The Spearhead.

I have to thank my wife for motivating this day.  Though I am very close to finishing off RMNP (only 15 things left!), it's going to be a full day to visit alot of those, and that full day spent to visit just one thing.  I guess it's been poor planning to leave those orphans behind, but I'd planned to visit this one multiple times, but wisely turned around due to weather on all of those.  

With other outdoor goals on my mind, it's been difficult to commit a whole nice weather summer day to just one thing when I can head elsewhere and check off multiple other goals.  But early last week, Katie was kind enough to ask, "What about RMNP?"

What about RMNP?

With a long outing on Tuesday, I was happy for a shorter drive and shorter day two days later.  Despite a good(ish) weather prediction, I decided to play it safe and get above treeline early, and back down by noon.  The Spearhead was the perfect choice for the day, just long enough that I'd feel accomplished, a little bit of scrambling, and great views, or so I hoped.

I started from the Glacier Gorge trail head just after sunrise, and passed a person on the trail shortly after, which would turn out to be the only person I saw until much later in the day.  Wanting to be as efficient as possible, I took the Fire Trail and popped out just below the Black Lake trail.  It was a short jaunt from there to the ever charming Mills Lake, aka sexy lake.  

One sexy lake!  Any time of the year, any time of day, except maybe for at night.
I like this lake alot, and I like that one can see the farther and higher destinations from it.  Always fun to know I'll be "over there" soon enough.
I continued along the trail to Black Lake.  While there's only 600 feet or so of elevation gain between the two lakes, it seems to take some time as there are lots of ups and downs. 

Nearing Black Lake, which is late to get sun due to being situated down in a bowl.  But the peaks to the east catch the early morning sun...

here, reflected in the lake. 
The trail takes another turn uphill here, paralleling a pleasantly gurgling stream.  Soon enough though, you'll top out into Glacier Gorge, a place of endless beauty.

The goal for the day directly ahead.
Once you get here, you can either follow the many cairns and hope you're going in the right direction, or just pick the way you want to go and do your best.  There's alot of cairns up here.

A favorite, McHenrys Peak(also).
I approached the monolithic northeast face, and followed a climbers trail to the right/west.  While I'd love to actually climb this peak one day, it was not in the cards today.  I planned to go up and back down the third class down climb.
The trail was easy enough to follow, and I soon helmeted up and started up the scree slope.  While I never saw anyone above me, I did see signs of recent rockfall throughout the day, and heard rockfall as well.  So a helmet is definitely a great idea, if you want to keep having ideas. 

Looking down the slope to Frozen Lake.  Also as a reference for later.
As I came down a different way, there is a place where you might face a choice to go left or right.  I stayed right going up, but came down the left option.  Both work fine, maybe a bit more technical movement on the left side, which is more direct to the summit.

Getting there, just a look at the terrain.
I was close to the summit ridge when I saw a cairn above me, so I climbed up a crack.  This was the most difficult movement of the day, and unnecessary as it turns out.  I got to the top and started to traverse over, but found a unfeatured slab in the way.  If it were right off the ground, no problem.  But at these airy heights, I decided to go back down and go around.

Looking over to Chiefs Head(also).
From here, it was a mostly easy scramble up to a thin catwalk, then a careful walk across this to what looked like the summit.  I sat for a minute, and then headed back.  Then I turned around, and looked back.

Now I could clearly see the summit was a few inches higher than where I'd just been.  The rectangular block on the left is it.  It's just a few third class but exposed moves to reach the top.

The view down all of Glacier Gorge.  Pretty spectacular!

A view downish the north ridge.
I turned back, and made the few moves back to more solid ground.
The Spearhead, Glacier Gorge- Rocky Mountain National Park from Andy Rose on Vimeo.
What a place to be!
On the way back I stopped at a window I saw in the rock.

Keyboard of the Winds reflected in Green Lake.

Looking back down Glacier Gorge from near the summit.
On the way back down, I stayed a little more east than I did on the way up.  It looked like both ways are down climbs, as there was a pretty obvious and occasionally cairned social trail.  The east route was maybe slightly more technically difficult, but not bad at all.

Looking up the pile of rubble I'd come down.

Near the bottom, Frozen Lake.
I stopped to take my helmet off and get situated, and then started the jog back to the trailhead.

A good view of McHenrys and The Arrowhead over Black Lake.

I saw alot more people on the way down than on the way up, but none on the Fire Trail.  It was nice to get back to RMNP, if ever so briefly.  It will be nice to finally finish this project/list.  I just need to remember to dedicate a few days to it here and there!

Link to hike map on Caltopo.

The Spearhead, 12575 feet: 13.25 miles rt, 5658 foot gain.  Third class.  Strenuous-.

*Do note, both the distance and elevation gain figures in the linked map which are cited here are very likely too high due to GPS having some trouble reading/connecting, particularly in the area of the summit.  A hand drawn line using the snap to feature on Caltopo gives around 10.25 miles with 3600 gain.   

Five lake loop and Lake Haiyaya Knobs

Occasionally I will check Listsofjohn.com (truly a great reference) to make sure I have gotten to every named peak in a certain area, just to double check.  As I have said a few times in the past, while an incredible reference, Fosters book doesn't include every peak in the park.  There are several ranked but unofficially named peaks that didn't make the cut, and ranked but unnamed peaks were not included either.  

In this case, the 'knobs' around Lake Haiyaha were named in the book "Backcountry Skiing and Ski Mountaineering in Rocky Mountain National Park” by Mark Kelly, which came out in 2013, well after Fosters book was published, thus they are not in her book.

The Knobs near Lake Haiyaha.

Anyway, it was during one of my forays on LOJ that I noticed these high points pop up.  It would be a short day to get them, and certainly violate my unoffical "the total time of the drive each way must be shorter than the time of the activity rule".  When hiking, that is usually no concern!

So I decided to string together a series of lakes in a loop, and run it... well, as much as I could.  Thus I planned to start at Glacier Gorge, take the trail by Alberta Falls to Mills Lake, then hit the Loch, then Lake Haiyaya and the knobs, then Dream Lake, and finally Nymph Lake before taking the trail back down to Glacier Gorge.  Bear or Emerald Lakes could easily be added on for (slightly) more distance.

There were a few other cars in the parking lot when I arrived, but nothing like what was there when I got back.

Half Mountain from the trail.

Mills Lake was beautiful as always.  A quick moment here and I headed back down.

Longs Peak in clouds.  It was only hours before that Andrew Hamilton had finished off the 14ers here, and set a new record of 9 days, 21 hours, and 51 minutes to take almost a full day off the record that had been in place for 15 years!  Well done Andrew and my congrats!
I turned off to The Loch and started up.  Not too long after I was there.

I could see some people working their way around the lake en route to higher altitudes.
The trail from The Loch junction to Lake Haiyaha held some of the steepest terrain of the day, and I simply quickly hiked most of it.  This marks the first time I'd been on this trail in the summer.

Lake Haiyaha is pretty cool.  I think this would stand out in my mind as a nice family destination because it is just hard enough, has great views, and I can imagine kids having a ton of fun exploring the boulders in the area.
After the lake, I got back on the trail headed north and took off east shortly after to find Knob #4.  I didn't take a photo from it, but it was just a short walk over.
From that I headed down to Chaos Canyon Cascades, a series of falls that I had yet to visit. 

This was pretty cool.  Very peaceful to be so close to a very popular trail yet feel completely isolated.  Simply follow a thin trail down the south side of the creek when you cross the outlet.  It's maybe five minutes from the trail.

This small boulder marked the high point of Goblin Knob.  It's a short third class scramble to the top.

The view to points north. 

And a great view to Longs Peak, Thatchtop, and Knob #4 dead center.

Some clearing on Longs.
The Bulge is mere feet from the trail, but again I did not take a photo.  From there I headed uphill west over some rocky and bushwhacky terrain to arrive at Dream Knob.  Due to the off trail travel, this was definitely the most difficult of the high points to find. 

Dream Knob and twisted pines.
I went back down to the trail and then made a similar approach to Knob #1, again not pictured, and again just a short jaunt off the trail.
I got back on the trail and headed down.  It was a different experience.  I am usually used to seeing no one at all, but passed a ton of people as I headed down.  I arrived to a full parking lot about three hours after I'd left.
This was a fun shorter day.  Chaos Canyon Cascades is certainly worth the short side trip down from the trail, and is more impressive than some of the named waterfalls in the park.  Of the knobs, I'd suggest Goblin Knob and Knob #4 as being the best as both are relatively easy to get to, and both offer some pretty darn good views.
Five Lake Loop and the Knobs:
Mills Lake, 9940 feet: 2.7 miles one way, 760 foot gain.  Moderate.
The Loch, 10180 feet: 2.9 miles one way, 1000 foot gain.  Moderate.
Lake Haiyaha, 10220 feet: 3.3 miles one way, 1040 foot gain.  Moderate.*
Chaos Canyon Cascades, 9840 feet: 3ish miles one way, 660 foot gain.  Moderate.*
Knob #4, 10180 feet: 3ish miles one way, 1000 foot gain.  Moderate.*
Goblin Knob, 10220 feet: 3ish miles one way, 1040 foot gain.  Moderate.*
The Bulge, 10190 feet: 3.2ish miles one way, 1010 foot gain.  Moderate.*
Dream Knob, 10460 feet: 3.3ish miles one way, 1280 foot gain.  Moderate.*
Knob #1, 10260 feet: 3.3ish miles one way, 1080 foot gain.  Moderate.*
Dream Lake, 9900 feet: 1.1 miles one way, 450 foot gain.  Easy+.
Nymph Lake, 9700 feet: .6 miles one way, 250 foot gain.  Easy.
* = From Glacier Gorge TH, subtract about a mile if starting from Bear Lake TH.
As a whole, this hike covered approximately 8 miles with 2000 feet of elevation gain.  Moderate.

Chiefs Head Peak via Pagoda/Chiefs Head Couloir.

Ahh, Chiefs Head Peak.  The last time I climbed it, it was one of the few remaining peaks in Wild Basin that I had to do.  We took the standard route that day- starting at Sandbeach Lake th and, after reaching the lake, making a short bushwhack up to North Ridge and then continuing on to the summit.  I have fond and cold memories of that day.

With the Pagoda/Chiefs Head Couloir being one of the few remaining named destinations in Glacier Gorge that I needed to check off, this one was a priority this year.  When we were on our way to Dragon's Tail, I could look up and see that the top of the couloir looked to be melted out already, so I decided to head for it next instead of waiting a little bit longer. 

Aspen in the early morning. 

The single most photographed tree in RMNP??

Sexy Lake.  The wind hadn't picked up too much yet and I was able to get a nice reflective photo.
The amount of snow on the trail steadily increased as Black Lake grew nearer.  At times route finding became a little bit of a challenge- was I sure those footprints were going in the correct direction?  That always becomes a bit of an issue this time of the year.

Nearing Black Lake, McHenrys Peak.

At Black Lake. 

I had a few views of it from farther down and away, but here I was in upper Glacier Gorge, and there it was looking intimidatingly steep. 

As I've said before, there are a ton of cairns in Upper Glacier Gorge which may lead you somewhere or nowhere at all.  I've had better luck just picking the general direction I want to go and working my way over.  Try to stick to the slabby rock in the area to avoid any bushwhacking.

Much to my surprise, it only took me three hours to get to Green Lake.  I thought the snow had slowed me up alot.  I was happy to see the north facing couloir was still in shade.  That mean the snow would still be pretty firm.

The Spearhead is the only destination in Upper Glacier Gorge that I have yet to climb. 

At the bottom.  It looks less steep from this vantage point.  I strapped on my crampons and got out the ice axe.  Upward!

The snow was rather hard, so much so that I couldn't kick in steps. 

About half way up, there was a small section where the snow had disappeared significantly.  I carefully made my way up the thin strip of snow to the right. 

Things grew steeper near the top, and I wasn't going to stop to take any photos there.  Here I have just finished the snow section.  There was a short scramble over some very loose rock to the top. 

Pretty good views!
I headed west towards the summit of Chiefs Head Peak.  While only .6 mile away, you do gain about 1000 feet per mile until there.  And it's on sometimes loose talus.  So it takes a little bit of time.

There is a flat rock on the summit on which you can sit and hang your feet over a whole, whole bunch of air into Glacier Gorge.

Looking back to Pagoda and Longs.  You can see the top of the Spearhead/Chiefs Head Couloir here.

I'd briefly entertained the idea of descending this couloir rather than going all the way back.  But it was the bottom that looked to be in the very steep snow category with a lot of air under it that kept me away.  Maybe once this region melts out this could be a more viable option.

Looking back down North Ridge.

The high peaks of Wild Basin.

On the descent, I carefully made my way down through some of the rocky stuff until I hit solid snow.  Though I was worried about the snow never softening up enough to glissade, a few hours of sunlight did the trick.  Once past the rocks at the top I got into the snow and started down in a side self arrest position.  I remembered that one area of thinner snow and knew I'd need to stop completely there and walk through it.  This is also where the climb is the steepest, and this position helped me to control my speed much more than the standard sit.
However, once I got past that thin area, I moved to sitting glissade and kept a moderate speed the rest of the way down.  There were still all those rocks at the bottom to avoid.

Back near Italy Lake.

In the early afternoon, I could see the couloir already getting back into some shade, this time provided by Chiefs Head. 
I made my way back down towards Black Lake.

I snapped this photo standing on the snow field that covers the trail to Upper Glacier Gorge.  It looks like CGI almost, but I can assure you it is real.

Looking north from Black Lake.  I wondered when I would start to see some people.  By Mills Lake surely, but would anyone have gone up to Black Lake?  I saw some footprints.  The answer was yes. 

At Mills Lake looking up.  I always enjoy being able to see a destination from below later in the day.  It seems improbable that I was up there just a few hours ago.  But I was!
This was a pretty fun and adventurous way to climb this peak for the second time.  This route is about half a mile shorter in distance and gains about 900 feet less than the route from Sandbeach Lake.  But of course, this method requires some special equipment and skills.  Due to the steepness of the couloir and the large amount of loose rock in it, I would suggest doing this route only in snow.  Even then, make sure you wear a helmet as there was visible and audible evidence of rockfall in addition to the chunks of ice whizzing by me from above.  And as always, Glacier Gorge provides spectacular scenery!
Chiefs Head Peak via Pagoda/Chiefs Head Couloir:
7.3 miles one way, 4399 foot gain (9180-13579).  Second class, steep snow.  Strenuous.