Boulder County Wandering
  • Home
  • Climate Change and Colorado Wildfires
  • Trip Reports
  • Skills/Gear
    • Intro, External Sources and Misc.
    • Food and Water
    • Shelters
    • Backpacks
    • Sleeping
    • Clothing
    • Winter Camping
    • A Shoe Odyssey
    • Foot Care
    • Maps, Navigation and Weather
    • Off-Trail Route Planning
    • The Perfect Headlight/Flashlights?
    • Misc Small Stuff
    • Photography/Camera
    • Gear Repair and MYOG
  • Places
    • Flatirons
    • Rocky Mountain National Park
    • Indian Peaks Wilderness
    • Lost Creek Wilderness
    • Gore Range
    • Glacier National Park
    • Wind River Range
    • Utah
  • Plants and Wildlife
  • Contact
  • To Do
  • About

TriP Reports

Gore Lake (Gore Range/Vail Colorado)

4/9/2019

2 Comments

 
Trip dates: April 06-07, 2019
Picture
Looking south towards Deming Mt (left) and West Deming Mt. (center) from a hill on the side of Gore Lake.
Caltopo map here:  caltopo.com/m/6NM8
This would be my first winter trip to the Gore Range since I discovered it--and subsequently became obsessed with it--this last summer.  The only bad thing I've found is having to drive on I-70 to get there.  

This also turned out to be my favorite winter trip ever.  
Picture
I started at the Vail-Tenmile TH (at least I'm pretty sure that's what it's called).  
Picture

Day 1

Picture
Just beyond the road closure. Without a doubt, the least scenic part of the trip.
Picture
But it gets better very quickly
Picture
Picture
A frozen Gore Creek
Picture
Looking west. I'd make a turn north once I got to the big un-named mountain in the center.
Picture
Looking back towards East Vail
Picture
Looks like a little Hobbit house but it's only a rock.
Picture
Obvious recent avalanche
Picture
just a little bit...
Picture
...disconcerting.
Picture
For this trip I made two modifications to my pyramid shelter setup for winter.  I have the DCF Solomid XL from MLD.  In the standard configuration, there is only enough room behind the single trekking pole for 1 sleeper and the rest becomes a small vestibule.  This is fantastic in summer when I'm using an emergency blanket as a ground sheet in the sleeping area and can spread my stuff out on dry ground in the vestibule.  For camping in the snow, I wanted more dry area to spread my gear out.  

I made these inverted V gizmos out of carbon fiber tubing with cheap foam sheets as a cushion with heat shrink tubing for the joint.  ​The finished product only weighs ~1.5 oz.  You can see my socks "drying" on the DIY inverted V in the picture immediately below and the bathtub floor in the next two pictures. (Soon, I'll have more details on how to make these on my shelters page).    The interior space is then large enough to fit two sleepers snugly but without a vestibule.  Or 1 person plus all of their winter gear.  For the floor I used the Duo bathtub floor (weight is 6 oz for the DCF version).  
Picture
My boots seem to be losing their waterproofness. I soaked through two pairs of socks on the way in. This foolish attempt to "dry them out" just resulted in rock hard "socksicles" by morning. Luckily I had a third pair for the next day.
Picture
Picture
I used shock cord with line locks to attach the floor to the tent (at the same placer where guylines are attached).

Day 2

There's got to be a better way to deal with frozen boots.  Maybe I should start putting them in a plastic bag inside my sleeping bag at night so they don't freeze?
Picture
Thawing my boots on my homemade winter alcohol stove (you can't see an alcohol flame during the daytime). Basically I just get them warm until they soften enough to go over my foot. This stove has enough heat for reasonable snow melting times and has become my go to in winter. Also, I wonder if this is why my boots are no longer waterproof? (just kidding).
I did a little better on having a snow-wall wind break around the edges compared to last time at Eagle Lake in RMNP.
Picture
Picture
A better view of the sleeping area and how the poles attach.
Picture
Better view of the inverted V without the socks.
Picture
And the shock cord attachment between the bathtub floor and the trekking poles.
Alright, enough time in camp.  Off to find Gore Lake
Picture
For the most part the easiest travel was up this frozen creekbed.
I like going into these things fairly cold, not knowing what the scenery will really be like.  I know that the Gore Range is generally a beautiful place but I didn't expect this. This is part of the fun of planning a trip based solely on a topographic map.
Picture
A taste of what's to come.
Picture
Picture
Looking south towards West Deming Mt.
Picture
The north face of Red Mt.
Picture
Looking north from Gore Lake towards Snow Peak (far left).
Picture
Looking out over a frozen Gore Lake.
At this point the basin around me has already been more gorgeous than I expected but I noticed a hill to my south that looked like a local high point on my map.  The slope was gentle enough that I could be fairly sure to not trigger an avalanche so I went for it.  
Picture
Picture
This place sure looks different in the winter.  In the picture below I'm looking towards last summer's trip that included a scramble up Deming Mt (from the opposite/south side) and a visit with a useless Mt Goat before dropping down from Red Buffalo Pass to camp in the valley on this side in the trees.  Oh, and it also featured that crazy dragon elk skeleton.  
Picture
It's nice to see old places from a new perspective.
Last summer's useless mountain goat below.  Not recommended to help you find things you've lost.
Picture
Unnamed peak directly SE of Gore Lake
Picture
Picture

"This must be what Alaska feels like"

The skies were clear, and I feel like the pictures came out pretty well.  But it's just hard to capture how BIG it felt.  This is the first time in Colorado I've thought "this must be what Alaska feels like".  The video below is shaky (it's hard to turn 360 degrees in snowshoes) but I hope it captures to scope of what I was seeing. 

​This is why I do this.

Headed out

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
It's always hard to say goodbye but this is a place I'll keep coming back to.
Picture
2 Comments
david
4/23/2019 12:04:00 pm

I agree this was fantastic, at least to look at. Glad you were careful and stayed safe. The new widget you made looks like it worked well. It is SUCH BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY. I am glad you had fair weather both ways. Thanks for posting.

Reply
Susan
4/24/2019 04:40:42 pm

Beautiful photos! We've got a number of videos of our trip to Alaska with Daddy and Mother in 1992. Right now they are still on video tape. Duane will try to convert them to a CD so we can show them to you.

I especially like the photo of the creek with running water in it.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Travis Briles

    Subscribe

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016

    Categories

    All
    2017
    2018
    2019
    2020
    Backpacking
    Big Bend National Park
    Black Ridge Canyon Wilderness
    Boulder
    Boulder Foothills
    Boulder OSMP
    Boulder Reservoir
    BURL
    Bushwhack
    Cache La Poudre Wilderness
    California
    Calwood Fire
    Canyonlands National Park
    Car Camping
    Colorado
    Colorado National Monument
    Colorado Trail
    Comanche Peaks Wilderness
    Coulson Gulch
    Day Hike
    Desolation Wilderness
    Eldorado Canyon
    Estes Park
    Fairview Peak
    Flatirons
    Glacier Gorge
    Glacier National Park
    Golden
    Golden Gate Canyon State Park
    Goosenecks State Park
    Gore Range
    Grand Junction
    Grand Teton National Park
    Great Sand Dunes National Park
    Gross Reservoir
    Hall Ranch
    Hawaii
    Heil Valley Ranch
    High Route
    Indian Peaks Wilderness
    Island In The Sky
    James Peak Wilderness
    Jefferson County Open Space
    Lake Tahoe
    Lefthand Canyon
    LIGANN Traverse
    Lost Creek Wilderness
    Lyons
    Mauna Loa
    Middle St. Vrain
    Mohling Traverse
    Montana
    Monument Valley
    Mt Evans Wilderness
    Mummy Range
    Natural Bridges National Monument
    Needles District
    Never Summer Wilderness
    North Table Mountain
    NYC
    Off Trail
    Off-trail
    Palo Duro Canyon
    Pfiffner Traverse
    Rabbit Mountain
    Ralph Price Reservoir
    Rawah Wilderness
    RMNP
    Sangre De Cristo
    Scramble
    Scrambling
    Snowshoeing
    Snowy Range
    South Platte
    St. Vrain
    Ten Mile Range
    Texas
    Urban
    Utah
    Valley Of The Gods
    Vasquez Wilderness
    Walker Ranch
    White Ranch Open Space
    Wild Basin
    Wild Basin High Route
    Wildfire
    Wind River Range
    Winiger Ridge
    Winter
    Winter Backpacking
    Winter Camping
    Wyoming
    Year In Review
    Yellowstone National Park

    RSS Feed


Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Climate Change and Colorado Wildfires
  • Trip Reports
  • Skills/Gear
    • Intro, External Sources and Misc.
    • Food and Water
    • Shelters
    • Backpacks
    • Sleeping
    • Clothing
    • Winter Camping
    • A Shoe Odyssey
    • Foot Care
    • Maps, Navigation and Weather
    • Off-Trail Route Planning
    • The Perfect Headlight/Flashlights?
    • Misc Small Stuff
    • Photography/Camera
    • Gear Repair and MYOG
  • Places
    • Flatirons
    • Rocky Mountain National Park
    • Indian Peaks Wilderness
    • Lost Creek Wilderness
    • Gore Range
    • Glacier National Park
    • Wind River Range
    • Utah
  • Plants and Wildlife
  • Contact
  • To Do
  • About