CHASM LAKE (WINTER, Early Spring, & Fall)

I had moved to Boulder a few years before, but until this winter I had not done any winter excursions into the mountains near home. But this winter I had been on a streak. I had hiked or snowshoed up to the top of Twin Sisters, Mount Lady Washington, Flattop Mountain, Deer Mountain, and to Sky Pond. I was enjoying exploring the mountains in their winter cloaks. Plus the exercise felt a little more substantial than my typical morning run. I couldn't get enough of it!

I had no morning obligations and was waiting on my professor to post the next homework, so I decided to wake up super early and hike up to Chasm Lake to view sunrise on the Diamond. I had passed Chasm Lake multiple times in the summer en route to climbing some route on the Diamond, but I had never been up to Chasm Lake in the winter. I wanted to walk out into the middle of a frozen Chasm Lake and view the Diamond in its winter splendor.

The NOAA forecast read: "Sunny, high of 13°F. Wind chill values as low as -22°F. Windy, with gusts as high as 44 mph." Indeed, it was a bit windy and cold, but not really all that bad, and in the sun it felt pleasant. It had snowed a couple of times this week, so I brought snowshoes. I did not need them on the trail or windblown tundra, but they were nice to have in the area around treeline and on the snowslope approaching Chasm Lake. It was a quiet day on the Longs Peak Trail, as I only ran into a few parties on the trail as I was hiking out. My round trip car-to-car was 5 hours and 20 minutes. I was back to Boulder by 12:30pm, and had eaten lunch, took a shower, did laundry, went grocery shopping, and posted this trip report even before the the homework I was waiting on was posted.

Below is a sampling of photos from my morning adventure. Sure beat going on a run!

I'd been studying hard for an upcoming thermodynamics final exam, so I decided to take a morning study break. I left the Longs Peak trailhead in the morning darkness, hiked to and over the frozen Chasm Lake, cramponned up Camel Gully, tagged the summit of Mt. Lady Washington, scrambled along the ridge to Chasm View to get up-close views of the vertical walls of the Diamond, descended into the Boulderfield, and hiked out. This loop adventure took me just under 7 hours car to car. It was a pleasant day with hardly any wind.

Nate and I had planned to go climbing, but the mid-30's and windy forecast was just a bit to chilly to have bare hands on rock. So we decided to bundle up and hike up to Chasm Lake. When we broke above treeline, the wind was blasting. Nate decided it wasn't worth the misery, but I was gung-ho to continue, beckoned by the mountain splendor ahead. So I continued on up to Chasm Lake, snapped a few photos of the frozen aqua lake and towering Diamond above, and then headed back out. With the wind keeping me moving, my car-to-car time was 4 hours and 7 minutes. I'll never get tired of visiting Chasm Lake Cirque.

On Fridays, I like to wake up early and start work early, so I can check out a few hours earlier in the afternoon and get a head start on the weekend. Often Friday afernoons are spent driving to a weekend cragging destination where we will camp for the evening. On this weekend, Nate and I had decided to stay local, so I decided to take a few hours to hike up to Chasm Lake. I left Estes Park around noon, drove 20 minutes to the trailhead, and began my hike. There was packed snow on the trail, but I did not need spikes or snowshoes, and I made good time to the lake. The lake had a layer of ice, but the ice was not yet thick enough to walk on. I snapped a few photos, scrambled around the south shore a bit to get a good look at the conditions on the mixed route Martha (AI2 M3-) up a gully on the south side of Mt. Lady Washington (Nate and I were interested in climbing this route soon), and then hiked back out. My round trip car-to-car time to Chasm Lake and back was 3 hours and 21 minutes. My fastest time yet for a trip report on this page (I have probably gotten to Chasm Lake faster on some summer ascents of the Diamond). A fun few hours of exercise!

It was another one of those streaks 5 glorious sunny 60° days (Mon-Fri) followed by two snowy/cold/cloudy days (i.e. Sat and Sun). It had snowed about a foot in Estes Park on Saturday, and more in the mountains. Sunday looked like a decent forecast, but there was too much snow around to do any climbing. So it was a good day for a spring snowshoe. I decided to snowshoe up the Longs Peak Trail for some exercise. The snow was deep above treeline, and there was only one party (a pair of skiers) ahead of me breaking trail, but I continued up, enjoying my audiobook and the exercise. I ended up moseying all of the way to Chasm Lake. Clouds obscurred a good view of the Diamond, but I could see its lurking dark form. 

The entire round trip took about 5 hours. 

A couple of summer photos of Chasm Lake for comparison!

previous and next adventures