Estes Cone.

While still enjoying some nicer weather, last week I set out for Estes Cone.  I arrived at the Longs Peak trail head around seven, and set out up the trail. 

On the way you pass Eugenia Mine, which as you can see, produced more dreams than gold.
I had read that one could follow the stream here up the hill to find the actual mine, now closed by the park.  I did find the rusting boiler used to drive machinery, and after wandering around in a good bit of avalanche dead fall and two or so feet of powder, I decided to head back down.
While I was walking down, I came upon a very odd looking erosion, and upon looking up the mine when I got home, discovered this was actually one of the abandoned shafts.  Of course there was not much to see, and I'll have to get back to it in the summer.

On the trail, which was mostly packed snow with a touch of ice and bare soil here and there.  I used traction devices on the way up, but nothing on the way back. 

After passing through Moore Park, the trail takes a hard left and starts heading up hill.  The total gain for the hike is around 1500 ft, with the vast majority of that gained near the end.

Battle Mountain.

You'll arrive at a junction with the trail from Glacier Basin.  A sign marks the way to the top of the cone.  You'll gain over 500 feet in the next .7 mile, so prepare!

It took me a few minutes to actually find the high point when I got the the top.  To save you some time, continue to head south.  The true summit is the southern most block of stone. 

If you click to embiggen, you can see the Longs Peak parking lot above the larger empty space in the middle. 

It wasn't too sunny, in fact I was in cloud cover most of the day.  These lower clouds were engulfing the high peaks of the park.

Zoomed out to see it all- Meeker, Longs, Mt. Lady Washington, Storm Peak, Battle Mountain. 

Looking north to some of the peaks in the park. 

Again, cool to see the low clouds playing with the summits.

Mummy range.

Twin Sisters as seen from Estes Cone.

Points east.

Clouds finally take Meeker and Longs away from us. 

Love you too Rocky Mountain National Park!

Well, above I'd captured the parking lot from Estes Cone, here is the opposite view.

And a little more zoom in.  The cliffs on the south and eastern faces sure look intimidating.  I was back to the truck in around four hours, which included the time spent wandering around looking for a mine.   No gold was found.
I thought this was a pretty mellow hike overall, something good for those who want to do something easier, shorter, or less technical and still get a good view from the top, as well as the feel the reward of summitting a pretty cool peak.
Estes Cone via Longs Peak TH:
3.3 miles one way, 1606 foot gain.  Second class.  Moderate.
Other destinations you'll encounter along the way:
Eugenia Mine:
1.4 miles one way, 508 foot gain.  Moderate-.
Moore Park:
1.8 miles each way, 360 foot gain.  As you can see, you do gain and then loose some elevation to get here.  Moderate-.

Storm Peak and Battle Mountain.

Of course I mentioned last time around how I wanted to add on Storm Peak.  With once again nice weather this past week, I had the opportunity to go for it.
The temperature was fifteen degrees higher when I arrived at the Longs Peak TH at seven am on January 23.  I shed some clothing before even starting and made my way up the packed snow with Yaktrax only.
The views on the way up are exactly the same as for Mt. Lady Washington, so I skipped taking some similar photos this time.

But, hard to resist the views of Longs. 

Twin Sisters and plains behind. 

A pretty cool view of Meeker, Ships Prow, Longs, and Mt. Lady Washington from the Chasm Lake trail split.

The north ridge of Mt. Lady Washington.  Really it looks like just a bump in this picture.
As I escaped tree line, the wind was more of a factor.  It was steady and less gusty, but I felt I would be ok to do Storm Peak since the wind was from the west and the mountain itself would block the majority of it.

The Boulderfield and Longs Peak.

It seems many do not take this sign that seriously.  A friend told me of being on top of Longs and finding someone who had not brought any water at all. 

Storm Peak as seen from the Boulderfield camping area.  I basically tried to move around the areas of the most snow.  Crampons were still a must. 

I didn't realize how steep the snow was until I snapped this photo.  Definitely in do not fall territory here. 

Storm Peak seemed easier to ascend than Mt. Lady Washington, probably because you start off at the base of it significantly higher.  I made it to the top and got this view of Chiefs Head Peak and Glacier Gorge. 

McHenrys Peak is one of the most technically difficult 13ers in the park.

Longs as seen from Storm Peak.

Lady Washington as seen from Storm Peak.

Me as seen from Storm Peak.
I must say, I really had a difficult time finding the true high point of this peak.  From the southern most point, there was one in the middle and one to the north that looked higher.  From those, the southern most point looked higher.  I was unable to find a summit register or notice any cairns. 

Looking north to ideas yet realized.

Chiefs Head Peak and The Spearhead.
The descent was relatively straightforward.  On the way down, I tried to stay in snow and avoid rock.  I could feel the snow had softened since I went up.

At the bottom looking back up.
It was still relatively early in the day, and I decided that while I was here, I would walk over to Battle Mountain as well.  I followed the East Longs Peak trail back to Granite Pass, and then hooked a left on the North Longs Peak trail to approach the summit.  As the trail looked to loose a good amount of elevation that I'd have to regain and the tundra looked relatively flat, I set off across it shortly after, heading directly for the high point, which is on the third hump heading north east.

I didn't face much snow or anything at all really, and shortly after arrived at the base of the summit block.  Of note: there must be a family of Pica or Marmot that live here, because there was more crap than I have ever seen in one place. 

It is a short scramble to ascend to the summit, which offers views such as this, looking back to the Keyhole.

Or this, Meeker, Lady Washington, Longs, and Storm.

Back east.

Now being fully exposed to the wind, I opted to protect my skin a bit more.

The little point sticking up from this pile of rock is the summit. 

Granite Pass and the worlds largest cairn.
To get back to the trail I stayed on the south side of Battle Mountain and wove my way through, around, and over some talus.  This was just slightly more difficult than the approach from the north. 

Looking back at Battle Mountain from the trail.  Again what is the true high point does not look to be. 

Peacock Pool, Columbine Falls, Ships Prow, and the Loft in the afternoon. 

Battle Mountain as seen from the descent.
This time I did not loose the trail on the way back down and managed to run/walk/slide the packed snow trail back to the parking lot in a relatively reasonable time.  If only I had a sled!
This was a pretty fun hike overall.  Storm Peak could be a fun add on to Longs if one planned to leave early enough.  Battle Mountain is probably often bypassed, but it does not take long to get to and back if you're up there already, and is one of those cool high points that are off the beaten path and probably not visited all that much, at least compared to Longs.
I am not hiking this week due to a very windy weather forecast.  I wish I was though.
Storm Peak and Battle Mountain via Longs Peak TH:
Storm Peak:
6.3 miles one way, 3926 foot gain.  Second class when dry, steep snow in winter.  Strenuous-.
Battle Mountain:
4.8 miles one way, 2644 foot gain.  Second class.  Moderate+.

Dragons Egg Rock via Hunters Creek

The past week brought me some fun and some misfortune.  It all started on Friday.  The subject of my wine study group was Burgundy this week, one of my favorite regions.  I brought along a 1995 Dominique Laurent Vosne-Romanee 1er Les Suchots.  Amazing stuff.
After this I wanted to go mountain biking before heading back down to work.  I started at Heil Ranch on the Wapati trail, planning to ride up it to Ponderosa, take a right there to Wild Turkey, take a left on Picture Rock, turn around at the bottom, and return.  All was going according to plan until I my front wheel washed out going down Picture Rock and I crashed hard.
I landed on my right side, abrading my elbow pretty good.  I thought I hurt my leg also, but the main worry was my head.  It was one of those crashes where you feel your head snap against the ground, and my ears were ringing loudly.  My helmet looked ok, in fact I cannot see any impact on it, but I know it is time to replace it.  I had to sit for about fifteen minutes for the ringing and nausea to go away.  Not fun.  Then, when I got up, my leg hurt so much I thought I might have broken it.
I sat back down and assessed the situation: It was four plus miles down Picture Rock, plus probably 6-8 more on the road to get back to the car, or I could just turn around and take it really easy and ride back.  I could stand and put some weight on my leg and since I had fallen like this before and felt a similar but less intense pain, I felt like it was ok to proceed.  So back up and then down I went.
I was majorly sore the next day, but felt progressively better on Sunday and Monday.  So I decided to go for it.
I tried to get to Dragons Egg Rock last year, on a very long day that took me to Keplinger Lake.  I went east from the lake and made my way to the massive south facing flank of Mount Meeker.  I headed around, but I had two problems.
The first was that navigating the drainage between Keplinger and Meeker took me a tremendous amount of time.  The second was that I wasn't even sure where Dragons Egg Rock was or what it looked like.  The book said it is defined as a single closed topo loop on the south side of Meeker, but this was right where the page joined another and I couldn't tell what to look for in the crack of the book.
Later I looked it up at home, and while I could find very little information about it (like a picture- see below for one), I could see on a better topo where I should have been.  I didn't get to it, but I did get pretty close- I would guess I was less than half a mile from it.
I started out at 808am on April 10th from the Sandbeach Lake trail head.  My research into possible ways to do this hike led me to two different routes.  In the end, it made more sense to me to stay on this trail until I hit Hunters Creek and then follow it up.

Hello dear deer.
The trail was completely dry and in great shape up until the summit of the moraine.  From here until Campers Creek I hit intermittent snow.

Snow on the trail.
It was pretty well packed and completely walkable in hiking boots only.  From Campers to Hunters it was consistent packed snow.  Again, I did not use any traction devices here, and the trail was quite easy to follow.

Stopped at Hunters Creek for a snack.
I strapped on my snowshoes here and started to follow Hunters Creek up.  Stay on the east side of the creek, and if you do happen to do this once the snow has all melted, there is an unofficial trail here that follows the creek up.
Here the going got difficult as the ground gets somewhat steeper and the snow was not packed at all.  I kept looking north to try to determine where I was in relation to Mount Meeker.  For a long time all I could see was trees on a steep hill side above me.  I continued on until things started to look like this...

The first signs of Meeker and the first sight of my goal of the day.
Once I could see Dragons Egg Rock, I basically struck a path toward it.  I would intersect with the couloir near the bottom and follow it up.  In retrospect, I don't think this was quite the right way to go, though in one area where the snow had melted completely I did find what looked like a trail.  There were some steep hills in worsening snow conditions, and I feel like I should have stayed along Hunters for a little longer before heading north.  But live and learn.

The south face of Meeker, close up on Dragons Egg Rock.
I was noticing my lack of conditioning so far this year, along with some pain from my hip post crash.  Along with mushy snow, my pace slowed to a crawl.

Looking down into Hunters Creek drainage from the south face of Meeker.

Are we there yet?

Closer still, and the cliff face right in the middle is Dragons Egg Rock.  There is significantly less snow than last year.

Taken in June 2011 (I think), quite a difference.

A pretty neat thing to take in is how large Meeker really is.  Once you reach the base, it literally takes up the entirety of the view to the north.

Looking south with Copeland Mountain and Mount Orton visible.

 

I was expecting the couloir to be full of snow and to be able to glissade down.  No such luck, though I guess it did make the ascent easier.  Here I stayed on the tundra to the right of the snow.  When I got close to the cliff face, I carefully crossed the snow and then made my way west along it.  I turned North and summitted the feature from the north side.  This is where you will find the only second class on this hike.  

I feel it would be entirely possible to ascend by continuing on the east side of the feature, but this would give you some talus to work through and this is where there was still heavy and steep snow that I descended through.

Sandbeach Lake from way above.  Still looks pretty frozen, but should be melting quickly.

Indian Peaks Wilderness and points south from Dragons Egg Rock.

Looking into the heart of Wild Basin- Mount Copeland, Ouzel Peak, Mahana Peak, Isolation Peak.  Frankly, this view made the entire hike worthwhile. 

Yours truly on Dragons Egg Rock at 12200ish feet.

 

Continuing up the couloir could be a fun but lengthy way to ascend Meeker.

 

Panorama looking south.  What a view!

Despite the general lack of snow, I did try to glissade, and it worked kind of in places.  But eventually I decided it was taking too much effort and not worth it, so I moved back to the tundra and continued down.  

I mention that on the way up I felt as though I didn't take the best route.  On the way down I stayed in the couloir the whole way.  I think this was better- the rise seemed like it would be more gradual, and there was less snow and bushwhacking to contend with.  If you do this hike, I would advise to stay along Hunters Creek until the view north looks something like this..

 

You will come to a more open area that looks like this.  From here, head on up.

 

Here is what it looks like a little bit higher up.  Much more manageable terrain.

 

Dragons Egg Rock.

Once I got near Hunters Creek, I was hitting enough snow to put my snowshoes back on.  Now it was afternoon, and the snow conditions had gotten worse.  I was constantly post holing, and slogging through melted snow was not fun.  But eventually I did make it back to the Sandbeach Lake trail.  

I took off the snowshoes here.  The trail was about a foot of hard packed snow in the middle, but when I happened to veer off that, even by a few inches... post hole.  Well, it was not bad enough for me to put snowshoes back on, and my hip was feeling a little better not wearing them, so I continued on. 

I saw this newly broken tree right next to the trail.  It looked pretty neat.

This tree is on the Sandbeach Lake trail pretty close the the trail head.  It looks like it should be in front of a haunted house or something.  

I finally made it back to the car after a long day at 707pm, giving me eleven hours for the day.  I think with improved conditions in the summer and self, I would be able to knock a few hours off this time.

This is a pretty fun and challenging hike, with a great view at the destination.  I think it would be easier to do once all the snow melts out.  

This feature was named by RMNP ranger Jack Moomaw (for whom Moomaw Glacier was named) in 1921.  Why Dragons Egg Rock?  I guess we will never know.

Dragons Egg Rock via Hunters Creek:

5.5 miles one way, 3860ish foot gain.  Strenuous+ due to elevation gain and snow particularly after leaving Sandbeach Lake trail. Summer conditions would take this down to strenuous or strenuous-, but there is still significant gain in the last 2.something miles.