Happy Easter! This weekend has started out awesome, with a sweet line in Rocky Mountain National Park. The line I skied on Saturday is a Park classic descent with some exposure. When told the posse was thinking of doing Dragon's Tail I was stoked. Had heard about the route and had to stare at it during the Reed's wedding, its in all thier wedding pictures. I had first hiked to the base when I was in Colorado in 2000 when I traveled right after turning 18. No idea ten years later I would be in the same spot looking at a steep descent I was about to go down with a board tied to my feet.
The posse I enjoyed this adventure with was Gary, Tom, Thatcher, and Fritz. The approach starts at the Bear Lake Trailhead and ends at the top of Flattop Mountain. Relative to other big mountain lines it was a simple skin and quickly we were looking into the first couloir, Dragon's Tongue.
Three climbers had just topped out the couloir, this line looked really awesome, but was not on the plate today. I still could not figure out why people would climb up something and not ski it, it is the quickest way down. They did give us a funny look when we mentioned that we are skiing down near where they came up. We continued on to our objective, the next couloir over. This line was an impressive sight with a steep initial drop in and a large cornice above.
It is a Y shaped couloir and we chose to descend the skiers left. After dropping in the clouds engulfed us, taking away any visibility. We were forced to stop frequently and for longer periods in order to see our line and keep an eye on the person riding. As it opened up on to the apron there was a rock that required me to jump it, which I was glad to do. It was an awesome exit to Emerald Lake and a short quick run past snow shoe tourists, 100 points for pole stab and 500 for full take down. What a great day and grand descent. The posse was great and will be checking more of the Park out tomorrow with Tom.
 |
| Gary and Myself Ready To Drop |
 |
| Thatcher Planning His Line |
 |
| The Boys That Got The Dragon's Tail |
 |
| Gary Slaying the Tail |
No comments:
Post a Comment