Posts tagged colorado
High Altitude Adventures
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 4th 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!
Powder Forecasting
Thought I would put this out there for anyone in Colorado that is not familiar with the Colorado Powder Forecast Website. It is a site run by meteorologist and backcountry enthusiast Joel Gratz. Through his website he uses his great meteorologist skills to update, usually twice a week, followers on the storms moving through the state and where you can expect the big dumps so you get there to enjoy the snow. This is not just a site that shows you a radar sample or says that “Colorado will likely see 4 inches this week” but instead he goes more into detail on the specifics of the storms, where they are building from and where likely they will come across the mountains. Also he has an introductory section on his site, under the education tab that gives you a little lesson in meteorology so you can follow with more ease; he also ads great comical qualities to his site such as “when to call in sick for a powder day.” He has gained so much recognition in forecasting throughout Colorado that you can usually find him leading seminars on weather and forecasting, especially in portions related to avalanche classes; such as the one he was just a part of for the Silverton Avalanche School. So I would suggest adding yourself to his weekly email list, and you can even follow him on Twitter. Also the link to his site can easily be found through my links sections. And as always when traveling in the Backcountry use caution and knowledge and don’t forget to check the Avalanche conditions CAIC.
Happy Snow Finding!
I would like to take this chance to introduce my blog. I am a Denver local, actually now a college student at the University of Colorado in Boulder studying advertising and photography. I will be using this blog to post trip reports, or more causally my adventures in the mountains. This will include topics such as rock climbing, ice climbing, mountaineering, backcountry snowboarding, camping and any other event that comes up involving the great outdoors. Along with this I will pass on current news involving many of these topics as well as literature that I think could be useful or is just interesting to read. Also I will post small amounts of gear reviews and product recommendations. As this blog grows you will be able to find links to many other helpful sites that are centered around the outdoor world. So tune in often because I will be updating my content multiple times a week.
Cheers!
