Skiing RMNP

[goneskiing]

Hey! Any coloradans here today? Im going up to Andrews glacier in rmnp on Sunday in hopes of some turns, anybody seen that there actually IS snow up there right now?

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[rmnpsplitter]

Should be some snow left. Head up there early. Free park day on Sunday should make for quite the clusterfuck along Bear Lake Rd. No idea how the snows looking though but I've made turns there in August in past years and it was decent. Short but still fun. Prepare for a barrage of gapes asking you what the hell you're doing with skis up there on the way down.

[CZskibum]

There should still be alright snow left, I hope. Also you could try Isabelle glacier above long lake , was there yesterday and the snow wasn't bad

[goneskiing]

Hey thanks guys. I got a trip report on 14ers from a month ago and it was looking pretty sparse. I've skied Isabelle a few times this summer and always had "good" luck. Still waiting on that July powder day to surprise me. I think well go that route. Unless there's still some by blue lake. And rmnp, I liked the gapers comment. We skied rainier two weeks ago and were stopped by every tourist asking where we went skiing. I always figured the giant snow covered volcano backdropping our conversation could have explained it lol. But hey, were now god in the eyes of 6 Chinese families.

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[telepariah]

FWIW, I think Andrews is as good a bet as we have right now. I flew in over the park the other day and it looked alright. Isabelle ends up pretty flat after Queen's Way melts out. The other great lines around Apache also melt earlier. Ptarmigan will be ok but I really think Andrews will be better right now. Skyscraper is pretty much done too. Of course you can almost always still ski all of these lines, but Andrews tends to stay the best the latest. It may not be as steep as Ptarmigan and not even close to as steep as Skyscraper, but it's very aesthetic. Both Andrews and Ptarmigan will ski better than Skyscraper right now. A nice way to do it is to hike up Flattop from Bear Lake, take a look at Ptarmigan, and if you decide that doesn't float your boat, hike south along the divide to Andrews and then out to Glacier Gorge. It's a longish but easy day. Helps to leave a car at GG so you don't have to hitch or walk the road back up to Bear Lake if you come out late.

[SILENCER]

FWIW, I think Andrews is as good a bet as we have right now. I flew in over the park the other day and it looked alright. Isabelle ends up pretty flat after Queen's Way melts out. The other great lines around Apache also melt earlier. Ptarmigan will be ok but I really think Andrews will be better right now. Skyscraper is pretty much done too. Of course you can almost always still ski all of these lines, but Andrews tends to stay the best the latest. It may not be as steep as Ptarmigan and not even close to as steep as Skyscraper, but it's very aesthetic. Both Andrews and Ptarmigan will ski better than Skyscraper right now. A nice way to do it is to hike up Flattop from Bear Lake, take a look at Ptarmigan, and if you decide that doesn't float your boat, hike south along the divide to Andrews and then out to Glacier Gorge. It's a longish but easy day. Helps to leave a car at GG so you don't have to hitch or walk the road back up to Bear Lake if you come out late.

Side/related note...Skyscraper is pretty rough this year. Was up last weekend. Very steep entrance, then gets even steeper (!) for a period. You'd have to avoid that pretty much unskiable steeper section by traversing all the way skiers right. The bulk of the middle of the snowfield is a big grey, ugly patch of melt that you can hear water rushing underneath. You can get around it, but it limits your line choice. The E facing alternate shelf entrance is equally steep, but complete no-fall zone. We saw some tracks on it, but unsure how old.

AKA, bring your sharpest edges possible and don't fuck up.

[whipski]

Inverse moguls=suncups you ski em exactly the same except all of the body mechanics are upside down and backwards

[goneskiing]

Good to know! I ended up at Isabelle because i felt bad leaving my dog behind, haha. He hadnt been for a few weeks. Queens way looked terrible, like youd just be skiing it to say you did it so we stayed on the glacier. Snow was nice and soft and made for great turns! But now after reading this i think my September turns will be up at rmnp!

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[telepariah]

Side/related note...Skyscraper is pretty rough this year. Was up last weekend. Very steep entrance, then gets even steeper (!) for a period. You'd have to avoid that pretty much unskiable steeper section by traversing all the way skiers right. The bulk of the middle of the snowfield is a big grey, ugly patch of melt that you can hear water rushing underneath. You can get around it, but it limits your line choice. The E facing alternate shelf entrance is equally steep, but complete no-fall zone. We saw some tracks on it, but unsure how old.

AKA, bring your sharpest edges possible and don't fuck up.

Yeah, I skied it in July and there was a 50 degree entrance with a cliff of ice at about your third turn down. Had to go right of that. Rough is a good way to describe it. Lumpy works too. I skied it very cautiously.

[skiingislife]

The tracks on Skyscraper were Kim's.

There's a lot of the old "glacial" ice coming through on the year-round lines right now. Not sure how stuff up in the park is looking, but this was my August line in the Indian Peaks a couple weeks ago. It was my 144th month in a row. BTW, it wasn't as fun as it looks.

[userA]

a turns all year candidate for sure, way to get after it sil!
b

[smuggs]

Good to know! I ended up at Isabelle because i felt bad leaving my dog behind, haha. He hadnt been for a few weeks. Queens way looked terrible, like youd just be skiing it to say you did it so we stayed on the glacier. Snow was nice and soft and made for great turns! But now after reading this i think my September turns will be up at rmnp!

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any photos ? its not bad of a hike eh to isabelle ? like someone could do it in an afternoon after a 3 day bender ?

[goneskiing]

Haha, well, it can be about an 8 hour day. But the bender shouldn't be an issue. I did it last month also and could be found puking my heart out in the th bathroom from the night before at 7am lol. I walked out, gave my buddy a high five and reassured him this was about to be a great day. The exercise cleans you right up! Ill post some pics of the conditions in the am!

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[SILENCER]

The tracks on Skyscraper were Kim's.

There's a lot of the old "glacial" ice coming through on the year-round lines right now. Not sure how stuff up in the park is looking, but this was my August line in the Indian Peaks a couple weeks ago. It was my 144th month in a row. BTW, it wasn't as fun as it looks.

Kim = Skiberly? She was with us two weekends back, and we avoided the steep stuff as it hadn't softened yet when we arrived and weren't trusting our edges, LOL. We downclimbed lookers right and just skied the skier's left lower angle stuff from where the pitch got reasonable.

I love Skyscraper, total gamble each time you go out!

[skiingislife]

^Gotcha. I spoke with her in the parking lot and misunderstood the description of her (your) run. I probably just assumed the gnarly tracks were hers.

[SILENCER]

^Gotcha. I spoke with her in the parking lot and misunderstood the description of her (your) run. I probably just assumed the gnarly tracks were hers.

Aha, I wondered who she was talking to over there! They very well *could* have been hers on any given day though, she generally don't mess around.



Next up, St Mary's suncup hell, hahah.