May 16th Conditions for Rocky Mountain National Park
This is the prime alpine spring snow and ice season in Rocky Mountain National Park and although the ice is still far from happening, the snowy mixed routes are in fine shape and now is a great time to kick some snow, plunge that ice axe and reach some incredible summits via a classic alpine route. A view of the east face of Long's with the Notch Couloir and Kiener's visible above the storm clouds on May 14th, 2007
Finishing up an AMGA Alpine Guide's Course this week, our strong team made ascents of "Quicksilver" and the "Central Buttress" routes on Taylor Peak as well as "Kiener's" on the east face of Long's Peak. Trail conditions hiking into Longs were casual with about half snow and half sandy trail. Where there is snow on the approach is it relatively beat down and does not require snowshoes into Chasm Lake. On the way into Chasm we ran into a skilled team of local alpinists and they reported "great" conditions on the route "Dreamweaver" on the north face of Mt. Meeker which they climbed with one tool and crampons. Reporting ice at the crux pitches, and solid step-kicking snow the rest of the way, some parties may like a second tool and a few screws to safely ascend and protect the crux sections. Sunrise on May 15th, 2007 from Broadway on Long's Peak
Kiener's was in it's usual spring form with mostly firm snow and minimal avalanche risk for the duration of the climb up Lambslide, across Broadway, through the upper slopes and with great snow on the North Face descent, we did just one 100' rappel off the big eye bolt to make a complete loop up and over the summit. Since we had bivied below the east face, a descent of the steep couloir to the west of the usual Camel descent made for a quick drop down to our gear and a long and fulfilling day.In the Loch Vale Gorge, the south facing aspects are 95% dry and the Petit and Saber are beckoning to the alpine rock jocks out there. Check it out: Sunrise views of the Sharkstooth, Petit Grepon, and the Saber from Skypond Lake on May 13th
Otherwise, some of these approaches require snowshoes to avoid some mushy postholing in spots and the other classic ephemeral ice routes of the high country are unlikely to come into shape at the moment as routes like Vanquished are better for rafting at the moment than two tooling.Check-out the photo's in the gallery section of this site from our day yesterday, May 15th on Kiener's and judge for yourself the snow and rock conditions. We carried about a dozen cams up to a #2 camalot, a handfull of nuts and about 10 shoulder length slings and did the route in about 10 pitches including the traverse across the very airy Broadway Ledge.I'll be heading to Joshua Tree tomorrow morning to get married to the amazing Joanne Bradbury and will be home on the 28th to continue adding routes and information to this web site, teaching climbing, training guides, guiding routes big and small, and having lots of fun along the way. Have a great week out there!
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