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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...

 


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