Colorado Ice I: RMNP

When the wake-up call began ringing, I had no idea where I was, who was politely thanking the clerk for the ridiculously early rousing, or why I was having such a hard time breathing. Slowly, as I lay in bed and stared into the darkness, the surroundings and the upcoming weekend's plans came back into focus. I was in Denver, with Guillaume of course, and we were planning a foray into the Rockies for a lot of adventure and a little bit of ice. With the most modest of planning and a whole lot of ambition, our goal for Saturday was to climb the West Gully, nestled high up in Glacier Gorge on the eastern side of RMNP. It ended up being quite a long day indeed, which will hopefully be appreciated via timeline:

4:00 AM (hotel, Denver)
Waking up to find G already showered and gearing up, I groan and struggle to get out of bed. The elevation's not too bad if I don't move, but I get the feeling there's going to be a lot of moving involved  today. We're going relatively light: besides tools and crampons, we pack two ropes, nine screws, harnesses and belay gear, and a small assortment of slings and biners. Emergency bivy sacs and headlamps are our primary epic precautions. With a careful check of the weather and recent conditions, we set off without snowshoes or skis, and without avy beacons and shovels. As G put it, 'adventure' was the word of the day

4:45 AM (Denver)
Out the door and in the car. Is it just me, or are these packs kind of heavy?

5:00 AM (McDonalds, somewhere near Boulder)
Quick pit stop to fuel up with the breakfast of champions: grease. Pitch black out, with sunrise still a couple of hours off. As we head up into the foothills of Front Range, we switch the tunes from G's 'depressed' soundtrack to 'not climbing, not depressed' to, finally, 'climbing'. Ready or not, here we come

6:45 AM (Glacier Gorge trailhead, RMNP)
Still dark, we pull into the parking lot at the trailhead. While it was pretty deserted on the road from Denver and even in the park itself, with the entrance unmanned, the parking lot is a bevy of activity - multiple parties are suiting up by their cars. The people I'm not worried about, though most seem like climbers it's a gigantic park with classic climbs all around; the fact that most are carrying snowshoes or skis is, however, a little more concerning.

7:05 AM (trail to Mill's Lake)
We keep the layers light, anticipating the sweating ahead. Below treeline here, it's relatively warm and the snowpack is pretty firm - apparently, lots of snowshoers head up to the first lake in the gorge (Mill's). We take it easy on the pace, though it soon feels not-so-easy to me. Elevation 9240' at the start.

7:55 AM (Mill's Lake, Loch Vale junction)
Slow and steady, we're passed by locals who clearly know their way around. The winter trail is still pretty well packed, though an unsuspecting step too far left or right puts us in knee deep snow. Headed southward up into the gorge now, where the quickest path is in the center of the gorge, over the drainage itself - somewhere below the snow is running water.

8:30 AM (Mill's Lake)
Finally, we reach Mill's Lake, which in wintertime is frozen enough to offer a quick path over its diameter. The view is stunning, with a series of knife-edge ridges running along the east and Thatchtop mountain to the west. A steady flow of climbers past have tramped down enough snow to clearly show the way across the frozen waves.

10:00 AM (looking for Black Lake)
Starting to tire, as the snowpack loses its density and more and more steps result in knee- or even thigh-deep wallowing. G may be tired, but he keeps pushing ahead as I lag behind. We have a topo, but the GPS is back in the car, and the trail of previous passersby gets thinner and thinner. The lake must be somewhere ahead but every hilltop is greeted with the sight of more trees and deep snow.

10:45 AM (still looking for Black Lake)
Still heading upwards, hoping to hit Black Lake soon. Constant postholing in spots now, and I'm really starting to feel the elevation. I make a silent note that sooner or later we're going to have to turn around if we don't find West Gully, which to my relief G confirms verbally soon enough. Even though we haven't found the lake, we hopefully eye some small lines of ice to the left of us (which, now, sitting warm and comfy at my keyboard, I realize couldn't have been right - they were on the east side of the gorge).

11:00 AM (below Black lake: inspiration from above)
Floundering through more knee-deep snow, I crest a hill to see G sitting on a rock, smiling. He has just run into a party of 3 descending from Long's Peak after an overnight bivy and alpine start. According to them, West Gully is just another 45 minutes away. Finally!

11:30 AM (Black Lake)
We drop down onto the frozen surface of Black Lake and take a gander. The cirque around the lake is beautiful, and to the right we see the west gully ice at the base of the slopes heading up to McHenry's peak.

12:00 AM (below West Gully)
Heading up the approach slopes towards the ice. Avy conditions seem stable, no recent snow and the entire pack is fairly well crusted. To be on the safe side, we take the recommended approach towards the middle three-tiered flow (Stoneman), avoiding the more avy-prone left and right slopes. Blue skies have given way to cloud cover at this elevation, and we can see spindrift coming down from up over the cliffs. Elevation roughly 10500'.

12:15 PM (below West Gully)
Suiting up: helmet on, harness buckled, crampons latched. Despite gearing up on the downslope side of a boulder, and adequate warning from the party above, I'm almost decked by a toaster sized plate of ice sent down by a climber on the north side of the cliff. Adrenaline's pumping now...

12:30 PM (West Gully)
We decide that, after all this work, we're going to at least scope out the gully. G heads up the snow slope to the cliff base, and heads left and up towards the ice. I trail the other rope and head up after him: with climbing in sight, suddenly the steps feel easier.

1:15 PM (p1, West Gully)
G sinks a couple of solid screws into the ice on the right, and I join him soon enough. We organize quickly; it's warm enough when the wind doesn't blow but when it does the chilling snow gets everywhere. G sets off up into the gully, and soon enough the only trace of his presence is ice shooting down the slope.

2:00 PM (p1 belay)
Follow up to meet G at a three-screw belay on the right side of the gully. Nice, heady lead in not-so-nice ice. The ice is brittle in spots, and much of the right side is a crust of ice over snow. I slowly work my way up to him and clip into the anchor. I can see he's been struggling to set up a decent anchor in less-than-perfect conditions, including a teeny ice pillar. I approve, certainly enough to sit on the anchor.

2:30 PM (rappel)
After talking it over, we decide we've gotten enough axe swinging and would rather not sleep outside. Cloud cover is getting thicker and the sky's turning darker. G sinks a perfect v-thread on his first try, and we back it up with a slung pillar; we keep an extra screw in the rap system for me, whose fat ass gets voted off the anchor island first.

3:00 PM (stuck ropes)
The two tied ropes get us easily back down to the approach slopes, but we manage to stick the frozen knot as we pull the rope around the north end of the gully wall. Repeated pulls and lassoing, and my tying in to the rope and hauling downslope eventually free them. Small victories indeed.

3:30 PM (Black Lake exit)
Happy to be back to our packs, we quickly pack frozen gear and head off down towards the lake. A couple of climbers who arrived when we first headed up are high up on the wall, but we don't stick around long to watch them. It's getting cold and dark.

4:30 PM (above Mill's Lake)
The adrenaline from the climb is starting to wear off, and I'm very conscious of the energy required for each step. The effort to pull out knee-deep powder is incredibly tiring. At one point, we take a rest and the exhaustion is all-encompassing.

4:45 PM (Mill's Lake)
Finally! I hear G's voice up ahead, a victory for the morale: we're at Jewel Lake, the small body of water right above Mill's. The sky is darkening perceptibly, and we don't stop to enjoy the view.

5:30 PM (somewhere below Mill's Lake)
Headlamps on now, steady snowfall is starting to erase the trail. G does a fantastic job of sniffing it out as I trudge along behind. The Snickers we brought along is finally getting a little sugar in my system.

6:15 PM (0.3 miles to trailhead)
Longest 0.3 miles of my life. The only thing I see is the small circle of illuminated snow in front of me, and G's headlamp in the distance.

6:30 PM (parking lot!)
Back to the car! I try not to slip and break something in the icy parking lot (that would be embarrassing), it feels so good to get the heavy pack off my shoulders. We crank some Harlem Shakes and try to stay awake for the drive home.

8:30 PM (hotel, Denver)
Warm shower, cold beer, big burgers. Nothing quite like that first bite after a day like today.