What hoped to be a decent ski outing turned into an exploratory mission for future trips. A desire to sleep in led to a late start and early-season snow levels didn't make for many decent turns. From the popular Bear Lake trailhead, we headed west towards Notchtop Mountain and the Ptarmigan Headwall/Glacier area. Some good views of the area showed that more snow is still needed before this set of couloirs and bowls comes into decent skiing shape.
(Click any photo to enlarge.)
The day's route (in red) from Bear Lake to Lake Helene (Photo - Google Earth):
The wind-swept slopes of Longs Peak:
Skinning towards Notchtop Mountain:
A view up the basin to Ptarmigan glacier:
Devon takes a break beneath Notchtop:
Its amazing how often these amazing areas of Rocky Mtn Natl Park are overlooked when in comes to backcountry skiing. After last year's failed attempt on the Dragontail couloir due to avalanche danger, Andy, Jesse and I are now 0-2 in our ski trips to the park. Hopefully we'll change that trend later this year.
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