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[DrCloud]

The business trip that put me in Estes Park was a week late for the real Stomp, but I was able to get out there on snowshoes today -- after a heavy post-Stomp snowfall and more new snow in the past day or two.

I did a loop based at the Bierstadt Trailhead -- up the switchbacks first, to the lake; then down toward the shuttle lot and back to the trailhead along the flats by the road.

The south-facing hillside with the switchbacks was predictably hard-packed -- the existing tracks mostly follow the trail, although near the top it's a bit free-form. While there are bare spots on the hillside, the trail was all snow, with only a few rocks to step over -- no bare spots. Much of the snow lies at the angle of the slope (not the trail), so, just like SandyO has learned to trust her Vibram soles for rock-hopping, trusting the crampons on the snowshoes is mandatory. (I've been down this hillside in the summer, and it always has seemed too hot and dusty to go up. But on the snow, it was just fine.)

Up in the trees at the top, there was little relationship between the existing snowshoe tracks and the summer trails -- I wound up meandering around in the woods to get where I wanted to go. This isn't a bad thing, but it could be intimidating to people not familiar with the terrain.

The meandering did (finally) put me on to the track from the lake down to the shuttle lot, but it got all out of whack at the turnoff back to the Bierstadt Trailhead, so the last part was free-form.

The snow depth in the trees was at least three feet, but there have been enough warm days to make it possible to stay on top of it, mostly. Still, new tracks involved a bit of work. After about 2 1/2 hours of stomping around, including that elevation gain, I'll sleep well tonight.

Today was alternating between snow showers and sun, and this was existential. HPH

[soatley]

It sounded like a great workout, so where are the pictures?

Sandy O

[DrCloud]

soatley, on 04 March 2011 - 07:43 AM, said:

It sounded like a great workout, so where are the pictures?

Sandy O

It was snowing hard when I was at the top, looking the direction of the gorge and panting, and there wasn't much to see except snowflakes. HPH

[soatley]

DrCloud, on 04 March 2011 - 08:18 AM, said:

It was snowing hard when I was at the top, looking the direction of the gorge and panting, and there wasn't much to see except snowflakes. HPH

You're forgiven.