Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park

[VincentMalamute]

My biking buddy is getting me into hiking. Winter hiking is new to me as I've developed Raynaud's over the last decade and I've been afraid of being outside when it's cold.

After over a year of not hiking this is our third hike in RMNP in three weeks. It took about six hours and we pushed it to our limits. The back of my right knee was sore as hell the entire way back down. We got back to the car after dark leaving no room for mistakes.

This was maybe 4.5 miles out and 2500 ft of up but we were at 11,400 feet and each step on the snowshoes was literally breathtaking hard work.

We went a few hundred yards further to the big rock you can see on the left before the ground seriously starts going up and then we turned around. We would be at Andrews Tarn and Andrews Glacier if we'd gone up that last climb. But that climb is halfway between hiking and mountaineering. We didn't have enough daylight, I'm afraid of heights, and we're not risk takers.

I've seen these on the internet but this one in the Visitor Center Parking Lot was the first one I've seen in real life. Very cool and also completely ridiculous.

I'm not that big on the views or being out in nature. I do have a Puritan streak and derive a lot of pleasure in suffering. But really, the best reason to do these things is as an excuse to break from my Mediterranean diet and get dinner and a pie at You Need Pie! in Estes Park.

[khalbali]

@vincentmalamute don't forget taffy! I miss the rockies so damn much, my wife and I drove over the pass in the park in my miata, top down, like 2am on a warm summer night, one of the best experiences of my life, the stars were absolutely insane.

[sn4cktimes]

@vincentmalamute not to be that guy, but if you get into this you may want to consider an AST1 avalanche course. It’ll help you do some light risk assessment while on slopes. You likely will never need any of the skills. But if stuff goes pear shaped out there, it’ll do it fast. Some first aid gear or training’s not the worst either. I’ve never had to use my avy training, but sadly I’ve used my first aid skills.

[Roadkilled]

@vincentmalamute I've had Reynauds for a long time. I now buy hand warmers by the case. Two layers of mittens and hand warmers usually are fine for me in the cold. Keeping my toes warm is harder though. However, I'm a trail runner. I can run in snow for hours without my feet getting cold just because running gets the blood flowing through the feet.

[MUSASHI66]

@vincentmalamute I never heard of I Need Pie and now I need pie. Might take the Abarth up there on Saturday for a slice. Looks very yummy!

We like to stop by the pie place that sells the handheld pies on the road into Estes called Colorado Cherry Company. Those are pretty yummy as well. I’m craving strawberry rhubarb like crazy now..

[jminer]

@vincentmalamute beautiful photos and well done on the hike! I miss the rockies, I used to take a trip out there 3 or so times a year.

[VincentMalamute]

@khalbali said in Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park:

don't forget taffy!

Taffy? I'm not familiar with that in relation to RMNP. You may be luckier not to live here and therefore become inured to it and appreciate it that much more when you do visit.

[VincentMalamute]

@sn4cktimes said in Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park:

not to be that guy,

It's tough calibrating your responses on the internet when you don't know the other person well and how much they do or not know and how their thin their skin is in taking advice. In this case, you're correct, I'm a newbie out there with no concept of avalanche assessment so your advice is good. And I know you a bit by now.

And it's accurate advice. We heard a small avalanche come down very near us on the hike back. However, my hiking buddy has lived out here and been winter hiking in RMNP for thirty years as well having been a rock climbing instructor. He hasn't taken an AST1 course but he has knowledge and like you would have done for me were I hiking with you, he was doing some teaching like pointing out risk areas and explaining snow and terrain factors.

At this point, I'm not planning on taking a course since I don't plan on going into risky areas by myself. I'll be with him if I'm going anywhere at all.

You were probably looking at the snow in that photo when you thought of avalanche risk. The amount of snow in front of us could avalanche but my buddy thought size, location, etc was lower risk. The terrain on the other two sides of us were much steeper so did not pose a risk.

[VincentMalamute]

@roadkilled said in Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park:

I now buy hand warmers by the case.

My friend carries hand warmer packs. Apparently they have a shelf life. His were five years old and he broke one out just to see if it still worked - not really.

Much to my surprise, mittens were fine for the cold. I think it was high 20's up there with strong winds driving it to 20 or so. I got to thinking my Raynaud's was fine and got overconfident. I fooled around with equipment and eating at the base of that glacier climb without mittens or gloves. That was a mistake but fingers recovered after 10 minutes of warming them - whew!

@musashi66 said in Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park:

I never heard of I Need Pie

I don't like touristy places and this isn't really that. Small pie shop and some cafe-like food. If they had real burgers, I'd love the place. I've had a couple of double sliders and a reuben which hit the spot after all day activity.

I googled Colorado Cherry Co. Too bad they don't have food!

@jminer Thanks! Stop by if you come out here again. I live basically down the hill from Estes Park in Loveland.

[khalbali]

@vincentmalamute estes has a lot of candy shops that make salt water taffy, or at least it did a few years ago. Sadly I don't know that I'll ever be back, don't have any family there or anything and it's a good 1200 miles from where I am now, and as a working poor the idea of taking a trip there just for pleasure is laughable.

[sn4cktimes]

@vincentmalamute thanks for taking this the way I hoped it would come across. I wasn’t too worried about that pic specifically. It actually looked quite okay. Just a more “in general”. My wife often enjoys a XC ski by herself in the day in the mountains. She sticks to safer areas which is good.

I do backcountry snowboard occasionally, but am pretty picky about the conditions, and the people I go with. I have some very experienced friends who are more than a little too “goal oriented” for my liking, so I ironically don’t go riding with them very much. They always want to summit a thing, I wanna ride floofy powder. I don’t want to traverse any farther than required to get it. I’ll work my ass off to get THERE, but don’t want to get to a peak for the sake of it. I’d rather do more, and smaller laps.

To date, I personally know two people who’ve been in seriously big slides. One is dead, the other was in a hospital for a year and is not the same person. He’s still really nice, but he isn’t the Norm I hung out with beforehand. I’ve been in a smaller slide on a ski hill, in bounds and it was pretty intense. It swept a skier up too. We were both lucky to have it happen directly in front of the ski patrol (who obviously shouldn’t have “cleared” the area). But we both had parts poking above surface so they had us both out in minutes.

Statistically the odds of being in an avalanche is about as common as a life altering car accident. So not THE thing to worry about, but a thing to be conscious of.

I love the outdoors. So if you’ve got a good guide, and are having fun, get out there. Nature is awesome. The glorious sights and experiences are there to be had. But nature is impersonal. And she doesn’t always play nice.

Thanks for letting me be that guy. And definitely toss up the pics when you go out next. I don’t hit up the nature as much as I should. And I love seeing new places.

[MUSASHI66]

@vincentmalamute Guess where we went today?? Hint

Breakfast burrito was ok, but the pies are spectacular. We had strawberry rhubarb and peanut butter chocolate cream. Yum! Thanks for the recommendation.

[VincentMalamute]

@sn4cktimes said in Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park:

thanks for taking this the way I hoped it would come across. I wasn’t too worried about that pic specifically. It actually looked quite okay. Just a more “in general”.

I'm improving at taking things better as I get to know Oppos. As I said, I have no experience in mountains in the winter and no experience to have any kind of a gut feeling about avalanche risks. I'm reading everything you wrote there and taking it to heart.

I have some very experienced friends who are more than a little too “goal oriented” for my liking,

Nature is awesome. The glorious sights and experiences are there to be had.

I might be more like your friends. I like the suffering and accomplishment more than I appreciate nature and views.

[VincentMalamute]

@musashi66 said in Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park:

We had strawberry rhubarb and peanut butter chocolate cream

I got the strawberry rhubarb the first time. After I got a taste of my friend's Black Forest, I really wanted to get it on the second visit and they didn't have it!!

The Peanut Butter sounds like would be similar in consistency, just Peanut Butter instead of white cream. How was it?

[MUSASHI66]

@vincentmalamute Spectacular. On par with Peanut Butter pie at Charco Broiler (best peanut butter pie in the world). Not too peanut-y, not too chocolate-y, not too sweet... crust was slightly too hard for my taste, but tasty.

Strawberry rhubarb with crumble is good, I am fairly sure it is made with lard and I could taste it a bit. We get some pies at Pope Farms, and we get the same lardy taste there as well.

[VincentMalamute]

@musashi66 ok, I will get the Peanut Butter as well as Black Forest. I wouldn't recognize lardy taste but I know my favorite chocolate chip cookies are made with lard.

[MUSASHI66]

@vincentmalamute Peanut butter chocolate! I think they have regular peanut butter as well, but we didn't try that one.

I like my Black Forest in cake form. I can't imagine it as a pie.

[VincentMalamute]

@musashi66 It was nothing like Black Forest cake which I'm not a big fan of. It was more like cheesecake with the only Black Forest part appearing as the crust.