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.
 |
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!
