A little late on the delivery of this trip report, but better now than never. On Saturday, March 5th, I was joined by Andy and Forrest on a journey into Rocky Mountain National Park. Our goal on the day was to ski one of the Ptarmigan Fingers off the north side of Flattop Mountain. Unfortunately, due to viciously high winds, we did our best to remain as far away from the exposed alpine as possible.
Shortly after reaching treeline on the skin uphill, we headed straight for the east-facing trees off Flattop that provided plenty of shelter and soft snow that was boot-deep in spots. In the mood to explore, we opted to traverse up the drainage towards Ptarmigan Glacier which would provide us with excellent views of what we ultimately wanted to do as well as allow us to gain a glimpse towards future adventures. In the end, we scored 4,200' of vert over eight hours on what seemed like an effortless tour.
The always daunting Long's Peak:
The zone:
Forrest and Andy skinning across Lake Helene with Flattop on the left and Notchtop sitting boldly on the right:
The two contemplate something to look forward to in the upcoming weeks:
Shane's Run:
Forrest being Forrest:
And down the chute he goes under a big, bright sun:
Exit stage right:
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