Rocky Mountain National Park - Part II, Flat Top Mountain

In the early morning of October 26, I was headed back north to Rocky Mountain National Park, just as light broke over the plains of Colorado.

My dad, now driving, had flown out a few days earlier with my mom (who stayed behind in Boulder with B. and enjoyed a more relaxing kind of day). Our plan was to hike up Flat Top Mt., a 12,361 ft (3,768 m) summit nestled in the folds of nearby peaks separated by glacier-carved gorges (trail topo here). By the time we reached the trail head at Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, the skies were an early blue and we had a clear view of both Hallet Peak (center, blocky summit in the photo) and our destination (the slumped summit on the right in the photo) from Bear Lake.

Though the unprotected parking lot was fairly breezy and we could see the clouds whipping over the peaks, we didn't realize just how windy it would get...

The Flat Top Mt. Trail winds its way up 2849 ft in 4.4 miles up to the summit on beautiful trail. Frequent outlooks reveal the steep-walled glacial gorges bounding Long's Peak and Hallet Peak to the south:

While to the north, the long-sloping Tombstone Ridge and the Trail Ridge Rd dominate the skyline:

The views, direct sun and tree-protected hike made the first 3ish miles an enjoyable, warm hike. But after we hit tree line, the force of the wind that we had been catching whiffs of all day hit us full-on and the hike took an adventurous, exhilarating turn.

For the last mile and a half, we continued on the slow, constant climb into a headwind with sustained windspeed of easily 50 mph, with gusts as high as 70 mph. In addition to now walking into a vicious headwind, we encountered more and more snow as we left the trees behind, making for a slow, gruelling last mile. My dad had the additional pleasure of having just arrived from sea level, but he pushed through the wind, snow and thin air:

To better appreciate the conditions, take a look at a video here.

The summit of Flat Top Mt. is indeed flat. So flat that it's not really obvious where the summit is. But the views were great!

After summiting and snapping a few photos, we quickly turned back toward tree line. The hiking (and breathing) was much easier with the wind at our backs and we covered the distance to tree line in what felt like half the time it took to summit. As soon as we descended into the trees, the trail cleared, the wind died down and we had a pleasant 3 mile stroll back to the car.

By the time we collapsed into the seats of our car, we had walked almost 9 miles in about 6 hours. The last mile to the summit easily ranks as one of the most memorable hikes I've done - I've been in high wind and snow on many hikes in the White Mountains, but I've never hiked for so long into direct wind. Definitely an adventure!

Rocky Mountain National Park - Part I, Moraine Park and Fern Lake

A few weeks ago now, B. and I journeyed north from Boulder to camp in Rocky Mountain National Park. We reached Moraine Park campground in the early afternoon and quickly pitched the tent. The view from the site wasn't bad:

After setting up camp we set off to hike up to Fern Lake from a nearby trail head. Early on in the hike, we came across an unusual section of trail in which a deep layer of fine sand covered the ground, likely a remnant of the massive floods that hit Colorado last September.

Though we missed the aspen peak, there were still a few scattered groves of yellow aspens along the trail.

After 3.8 miles, we made it to Fern Lake, an alpine lake sitting in a glacial basin surrounded by steep walls of stone and ice.

After returning to camp, we cooked a tasty dinner (couscous, tomatoes and sausage... mmmmm), burned a few bundles of wood, then fell asleep catching meteors from the Orionid meteor shower and listening to the ominous cries of elk roaming nearby. As B. put it, elk sound eerily similar to  ringwraiths (listen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20PET6-Hr_c).

The following day, we drove west along the Trail Ridge Rd., which winds its way up to just over 12,000 ft via innumerable switchbacks. Usually, the Trail Ridge Rd is closed by now due to snow and ice, but the Rockies have seen very little precipitation this October and the road was open the whole way across the park. So we drove west, stopping for short hikes and lunch along the way. On the western side of the park, the Trail Ridge Rd. dips down into a valley where the headwaters of the Colorado River hides between pine-covered hills. This far north, the Colorado is a humorously small, trickling brook, and its hard to imagine that it can be the same river that carved out the Grand Canyon.

Cloud Iridescence

Today's update was going to recap my recent visits to Rocky Mountain National Park and Garden of the Gods, but yesterday I was treated to an exciting celestial display that I've never seen the likes of.

Yesterday afternoon I biked over to Mt. Sanitas, an outcrop of vertically tilted Dakota sandstone beds, for some trail running, bouldering, and photography practice (more on this later). While sitting at the bottom of a boulder, I glanced skyward to see a cloud passing near the sun, lit up with amazing shades of purple and cyan:

I didn't know it at the time, but this phenomenon is known as cloud iridescence (wiki article). When the sun's rays hit a rain or ice droplet in a cloud, the light diffracts, shifting the wavelength (and hence color) of the light that reaches the surface. In most clouds, light rays diffract many times before leaving the cloud which washes out any shift in color. In thin, wispy clouds (such as the cirrus clouds I observed), the light rays interact with only a small number of droplets so that the change color is preserved. The following close up shows the cloud and colors in more detail.

Part of the reason I went out to Sanitas was to play around with my new camera (a birthday present from my parents. Thanks parents!). But I wanted to make sure I photographed the cloud so I actually took the above photos with my iPhone - the new camera is the first I've owned with manual control over shutter speed and aperture and I'm not yet confident in my ability to quickly choose the right settings for a shot. After taking a bunch of photos with the iPhone, I took out my camera and managed to get a decent shot (after many failed attempts):

For those interested in photography, I had to go to push my camera's limits to capture the colors in the cloud, using an exposure and F-stop of 1/2000 s and F/8.0 (the min values for my camera, the Nikon S9700). If I let in any more light, the direct light from the sun washed out most of the color.

A bit later, a second cloud passed by. The interior of the cloud was too thick to iridesce, but the wispy edges show a splash of purple and cyan:

In addition to the amazing, glowing clouds, I took quite a few photos with the new camera. Here's a shot of the bouldering area known as Sanitas Proper:

I had a lot of trouble capturing both the blue skies and the rock in the foreground. Most of my photos either washed out the sky or underexposed the rock:

And finally, I'll leave you with the view south from the trail up Mt. Sanitas. You can see both Red Rocks (the crags on the left-most hill in the foreground) and the 1st Flatiron (the spike in the center of the peaks in the background):

More to come on the aforementioned trips to RMNP and Garden of the Gods...

Hiking Green Mountain

Yesterday I biked over to Chautauqua Park then hiked up Green Mountain beneath clear skies. Here are some photos I took along the way.

Longs Peak, from the Greenman Tr.

Hiking through the meadow of Chautauqua Park along Baseline Tr.

Some fall colors along the trail

Climbing on Der Zerkle Flatiron

Yesterday, my buddy A.S. drove up from Denver to get in some climbing in the Flatirons. From the NCAR trailhead, we hiked up the Mallory Cave Trail to check out the climbs on the flatiron named Der Zerkle. The west face of Der Zerkle has a bunch of fun moderate sport climbs (though we stuck to top rope) and we climbed for a few hours beneath shady pines.

The west face of Der Zerkle in the flatirons of Boulder

After a lunch break, we walked around to the north, where I lead a fun scramble up to the summit of Der Zerkle (West Face Route, 5.0). While climbing, the skies were blue and the sun was shining bright, but as soon as I stepped foot on the summit and clipped the anchors, a vicious wind picked up with 20 mph gusts and an ominously dark cloud front appeared over the ridge. A.S. quickly climbed high enough to take out the protection then I lowered him to the ground before I set up to rappel off myself. But of course, as soon as I was set to rappel, the clouds broke and the wind died down, a testament to how quickly the weather can change in the mountains. Now that the sun was back, I felt more comfortable and took a few minutes to take some photos.

The summit of Der Zerkle has some nice views of the surrounding flatirons. To the west you can see The Hand, Shark's Fin and Finger Flatiron. The slab up the Hand has an easy 3-4 pitch climb that I'll hopefully get to climbing soon (East Face, 5.4). The Mallory Cave trail is a popular hike that leads up to a cave between the Finger and the Hand (the cave is about halfway up, can't really see it in the photo below). 

Looking west from the summit of Der Zerkle

And looking north, there are some more neighbouring flatirons:

Looking north from the summit of Der Zerkle in the flatirons of Boulder

After rappelling down, the sun started setting over the ridge and the northwest face of Dinosaur Rock caught the sun beautifully and so I snapped a few more photos before A.S. and I started the hike back to the car after a great (and momentarily exciting) day of climbing!

Dinosaur Rock, lit up by the setting sun

Braving the Sediments

The Flatirons, the massive tilted slabs of sandstone that dominate the Boulder skyline, are a strange sight.

Loading

The 3rd #flatiron, from atop the 1st flatiron in #Boulder

View on Instagram

Growing up in New England, I learned to hike and climb on the granite domes and metamorphic cores that formed during the cyclical collisions of the tectonic plates and then were shaped by most recent ice age. And though I've seen occasional outcrops on field trips, my training (and research) in geology has kept me well away from sedimentary rocks. So being surrounded by (and climbing on!) all this sandstone is a new experience for me.

The Flatirons are a conglomerate sandstone (the Fountain Formation) and are home to some classic multipitch rock climbing routes. In addition to their verticality, the Flatirons are conducive to climbing because the sandstone is particularly hard, making it resistant to erosion by the elements and by climber-hands. Just north of the Flatirons, the sandstone exposed in the Red Rocks outcrop (different from the famous Red Rocks Ampitheater) is an example of the type of sandstone that you don't want to climb. Though no less dramatic, the rock is crumbly and holds can easily break off in your hand.

Looking North to Red Rocks (Boulder)

The sandstone beds that make up Red Rocks initially formed as sediment was deposited in horizontal layers at the bottom of an inland sea that extended over much of the western US (link). But since then, the beds have tilted 90 degrees, resulting in the vertical towers as the softer sections eroded away. While hiking up to the outcrop I found myself wondering which way the rock was tilted - are the rocks to the east or the west younger? At this point I didn't really have a sense for the regional geology, but I happened across a clue to the answer.

Along the main trail to Red Rocks from Settler's Park, there are some smaller outcrops with some nice cross bedding. Based on the truncation of the beds, I'd say the sandstone towards the east is younger and used to be on top before being tilted to the current position.

Cross bedding in the Dakota sandstone at Red Rocks (Boulder).

So far I've only done some easy scrambling up the sandstone surrounding Boulder but hopefully I'll get out and rope up soon!

The view south from atop Red Rocks in Boulder

The Colorado Series

Hi! I'm back!

The past 6 months or so have been quite busy. Most of my time was taken up by the final push to finish off my Ph.D. thesis and so I spent very little time out in the world gathering blog-worthy photos. But now that I've defended (successfully!), I'll be trying to post more regularly!

In the near future, I'll be funemployed in Boulder CO. Last week I flew out with a bit of luggage primarily packed with climbing and hiking gear (the necessities):

Since I've been here I've done a few small hikes and climbs (more posts to follow) and picked up this sweet 80s Motebecane rebuilt by the folks at Community Cycles:

So now that I have wheels and lots of free time I'll be posting more regularly (on the rainy days at least). Stay tuned!