TR: RMNP (Sept 2010) – Greenbacks and Glaciers!
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Mid September, 2010 – Rocky Mountain National Park – Odessa Gorge Area.
We started the trip hiking from Bear Lake (~9500′) to Odessa Lake (10,000′) to camp for the night. The next day we climbed Ptarmigan Glacier to reach the Continental Divide (12,300′). The Glacier itself is about 600 feet tall. We hiked out via the Flattop Mountain Trail to Bear Lake. We took a side trip to Fern Lake for some backcountry fly fishing. Permitting good weather, the hike from Bear Lake to Lake Helene to Ptarmigan Glacier and exiting via Flattop would be a great day hike with appropriate gear (read on, ~3000′ up, 10 or so miles round trip).
Here I am on the trail to our Odessa Lake campsite.
Near the Odessa Lake Campsite
We hiked down to Fern Lake after setting up camp to catch some Greenback Cutthroat trout. Here are a few pics…
Getting some early morning calories in preparation for our ascent of Ptarmigan Glacier later that day.
One of the spectacular views from our Odessa Lake campsite
Near Lake Helene
The tundra colors were amazing…
Above Lake Helene. North of Flattop Mountain. Heading up towards Ptarmigan Glacier.
Eric hiking towards the glacier… spectacular views!
Backside of Notchtop Mountain. I wished I brought a wider angled lens to capture both the mountain and it colors reflecting in the pool.
For several hundred yards we found bones scattered in the talus. Eventually we figured out what animal it came from.
The snow fields this late in the fall were nearly solid ice in the early morning. Making traversing them more difficult due to the exposure. We had brought along Kahtoola Microspikes and we are glad we did. We also had ice axes, that were essential to do this hike. We didn’t bring helmets which in retrospect I regretted while on the glacier itself.
The majority of the upper basin is rocks on top of several feet of ice. In places 12+ feet of ice was visible with the boulders resting on top of them. This made the stability of the boulders less than ideal.
Here we have began our final ascent to the Continental Divide.
As you might expect, the glacier itself it quite steep. This required an ice axe and as mentioned above I would bring a helmet next time. Marmots above were knocking baseball sized rocks down the slopes and they would whiz by our heads… (scary!). Sections of the upper glacier are approximately 50 or so degrees steep. With only microspikes available we opted to skirt the side of the glacier hoping on and off the occasional rock that was frozen in the ice. At times there were 10 to 20 foot sections without stable rocks. A few times we needed to drive our ice axes into the glacier to facilitate stable upwards movement. I’m not so sure we attempted this at the most difficult time of the year when the glacier was mostly solid ice without snow pack on top? A short piece of climbing rope (30′) with a climbing biner would have been nice to set up a bit of fall protection (clipping into a sunken ice axe). Self arresting with the axe on this sheet of ice would not have been idea.
We were all smiles at the top. Feeling that we accomplishing something but also being thankful neither were injured. There is an impressive bergschrund at the top of the glacier.
We dropped our packs at the top and explored the western side of the glacier. Here is Eric heading back up to the divide.
Looking back on our route for the morning.
We headed due west toward the wonderland area. You can see the west side lakes near Grand Lake from this view.
Resting an injured iliotibial band (outside left knee) and refueling. We opted out of dropping down on the west side of the divide to fish Lake Nanita. Instead we hobbled back down the Flattop Mountain Trail back to Bear Lake.
Watching the clouds build and thinking we best be heading off the mountain.
One last view of Odessa Gorge (Odessa Lake, our initial location for the day is on the left).
The CDT
Tyndall Glacier
I’ve never seen a Pika in the park so I was excited to do so!
Longs and Glacier Gorge from the Flattop Mountain Trail.
Excellent report, awesome pictures, and it looks like one hell of a fun trip. Thanks for sharing that. Good to see that you got into some Greenbacks, they are beautiful fish.
Great report and photos Brian!
I’ve done a similar trip into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness (Wyoming) and this brought back memories. Camping and fishing above treeline is an awesome experience. I haven’t got a lot of confidence in my ice-climbing abilities – but you guys have got it down!
Thanks for posting!!
Steve – I’ve always wanted to make a trip to the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. I’ve got the inside scoop on a few lakes loaded with cutthroat.
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