Isabelle Glacier Hike

On Saturday Dan and I drove to Brainard Lake for a little hike. We parked at the Long Lake Trailhead and hiked up past Long and Isabelle Lakes. The Isabelle Glacier Trail continued for miles up into a very rocky and snowy bowl.

It was surprising how far we were able to follow the trail. It took us to the base of a good-sized couloir that seemed to gain the ridge. Though the sun was beginning to set behind the peaks, we began up the snow slope with our ice axes in hand.

About half way up, Dan suggested a practice with a few steps down the steep snow. Good thinking! It was scary and I'm glad we didn't go all the way up.

Steeper than it looks!

We turned back and made it to the car before it was completely dark. About 10 miles and 7.5 hours overall. A great day!

Fourteener Friday

Friday was the first meeting of the Fourteener Fridays Club. My friend, Ann, and I decided that we would attempt some fourteeners on Fridays this summer as I'm not working and as a realtor, she would likely have some free time on Fridays. For our first hike, Mount Massive, Dan came along, too.

We met in South Boulder at 4:30am and drove all the way through Leadville to the trailhead. Dan and I were pleasantly surprised by the roads, as we were on them three years when we hiked our very first fourteener, Mount Elbert. However, we kept going on the dirt road past the standard trailheads to try some 4-wheel driving and get to the North Halfmoon Creek parking lot. We saw one other truck there.

The beginning of trail was absolutely beautiful. It meandered through lush forests and a beautiful meadow. We saw a big rabbit and lots of early season wild flowers. After a mile and a half, we left the main trail and headed straight up for almost three miles.

Though the trail was very well built and maintained, it was steep and large portions were hidden under huge snowfields. Several times we got out the axes and kick-stepped up the slopes. Amazingly, we managed to keep finding the trail and followed up to the very, very long summit ridge.

Mount Massive has many small peaks along this huge ridge that are all above 14,000 (Massive ranks second highest in the state at 14,421 ft). Once we climbed one small peak, there was always another, higher one further along the ridge. We FINALLY reached the true summit at 1:30 and had a leisurely lunch as there was not a cloud in the sky.

On the way down we were determined to speed up our descent by doing some glissading down the large snowfields. After sliding down the summit ridge, we hiked over a saddle to a very steep, rockslide slope. We were actually planting our axes into the loose dirt and scree to safely walk/slide down it. We were able to glissade down several more snowfields before meeting back up with the trail back to the car.

I think Massive is probably the prettiest fourteener we've hiked, but it was also very long and steep. It took us 5:45 to travel 4 miles and ascend 4,000 ft and 3:45 to get back to the car. This coupled with a 6-hour round trip drive, made for a very, very long day.

---

From the summit we had great views of the Tenmile and Mosquito Ranges. We could even see Pikes Peak! When we got home Dan identified and labeled the peaks. Use the scrollbar below to view the entire panorama, or click for a larger view:

Intermediate snow, part 2

The second field trip for the Intermediate Snow class was crampon practice in Rocky Mountain National Park. Laurel didn't make this trip since she had a pretty bad spill on her bike earlier in the week and sprained her shoulder.

To get some good hard snow on steeper slopes, we needed an early start. At 2:50am my alarm woke me up. I picked up a few other CMC'ers in Lyons at 4am then met the rest of the class at the Bear Lake trailhead at 5am. It was raining lightly but soon turned to snow as we gained elevation. We hiked to some steep slopes near Lake Helene, arriving there before 8am.

Despite the early start, the snow was not great for crampon practice, as there was 5 inches of new soft snow on top. We practiced the techniques, but unfortunately the conditions didn't always warrant those techniques. Still, it was great practice and a great experience. At the end of the day we glissaded back down the slopes and hiked back to the car. We made it to Oscar Blues in Lyons around 1:30 for lunch.

See pictures someone else took that day.

Intermediate snow

We got up not-so-bright and early Sunday morning to meet for a field trip with the CMC Intermediate Snow School. At St. Mary's Glacier we practiced building anchors in the snow using natural features, pickets, flukes, and ice axes -- standard snow climbing tools. We learned how to do hip belays from bucket seats, boot-axe belays, and a few other techniques. We also practiced traveling in rope teams and setting protection up a steep snow slope. Both of us got a turn leading our rope teams. It was fun and we met a lot of nice people. After 8 hours on the snow we unwound at Tommy Knockers in Idaho Springs.

Longs Peak trail

We did some hiking and snowshoeing Saturday, starting from the Longs Peak trailhead. Weather was beautiful -- definitely starting to transition from Winter to Summer. Hopefully when there's less snow we can try running this trail.

South Arapaho

One of our goals this summer was to hike the Arapaho traverse: from the Fourth of July trailhead up to South Arapaho peak, across a class 3 ridge for about a half mile to North Arapaho peak, and back. Snow was not in our plans.

On Saturday we (Dan, Laurel, Evan, Dan) headed out in Evan's astro-van to attempt the traverse. We knew there had been some snow in the mountains this week but I didn't expect such deep drifts. They seemed worst over the trail so we headed off trail straight up a broad gully towards the ridge. The hike was tough. Where we could, we rock-hopped on scree exposed above the snow. At times though, there was just snow, and no telling how deep beneath the surface the next rock might be.

We summited after four hours and decided to try the traverse another day. Running down through the snow was much more funner than the hike up. Aside from the smashed knees and shins.


The other thing that got smashed was our camera, so not too many photos.

Andrews Glacier, Flattop Mountain

Ann, Nick, Laurel, and I got up early Sunday morning for a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. As we were driving through Estes Park, we saw a mountain lion running away from a campground and into someone's front yard. This cougar was huge!

We continued into the park and started our hike at the Glacier Gorge Junction trailhead. Not too far along the trail we decided to take a smaller side-trail that would bypass Alberta Falls and potentially save us some time getting to Andrews Glacier.

The weather was overcast and damp and it had recently rained. As we hiked through the dense vegetation our pants got pretty soaked. Back on the Andrews Glacier Trail the weather began to improve and we started to dry out. For an hour or two it was a beautiful, hot, sunny day.


At the glacier, Ann and I chose to hike directly up the snow, while Laurel and Nick skirted around the side and labored through a scree field instead. The snowfield ended in the Andrews Tarn. This small lake only exists due to snowmelt from the glacier. There were no streams flowing into or out of it.


The slope of the glacier by the lake was rather shallow, so there was little risk of slipping and sliding into the lake, especially with an ice axe. As we ascended the glacier the slope increased and we began to switchback. There was an inch or two of soft surface snow/ice on top of the hard ice of the glacier so our ice axes did not penetrate very deeply.

The glacier widened towards the top so there was a part that Laurel and Nick had to ascend on snow too. Once on top of the glacier there was a short scramble up to the alpine meadow, where we saw a few elk grazing.


Thunderstorms were imminent so we forwent summiting Otis and Hallett Peaks. After a short while we got onto trail, lumped over the top of the unspectacular Flattop "Mountain", and began our descent. Although we thought the weather too risky to remain above treeline for long, there were plenty of people ascending Hallett and coming up the trail to Flattop too.


The descent to Bear Lake was long. The closer we got the more RMNP tourists we saw -- surprising at first since we saw none at the start of our hike (but of course that was before 6:30 AM). From the Bear Lake trailhead it was a short hike back to the car. For the day, we hiked around 12 miles in about 8.5 hours. See our trek in Google Earth or Google Maps.

Kelso Ridge

Today we summited Torreys Peak via the Kelso Ridge -- a class three climb that gains 2,000 feet. Our friend Tim from the WTS class was looking for hiking partners as he is training for a Mount Rainier summit bid at the end of the month. We were very eager to join him on the Kelso Ridge because it caught our eye last fall when we were in the area climbing Grays Peak.

The day started at 2:45am -- that's right, 2:45. The alarm went off, we got dressed, had a little breakfast and headed out the door. We met Tim in Morrison at 4am and then proceeded to the trailhead. When we started hiking the sun was just beginning to rise behind us. We hiked the main Grays/Torreys trail for about 2 miles and then headed off the trail to the base of the ridge 200 yards to the north. This small saddle is also the home of an old gated-up mine entrance and shelter which are cool to explore.

The first part of the ridge included some hiking, scrambling, and loose, sandy rock. In fact, most of the ridge was just like that. We gradually made our way up as several other teams passed us. We had the biggest, and undoubtedly heaviest, packs of anyone we saw. We had our ten essentials (and then some)! There were two somewhat sketchy parts on the ridge. The first was a 30-40 foot fourth class scramble up a nice block. Apparently, there was a way around it, but we couldn't find it. The second spot was the 30-foot knife edge traverse and subsequent granite block. The knife edge had enough foot and hand holds, but it also had a great deal of exposure. We summited Torreys at about 10:20 -- 5 hours after the start -- and joined about 40 people up there.

After the requisite pictures, snacks, water, register-signing, and gear re-shuffling, we headed down the standard route to the saddle between the two mountains. We were amazed by the number of people on the trails (many of them ill-suited for the mountains). As we headed towards the summit of Grays, the clouds were getting larger and a bit threatening. We decided to bail and traversed a snowfield to pick up the Grays Peak trail. We got back to the car at 1:15 -- 8 hours after the start. It was a long, but really fun day!

Mt. Toll

Tougher hike than expected. We planned to hike up to Pawnee Pass on the Continental Divide, follow the divide north across Pawnee Peak, Mt. Toll, and Paiute Peak, then bend east to Mt. Audubon. With a 6am start we thought we could be descending Audubon by noon.


Reality check: First, getting to Pawnee Pass took longer than anticipated. At the pass we left trail and the hiking slowed considerably. We summited Pawnee Peak around 10:30. It was late and there were clouds in the sky but nothing too threatening. We descended a snowfield on the north face of Pawnee to the saddle between it and Toll. At that point we reevaluated the weather and decided to ascend the scree field leading up the south face of Toll.


The north face of Toll is all exposed 5.6 climbing so we descended back south. On the way down we decided the snowfield would be a better descent than rock-hopping loose talus. It certainly was easier if not any faster. Around 12:30 we were back down to the saddle.


From there a snowfield descended all the way to Blue Lake. Halfway down there was another flat area. We weren't sure if the weather would allow us to continue on to Paiute and Audubon but either way we had to get to the flat spot.

Once there, the clouds seemed to be clearing. We rested for a bit by a rock island before deciding whether to continue to Paiute or search for the Blue Lake trail. Some blue skies were showing through the clouds so we decided to see what we could do about Paiute.


We contoured along the east and northeast sides of Toll. Along the way we passed a mini-crevasse and I couldn't help but think of Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. We reached a rock outcrop that looked like it could be scrambled up to the ridge between Toll and Paiute. Perhaps if our boots weren't wet from the snow and if it hadn't just started drizzling the route would have gone.

At that point (2:30) we decided we had pushed our luck far enough. Traversing the steep snow had tired us out. We glissaded down to another flat area and started our trek to the north side of Blue lake. It was around that time that 30 MPH hail started pelting us. Luckily we didn't have to hike into the hail. It stung when it hit our faces.

Circling around the lake was not simple! First we had a tough time finding a way onto the snow field -- cliffs blocked our path at one point. Along the way there were a few streams running down the slopes, exposed in places and snow-covered in others. We decided it would be safer to cross the stream where we could see it exposed than to trust the stability of the snow above it. The waterfalls were beautiful and loud.

We traversed snow and rock above Blue Lake. The bottom of the snowfield had broken away, clearly delineating the edge of the lake. I was extra careful on this slope -- although I had done a few self-arrests on other slopes, I didn't want to risk slipping into the freezing lake. Finally, around 4:00, we reached solid (and flatter) ground. There were still streams to cross but that was the end of the steep snow.

Once on the southeast side of the lake, we slogged through the mud and runoff posing as a trail. Our boots were soaked through. After an hour of that we had had enough. The sun was out so we stopped to change socks. They stayed dry for a while and we were more careful to step on rocks instead of just walking through the stream/trail.

Around 5:45 we were back at a trailhead, but we still had a mile to walk along the road to get to the trailhead we started at.

By the end of the day, 12 hours later, we had covered around 10 miles (map) and probably gained/lost 3000' elevation. Wet and miserable but definitely worth it -- we saw a lot of neat things and learned about the terrain. Next trip to that area we will hike trail up to Audubon, traverse to Paiute, and see what we can figure out from there about getting over to Toll.

Mount Democrat

Our plan today was to climb Mounts Democrat, Lincoln, and Bross -- all 14ers. The weather had other plans.


We decided to hike to the saddle between Democrat and Cameron and decide from there whether to continue. The weather didn't get any better, but since it wasn't much worse either we decided to summit Democrat. The view from the summit was mostly white.



The fog/clouds were thick enough that you couldn't see more than 100' ahead. On the way down it began to snow graupel -- stung a bit when facing into the wind.


It was getting late and the view from Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross would be about the same, so we headed back to the car. Too tired to write any more (up since 4am), check out the pictures.