-- Tom's Trip Reports --: Upper Hidden Valley 052210

Greetings Friends,

The hot weather in Denver did not deter us from carving some velvety corn snow at RMNP.

Naoki, Cathy, Cheryl, and Wendy at the trailhead.

Cheryl, Cathy, and I met up with Naoki and Wendy in Boulder at a leisurely 7:30 for the drive up to Estes Park. We paid the toll and continued up the road past the turnoff for the old Hidden Valley lodge. Naoki guided us to the parking spot on the newly cleared portion of Trail Ridge Rd at the curve below the upper slopes. Hopping out of the car, the baking sun had already raised the temperature to 48 degrees as we switched from sandals to tele boots.

Naoki led us straight up the bowl to about 11,400', where the slopes alternated between good snow coverage and melted off rock piles. We managed to keep a firm grip on skins, hats, and ourselves as gusty winds intermittently pelted us with ice pellets that had been lifted from the softening surface.

Wendy and Cathy hang on to their hats, and

Naoki ducks to get out of the wind.

The upper slopes had about an inch of white corn, with some abrupt transitions to deeper brown corn where the dust layers were exposed at the surface. This variability in the steeper sections combined with the gusty winds had some of us working on our equilibrium, but eventually we got dialed in to the conditions and started linking turns in earnest. Halfway down, we decided to head up for a second run on a more north facing aspect, zigzagging our way towards the top.

Cheryl steps into her bindings.

A quick snack before the second descent.

Cheryl is ready to drop in.

Photo by Naoki.

Wendy, Tom, and Cathy frame the scenic view.

Photo by Naoki.

Tom heads down as Cheryl watches.

Photo by Naoki.

Again pelted with sporadic winds and pellets, we stopped at 11,300' and enjoyed additional corn depth on the wide, unskiied slopes. Again stopping halfway down, the temptation to do a third run was at odds with the clock, so we finished the descent to the trailhead. At the bottom, we were pleasantly surprised by the applause of tourists gathering along the highway. After straightening out some footwear confusion, we hopped in the cars.

Footwear choices abound in the spring.

After slogging through the swelling traffic of Trail Ridge Rd, we stopped in Estes Park at the appropriately named Sushi Yama 山 (mountain), for udon noodle bowls and Staggering Elk lager.

Stats: 2 mi / 1300' / 2 runs / 3 hours.

Maps attached, and pictures / movies at the link below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/tbrez53/HiddenValley052210/