The 2012-13 Colorado Ice Conditions Thread
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Shadrock wrote:Anybody been on Martha?Right now any ice that might have formed is probably buried under a couple of feet of fresh snow. Plus more in the forecast. |
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Martin le Roux wrote: Right now any ice that might have formed is probably buried under a couple of feet of fresh snow. Plus more in the forecast.Climbed at loch vale this past weekend, ice was thin in parts with some mixed lines, about 3 solid flows, went to hidden falls Fri, had the place to ourselves, mostly again a bit of mixed climbing to get onto the routes. Again only 3 lines with some super cool mixed sections. Awesone ice cave at the top with rappel anchors. Snow wasn't too bad, ankle deep with little to no Avy danger. Ice is a little chandliered and brittle |
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A few photos for Christmas week! |
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Question: we headed out to Notchtop earlier in the week (Dec 15) to check out Notchtop's North Face or Grace Falls. Turns out we were wallowing in drifts and only made it to Helene Lake. The North Face was pretty well covered in snow: |
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North Face of Notchtop would be a death route for the foreseeable future. |
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rcky mtn high, how were avy conditions on West Gully in the park? |
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Anybody been to Hidden Falls recently? The last few posts about it are from a couple of weeks back. |
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David Appelhans wrote:rcky mtn high, how were avy conditions on West Gully in the park? Is the park buried under alot of snow now? I was thinking of doing West Gully on Christmas day.We climbed the West Gully a week ago, and as you can see from the photo I posted on the 16th (previously in this thread), avy conditions weren't bad above West Gully, mostly wind scoured, rather than wind loaded. Since then the Park has received additional snow, and I'd guess you can even ski up to Black Lake, which makes for a wonderfully quick descent. It's also been really windy up there, needless to say, so it's possibly that the wind loading and additional snow has increased the avy danger. Of course, there's only one way to find out for sure, but my guess is that it would be worth the trip up there and that it is still climbable. Merry Christmas, and climb safely! John |
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Rocky_Mtn_High wrote:Question: we headed out to Notchtop earlier in the week (Dec 15) to check out Notchtop's North Face or Grace Falls. Turns out we were wallowing in drifts and only made it to Helene Lake. The North Face was pretty well covered in snow: If we had snowshoes, we would have considered the approach to Grace Falls; however, it's not clear to me from the route description and photos where it is exactly. The candidate ice we saw below the North Face were these: Since these were the only decent ice falls that were visible, I'm guessing one is Grace Falls, probably the one that looks more like a waterfall and less like a slab?I agree that pic #3 is Grace Falls, but it is far smaller than its possible max size. Pic #2 I saw on 21 Dec and don't remember seeing that ever before, but it is huge. Looks like fun, though. And agreed, N Face of Notchtop is a death trap, the upper slopes are really wind loaded. |
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Ouray? Silverton? |
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Silverton stuff was looking great a few weeks ago...not that it matters currently |
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The Ouray area is very dry. Very little climbable ice outside of the park. The park itself is very thin/unconsolidated. OK top-roping but almost nothing in leadable shape yet.
And a few others I've been told about but have not seen:
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Is Redstone still dry? |
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There is some ice around Redstone. Tomato Chimney is in and has a trail almost to the base. Lots of the ephemeral routes are trying to come in. Marble falls is still too thin to be safe. Did not look at Avacado Gully or Redstone Pillar. People are climbing at Hays. |
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Treasure Falls is in lean and mean. Tasty Freeze looked in from the parking area for Treasure but there was a lot of snow on it. |
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FWIW, Glenwood Falls was definitely formed up on 12/22, but I can't speak for the quality of the ice as we drove past at night. |
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That's great news guys. Thanks for the info. |
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Silverplume in good condition. Nice and sunny today. |
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Took a newbie to Hidden Falls in RMNP today. Main flow and top pillar are pretty chopped up but can be climbed gracefully by hooking instead of swinging. Looked like most of the ice was pretty old except for the pillars on climber's right, which appear to be actively forming. The lower-angle flow on the far left is running wet as always. Trail in is easy boot-pack. |
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Just after the French pillar collapsed. People still flirting with detached, sublimated, cracked, shit ice!
FYI/PSA: The Lincoln Falls pillars are always super dangerous in the winter. The French Pillar collapsed today with about half a dozen people directly below it and TRing that exact climb, along with a few other people in the vicinity of the falling ice. Im so glad that no one was hurt. I know this forum is no place to rant, so I posted on a new forum the recipe for disaster. |