Mini AK in Rocky Mountain National Park

As I mentioned before and many of you have seen some of the photos on Facebook, I had another adventure in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). On Monday I was back at the park to get a snowboard descent of the East Face of Notchtop.

We started on our journey again at Bear Lake trail head heading to the top of Flattop Mountain. We had great weather down low and was anticipating a beautiful day. Well, this changed once we got around the entrance for Dragon's Tail, the line I hit on Saturday.

The winds picked up and visibility want downhill for our hike around the Ptarmigan Cirque. With a little issue with some frostbite and the elements we kept pushing on. We settled in around a rock/snow cave for a quick lunch and prayers for the weather to break.

Fortunatelyy our prays were answered and we left the cave for a short jaunt over to the top of Notch couloir and Spire couloir, both lines that I will get sooner than later. Our eye were on the prize though and we headed over to the East Face.

Tom above Spire Couloir

The East Face appeared to have a large cornice above it, choosing not to bring the harness and rope (weight) I was unable to get out on it to get a closer look and cut the cornice. From here we could see a ski line that called our attention. No cornice to deal with, beautiful snow, and few options with a safety zone helped to make this route appealing.





So we hiked across another cirque, not as large as the first one, but still more distance to and from the car. We connected our tools for descent to our feet at the top of what is believed to be Knobtop and descended to the rock identifier we located across the way.

The Ski Line

At the top of entrance we saw a beautiful line that had us stoked to drop in. This is where we could not let the energy get the best of us, we needed to stay calm and smart. We dug a snow pit and analyzed our slide potential: we got movement on 4 from the elbow 8-10inches down with a Q2 shear and not a super cohesive slab (this was our new snow) on a South aspect. We had a secondary slab where there was a slight worry of a step down from the first layer sliding, but our test was unable to get it to move. After further discussion and outlining our safety zones we started our drop in.

Tom ready to ski cut

Tom dropped in with ski cut across to our intermediate safety zone on a small ridge, if we had complete failure the next safety zone was over a spine and constant traverse, down and out! Everything looked good to go and I got word to drop the whole line. As I dropped in, about ready to point it straight down the line, it avalanched a small slab and I went to the safety zone where Tom was. I let the snow take its path down the slope following gravity and then I followed right behind. Down the shoot over the rock band, a little core shot on the board, it was down the apron with some of the most amazing turns.

Photo By Thomas Armento

Photo By Thomas Armento

Tom was soon to follow with my eyes looking up at the sweet line I had just rode. He aired out a small spine down the middle, showing the mountain who the boss was. We looked up at a sweet line that we had painted with glorious turns, and then looked down at the perfect snow for the next pitch.



Our ski line on the right side, Photo by Thomas Armento



Here we played around with fun turns and some airs until we were at the base to begin our skin out. The hike out was horrible bush whacking and flat sticky heavy snow, there is a easier route out (you live you learn). It took six hours to the top of the line and four hours out with eleven hours total. A great line and great journey, with a first snowboard descent on my belt and maybe a first ski descent for the line.

Photo by Thomas Armento