Flattop Mountain + HALLETT PEAK or Ptarmigan Point (WINTER)

MAP

Map of Flattop showing the approximate routes I have taken on the winter hikes on this page.

It was Martin Luther King Monday and weather was glorious (albeit a bit windy). I was looking for a good day of non-technical exercise in the mountains. Flattop Mountain sounded like a good choice.

Flattop Mountain is unique in Rocky Mountain National Park in that a major hiking trail leads all the way to its top, which is so broad and flat, it is difficult to ascertain the highest point. The east and west sides of the mountain are gentle, but its north and south sides are rugged and precipitous. Although the summit can be approached from several trailheads, the shortest way is from Bear Lake Trailhead, which is the way I approached it. From Bear Lake, Flattop makes for a great winter outing. Since there had not been any new snow in over a week and because of the popularity of the trails around Bear Lake, snowshoes were not needed on my ascent. I saw very few people on my hike, and no-one near the summit. It was quite windy above treeline and my fingers became numb every time I took off my glove to take a photo (which probably explains the lack of people the higher I went), but I highly enjoyed being up there. A nice extension to this Flattop hike would be to continue about 30 more minutes on to the summit of Hallett, but the wind chill was pretty intense, so I left this for next time (in fact, I came back less than 2 months later to summit both Flattop and Hallett). Summiting Flattop took me 4.5 hours round trip from the Bear Lake Parking lot. A nice workout before spending the afternoon working on some schoolwork, doing some tutoring, and having grilled elk for dinner with Nate.

Below is a sampling of photos from my day in the mountains. 

After my January hike to the summit of Flattop, I made a note to myself to return and summit Hallett as well. Although I have climbed Hallett by multiple technical rock climbs in the summer (Culp-Bossier, Northcutt-Carter, Better than Love, Jackson-Johnson), I had never actually been to the summit of Hallett. Hallett is not only one of the iconic peaks of the RMNP, but its 12,700+ ft summit is located in the center of the park with a 360°s view of the surrounding peaks, so of course I needed to stand on top!

As usual of any weekday hike I manage to squeeze in, I started early. The sun was rising as I neared treeline, treating me to some glorious morning light. I was on the summit of Flattop shortly before 8am, and on top of Hallett 30 minutes later. I enjoyed a hot coffee in my thermos while gazing at the views, and then headed back out. Another special treat of the morning was a trio of white-tailed ptarmigans in their snow-white winter plumage. I did not need snowshoes (it had not snowed in a week and this area gets enough foot travel to pack the trail down, and Flattop and Hallett themselves are too windblown to accumulate much snow); but microspikes were nice to have on the trail. My car to car time from the Bear Lake Trailhead was 5 hours. 

Next time, if I have an extra couple of hours to spare, I will continue onto Otis Peak and descend Andrew's Glacier for a nice loop hike over three summits. (Update: In June 2023 I did just that, but in the opposite direction: Andrew's Glacier to Otis Peak to Hallett to Flattop.)

Below is a sampling of photos from another glorious winter morning adventure in RMNP. 

It was forecasted to be a glorious day in Rocky Mountain National Park: cloudless skies, highs in the mid-20's, and pretty calm. I decided to take advantage of the unusually calm winds and snowshoe up to the Continental Divide. I had never summited Ptarmigan Point (just under a mile north of Flattop along the divide) so that sounded like a great objective for the day. Ptarmigan Point has only 183 foot prominence so it can be easily ignored amongst nearby peaks, but at 12,363 it it is a worthy objective. (Interestingly, the appropriately-named Flattop has only 24 foot prominence from the col between it and Hallett, but it is one of the more well-known summits in the RMNP, so I guess prominence is not a deciding factor in notoriety.)

I've always been fascinated by prominence. The prominence of a peak measures how much the peak stands out due to its intrinsic height and its location relative to other peaks. A low isolated peak can be more prominent than one that is higher but is an otherwise unremarkable member of a tall range. Specifcally, the prominence of a peak is the least drop in height necessary in order to get from the summit to any higher terrain. This can be calculated for a given peak in the following manner: for every path connecting the peak to higher terrain, find the lowest point on the path; the key col is defined as the highest of these points, along all connecting paths; the prominence is the difference between the elevation of the peak and the elevation of its key col. Or, put another way, prominence is the elevation difference between the summit of a peak and the lowest contour that contains the given peak and no higher peaks. Here's a simplified view of prominence (not to scale) of Hallett, Flattop, and Ptarmigan Point. At least this is the way I understand it in a simplified 2-dimensional view.  

Back to the trip report.

As usual, I was unable to find anyone to join me "slowshoeing", so I went alone, accompanied by my camera, audiobook, and incessant stream of thoughts. It was a glorious day and there were several other skiers, snowshoers, and hikers on the lower slopes of Flattop. But as I got higher I left all people behind. (Although I saw no people near the summit, I did notice some other fresh tracks on top of Flattop - they were all snowshoe tracks, as deep snow above treeline and then intermittant bare rocks on the windswept higher slopes stopped hikers and skiers, respectively.) As is often the case in the winter, I felt like I had the entire winter wonderland to myself. I enjoyed a nice break on the top of Ptarmigan Point soaking in the view and texting my parents and sister Jenny (she was also out enjoying the snow, near her hometown of Leavenworth, WA). Then I moseyed on out, stopping numerous times to take photos and soak in the view. 

The entire adventure took me 6.5 hours car-to-car, which includes a long break on the summit and lots of moseying and photos.

Below are some photos from another glorious winter day in my backyard RMNP.

previous and next adventures