Fourth of July Crüe: Ben, Megan, Evelyn, Luke, CalebGood times, good times. ~ Jerri Blank
What better way to spend a sunny 4th of July than skiing in the Indian Peaks? Beats what most of the U.S. does (whacking down parasite dogs, drinking shitty beer and blowing stuff up). At least that's my take on it.
Now I am never one to say that getting up at 3:00 is a good idea but that is what happened this morning. Ben, Caleb, Evelyn, Luke, Megan and I met at the Long Lake trail head at 4:30 to begin our most excellent assault on Apache Peak.
We jammed up the trail and quickly found ourselves reaching Lake Isabelle with the morning sun illuminating the Indian Peaks in the distance. Just a gorgeous morning altogether. Warm, sunny, quiet. Perfect.
The adventure started soon thereafter with Ben, Luke and I bushwhacking around the south side of the lake to access an "ice berg" that appeared to be attached to the southwest side of the lake. Once we got there, we realized that the berg was not, in fact attached, but was about 3 feet away from the bank. Some campers informed us that the previous night, it had been attached to the northwest side of the lake and had drifted overnight to its current location.
Luke went first, then Ben. When I took off from the shore, a foot-wide portion of the remaining snow and ice on broke off and another foot broke off the berg when I landed. Fortunately, I didn't get too wet. Pretty funny, actually.
We traversed the full length of the berg (~1/8-1/4 mile long) and then Ben wiggled out to the end to get the full effect. We leaped back across (I broke off another chunk on the berg side, Luke broke off a big chunk on the shore leaving Ben with a massive jump back across) and headed back to the trail to continue our approach to Apache.
By this time, the snow fields were really softening up and we quickly caught up with Caleb, Evelyn and Megan then started our journey up the couloir. Luke and Ben led the way, bootpacking up to the top. Megan relaxed at the bottom as we made our way through the portage (100 steps at a time - thanks, Caleb!) and finally we were atop Apache. We hung out for a bit then took turns skiing great conditions back down. Tons of fun. This isn't a terribly steep pitch and the consequences are not great if one were to fall so that made it a fairly mellow ski out. Good times.
We hooked back up with Megan, then began our trudge back out to the cars. By the time we made it back to Isabelle, the ice berg had moved east quite a bit. No way one could get there from our previous position. Luke and Ben hatched a plan to access it once more from the northeast but the rest of us headed back down the trail (assuming they would either a) figure out it wouldn't go, b) figure out they were going to have to get really wet to make it go, c) get wet or stranded trying to get on the damned thing). Turns out they used another, smaller berg as a raft and pushed off from the edge of the lake to get on the main berg. Then their raft floated away and so they somehow got a second one broken loose and navigated back to shore. Ha!
The rest of us hung out at the cars until Luke and Ben finally showed. All in all, it was an awesome day, with a great group of friends.
Here are links to photo albums:
Then I came home and took a nap with my sweet, sweet Rach.
Who could ask for more?
~stubert.
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