Gear Testing in RMNP:

We've lived here almost seven months and haven't officially been to Rocky Mountain National Park yet; all of an hour's drive north of Boulder. Shameful, really! It was a fine winter day and we set out to correct the situation. We reached the crowded Bear Lake trailhead at the leisurely time of 11am and got loaded up with gear. Call us obsessive, call us gear freaks, but we were going 'loaded for bear' as Amy put it: ice axes, crampons, snowshoes, and hiking poles, all for a hike to a lake two miles away. I even brought my backcountry shovel for good measure. This trip was part recreation, part gear testing.
The quarter mile of trail from the parking lot past the junction with the Nymph Lake trail was mobbed with people of all descriptions, all of them on snowshoes. The trail was gentle, gorgeous and pretty well packed with conciderable snow. We set a good pace arriving at the small Nymph Lake perhaps 20 minutes after leaving the car. Various people milled about on the frozen lake wondering where to go. We headed west from the south end of the lake and quickly began to ascend through some fairly steep glades. The trail bifurcated and rejoined a few times and people struggled up the steep slopes in whatever manner seemed best to them.

Eventually, the slope eased and the trees became more sparse. We emerged into a beautiful valley housing the long, thin Dream Lake. The distinctive shape of Hallett Peak loomed to the west on the south side of the valley with the dramatic spires and pinacles of Flattop Mountain on the north. We paused to watch a Whiskeyjack devour an apple core and take some pictures.

One of the fearless whiskyjacks (Grey Jays) seen on the hike.

A nice snowscape near Dream Lake

On the upstream end of Dream Lake, the trail headed up the north side of the creek. We spied a less-trodden path on the south side and took it instead. The path wound about the trees and slabbed up a fairly steep slope. Gorgeous! Toward the top of the rise, it became indistinct and we were forced to bushwhack over some rocks and spruce traps to regain the main trail. Emerald Lake, our objective for the day, was reached a few hundred yards later on.

The view of Hallett Peak's north face from Emerald Lake.

Would you believe that this is Flattop Mountain? Amy amongst the gear at Emerald Lake.

Unfortunately, the sun had set behind the imposing cliffs of Hallett's north face by the time we arrived and the wind made life very chilly. Part of our objective in this hike was to practice ice axe and crampon use in an alpine setting. Steep snow slopes surrounded the lake on several sides and looked like the would do well for the task. After a quick bite to eat, we doffed snowshoes, grabbed our axes, and started up a likely looking slope on the south side of the lake. It rose about a hundred vertical feet at a slope near 45 degrees. Unfortunately, the snow conditions weren't ideal and under the several inches of wind-pack were a couple feet of powder. We got good practice using our axes to belay our climb, but the self-arresting power of a sharp axe in soft powder is not great. Still, it gave us a chance to practice the moves a few times and get comfortable.

Interesting wind-carved snow on Dream Lake

The north-west face of Longs Peak seen from near Nymph Lake.

The day was waning and it was getting cold, so we packed up camp and headed back down the valley. The retreat went without incident. Back at Nymph Lake, we paused for more food and then exitted the pond via a well-trodden trail at the north side. This lead down a fairly steep hillside to Bear Lake. Feeling pretty fresh, we wandered across Bear Lake and found a nice, steep slope on its north side where a dozen kids were sledding on snow tubes. This might be ideal for snow climbing practice! I deployed my shovel and discovered it makes a hellaciously fast sled, much to the amusement of the more conventional sledders. Amy and I then practiced some self arrests on the much slicker sledding slope for half an hour or so. Finally, we retreated the quarter mile back to the car much more confident in our ability to stop a slide on packed snow. The axes behaved well and we got a chance to put some practice behind our theoretical reading.

Shovel Racing: the next extreme sport!

Good, easy trip with a modest 4 miles of hiking and some world-class scenery. As an added bonus, we got to test out some new gear.

The view south from Bear Lake. Long's peak is the tall, square-topped mountain.

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The Wilderness Journal

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