ESTES PARK CO LONGS PEAK TRIP REPORT

ESTES PARK, CO, LONGS PEAK TRIP REPORT
Two Colorado Locals Make Summertime Descents in Rocky Mountain National Park

Words: Shelley Woll

Many outdoor adventurers know Estes Park as the gateway into Rocky Mountain National Park. Famous for its 359 miles of trail, epic climbing routes and set in a playground that gains over 6,000 vertical feet, RMNP is the peak-baggers dream come true. A thing the park is less known for is its year-round backcountry skiing.

A local crew of mountain shop workers and carpenters have made a pact with each other to ski every month of the year, not in an effort to stay fit or set park records, but in an attempt to just plain old “do a line, figure it out and get it done,” according to mountain shop employee Zach Zehr. By combining elements from adventure sports such as ski mountaineering, rock climbing, and mountain biking into their skiing routine, this crew has conquered everything from hiking 14ers with skis on their backs to skiing 13ers with bikes on their back. And most recently, two locals from the crew skied the treacherous and temperamental 14,259-foot Longs Peak.

Although a number of skiable routes run from Longs summit, a descent from the top is rarely accomplished. Renowned mountaineer John Harlin was the first to do so in 1983 and has been accomplished sparsely since then. Of course, Mr. Colorado 14er Chris Davenport made a descent from the summit in January 2007 when he successfully skied all of Colorado’s 54 14ers in less than a year, saving Longs Peak for his finale. In fact, Davenport tried multiple summit bids due to high winds that threatened to blow him and crew off the mountain. Long’s trickiness can also be attributed to an intimidating ascent, even for locals and pros who have climbed the route hundreds of times. Summit attempts require eight miles of slogging with nearly 5,000-foot vertical gain through forest, high tundra, and steep boulder problems.

On June 14th 29-year-old Zach Zehr along with his co-worker, 20-year-old David Holmberg, set out to ski the north face of the 14,259-foot mountain. Zehr and Holmberg departed the Longs Peak trailhead parking lot at 5:30 a.m. as their friend Rio Roman simultaneously started his summit of Mount Lady Washington, the peak to the right of Longs, in order to take pictures of the descent.

Instead of snaking around the back of the peak, the most popular route for reaching the flat, football field-sized crown, Zehr and Holmberg cut left directly in front of the north face of the peak (known as the diamond) and climbed a snowfield up to the peak.

According to Holmberg, the two had to reassess the line when they reached the boulder field because it looked more intimidating than they had initially thought. Even from hundreds of yards away they could see a dried-out section that they thought might cause them some problems. They were also concerned about the amount of exposure they would have to deal with and knew that one wrong fall could send them plummeting 2,000 feet past the face of the diamond down into Chasm Lake below. The duo decided to solo the whole thing to reach the summit before the storms blew in. Zehr and Holmberg were able to click into their skis (K2 HellBents and Shuksans) on the summit and traverse across the top and drop in. They described the first ten turns as being powder turns but then it changed to corn snow, which is where Zehr and Holmberg discovered a serious problem.

“There’s a bottleneck at the bottom and there’s a sort of break, like a sketchy problem that’s regarded as the crux on the route in the summer or winter.” Holmberg said, “So that part was a little bit dry and we ended up having to set up a 30-40 foot rappel on the north face.”

Luckily they had brought some gear and Zehr set up an anchor from which the two were able to rappel from. They were then able to ski down to the boulder field itself. The two encountered no more problems and reached their car at around 3:30 p.m.

Since their Longs descent, Zehr has skied the Banana Coulior off the top of Mount Chiquita in RMNP as well as Mt. Toll in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. “There’s so much stuff to do in the park,” Holmberg says excitedly. “During the dead of winter, you’re a little more limited because of avalanche conditions. But this time of year, you can ski pretty much anything that there’s still snow on, so I’m just enjoying prime season!”