Hidden Valley 061811

On the last weekend of spring we spent the longest ski day of the year skiing at Upper Hidden Valley in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Picking our way through the krummholz at the ridge.

Cathy organized the meet at the CMC parking lot for Ginger, Fred, Phil, Bob, Cheryl, and me.  We piled into two cars and made it as far as Boulder before a pit stop.  From there it was on through the back streets of Boulder, heading north on 30th until we hit the Diagonal and rejoined 28th / US36 out of town to Lyons and Estes Park.  As we left Estes behind, the high peaks swung into view, with a mound of fluffy clouds at the top.

The high peaks topped with clouds and framed by the windshield of Cathy's Jeep.

With park passes distributed between the cars, we rolled through the toll gates and up Trail Ridge Rd.  Our plans to ski Sundance were thwarted by the road closure at Rainbow Curve, just past Upper Hidden Valley.  Overnight a couple of inches of new snow combined with high winds to clog the route with 2 - 3' drifts, according to reports from the rangers at the road gate.  We retraced our tracks to the Upper Hidden Valley pull-off, and emptied the cars of gear and crew and crossed the road to the trail head.  Snow melt poured from beneath the snowpack at the edge of the road, but the snow surface was still skiable.  We strapped on the boards and headed up the incline.   The new powder had long since turned to mashed by the time we hit the slopes.

Cheryl and the rest of the crew make the climb up the slopes.

We headed up to the trees, then curved around to the southeast to build a longer run.  Unlike our previous experience two weeks ago, temperatures were moderate with a gentle to stiff breeze to further help us keep our cool.  

Cheryl nears the top of the run.

When we started running out of snow, we ran into the rest of the group on their way down.

Fred, Bob, Cathy, and Ginger above the krummholz.

The snow was good enough at the top to make some fun turns, but the going got more difficult down lower.  We followed the drainage through the trees, then cut across the drainage where some organized group with harnesses was having a field day.  The remnants of might drifts were still tall and nearly vertical here, but we contoured around the nose of the drifts and over to some dry ground for lunch.

A fun lunch bunch on dry ground.  Photo by Phil, courtesy of Fred.

At lunch we ran into a couple of characters who knew Ginger.  

Jim sports some stylin' mirrors on his helmet.

After lunch, half the group went straight up 500' for another half a run.  As at lunch, the weather alternated between bluebird skies, squall graupel, and snow.

Phil and Ginger prepare to descend.

Ginger pauses her run.

 The upper slopes were once again fun, but the lower slopes devolved into a mess of runnels and wind-deposited dirt.

Not quite pristine powder.

At the bottom we headed for the cars and packed up to go.  Fred's car scouted the gate at Rainbow Curve and found it had opened after all.  Down at Lower Hidden Valley, we made a changing stop, and found ourselves in the middle of a short-lived cloudburst.  After a quick dash back to the cars, we headed back to Golden.  After a meal and bottomless chips from El Tapatio, we bid a fond adieu to Fred who announced he was hanging up the boards for the season.

Stats: 2.25 mi / 2 runs / 1600'.

Tracks: red: Tom; maroon: Fred.
Zoom out at EveryTrail to see the terrain map.