Arapahoe glacier to S. Arapaho peak
|
Hello all, I am pretty comfortable on snow and ice but now instead of my ski boots I am moving into the alpine realm. I am thinking of going up Arapaho glacier to S. Arapaho peak this weekend to get some use/practice out of my crampons and ice ax. |
|
Isn't that the one that's in the Boulder watershed, and is highly illegal to be on? And accessing it, were it legal to do so, from the 4th of July TH would be problematic too. |
|
I don't know, the ranger at the Boulder Dist. told me that would be a good place to practice and climb from... I would have thought she would have told me its illegal. |
|
I found this on the web:
|
|
Ok, I called her back and basically she said that from the overlook you can cut through the watershed area but they don't want you going back down to the east into the actual lakes area. She said stay north and west of the line for the peak and dont go east and I will be fine. |
|
Check out the Apache Couloir or Queens Way. I've been waiting the past few weeks for the weather systems to settle and let the snowpack stabalize...Looks like this weekend might be good or at least the start of of the spring season. If I get out there this weekend, I'll post on the conditions as I'm not sure if it's a little to early for these routes. |
|
Yeah, apache couloir is a great hike and climb, I've done it solo in july in just AT boots with ski poles, but maybe that was stupid as it is pretty steep. The headwall of the glacier just to the south is way steep and could be rad too. But unless brainard road is open (I don't think it is yet, maybe I'm wrong) that's a hell of a walk. Lots of people park at the gate and ride bikes up to the trail heads, that's an option. |
|
Here's a nicely compiled list. |
|
Climbed Audobon on snowshoes on Sun & the Brainard Lake road was closed. 1.75 miles up the road to the lake is free and clear by bike. At the lake there are some drifts and at the Mitchell Creek turnoff there are 8' drifts covering the road. Snow was great up there and there were a bunch of AT skiiers on the couloirs. |
|
Thanks Margaret! Were the snowshoes absolutely necessary? |
|
I don't know about the Blue Lake trail, but the hike thru the trees to the base of the headwall on the Mitchell Creek trail (up to where the summer trail starts to switchback) REQUIRED snowshoes!! Some poor soul had postholed it out and the holes were a good three feet deep! We were in snowshoes starting at the Mitchell Creek trailhead. |
|
Good to know. Love to not have to carry them, but it's better than postholing! |
|
I didn't see anyone else up there who didn't have snowshoes or skis and skins--I would not have tried to climb the headwall without crampons and an ice axe or ski poles and snowshoes. The slope and the snow condition would have made skinning up it almost impossible. The bowl between Audobon and Notobon is beautiful and skiiable, if you are willing to slog it up there. Once you get over the headwall, the snow disappears until you get to the base of Notobon. The bog on the plateau below Audobon is a fully running stream with lots of willows -- to be avoided. |
|
Dave, |
|
Yup, after doing some research and looking at the map I posted above, I was talking about two different sides of the mountain. |
|
Check out the trip report from Andy Leach....looks like a steepie!! |
|
Definitely keeping an eye on the weather. I looked up the NOAA pinpoint and noon is the cut off for sure. I am going to get up REALLY early. A nice alpine start in the dark. I figure since its not going to get below 40, I need to hit it and be down by 11:30 at the latest. |
|
Well, I climber skywalker on Saturday. It was awesome. I had to climb the rocks on the right at the top though since the snow was getting really wet and sliding out under my feet once it got 50+degrees. |
|
Nice work man! Glad to see that weather worked out for you. We decided to opt for Sunday out after we got DUMPED on climbing in the Allenspark / Estes area on Saturday. Sleet and heavy rain. We were picking snow off our T-shirts. |
|
Thanks! It was a great first day out on my new gear. I am really excited about this alpine thing. There is SO much to climb back there too. Thank you all for helping me make Saturday so successful! |
|
Hey Dave, Strong work. I was one of the skiers (group of 4, 3 gals and 1 guy) you talked to and took our picture that morning on our way to Mt. Neva. Thanks for the pics. I assume that is us in your slideshow? Hopefully you were not one of the many people still climbing Skywalker at noon!! We saw probably 6 climbers in the choke of the couloir when we were hiking out. We had a later start than I like, but skied off Neva at 1030 and the snow was a bit soft and punchy. A good ski though. We were amazed to see people still climbing in the middle of the couloir at 1200! It was blazing hot and wet slides abound and thunderstorms looming. There were also climbers in some really tight couloirs on the other side of the valley that we saw at 1230 still climbing from the bottom! Hope everyone made it out ok. |