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Base Camp
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- Statistics:
- Date Hiked: November 27,
2009
- Miles Hiked: 5.0
- Elevation Gain: 2,200'
- Hiking Partner(s): John
Balcair & Jeff Shafer
- Description:
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This route is on the northwest face of Thatchtop
Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park. Jeff invited John and I
to join him for this climb since it was Thanksgiving weekend and the
forecast looked reasonable. Two friends of ours had completed the
climb a few weeks ago and reported a couple of ice climbing pitches were
in.
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We left the Glacier Gorge trailhead shortly after
6:00 am and made our way to the Loch Vale on a well packed trail.
We hiked to the west end of the lake and broke trail for a short
distance to the talus slope leading to the deep gully cutting left into
the side of the face. We scrambled up snow and rock a couple
hundred feet up the gully until the first ice pitch appeared on the
right wall. We geared up and I led getting four or five good ice
screws in on the way. I went up the left side of the flow which
seemed slightly harder than WI3. By starting on the left side and
traversing right on a ledge, I'm fairly confident you can keep the
climbing to WI3 by going up a shallow gully on the right above the
pillar at the base of the route. John had never been ice climbing
before, but did a great job as Jeff coached him up his first pitch of
ice.
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I built a rock anchor at the top of the ice next to
an old rappel station. When Jeff and John reached me, they
continued up the gully for approximately three pitches of snow/WI1 ice
that we simul-climbed to the base of the final pitch. We took a
quick break so I could check my blood sugar level and reorganize.
The final section has several options and is mostly WI2 climbing;
however, I stayed left at the end of the pitch to increase the
difficulty to WI3 for a short period. I slung a large boulder and
brought John and Jeff up.
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We packed up the gear and started traversing left
towards the descent gully farther east on the face. The scrambling
was relatively easy, and you simply do a descending traverse to the
northeast above cliffs back to tree line. We made a switchback to
skier's left, down-climbed some class 3 rock, and then followed a snow
gully back to the Loch Vale. The hike out went quickly and we
stopped at Ed's Cantina in Estes Park (CO) for some fish tacos on the
way home.
- Maps:
-
Click here
to view a
map of the area where this hike is located.
- Photographs:
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