Spring Ski Descent,
Tyndall Gorge, Rocky Mountain National Park
5/11/98
Author:
Mike Sullivan
Participants: Mike Sullivan, Lee Keiser, Randy Bimestfer, Dave Tatarski,
and Danzig the Mountain Dog
This is a great loop, with incredible scenery, easy access, and lots of
vertical for the mileage (2900' in a 6 mile round-trip). We started out
in Estes Park and drove to the Bear Lake trailhead. At 8 AM on a weekday
in May it was nearly deserted - a nice contrast to the teeming swarms of
tourists and hikers that would soon migrate in for the summer. We were
able to ski right from the trailhead, with a short ski carry across a
south facing switchback. As we climbed towards the summit of Flattop
Mountain, we went from windy and clear conditions to a riproaring
whiteout. It blew over quickly, and we had some really cool views of
Glacier Gorge and Longs Peak to the southeast and Notchtop Mtn. to the
north. The 1000' north face of Hallett Peak was directly across the
gorge, almost close enough to touch. A needle-sharp wind kept us from
lingering over the views, however.
At the summit, we found that a winter's worth of jetstream gales along
the continental divide had piled up some nice 40' cornices on the
ridges, and we looked down several couloirs trying to find a good
compromise between fun and safety. We finally chose the top of the
gorge, dropping in from the saddle between Flattop and Hallett. The
steep headwall of the gorge was kind of icy, but went quickly. We then
veered right to avoid several moraines and stuck to the deep snow
nestled under the face of Hallett.
After a few hundred feet of good snow, we hit a belt of bottomless mush
that sucked skis and poles down towards the center of the earth. The
steep pitch down to Emerald Lake had seen several wet surface
avalanches, so we doublechecked our beacons and
skied/wallowed/tele-crashed one at a time down to the lake. Wooph... I
felt like the Abominable Slush Monster by the time I finally came in for
a spread-eagle landing at the bottom. Danzig (Dave's dog, illegally
smuggled into the park) pretty much did somersaults down the whole
thing, sometimes completely disappearing below the surface.
We rested, ate, ogled at Hallett's North Face and dried out on some
slabs at the foot of the lake. The return entailed some more slush
wallowing, but I got to do some fun skating across the semi-thawed
surface of Dream Lake, cruising along on a 6" layer of the stuff that
slurpees are made of. We got back to the trailhead about 1:30 and spent
a while answering entertaining questions from the early-season tourists
who passed by...
