My friend Zach and I hiked in Rocky Mountain National Park, repeating a route I had done already once late last fall. I was hoping to show Zach the alpine of RMNP in early season, something he had never been up into before. I was also motivated to repeat the hike hoping that the scree slope to the summit of Gabletop Mountain would be filled in with snow. The ascent for Gabletop can be found in Lisa Foster's hiking guide to RMNP. We started from the Bear Lake Trailhead around 7am, and headed up the Fern Lake Trail. I like this route since it makes a loop hike, instead of having to shuttle from the Fern Lake Trailhead down in Moraine Park. Hiking up to Lake Helene, then down to Odessa Lake is where we left the trail (or whatever snowshoe trail we were following). I've also read a trip report of this same route, but hiked in the opposite direction. I prefer summiting Gabletop first, so you can go up the scree slopes, not down them.
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| The Fern Lake Trail, looking at Notchtop. About 1/2 mile from Lake Helene. |
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| Walking on Odessa Lake (Backtracking, Zach lost one of the microspikes somewhere in the snow!) |
Following a creek up off the north shore of Odessa will bring you up a very steep hike to Tourmaline Lake. Tourmaline and Odessa were still frozen over this early in the season. From Tourmaline we continued up the valley, the snowfields here part between a field of large boulders, take the right snowfield up and eventually the weakness in Gabletop's summit ridge becomes apparent.
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Snowfields above Tourmaline Lake, bear right before the boulders front and center.
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The scree here is unconsolidated and loose, so its best to rock-hop from one solid rock band to another as you make your way up the slope. The worst of the talus already melted out unfortunately, so I was treated to a repeat experience of last year.
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| The notch in Gabletop's ridge, this is only apparent once you climb high enough into the valley. |
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| Not as much snow as we hoped for, a very cool spot though! |
You'll pass through the notch in the ridge, which is only about 20 feet wide at its narrowest, near the top. I wouldn't dally here though since the exposure to rockfall is significant. After a brief lunch on the summit blocks, Zach and I started on what became a long slog on Bighorn Flats back to Flattop Mountain and the trail down.
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| Looking at Longs Peak from Gabletop summit. |
The day was extraordinarily warm and the slush definitely impeded our progress. Our only reprieve was a quick descent down Flattop, though its not quite steep enough for a glissade, the afternoon slush made for quick sliding.
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