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- Oct 30, 2016
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It's probably going to take me longer to put this post together than it did to shoe this but this section doesn't seem to get a lot of love and, hey - TR!
St Mary's glacier is a permanent snowfield a bit northwest of Idaho Springs, CO in a town called Alice. This is a windy place on a good day, and this morning was not a good day. Gusts were north of 65mph. I'm not a small guy and there were a couple times I had to drop to my knees and turtle up because I was getting knocked over. I could tell it was going to be spicy as I got nearer to the trailhead, but it's a short hike of around a mile and a half round-trip and I'm so sick of weather screwing my plans lately that there was no way I was turning around.
Anyway there's no such thing as bad weather just insufficient gear, right? All layered up and sporting goggles and a balaclava, I marched up the slope with that lovely feeling of looking out on to the nastiness from inside my cozy bubble.
The trail starts around 10,400' and peaks out around 10,800. It's a good incline but not brutal, and the 'high heels' setting on the MSR's really takes a lot of the effort out of it.
There were a few other snowshoers in the area and a couple skiers. I was surprised to see a couple dogs running around without paw protection on. My jeep said it was 8 degrees at the trailhead and with the wind that's about -20F to -25F windchill if I have the math right. My hands went from painful to numb in less time than it took me to strap my snowshoes up.
I had brought my SLR but since it looked like just keeping myself upright was going to be a challenge, I buried it in my jeep and used my phone to snap some pics. As you can imagine, the phone didn't last long and the battery plummeted to zero about a tenth of a mile short of the glacier (which couldn't be seen anyway, so no loss).
Enjoy a hike up the trail:
There's a small alpine lake just shy of the glacier. The wind here was absolutely off the hook. The path to the glacier runs along the right side in the pic below. This is where my phone gave up the ghost.
A quick peak at the whiteout and then the short trudge back down hill. Scariest part of the trip was driving back down the mountain hoping that 4wd, 1st gear and Blizzaks would see me safely back to the highway - and they did!
St Mary's glacier is a permanent snowfield a bit northwest of Idaho Springs, CO in a town called Alice. This is a windy place on a good day, and this morning was not a good day. Gusts were north of 65mph. I'm not a small guy and there were a couple times I had to drop to my knees and turtle up because I was getting knocked over. I could tell it was going to be spicy as I got nearer to the trailhead, but it's a short hike of around a mile and a half round-trip and I'm so sick of weather screwing my plans lately that there was no way I was turning around.
Anyway there's no such thing as bad weather just insufficient gear, right? All layered up and sporting goggles and a balaclava, I marched up the slope with that lovely feeling of looking out on to the nastiness from inside my cozy bubble.
The trail starts around 10,400' and peaks out around 10,800. It's a good incline but not brutal, and the 'high heels' setting on the MSR's really takes a lot of the effort out of it.
There were a few other snowshoers in the area and a couple skiers. I was surprised to see a couple dogs running around without paw protection on. My jeep said it was 8 degrees at the trailhead and with the wind that's about -20F to -25F windchill if I have the math right. My hands went from painful to numb in less time than it took me to strap my snowshoes up.
I had brought my SLR but since it looked like just keeping myself upright was going to be a challenge, I buried it in my jeep and used my phone to snap some pics. As you can imagine, the phone didn't last long and the battery plummeted to zero about a tenth of a mile short of the glacier (which couldn't be seen anyway, so no loss).
Enjoy a hike up the trail:
There's a small alpine lake just shy of the glacier. The wind here was absolutely off the hook. The path to the glacier runs along the right side in the pic below. This is where my phone gave up the ghost.
A quick peak at the whiteout and then the short trudge back down hill. Scariest part of the trip was driving back down the mountain hoping that 4wd, 1st gear and Blizzaks would see me safely back to the highway - and they did!
