Rocky Mountain National Park - 2015
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Originally, this trip was planned by the Chicago Mountaineering Club for a Winter ascent of Mt. Massive by way of the East Slopes (Leadville Fish Hatchery) route. The trip was planned for April 16-20th, 2015. Spring in the mountains has a great degree of variability, and this time it appeared to be in our favor. The snowpack was very low, and most of the exposed ridges were clear of snow and ice. Temperatures were beginning to warm up, and it seemed it would be a very pleasant trip.
Unfortunately, Colorado received one of their worst storms all Winter season the evening of our arrival. Given the dangerous travel situation leaving the airport, and reports of hazardous travel through the I-70 corridor west to Leadville, we decided to adjust our plans. Changing our plans to situate ourselves within Rocky Mountain National Park seemed a smart adjustment. Considering the almost two feet of small that deposited in the region, the majority of slopes would possess an avalanche risk. After consulting with the backcountry staff of Rocky Mountain National Park, we elected to start our trip from the Bear Lake Trailhead, and attempt a summit of Flattop Mountain.
The magnitude of the storm would conspire against us further. The National Park Service was still unable to clear most of the roads in the park the following day, particularly the Bear Lake Road we needed to utilize this move into the backcountry. With snow still falling at times, and roads only partially cleared the following day, we stayed the night at a cabin (Gorby) donated to the Mountaineering Federation of Chicago. This cabin, located just outside RMNP's Wild Basin entrance, was a great temporary stop. After clearing out a neighbor's driveway, we made a significant day hike into the park, seeing Mount Meeker and Mount Orton in the distance.
The next morning, Saturday, April 18th, we were able to "start" our trip. The park service was still clearing Bear Lake Road as we drove to the Bear Lake Trailhead. This location was packed full of people! Hotels and resorts in the area were shuttling visitors to this location for snowshoe excursions around Bear Lake, People who didn't know how to strap on or use snowshoes abounded. In addition, the favorable slope of Flattop Mountain to telemark meant there were skiers repeatedly passing us on our snowshoes. Our original plan was to take the Fern Lake trail and camp on Joe Mills mountain, northeast of Flattop. However, the avalanche conditions further down the trail led us to stop early near the Sourdough campsite. After a few amusing attempts at building snow caves, we completed our camp setup.
On Sunday, April 19th, equipped with light summit packs we returned east on the Fern Lake trail, and then headed west on the Flattop Mountain trail. The high number of skiers compressed the snow sufficiently to make travel quite a bit easier. However, once on the exposed slopes of Flattop, establishing a trail was more difficult. Fortunately, the slope was not severe to make traveling dangerous or significantly tiring. It would just take time. Eventually, we reached the plateau of Flattop, and the summit was near. Regrettably, winds were customarily high, and visibility was very limited. Reflecting on the group's differing reluctance and concerns with proceeding, the decision to head back down was taken. The group arrived back in camp during the late afternoon. The sun was brilliant, and we enjoyed a comedic time in camp, complete with music and dancing.
Due to the variety of departures from Denver International Airport, we needed to get an early start. The hike out went relatively quickly. There was a beautiful cloud cover over the valley with the early morning sun was spectacular. We skipped breakfast in camp to get a very hearty and calorie filled breakfast in town. I suspect no one had less than 600 calories during breakfast. Later, we traveled to the airport, and we all arrived safely back in Chicago.