High Altitude Adventures

10 Mile Tour: Conditions are Superb in Rocky Mountain National Park

After some great climbing in Boulder Canyon at the beginning of the weekend I decided I needed to get up to Rocky Mountain National Park and check out some of the spring mountaineering lines. To my disappointment anyone who would normally come along on a spring climb or ski was crammed with end of the year school work, so I decided I would just have to go on a fast hike and check out a few spots.

I got up to Estes in the late morning around 10:00 am and after getting some coffee at Kind coffee decided I should head up to check out the Loch, Sky Pond and Taylor Glacier.  After pulling into the Glacier Gorge parking area and seeing a lot of cars I decided that the trail would be fastest in just boots.  Although there were a lot of people on the trail I did not see a sole after I left the Loch lake until I reached Sky Pond, the trail was packed in really hard, and the conditions were really good except for where the winter trail followed the summer trail up the roll over to Glass Lake, this was a prime avi slope at 38* and looked like it was begging for a wet slide in the afternoon sun, but this did not stop 3 groups of hikers from going straight up it instead of skirting the easy rocks off to the side.

As for Taylor Glacier it looked like it was in prime condition at the time, although I figure an early morning ascent would be crucial since the sun was really baking the snow and softening it up.  There was a line going up the glacier that you can see in the picture highlighted in red.  Also the Cathedral Spires looked like they would be really good for climbing right now, the rock was getting good sun all day, but still might be cold up towards the top.

After a short break below Glass Lake I decided that I had enough time to head over to Emerald Lake and check out the Dragon Tail Couloirs and Hallett Couloir.  Both of these were looking excellent and I was really excited to see that the snow on the Dragon Tail was much softer than when I had been up there earlier this winter for a run at it, but found it to be a hard wind blown sheet.  Also I talked to a couple coming off of the lower part of Dragon Tail who skied it before it actually turns into a narrow steep Couloir and they reported that the conditions were great.  I did notice thought that all of the lakes in the Bear Lake area had become very soft from the sun and I actually put my foot through the ice on the far side of Emerald Lake so an early morning start is a good idea unless you want to hike around the lakes, but it might not matter regardless in a few weeks if these warm conditions continue especially if there are some cloud covered nights.

But overall the conditions in Rocky Mountain where looking excellent especially for the more east facing snow slopes and much of the rock that was not north facing.  It will be a fast spring ski season of steep lines before it’s time for some good alpine climbs in this area.

Cheers!