Saturday Renee and I decided to go up to Black Lake up in Glacier Gorge to get out and get some exercise and check out the climbing conditions. We pulled into the parking lot at about 8:00AM. I was surprised we I got out of the car and who should be walking up to me – Ryan! We had seen neither hide nor hair of him since last winter, so it was good to see him and B.S. for a while.

The weather was pretty nice although a bit chilly and a stiff wind going made it pretty darn cold. Although once we got into the trees and out of the wind we had to start peeling off layers. Although not a lot of snow, the trail was very icy. Yak tracks would have been a good call!

As we passed Jewel Lake we could see that the ice above the lake was actually starting to come in pretty well and looked climbable. Once we passed Jewel Lake, the snow started to get a bit deeper and the going a bit slower. It seemed like it took us forever to go that last mile up to the lake.

The last steep section getting up to the lake was tough walking through knee deep snow. Fortunately there were a couple of other people ahead of us that broke trail. We finally topped the ridge up to the lake and were quite surprised that it wasn’t iced over yet.

Ice was starting to form on the slabs and cliffs above the lake, but it’s going to be quite a while before it’s climbable. We sat and had a sandwich and took a few photos and started back down. It was windy and cold, but it wasn’t long before we had pulled all layers off. The wind had died down once we got lower and it was actually pretty toasty. As we passed Mills Lake we actually saw a guy wearing shorts! I wouldn’t have called it shorts weather, but I’ve learned that nothing up there surprises me when it comes to tourists!

Saturday Renee was giving Vanessa a baby shower, so that was my cue to pack up the dogs and head to the hills. After just one month after getting over my fourth bout of meningitis and the dogs first outing of the season, I picked a weenie hike to do. We went up to Cirque Meadows, which is an easy hike at lower elevation and not too much elevation gain.

When we reached the trailhead at 9:30AM it was a balmy 28 degrees and blowing about 40 miles an hour. Looking up at Comanche and Stormy Peaks, they were completely socked in. The dogs were so excited to get out they could hardly contain themselves.

We were the only ones on the trail, which I guess didn’t surprise me since the weather was so bad. We just took our time making our way up the trail. It was their first time out and I didn’t know how I would be after doing absolutely nothing for the last month and still having some hangover symptoms from the meningitis.

After a couple of miles and about an hour we reached the stream. I knew the weather was going to get worse at that point and the snow was going to get much deeper. We stopped here for a few minutes for a break and to strap on the snow shoes. I was feeling pretty good so far although had a couple of light headed spells, but the lungs were doing really good.

As we passed the Mummy Pass trail head, there was still four feet of snow and the weather was starting to get rough. Even in the trees it was blowing hard. I couldn’t tell if it was snowing or blowing snow. When we reached Cirque Meadows you couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face and it was hard to even stand up. We made an immediate U-Turn and started heading back down.

Once we got back down to the stream crossing the weather got a bit better, although it was still socked in where we came from, the rest of the way back down was sunny yet still windy. The dogs were pretty pooped when we reached the car, but they had a really good time. They got a good 8 miles in for their first time out and did really well - and I didn't break them! Renee was pleased about that!

I was pleased that I did as well as I did other than a couple of light headed spells and the start of a couple of headaches that never really materialized. But glad that I didn't decide to go up on Longs peak! Hopefully most of the ill effects of the meningitis are behind me now and I’ll be able to salvage alpine season, at least until I have arm surgery later in the summer.

This weekend we really didn’t know where to go. With twenty inches of snow at our house in Fort Collins on Wednesday and Thursday we didn’t know how it was going to be in the mountains. We decided to go up and check out a new ice climbing possibility that I’ve heard of but did not have a lot of information on.

I knew Bridal Veil Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park was not going to be huge by any means, but it looked like it might be a fun alternative to some of the standard climbs that we do when they get crowded and just mess around.

As we headed up Big Thompson Canyon, it looked like it hadn’t even snowed two days earlier, let alone twenty inches. It was really windy as we made our way up to Estes Park, but the temperature was forty eight degrees.

We really didn’t know where we were going having just vague directions that I printed out. We reached the trail head any couldn’t really figure out where the actual trail started. We ran into a park ranger that pointed us in the right direction.

We strapped our snow shoes onto our packs, not knowing what to expect as far as snow depths went and nobody had been up the trail in a while. The first two miles of the trail was nice and flat. After two miles we hit a fork in the trail and took a right for the last mile.

It turned out that we really didn’t need the snow shoes, but better safe than sorry. The last mile started gaining a little bit of elevation, but still a very easy hike. It took us a little less than an hour and a half to reach the falls.

They were very pretty, but a bit disappointing in their height. They looked to be about 30 feet in height, but with the snow built up at the base, about 20 feet of climbable ice. I was actually really surprised to see that the ice had formed up as well as it was considering the low elevation.

I think with a good snow year and some colt temperatures that there might be some good mixed climbing on the cliff band to the right of the falls. There were some small daggers forming although with the warm temperature that day, a lot of them falling as well.

In general it’s a really nice hike up to the falls, but not really worth the three mile hike to get there if you are going to climb. But at least we had really nice weather and it was good to get out, but a bit disappointed that they were so small.

For as many years that we’ve been climbing up on Longs Peak, Saturday has to rank up there with one of the most beautiful days that we’ve spent on the mountain. Renee and I went up to Columbine Falls and Chasm Lake looking for some early season ice to climb.

When we left the trailhead at 7:30AM it was 24 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. It didn’t take long to heat up and start making clothing adjustments. We made pretty good time up to Chasm Junction. It looked like we would be in luck to have some ice to climb with all of the snow that was already on the mountain.

Last year at this time there was no snow, but the falls were already fat. As we made our way over towards Chasm Lake, when we could get a good look over at the falls, it was a bunch of snow, and no ice. There was about a 10 foot section of nice blue ice – hardly worth the effort!

Our next hope was the outlet ice from Chasm Lake. Once we reached the meadow below the lake we could see that this wasn’t much of an option either. It was starting to come in, but the best section of climbable ice was pretty sun baked and not in real great shape.

So we made our way up to the lake and sat to have a sandwich and just take in the beautiful weather and relax a bit. Surprisingly, Chasm Lake wasn’t even frozen over yet. But it’s very rare that even in the summer to find such a beautiful day up on Long’s. There was nobody around, but we could hear some climbers up on either Flying Dutchman or Lambs Slide, but we couldn’t see them. I walked over to take a look at Martha, it had snow in the lower sections, but not really climbable.

After being up at Odessa a couple of weeks ago and seeing that Grace Falls was in, we thought for sure that there would be something in up on Longs, especially with the weather we had last week, but no such luck.

As we started making our way down from the junction, we started running into the hoards of people making their way up. We did run into a group of four young guys from Oklahoma that were planning on climbing the north face, but ran into to much snow and a sick team mate.

We didn’t get any climbing in, but it was worth it just to be up at Chasm Lake on such a beautiful day in October.