchild. Looking across the ridge it looked like a giant chose pile not an actual mountain, with no clear route up it. I spent more of the time studying the cirque looking for a safe way down the valley as apposed to up Fairchild.

Leaving the top of Ypsilon you wind your way down a boulder field and across a ridge that requires a few 3^rd class moves. Although easy moves you had to be extra careful because many of the larger blocks were ready to roll with the slightest bump. From here you make your way across the boulder filed ridge towards. After traversing for a while we decided to descend the ridge to the less rocky flat ground to be able and move faster. Once in the more open meadow we decided that we would forgo an assent of Fairchild partly due to the weather building and partly because we could not spot a safe route up the scree filled gullies.  This was a disappointing decision because we both had been looking forward to seeing the climbing on Fairchilds North East buttress especially the Honcho Boncho climb which has taunted us with a lack of information. But overall it turned out to be the best route decision because descend from here was an almost direct route to Ypsilon Lake.

After taking a break above a lake that did not appear on our topo we followed the stream to south west to the first of 3 Fay Lakes then continued further south-west instead of following the stream and lakes in a more northerly direction, this dropped us out right above Ypsilon Lake. Aside from the killer flies was a beautiful route.

Once down to Ypsilon Lake we found camp with the other half of our groups gear and them fishing pulling in some 8-12” cutthroats.

The next day we hiked 4.5 miles out the trail to the Lawn Lake trailhead and jumped in our other car for the grueling drive back up Old Fall River Rd. where we were just in time for the after lunch tourist crowds. This is not a road to take if you are not whiling to spend a few hours over the 9.4 miles.

Overall I thought that the Chipmunk Challenge was a really fun route and probably more doable for carrying an overnight pack than Mummy Mania would have been. Also it allows great views of the high peaks around RMNP and many of the great climbing routes on Ypsilon and Chiquita.  Along with this we spotted a few good routes for snowboard mountaineering come next spring.

Cheers!

Dragon Tail Couloir

I got invited to go climb the Dragon Tail Couloir this past weekend with a group of 3 other people. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get up close and personal with one of the best couloirs in Rocky Mountain National Park and an opportunity to check out the conditions for skiing and snowboarding.

With the variable conditions in the higher altitudes in RMNP we decided that we should make it an early morning push and get as far up the couloir as we could before the sun hit it and started to warm things up.

We left the Bear lake trailhead at 6:00am and made really good time getting up to Emerald Lake. As the sun was just peaking up on the east side of the lake at about 6:30 we had our crampons on and ice axes in hand as we started our 1800’ ascent.

The snow in the lower section was somewhat soft and you could see the left overs of a few sluff slides or possibly some really small wet slides but the debris was not very deep and did not leed to any concern.

As we made our way up the into the couloir onto the 45 degree slope we hung to the south side were the snow was packed firm and you could get a really good perch the whole way up. Also in the gut of the couloir the snow looked really good and as the snow hit it, it was perfect spring snow for skiing.

We went up the left side where the dragon tail splits into two different chutes because the cornice on the top of the right side was looking very large and unstable. At the 55 degree narrow section the snow was softening up a little bit but still giving great holds for both feet ad axes.  Where the normal 5.3 rock section is we actually ended up just being able to walk onto the rock, which was covered with about 2” of really soft snow.  This made travel a little interesting but certainly easier than having to climb it.  From here it was just an easy walk up out of the top where you meet the Flat Top Mountain trail.

The descent back down Flat Top Mountain was packed nicely and we had no trouble getting down quickly without the snowshoes that we decided to leave in the car.  We reached the Bear Lake parking lot around 10:00am just as the normal Sunday morning crowds that are so prominent to the area were showing up.

The conditions in the Dragon Tail were so good that I think I will have to go back in the next few days and drop in from the top snowboard.  So keep your eyes open for my posting on snowboarding this great 55* couloir.

Cheers!

Mount Alice Approach RMNP

Last weekend a friend and I headed out to check out Mount Alice and the surrounding areas for possibilities of backcountry skiing and snowboarding.  This is a 13000-foot peak near Thunder Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park accessed from the Wild Basin trailhead. We had heard that that there is a couloir from the top of Mount Alice possible called the S-Chute that should be able to get our blood pumping. (picture 1)

Unfortunately due to my busy school schedules my backcountry and mountaineering schedule has been limited the past few weeks and this was going to have to be a fast push as my friend needed to be in Denver Saturday night.  We left the winter trailhead Friday night around 5pm hoping to get in pretty far in the limited light that we had left since Thunder Lake was over 9 miles from this point.

The trail was already fairly packed most of the way so we were able to move fairly fast even with our camping and ski gear on our backs.  As the sun set we were feeling pretty good and pushed on until around 8pm.  When we finally stopped at the North Saint Vrain campsites to set up camp.  This was about 5 miles in and around 9500 feet and since we were fairly tired we thought it would be a good place to set up camp and call it a night.

The next morning with the warm sun and clear sky we were feeling lazy and didn’t leave camp until around 11. This proved to be a poor choice as the trail from the point of the camp on was completely unbroken and took a bit of time for trail finding as it wound its way up through the woods.

We still made good time and covered about 2.5 miles by 1 in the afternoon where we accessed the ridge that would take us out of tree line and to thunder lake and Mount Alice.  Unfortunately for us as we came to the point where we should have been able to see Mount Alice and Thunder lake we ran into the start of the weather and could not even see the outline of Mont Alice.

Due to weather and the fact that we would have to be doing some 4^th class climbing once we reached the peak we decided that we should call it a day and started back towards the car enjoying some nice powder in the trees. But overall I think we had a good exploratory adventure and found some possibilities of really good backcountry areas for another time.  Unfortunately I do not have pictures of this to share but the ridge accessed just North-East of Bluebird Lake as well as some chutes off of Tanima peak should offer really good lines and even great tree skiing.

Sorry for the lack of descriptive pictures on this post I will do my best on future adventures to have content that can help you get a better idea of the route and trip details.

Cheers!