Ever go down Sundance Mountain to Old Trail Ridge Road?

Hi all- (repost as new topic - sorry loveland guys)

Hopefully trail ridge road opens (today?). I have been up on Sundance mountain a couple of times over the last few years and was wondering if anyone has contemplated/attempted/succeeded going all the way down to the river and skiing/hiking out the drainage on old fall river road? Am I nuts for thinking that this might be an option or any fun at all? Any beta welcomed-

-Julie

Julia,

I haven't done it, but here is a topo: terraserver-usa.com/image.a…;S=12&Z=13&X=549&Y=5591&W=3

I have done some non-technical stuff in that area...a circumnavigation of the Mummies starting up the North Fork, and around to Chapin Pass to come down Fall River Road (which was closed at the time). I took my time in 4 days.

Also, skiied up Fall River Road and down Trail Ridge Road. I bushwhacked back down to Fall River Road which was not fun with long skiis on my pack. I did that in two days.

P.S. I took notice of the avalanche chutes coming off of Sundance. Do it when temps and sun angle result in stable snow and watch out for cliff bands.

Julia,
There is a classic spring ski from the "S" curves on TRR down to Fall River Road. The locals will help you find it. When we did it (25 years ago) we just bashed our way through. You can't get lost...going dow will get you to FRR.

Good luck,
Mal

Malcolm's right, you just have to know the right spot to leave the ridge, it is an excellent spring ski. Exiting on the Fall River Road requires a shuttle or long walk out. When I did it we just went back up for another lap, then back up to the car. See how many laps you can do! I think my friend said he once did four!

Here's a link with info

Julie

50/50 I am free on Sunday. If free I will do it.

Just email. kcoopman@yahoo.com if you need someone else to go.

Kevin

Thanks to all for your input on this! I am going back up next weekend as they did not open trail ridge road today until late morning so we did Flattop instead. Flattop was in excellent shape this morning but some hiking required to get up and down as snow does not come all the way down to bear lake parking lot now. Notchtop looked great from Flattop btw. I think that it would be quite a hike out on old trail ridge road now based on snow melt observed while up in the park today but will eyeball this thing and make some determination on the way up and down. Am guessing too much melt already to make a decent go of this. Some cold, snowy year I am going to ski out of that drainage :-) Thx again everyone!

I am doing this tomorrow (Friday) and anyone can join ....

Anyways, can I just ski down to fall river road and ski the road down to trailridge (looks like 4 miles ish) and get picked up or something?

I see fall river road goes down a couple thousand feet but does it have snow on it ....