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Early AM start
My partner (Kevin Webb) and I parked at the fork where Rock Creek heads south and St Vrain Mountain Trailhead heads west in Allenspark.
We used the "Front Range Ski Descents" guidbook on this tour. They mentioned following Rock Creek as it is a more direct route to St Vrain Mountain- our destination for the day.
Skinning up before sun up.
Rock Creek Road is as easy to follow as anything, but very long if you take every switchback.
We broke away from the road once it takes a hard left so we could follow Rock Creek. This turned out to be a nightmare after a 1/2 mile or so due to excessive dead fall and steep terrain. Once the creek freezes and holds more than a few feet of snow it would be possible to skin up the creek directly, but for now I would advise against it.
Parts of the creek were frozen.
The picture illustrates some of the faceted surface layers we encountered on the way up.
Nearing treeline
After our bushwhacking mini adventure, the trees started to thin out and we could see St Vrain Mountain.
We picked this mountain for a long tour because it is mellow and looked to be holding snow since October. We were hoping for a well filled in bowl....
A look back towards the northern front range.
It was a bluebird day.
A tree top bird's nest.
I wanted to see the occupants, but they were probably enjoying their rest on this beautiful morning.
St Vrain Mountain
My next few photos sucked because I accidentally left my camera on ISO3200.
Every on snow picture turned out too bright. Last summer I bought a Canon Powershot G10 and I'm still figuring out all its functions.
A first look at Meeker and Longs.
It was great to finally get a nice view from all that slogging.
A look south to the Indian Peaks.
Here's Kevin skinning up the bowl.
What I love about tours such as these is we were able to keep our skis on for almost the entire time. From the car we only had to walk for about an 1/8 of mile, then at the summit we had to take the skis off to walk through the rocks and touch the summit cairn. For me skinning is the most efficient way to travel through the mountains.
Kevin on the summit.
A look west from the summit.
A better view of Longs and Meeker
The descent
Here's Kevin skiing off the summit.
This mellow mountain has three false summits. We kept thinking, "cool, it's time to ski!" Then, "shit, another 200 yards!"
Once we started skiing it wasn't really too bad. The top was hardpacked, and we did have to pick through some boulders before we could make some meaningful turns. The top third was predictable and fun. The lower bowl bowl was another story....
Kevin skiing down the the upper portion of the mountain.
Once we started into the lower bowl is when the fireworks started. First I hit a large rock, then Kevin. Neither one of us was hurt, or even crashed, because we expected to hit rocks once we hit softer snow. But the thought of trashing our rock skis still sucks a little bit.
Our tracks in the lower bowl.
As we made turns down the bowl the snow was deep enough where we stopped hitting rocks. Overall, the turns were pretty damn good for recycled powder.
A final look back at our ski descent.
Once down to treeline we put our skins back on and glided through the trees until we found Rock Creek Road. We skinned that portion to keep our speed down since the snow depth is shallow.
Once on the road we took the skins off and had some fun. The road is well traveled and packed in nice. We skied all the way back down to the last patch of snow just a little way from the car.
Fun day overall
Putting the skis on our backs and walking the last few hundred feet.
Overall it was a fun day. The approach was much longer than I thought it would be. The mountain itself is mellow. We didn't measure it, but I would guess it is in the 25 degree range at it's steepest.
Overall the trip took about 6.5 hours to complete- car to car.
I will post another soon,
Alan