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Jan. 10th Conditions Report |
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Up-to-date information by Eli Helmuth on climbing route and trail conditions in Rocky Mountain National Park and throughout the Estes Valley. Avalanche forecasts and skiing conditions in the alpine region are also reviewed.
Warning: Route conditions change constantly, especially in the mountains. Climbing is dangerous. Be flexible in your climbing plans and always prepare for the worst. Be experienced enough for what you are doing. Seek qualified instruction and use proper equipment. We accept no liability for your decisions in the peaks.
January 10th, 2008
Sunrise on the east face of Longs Peak on January 9th, 2008
The weather has warmed by at least 20 degrees F in the last few days and it has been a welcome break from the bone-chilling temperatures of the previous few weeks. The last weekend gave us a decent accumulation of new snow (about 6 inches) and in areas where the wind deposits were deepest in the trees just below the alpine zone, new snow depths were more than a foot deep and postholing in this new snow has been difficult. The wind made for some sensitive slabs in this higher density snow that fell in near-freezing temperatures, with much of the new snow falling on Saturday and Monday above 10,000' in Rocky Mountain National Park.
On the final "enduro slabs" of the West Gully ice route above Black Lake in the Glacier Gorge, RMNP.
There has recently been quite a lot of traffic on the main trail systems in the park due to the snowshoeing craze which has been heavily promoted and is currently sweeping the trails of this snow-covered national park. So on the most popular paths, flotation may not be necessary as most routes are well-packed. But many of the approaches have been getting blown-over with snow and so many backcountry ice routes such as Jaws and The Squid have involved some substantial postholing this past week and we can only imagine how deep the postholing must currently be in the trees below the ice route, All Mixed Up and in similar lee locations.
The current and predicted to last heat-wave could be problematic for some of the more heat-affected ice routes such as Jaws and the Hidden Falls which tend to run wet and potentially too-hot to be dangerous if temperatures are above freezing and the sun is beating down on the ice. Yesterday, under cloudy skies, we found Jaws to be pretty perfect on all but the most thin (and wet) columns. Climbing on this route early in the day or late in the evening may be the best times if the weather forecast for this week comes true. Beware that warm weather could cause the collapse of the large "teeth" of the Jaws and being below such an event would be at minimum, very painful.
The south-facing route Jaws on January 9th, 2008
We will be heading up tomorrow in what looks like a favorable forecast to check-out the classic alpine-mixed route Martha, which we expect will be in excellent condition after this spell of cold and warmer weather and I will make an update immediately as to what we find up in the Longs and Mt. Meeker cirques. With low winds and warmer temperatures forecast for this weekend and beyond, it could be time to start venturing up into the higher elevations again.
(1/11 update)- We found CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger (human caused avalanches probable) on the south-facing slopes that the trail crosses just before the Chasm Lake "meadows" where the ranger cabin lies. These steep slopes had more than two feet of new, wind deposited material on them yesterday morning and this was enough of a "red flag" to make the decision to turn-around instead of attempting to cross this avalanche prone area.
A close-up of the right-hand (M2) variation to the ice route Jaws in the Fern Canyon of RMNP
Many of the higher snow covered slopes will have CONSIDERABLE avalanche danger especially where angles are in the higher 30's and especially on unsupported slopes that are undercut by cliffs and lay on lee aspects. Below treeline and on south-facing slopes above treeline, the avalanche danger will be in the MODERATE range with pockets of CONSIDERABLE danger in the treeline elevation range behind tree fences and ridges where lee and cross-loaded pockets of slab danger exist. The snowpack is overall weak in the high country as a result of being relatively shallow (avg. 100cm) and consisting of cold, faceted snow with a few very hard layers overlaying weaker thin layers which are prone to fracturing and which could result in deep slab instability.
The skiing is still in marginal shape at the moment and we can only keep our fingers crossed that a few more shots of snow will arrive before the heat of spring. We still have some time to go until what is normally the snowy months (March, April, and May) when most of our snowpack is laid down. The Hidden Valley ski area and the east side of Flattop Mountain including the Banana Bowls have been the more popular skiing destinations this winter along with the terrain below the Lake Haiyaha creek which feeds the "Mario Gully". The Trough Couloir on Longs would be a decent ski descent at the moment for those looking to get in some high altitude turns. Afternoon sun could even promote a bit of a corn cycle on this west-facing slope although that might be a hopeful prognosis.
The Tyndall Gorge and Hallett Peak in the first week of January, 2008
Otherwise, Lumpy Ridge is drying out quick and a warm day could be pleasant on the Twin Owls or the Crescent Wall where many testpiece trad routes exist that could benefit from colder, sticky conditions. I've climbed the off-width standard: Crack of Fear on many a January day and the lack of hand sensation is not a big drawback on this body-sized fissure. No doubt, there are some sunny crags nearby Boulder if not Las Vegas that can provide some warmer, winter rock climbing. And then there is Thailand, Greece, Spain...the list goes on. Still, we should appreciate what we've got: some of the windiest alpine rock climbing on the planet!
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