Tag Archives: rmnp

Notchtop Couloir

After over a year of ogling, I’ve finally managed to tick off a big line in Colorado. Various recon trips, scenic car rides, and guide books had stoked my fervor to get after some burly skiing, and with Kelly’s encouragement to go do something crazy without her, I started poking around on the internet looking for a backcountry shred crew.

The Boulder Backcountry Ski and Snowboard Facebook group delivered in the form of two dudes from Boulder, Joe and Aidan. I was lucky to have these guys along; they were experienced with the Colorado snow pack and pushed for an earlier start time than I would have guessed was necessary.

We hit the trail at Bear Lake around 5:30 AM, and summitted around 9:30 AM – not a moment too soon as the snow was quickly starting to warm up. No roller balls just yet, but it seems like things were going in that direction. The return trip was slow going due to the warm snow and the handful of sections of melted out trail close to Bear Lake, but it was worth it to be able to stand on top of a gnarly mountain and then fly down it!

It’s Like Melt-Refreeze-Sastrugi

Kelly and I went out for a birthday sojourn in RMNP and found some really exotic snow conditions. I really can’t describe it any better than I’ve done in the title. This weird substance didn’t dominate the slopes but it certainly injected itself here and there just to add some spice to our Flattop descent. We departed from Bear Lake at the lazy our hour of 11 AM and headed up the trail per usual, but rather than following the normal approach that leads directly to the bottom of the banana bowls, we decided to follow the Flattop Trail. It’s summed up best as the scenic route: it is not the direct route by any stretch, but the views on a clear day are second to none. In fact the approach, despite being the inefficient route, was the highlight of the day.

As shown in the map, the ascent hugs the southern ridge of Flattop. Each subsequent switchback provides a new and spectacular view across the valley toward Dream and Emerald Lakes, and Hallet, Otis, Thatchtop and finally Long’s Peak. The clear skies and low winds left us with some of the best viewing conditions we’ve ever had in RMNP, but the relative exposure probably means that for most trips up this trail you wouldn’t want to linger for long: there’s almost no shelter from the prevailing wind.

Long’s Peak

I’m quickly developing an obsession with this mountain…

Notchtop from Flattop. I’ve got my eye on that big line in the middle…

Just look at this jacked up snow…

It’s worth if for the scenery though…

Can’t ever have too many cameras!

Hidden Valley: That One Lap

Kelly and I went up to Hidden Valley for a quick lap in RMNP this morning. Finally the Avy Fx had settled down to moderate above and below treeline, so we geared up and went after some low angle white gold. We thought it would be pretty darn good; in fact it was the second time this week I found myself proclaiming the snow to be the best I’d ever skied – the first instance was Tuesday while the defending champion was that time the Meatheads won Best Powder for their Jay segment. So yea, best powder skiing I’ve had in nearly 5 years (best ever, probably) to include storm chasing all over New England plus various trips from back East to Colorado, Montana, Washington, Oregon and who knows where else I’ve forgotten. It was that good. And then we saw a herd of elk on the drive out of the park. Feast your eyes.

Pow turns backcountry skiing #rmnp #dpsskis @briangsweeney

A video posted by Kelly Howie (@kellyahowie) on Jan 14, 2017 at 6:20pm PST

Long Day on Long’s Peak

With Fall rapidly approaching, I felt that 14er season, especially for novices like me, would be quickly coming to a close. Emboldened by my recent success on Capital Peak, I decided to go after Long’s Peak. When the leaves are down, I can just about see it out my office window. A quick drive around the block reveals the towering peak, in all of it’s glory. It’s been taunting me since we moved into the house last November. I could no longer just ignore it. So, I checked the weather about a thousand times, squared away my affairs with work for the week, packed a huge heap of clothing, food, and water, and set my alarm for 2:45 AM. Two hours and 15 minutes later (I really need to work on my alpine starts) I was on the trail and ready to rock.

Waking up at 2:45 AM: not usually worth it; this time: totally worth it! More to come… #dawnpatrol #alpinestart #longspeak #rmnp

A video posted by Brian Sweeney (@briangsweeney) on Sep 18, 2016 at 9:23am PDT

I’ve really been in the mood for experimentation lately, so I started by running my GoPro for a short section of the pre-dawn approach (seen above). I used my Hero 3 Black with ProTune turned on, and attempted to brighten things up using Premier Pro. It didn’t come out the best, but it’s a starting point. I’ll have to read up, or try again.

At the suggestion of my comrade Andrew, I started shooting stills using the raw format rather than jpeg. From what I gather, the image quality is higher, there is no compression and no color manipulation. The same is more or less true when using ProTune on the GoPro. All of this lends to a better quality original stock, and confers advantages in post-processing. With all of this in mind, I quickly obtained a trial license of Lightroom and commenced fiddling. Results are seen below. Hopefully this doesn’t make me too big of a cheater: I tried to keep my manipulations on the tasteful side, though there is some decided experimentation going on here. What can I say? I enjoy fiddling with computers…

Stay tuned for a follow up post with more detail on the hike itself and possibly some sort of GoPro edit featuring the harrowing final approach to the summit!