A Love/Hate Relationship with Backcountry Skiing in Rocky Mountain National Park Written by Emil Ortiz A wise person once told me that Rocky Mountain National Park builds character. Well I couldn’t agree more. I like to call this place Windy National Park after the experiences that I have come to face in this mountain range of the Colorado Rockies. Don’t let this range fool you! Yes, we all know how majestic this National Park is. People from all over the world come to this place to recreate! But this place is rugged! The winds are some of the gnarliest in the whole state. This pocket of the Rockies truly has its own microclimate going on which makes it tough to hit it right with good quality snow during the winter months. I have had to turn away from many lines here due to the quality of snow just not being worth the effort of skiing on top of the avalanche risks during mid winter. This range has really tested my patience as well as educating me on the fact that backcountry skiing isn’t all that social media paints it out to be. It’s not always blower pow over 3k feet of descents. It’s more than that. It’s the journey of finding the good snow. Connecting with these ranges and understanding the complexity of these microclimates. Trying to understand one of the toughest snowpacks in the world. The first time coming into this range was over 5 years ago and I was attempting the Dragon Tail Couloir with a group of some of my favorite splitboarders. Once getting on the ridge of Flattop Mountain the winds came in stronger than I have ever experienced in my life. Now I’m always down for type 2 suffer fest in the mountains, but this was different. My friends were really struggling to keep their morale high. But we kept pushing towards the entrance of the line, in hopes that the couloir was well protected. Well we looked at the line from the top of Flattop Mountain (12,326’ of elevation) and found some unfavorable conditions where everyone agreed it wasn’t worth the attempt. We turned around and hiked down Flattop Mountain and rode Banana Bowl. Descending Flattop Mountain Patrick Rappelling Into The Incisor Entrance of Dragon Tail Couloir Emil Getting Ready To Rappel Being easily convinced, Patrick and I decided to go back up and take the true entrance to Dragon Tail (lookers left) thinking that the sun would have softened up the line after some time. We made it to the top of the line after booting up Coral Couloir to gain the top of Flattop Mountain. Once at the entrance we found some pretty soft snow so I got optimistic. I decided to drop first. After two hop turns I was on top of bulletproof ice with no way of retreating. The snow had gotten really bad with the winds. I then found myself in an uncomfortable position. No ice axe, riding over a literal blue ice waterfall, struggling to hold onto this slope with one edge of my snowboard and I’m slipping down ever so gingerly on my toe side. Punching into the face of the couloir trying to break through the ice sheet so that I could find any little bit of control / comfortability in a hand hold. Did I mention that this couloir tops out at 60 degrees and is sustained until about half way down! It’s an 1,800 foot descent. The snow just kept getting worse. I felt like I was on this line for a lifetime. Then the worst happened. I could no longer hold an edge and I found myself free falling on my ass for about 800 feet. Keeping my cool I was able to stay in an aggressive position. If it wasn’t for the avy debris slowing me down I could have seriously gotten injured. It took Patrick and I about an hour and half to descend 1,800 feet. I was struggling a lot mentally after this fall. My riding just didn’t click like it did in the past. I began to really beat myself up and Patrick is trying to convince me that no other snowboarder would have had better luck on those conditions. After some weeks, another storm rolled through and Patrick suggested we go after another section of RMNP near the Taylor Glacier. I was not happy about coming back to this range but for whatever reason I can’t say no to these experiences. __________ It’s April 13, 2034 and we’re back on the skin track. The RMNP range was giving us every reason to turn around. The winds were gnarly and I saw nothing but crusty snow across all aspects. I was not optimistic and I was just complaining the whole time, which is honestly rare for me to be in that type of headspace in the mountains. But that day, I was over it. After hours of being on the skin track we made it to our objective, the Stileto Couloir. It looked horrible, go figure. We kept pushing towards the Taylor Glacier Headwall tho. Once in line of sight we couldn’t believe what we had found. Seemed to be the only part of this range that had a fresh blanketed coat of powder! Morning Glow Over Dragon Tail Couloir Once on the apron, we switched to boot packing and were wallowing in chest deep snow in most sections. Our ski partner, Clint White, led the boot pack while Patrick and I were assessing the snow profiles. We dug multiple hasty pits and two pits that we isolated columns for, which had no concerning results. It wasn’t until we reached the midpoint of the 60 degree headwall that I found an iffy snow profile. We had found a layer that gave Patrick and I a level of concern. After assessing more, we decided to keep going. The headwall was the most challenging part of the boot pack. 60 degree face with chest deep snow, we were struggling to get up. When we finally made it on top after 3500 feet of skinning / climbing, we all couldn’t believe what we had done and what was about to come. Blower steep pow in Rocky Mountain National Park. We all were stunned and really proud of what we had accomplished thus far. But the mission wasn’t over. We still had to make it down safely from this steep headwall of a glacier. (L) Patrick Gres On The Taylor Glacier Headwall Boot Pack. (M) Emil On The Taylor Glacier Boot Pack. (R) Clint White Leading The Boot Pack Emil Topping Out On The Line Knowing there is the potential of having this sluff on us was pretty hard - especially with the layer of concern we found in the snowpack, we were all a little nervous. Patrick decided to drop first and ski cut the line. Usually I’m the one who is comfortable performing this type of mitigation in the backcountry, but Patrick felt like it was time to experience cutting a slope with the potential of it sliding. We were mainly dealing with a soft wind slab that was close to a foot deep. Patrick dropped in, ski cut the slope and a decent sized sluff went. Patrick then opened up the line riding faster than I have ever seen him ski, especially in powder conditions. Clint and I were cheering him on seeing the beautiful turns he was making all the way down the glacier. Clint was next! Never skiing this steep of a line before, Clint dropped in and also skied better than I have ever seen him ride. Patrick and I were so proud and impressed with Clint. Now it was my turn. I took some deep breaths, looked up at the sky to give thanks for the opportunity. Putting my hands in a prayer motion I took one last deep breath and was ready. Inching closer to the cornice I dropped in and didn’t take a turn for a few hundred feet. I straight lined it off the 60 degree headwall and decided to slash the upper right roller. Huge powder cloud! I was stoked! Trying to keep my excitement in control I continued down the glacier riding faster than I have ever before. Face shots after face shots! It was the best snow I have ever ridden in RMNP. We all rode out to Sky Pond and took a look back and just were amazed, grateful and so excited. We finally had a good experience in RMNP and found pow in some of the steepest terrain in this range. Emil Riding Down The Glacier I was back! Rejuvenated. Feeling like that little voice that was telling me that I wasn’t the rider I thought I was, was gone. My feeling towards this range had shifted to a form of respect and understanding. This doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a place that builds character and tests ones patience. But that is what backcountry skiing / snowboarding is about. Connecting with these mountain ranges. Learning from them. Being in tune with their environments. It’s a journey. (L) Looking Back At Our Lines On The Glacier. (R) Emil “Rejuvenated”
