February stuff

Wow we are behind on the blog! We're still climbing in the gym three days a week, sometimes with our friend Tim. I ran about 40-50 miles this month, not too bad for Winter.

On the 4th we snowshoed from Chautauqua up and over the First Flatiron to the Saddle Rock trail, then back to Chautauqua.

On the 11th we skied at Copper with our neighbor Rachel -- fun day!

Christmas Snowstorm

We got over 16 inches of snow overnight. When I got up this morning, I put on my cross-country skis and skied the Cottonwood Trail. It was a lot of work to break trail for 2 miles. The way back was a lot easier!

Then, I went snowshoeing with Tanya and her mother who was visiting from Pennsylvania. We hiked some of the Mesa Trail and then looped back around to Kohler Mesa and Enchanted Mesa. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Run! Climb! Snowshoe!

Laurel and I got up early today to try to catch a glimpse of the lunar eclipse, but by the time we were up and running the moon had set. Oh well, we had a nice run and got to see the sun come up.

After our run we headed to the climbing gym. Climbed a bunch of overhanging 5.9s and a 5.10a. We've just started climbing again this week, after a few months off, so this was a pretty good start!

After that we picked up Donna and headed to Wild Basin for some snowshoeing. We were able to drive down to the winter closure gate and from there hiked up to Calypso Cascades. It was sunny, but we were in the shadows of the trees most of the way. A bit cold but not windy. It took us just over 2 hours to get to the cascades, which unfortunately were completely covered in snow. Round trip for the day was 4 hours, 6.8 miles, and nearly 800' gain.

Lost Lake

Today Dan, JJ and I drove up to the Hessie trailhead outside of Eldora. It was 32 degrees, snowing lightly, and the wind was blowing consistently at 30mph with gusts 10-20mph stronger. We layered up at the car and quickly put on microspikes for the icy road up to the actual trail. The wind was blowing from the west, right into our faces until we got into the trees, about a mile from the car.

Much of the trail was also wind swept (and covered in fallen trees), so we buckled down until we got to higher elevations and more tree coverage. Once we got to the Lost Lake turn-off, the snow did get deeper and we had a bit of a reprieve from the wind.

Unfortunately, the reprieve didn't last long, because we soon got up to the lake where the wind had a huge, flat surface to whip across. Here, we also put on our snowshoes to try to circumnavigate the lake. Our explorations led us off-trail and up a rocky slope.

We then carefully side-stepped down a very steep hill to get back to the shoreline. The rest of the trek was uneventful and as we headed back to the car, the clouds cleared a bit, the wind settled down, and the sun started showing its face. Overall, we hiked 6 miles and gained almost 1,000 feet.

View Lost Lake in a larger map

Woodland Lake

Today we took a very long hike to Woodland Lake. We started at the Hessie trailhead before 7:00 this morning. The first few miles were very pretty and peaceful. Then, as we gained a bit of elevation, we also gained a whole lot of snow. That's right, it's almost July and above 10,300 there were still FEET of snow. Of course it didn't help that it was 70+ degrees, so the snow was getting soft and proved difficult to hike. The going was really slow as there was no way we could stay on trail (what trail?), and we had to keep weaving in and out of trees and rocks to try to stay on the most solid snow.

We finally got to the lake 4.5 hours after we started--and it was only 5 miles away. Our original intent was to climb a glacier (snow field) to the summit of Skyscraper Peak, but by the time we got to the lake (the base of the climb) we were both too tired and frustrated to continue. Plus, it was getting late in the day to be above the treeline. So, after a nice lunch, we navigated back down the snow. Snowshoes proved to be more trouble than they were worth, so we ended up postholing quite a bit. I have to say, throughout the day it was amazing to see all the creeks flowing with such rampant force--and SO much water!

Anyway, we finally got back down 2.75 hours later. Once we got back to the less-snowy section we started running into A LOT of hikers and a few backpackers. It was a great sunny day to be out in the mountains.

Moose hunt

There are no moose at Red Deer Lake. Not today anyway. A few people have told us they've seen moose in that area, so we thought we'd check it out on snowshoes.

We planned to drive up to the trailhead at Camp Dick but there was a winter closure gate, so we had to park at Peaceful Valley instead -- practically right on 72. No problem, just a longer day by a mile each way.

The well-traveled Buchanan Pass trail led us to a 4WD road, which then took us back to the trail. Good views of the Sawtooth and other mountains that were familiar to us from our summer backpacking trip.

We turned north up the drainage but never found the Red Deer Cutoff trail, so we made our own way up the steep hillside. Seemed to take forever but we finally got to the lake.

By that time we had gone 7 miles and it was already 1:30, so we didn't spend much time at the lake. Instead of going back the way we came we followed the lake's drainage for a while, then headed down the steep hillside back to the 4WD road. Since we were short on time and getting tired, we just took the road all the way back.

In all we snowshoed 14 miles in 8 hours. No moose. Some other time.

Arestua Hut overnight

Saturday we snowshoed out to the Arestua Hut with a bunch of people from our WTS class. Fun time -- we spent the night with a bunch of hooligans. (Apparently they saw on the reservation calendar that we (6 of us) were staying over that night and decided that it would be a good night for them to stay over too, despite the fact that they knew there's not really enough room for 11 people. WTF.)

But we had a good time anyway and got to catch up with folks more at lunch the next day in Nederland.

More Avalanche

So, today we were back for more....avalanche training, that is. As Dan mentioned, we enrolled in a CMC/National Ski Patrol Avalanche Level 1 class. We had two nights of 4-hour lectures, yesterday's field trip and then today's all-day outing.

We drove up past Berthoud Pass to Second Creek. Here we hiked up about a mile while spending an hour at different stations. There was backcountry travel, snow pits, decision making, beacon search, and simple and complex rescue simulations. Thankfully, it was much warmer than yesterday and the wind was not quite as bad. We still didn't see the sun, but I'll take 30 degrees with wind over 16 degrees with wind any day.

Overall, it was a good day and a great course. We learned a lot and hopefully we will never be caught in an avalanche or will never have to rescue anyone from one.

Avalanche!

Avalanche school, that is. We had two long nights of instruction this week, have been reading for homework, and today had our first field day at St. Mary's Glacier.

First, the weather. It was cold, windy, and snowing. At times visibility was less than 100'. The high was 16°F but with the wind chill was -8°F. In the morning it must have been even cooler.

We did some decision making exercises, practiced searching with beacons, dug snow pits to analyze the snowpack, and practiced probing and digging for victims. (The "victims" were buried pieces of clothing or 1'x1' plywood.)

Very enlightening. It's hard to imagine actually finding someone (in time) who was buried in an avalanche without a beacon. Even with beacons, you first have to find a signal, which could require scanning a large area depending on the size of the slide. Trying to track a signal, probe, or dig on a slope adds to the challenge.

Day two is tomorrow at Berthoud Pass... if the roads stay open. The avalanche report looks pretty bad given all the new snow.

Mount Sherman

Laurel wanted to hike Mount Sherman for her birthday -- the closest 14er she hasn't summited yet.

We got up at 4am, packed up the Xterra, and hit the road. By 7am we reached the trailhead at the end of the 4x4 road. Amazingly, there were only a handful of vehicles up there.

Every other 14er we've hiked has been a parade up an obvious trail. When we started up Sherman though, the trail was mostly buried in snow and there was only one other group of hikers who chose a different route.

Two Ptarmigan followed us at the start of the trail.

We decided to aim for the saddle between Sherman and White Ridge. Once atop that saddle, Gemini Peak to the north caught our attention. Instead of heading right up Sherman we adjusted course for Gemini.

The twin peaks of Gemini look similar from a distance, but each has its own character. The first we summited was not very steep-sided, and there were actually two smaller sub-peaks nearby that we also hiked up. The view was fantastic from these summits.

The main Gemini Peak is taller and fairly steep. We decided not to hike the steep southeast rock slope right in front of us or the equally steep south snow slope. Instead we hiked around to the east side of the peak and went up from there. On the topo it doesn't look any less steep, but it seemed to be in the field.

We took a short break on the summit of Gemini. At 13,951' elevation, it is almost a 14er itself. Our next stop was Mount Sherman.

The most remarkable thing about Mt. Sherman was that we were the only people on the summit for 20 minutes! That's a first for us on a 14er.

We hiked down the southwest ridge of Sherman. This was a nice part of the hike -- good exposure on either side of the ridge, but flat enough on the top that it was a hike and not a scramble. It was neat to look off to the distance and see a distinct line cutting across the Sawatch range.

As we were hiking down Sherman and towards Sheridan (another 13er), we crossed paths with two CMC folks hiking the other way. The girl had just finished WTS and the guy was an assistant this year to the instructor we had for WTS last spring. Small world in the mountains.

The summit of Sheridan was spectacular in its own way. From there you could see clear across the trough containing Leadville and the Arkansas Headwaters to the Sawatch 14ers.

We were getting tired, so after a short break atop our third real summit of the day, we headed down Sheridan's south ridge. This slippery slope of scree required careful footing. From the bottom of that slope we followed an old 4x4 road and some snow slopes back to the car. The snow was soft enough in the afternoon that we had to get out the snowshoes.

At the end of the day we had covered just over 7 miles. Since it was mostly off trail it took us 8.5 hours. We were above 13,000' elevation for over 6 hours.


View Mount Sherman in a larger map

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.

Brainard Cabin and Audubon

Sunday afternoon we drove up to the Brainard Lake winter trailhead, luckily found a parking spot, and snowshoed a few miles out to the CMC cabin. We got there before the weekend day-host had left, so the cabin was already opened up with fires going.

We chilled out that evening and got an early start Monday morning to hike and snowshoe up Mt. Audubon.

It was supposed to be warm on Monday -- the temperature was 30 when we started out at 6:30 AM -- but two things kept us from feeling warm. First, we kept gaining elevation, which drops the temperature. Second, the wind got stronger as we got closer to and then above the treeline.

In the beginning there were tracks to follow from a snowshoer the day before. Once those veered off in the wrong direction, there was enough fresh snow that you couldn't tell there was a trail other than by the wider spacing between trees. We followed it as well as we could but eventually lost the trail and were on our own.

We continued up above treeline and eventually found the trail again. Above treeline there were pretty constant gusts of 30-40 MPH winds. It was a blue-sky day so we kept on going up. The sastrugi were beautiful along the way.

A few hundred vertical feet of the summit we turned around to ensure we would get back in time. The winds had really slowed us down. On the way down we were careful to stay away from the steeper slopes to avoid any possible avalanche danger. Back to the cabin to pick up a few things we left, then hiked out the road to the trailhead.

Quandary in winter

Long day. Weather better than expected. Made it to plateau at 13,000' before turning around due to very high winds that literally knocked us to the ground.

Check out pics.


View Quandary 20-Feb-2010 in a larger map

Lookout Mtn Again

We did it! I can't believe it, but we did it! We parked at Wild Basin again, but this time we followed the Sandbeach Lake trail west for about 3 miles rather than heading north towards Meeker Park. We hiked and then snowshoed for about two and a quarter hours before heading off trail. There was a ton of snow -- up to two feet in parts. Despite the rough going, we got a lot of navigation practice here.

We followed a ridge and then headed north towards a gully. We headed up the gully (at times seeing the creek under the snow) following a northeasterly bearing, before circling around the back of Lookout Mountain. After 3½ hours off trail (plus 2¼ on trail) we finally got to the summit. There wasn't time to hang out long, as we were already at our turn back time. Fortunately, heading back downhill was much easier and much faster. We made it back to the car less than 2½ hours after leaving the summit.

The summit of Lookout Mountain

Lookout Mountain and Horsetooth

Fate was against us today. Our plan was to summit Lookout Mountain and Horsetooth by snowshoe. While we were up on the saddle we wanted to explore Meeker ridge a bit, then descend off trail and head back to the trailhead. But, as the saying goes, first, catch your hare.

How did things not go according to plan?

1. We got a late start this morning since I was up late last night.
2. We got our car stuck in a ditch on County Rd 113N a hundred yards from the trailhead.
3. Two hours into our trip, Laurel says, "Did I give the camera back to you?"
4. As we were retracing our steps to find the camera, Laurel says, "What happened to your other snowshoe?"

After a nice man in the neighborhood towed us out of our first crisis, we decided to park at the Sandbeach Lake TH instead and adjust our route accordingly. We lost and found the camera, and I found my missing snowshoe -- it had come right off my foot as we were hiking and I didn't even notice for 50 feet! We were spooked the rest of the day that items would start crawling out of our packs when we weren't looking.

We didn't get to summit anything today, but we got some good navigation practice and exercise (see our route). We also finally figured out that the tracks we have seen on recent hikes are indeed snowshoe hare -- we hadn't realized previously that their large hind feet land forward of their front feet as they hop, creating that characteristic pattern.

IPW and ROMO map

This map shows every hiking, snowshoe, and skiing trip we have made to the Indian Peaks Wilderness, Arapaho/Roosevelt National Forests, or Rocky Mountain National Park.

Had to do this to figure out where to go this weekend :)


View IPW + ROMO in a larger map

Hurricane Niwot

Dan and I had an adventure today. The weather forecast was gorgeous so we headed into the mountains. Dan plotted out a very cool loop between Ward and Nederland. We parked at the Sourdough trailhead near the CU Research Center. We were the only car in the lot at 9:30 -- a great sign! We snowshoed on the trail for about an hour and a half, then followed a valley towards the summit. About two hours later we finally obtained the summit of Niwot Mountain. It was very cool up there because the clouds kept blowing in different directions so every two minutes the view was different.

To pick up the trail again, we needed to traverse the ridge for over a mile. On a warm summer day, this would have been a very simple feat. Today, however, it was a bit more difficult. The wind was blowing constantly at about 20mph. There were sustained gusts up to 50 or 60 mph. This kind of headwind made things very difficult. Finally, we began our descent into the trees because we couldn't find the trail on the saddle. After 20 minutes heading due south, we finally intersected the trail. We followed this road for another hour or two, and then walked along the road to the car. Eight hours and 11.25 miles later we made it back! In this time, we only saw three other people--and that was only the last hour of the trip. A great (long) day.