RMNP Conditions

[Brent D]

I haven't lately myself, but Igloo Ed who posts here occasionally was this weekend. Here's a mini report: RMNPForums

Hope that helps.

[JassenB]

I've made three hikes into Rocky in the past 8 days. As of Saturday, neither the Bear Lake area up to Emerald Lake nor the Glacier Gorge Trail required snowshoes. Everything is very well packed down from prior trampling. The only virgin snow I found in that general region was along the spur running from the Glacier Gorge TH split to Sprague Lake, and that snow wasn't really deep enough for snowshoes, IMHO.

Have fun up there!
-Jassen

[thebeave7]

I ventured up their last weekend, though quite a bit of snow has fallen since. Went up to Lost Lake(Northern Boundary) Saturday and to the base of Notchtop Sudnay before being whited out. N Boundary trail is mostly snow free til above 10K, then shallow and patchy. From Bear Lake the trail itself was all packed, so we just booted it. I did strap on my skis/skins once we got to Lake Helene, but it wasn't completely necessary. Boots and gaiters should get you by if you stick to the trails, no need for snowshoes yet.
Photos

Eric

[thebeave7]

Hey Eric,
When you say last weekend do you mean this past weekend ? Nov 28-30 ?

Unfortunately no, those photos were from the weekend of Nov 22-23rd. I was out in the Northern foothills(7000-8500ft) this past weekend(Nov 30th) and it was lightly snowing all morning, had several inches of accumulation around 8K, thus would image the divide got more. The Bear Lake snow sensor isn't showing a whole lot of new snow though.
Photos from Nov 30th, Old Flowers Rd near the Poudre Canyon.

Eric

[CG_old]

thebeave7 and I went up near RMNP to backcountry ski today. There was virtually no snow, so we just carried all that crap up the mountain and carried all that crap down the mountain.

We were just south of Wild Basin, climbing Meadow Mountain.

The winds up high were nuts. Here's a couple videos:

Meadow/St Vrain Saddle:


Summit of Meadow:


There was no need for snowshoes where we were... not sure about the more internal park locations.

- Chris

[Pivvay]

From Copeland Lake up Longs (Keplingers's) there is quite a bit of snow. We took snowshoes and used them a lot yesterday. I'm pretty sure you could have skied the couloir but it wouldn't be anything great.

[Kruck]

Any recent visitors? I was in Tucson last week and from the look of the mountains it snowed hard here at some point in the past, but has done nothing since.

Have a new pair of BC skis I need to break in after a de-lam 2 weeks ago in the park. Would like to ski in the park, but am wondering if the trails leading everywhere are now solid ice from overuse, no snow, and hot weather.

Lemmon Mtn. In Tucson needed snow too. Went to check it out and they had the lifts servicing rained-on 2-week-old snow . But it was kind of nice to do an easy 9,000-footer in snow wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt. Was hoping to get back here and get right back into the cold pow, but alas, it looks pretty warm and old from where I sit here.

Thanks all for any RMNP or area conditions.

[cougar]

the Bear Lake/Glacier Gorge area got about a foot of snow a little over a week ago, but I don't think they had any since. Last weekend was pretty good snow in the trees - the snow isn't icy, but still a few thin spots with bare rock. Streams and drainages are icy and rocky. The Longs Peak area was really thin on snow, especially below 10,000 ft. This week's warm weather may have changed things. The snow pack is at least 4 ft per snotel.

these conditions are a bit old, but they tend to update about once a week:

http://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/r ... UMP_347043" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[eagle06]

I did Green Mountain Trail to Big Meadows today. The trail has had a lot of traffic and was very easy to follow. Snowshoes were probably only needed in a couple of spots. I went ahead and wore mine the entire time but you could see where some people had sunk a leg. I only saw one other person (without snowshoes) plus a 3rd car in the parking lot. By my expert eye and estimation snow ranged from about 1.5 to 3 feet in depth. Have fun.

[christina]

We did the Loch Vale / Andrews Glacier trail last sunday with AT skis (from Glacier Gorge trailhead). The trail was fairly icy up to Loch Vale, but there was some nice powder after that on the way to Andrews Glacier. We turned around below the glacier, but got a few good turns in on the slopes below.

This was from last weekend: Otis peak from Loch Vale

below Andrews Glacier:

[alpinista77]

I'm planning on skiing there next weekend at hidden valley and maybe andrews, i'll try to get a trip report up