Alpine conditions

Has anyone been up on anything in the park? I suspect south faces are okay, north faces? Glacier Gorge?

I'm also interested

I've been up to the Chasm Lake cirque and Andrews creek area in the past week, and both areas were good to go as far as rock climbing. The trails were either melted out or well packed snow, super easy walking.

The diamond looks ready, although I have yet to get up there and the N chmy might still be in mixed conditions.

South facing rock in on Mt Otis was very dry and warm. The shortcut trail to Mills lake, skypond, etc is dry.

Glacier Gorge, though, is a major pain to hike in to right now. A vicious wind storm over the winter uprooted hundreds of big trees above Mills lake. This area will be difficult until the rangers get back there with chainsaws. But they'll probably do that soon, so maybe give them a call.

Finally, beware if you're gonna get out on wkdays, the road back to bear lake, glacier gorge trailhead, etc is closing every night at 8pm for construction. If you epic and get back to the car late, be prepared to bivy in the parking lot. Not sure how long this lasts, check their site.

Anyone taken a look at ice/snow conditions on Long's/Meeker recently? Will Dreamweaver/Flying Dutchman/Notch Couloir form up at all this year? I'm planning on being there looking for ice or snow in a couple weeks.

Thanks, I'm aware of the construction issue in glacier gorge but I didn't know about the windthrow. I think the bus/shuttle deal is going to last a considerable part of the season, I was anticipating bivies for glacier gorge. Again, thank you! That will help me plan out some early ascents...hopefully.

Auto-X, my buddy and I climbed part of Dreamweaver on 5/19. Most of the approach had just a dusting of new snow. The snowfield leading up to the first rock step was fairly consolidated with 3-4 inches of new snow on top. We were kicking steps, but it wasn’t too deep. As we got higher, though, the snow got deeper and more unconsolidated. We bailed after going a little ways above the top of the Flying Buttress due to it being late and poor conditions. I was trying to wallow up through thigh-deep loose snow. It snowed on us most of the day, though the snow was melting on any rock or bare ground since it was warm out. We didn’t get a good look at the Dutchman and Notch since the clouds had come in by the time we got closer to the E face.

Edit: I just saw a post on 14ers.com from someone who climbed it on 5/22, and it sounds like he had much better snow conditions:

Re: Colorado Couloir Conditions
by astrobassman » 23 May 2012, 10:59

Went up Dreamweaver yesterday (5/22). The snow conditions made for a fast climb. The cruxes are starting to get iced up so two tools was nice to have. The third crux was the hardest. I haven’t done this route before, but from pictures it looks like more ice can form in the cruxes than what we experienced, so in a few weeks it might make for more interesting ice climbing.

Climbed Dream Weaver on 5/21 and it was in great condition and probaly getting better.

Has anyone been on or near the Hourglass Couliour lately?

We tried the Hourglass Couloir last weekend but couldn't get through the Glacier Gorge because of the fallen trees (more than just one). I'd call to check if the trees have been cleared before attempting the approach. It took us several hours to move less than half a mile over the trees before we turned back.

Thanks for the info about the downed trees. I spoke to a ranger today and he informed me that most of the trees have been cleared.

Does anyone have any information on route or approach conditions for any of the following routes/areas?
-Hourglass coulior
-Blitzen Ridge
-Notchtop South Ridge

Any words of wisdom are appreciated. Thanks in advance!

How's Broadway Looking? Any recent Pics out there?

From Hwy 7 it looked pretty snowy.

Yesterday it looked pretty snowy. I also noticed some snow on a couple of the ledges on the Casual Route.

BUT, I should definitely say that this was from the tiny airplane window at ~22k'.

The entire north face was also ~20-30% snow covered (patchy).

Climbed Dream Weaver on Sunday, great conditions, with good ice on all of the steps. Here's a shot of Longs for those wondering about Broadway.

Just to reply to Simon Thompson update from the NPS, the trail to Glacier Gorge is far from being cleared. I'm not sure if the NPS is aware of the extent of the downed trees or not, but they have only cleared about 100 yards of the 0.5 mile or so of the tree hellscape. It took my buddy and every bit of an hour to negotiate our way through going to spearhead and +2 hrs on the way back on Tuesday (5/29). It is a maze and is difficult to follow any path or lack thereof and nearly impossible by headlamp. We looked at the area from up on the ridge above Black Lake and it looks like a 0.5 mile crop circle. Craziest thing I have ever seen. Plan accordingly and bring your chainsaw...

Hello all

This might help . . .

mountainproject.com/v/trail…

Happy sending

S. Facing rock is dry (Notchtop & Petit having seen more than a few ascents already) or mostly dry. Getting to the base of the Petit, depending on the morning and time of day, an ice axe, boots and crampons are helpful. Notchtop's trail in is snowy but the final approach to the base is mostly snow-free. Hallet is still drippy but I've heard the Chimney might be in good shape? The Culp-Bossier usually dries up first. The Chasm View Wall is mostly dry and Martha's had pretty good ice in it as of a few days ago. Another guide was on Kieners a few days ago and said Alexander's looked in as did the Eighth Route. Many N. Faces still hold ice and it seems to be growing lately (ie, Dreamweaver). Much less snow this winter than usual, as we all know, so it should be a long alpine-rock season!

Russell Errett wrote:Just to reply to Simon Thompson update from the NPS, the trail to Glacier Gorge is far from being cleared. I'm not sure if the NPS is aware of the extent of the downed trees or not, but they have only cleared about 100 yards of the 0.5 mile or so of the tree hellscape. It took my buddy and every bit of an hour to negotiate our way through going to spearhead and +2 hrs on the way back on Tuesday (5/29). It is a maze and is difficult to follow any path or lack thereof and nearly impossible by headlamp. We looked at the area from up on the ridge above Black Lake and it looks like a 0.5 mile crop circle. Craziest thing I have ever seen. Plan accordingly and bring your chainsaw...

Has anyone been on the cables route/north face of Long's? I hear they got some snow over the past week or so - I'm wondering if the face is consolidated or at risk of sliding with the warm temps.

Thanks.

Any updates, or intelligent guesses about what the warm weekend will do to n-facing ice and snow (lamb's slide, Dreamweaver, Notch Couloir)?

I'm currently planning on climbing those sort of routes with an early start, as it appears to me that temps should be below freezing on north faces at night. Will they be mush by noon?

Some buddies went up to Hourglass Couloir recently and I overheard them talking about it; sounds like it was mostly snow, not much ice.

I've spent a few days on n-facing stuff in the Park and elsewhere; if it's been even slightly overcast overnight and/or temps haven't reached freezing, the snow isn't that great for climbing the following day and warms up really quick. This hasn't been awful, ankle-deep steps for example, but not the truly frozen "neve" that we'd like to see. However, things warm and get sloppy quickly, especially on the peripheries of snowfields. It all depends on the preceding night and I guess I've just been out on warmer nights lately. I haven't seen any wet-avalanche activity, personally, nor have I heard of any but there's been a fair bit of rockfall activity in the mornings. I saw ice in some areas that was gone 3-4 days later.

We found good ice in Total Abandon on Pikes Peak's N. Face last weekend; it was wet but still fun to climb grade 4 ice in June.