A Tour de Thatchtop 6/20/12
Now Thatchtop is a mountain I'd look at years ago and think "That doesn't seem too hard". Compared to the sheer faces and higher elevations of its neighbors, the smaller gentler Thatchtop doesn't attract as much attention as it probably should. Oh yeah, it isn't ranked either(as if that really matters). This one has been in the back of my mind for a while along with the other peaks in Glacier Gorge I've never gotten around to climbing, but I though Thatchtop would make for a summary of the area.
Some family was in town so we decided to go camping at Aspenglen for a few nights, giving me a reprieve from the drive up the canyon. I woke at 5am to get a nice early start and dodge the construction on Bear Lake Road and left the trailhead a few minutes before six. Taking the fire trail to save time I made it up to Mills Lake in about an hour and slowed down a bit to survey the damage from the massive blowdown above Jewel Lake. The sheer number of cut logs and massive uproots is amazing, the microburst that leveled the thousands of trees had to be incredibly strong. As I stepped over a little rise and entered a small meadow, some waterfalls on Shelf Creek came into view and I knew I needed to start my off trail hiking at this point.
I'd have bits of good luck all day, but the best was noticing the small climbers trail cut off from the main trail right after sitting down to look at my map. I don't expect these small trails to be particularly well trodden, marked or continuous; but this one would be an exception. The path easily crosses Glacier Creek and ascends the steep hillside(always on the north side of Shelf Creek) while ducking under a few recently downed trees before snaking between outcroppings and running into the small Shelf Lake. Compared to some climbers trails, this thing was a highway. Shelf Lake deserved more attention from me but I had bigger things in mind so I headed up to the very pretty Solitude Lake.
Solitude Lake sits just above Shelf and holds much better views up the gorge towards the Powell Peak headwall. From this point the remaining route becomes clear as all that's involved is a Class 2+ walkup from the lake. I sat at the outlet stream and took a break eating a damn good coconut chocolate chip Clif Bar while scanning the hillside for the best route. The bottom half of the slope is pretty easy going, the rocks are mostly stable and there are some patches of tundra to walk across to avoid the rocks. However the upper half would be a bit steeper and the rocks would become less stable meaning I'd need the use of my hands now and again(making it 2+). Eventually the rocks would subside and I'd find myself on the broad summit.
I signed the register dating back to 2010 but strangely didn't recognize any of the names signed in there(on a related note, the register could use a few more sheets of paper). The wind at the summit dropped the already cool temperature down even more, and I'd put on my hat and gloves for comfort while eating lunch. The views to the south and west were spectacular. I had family fishing at the Loch, so I decided to complete the tour and head down the 'S Shaped Gully' on the northeast corner of Thatchtop. Before that though, I decided to walk down to the NW corner and get a view of upper Loch Vale, Lake of Glass and Sky Pond. After this side trip I traversed the bottom of the slope east while checking out several gullies that didn't appeal to me.
Eventually I found a cairn and a gully in the trees overlooking the switchbacks on the main trail that seemed to be what I was looking for. On closer inspection I noticed how washed out it was compared to the others, and what looked to be little trails braiding down the loose rocks somewhat like the Trough on Longs. Heading down the upper part of the gully was a nightmare, every rock moved and I eventually tweaked both of my knees on the steep descent. The next step was to traverse over to another smaller, more bare gully into some boulder hopping and into the trees. It wouldn't get much better from there though as the cairns led me into the lower part of the S Shaped Gully; a steep narrow crack between two rock outcroppings choked with icy snow and and muddy dirt sides. After limbo-ing beneath some convieniently placed fallen trees and almost eating it a few times on the snow, I finally escaped that stupid deathtrap and crossed Icy Brook(easily, lots of downed trees) and headed back up to the Loch to meet up with the rest of the group before the walk out.
Besides the Powell-Thatchtop ridge I haven't ever done, I'll go ahead and say the Shelf-Solitude route is the way to go for Thatchtop. It might involve some bushwhacking up the climbers trail, but the S Shaped Gully absolutely sucked going down. If it sucks going down, it has to really suck going up. Plus that, you don't get to visit two pretty lakes and enjoy not seeing a person from 6am to 1pm in one of RMNP's most popular areas like I did. Overall? Nice views, good ascent, bad decent...pretty good for an unranked peak.
Some family was in town so we decided to go camping at Aspenglen for a few nights, giving me a reprieve from the drive up the canyon. I woke at 5am to get a nice early start and dodge the construction on Bear Lake Road and left the trailhead a few minutes before six. Taking the fire trail to save time I made it up to Mills Lake in about an hour and slowed down a bit to survey the damage from the massive blowdown above Jewel Lake. The sheer number of cut logs and massive uproots is amazing, the microburst that leveled the thousands of trees had to be incredibly strong. As I stepped over a little rise and entered a small meadow, some waterfalls on Shelf Creek came into view and I knew I needed to start my off trail hiking at this point.
I'd have bits of good luck all day, but the best was noticing the small climbers trail cut off from the main trail right after sitting down to look at my map. I don't expect these small trails to be particularly well trodden, marked or continuous; but this one would be an exception. The path easily crosses Glacier Creek and ascends the steep hillside(always on the north side of Shelf Creek) while ducking under a few recently downed trees before snaking between outcroppings and running into the small Shelf Lake. Compared to some climbers trails, this thing was a highway. Shelf Lake deserved more attention from me but I had bigger things in mind so I headed up to the very pretty Solitude Lake.
Solitude Lake sits just above Shelf and holds much better views up the gorge towards the Powell Peak headwall. From this point the remaining route becomes clear as all that's involved is a Class 2+ walkup from the lake. I sat at the outlet stream and took a break eating a damn good coconut chocolate chip Clif Bar while scanning the hillside for the best route. The bottom half of the slope is pretty easy going, the rocks are mostly stable and there are some patches of tundra to walk across to avoid the rocks. However the upper half would be a bit steeper and the rocks would become less stable meaning I'd need the use of my hands now and again(making it 2+). Eventually the rocks would subside and I'd find myself on the broad summit.
I signed the register dating back to 2010 but strangely didn't recognize any of the names signed in there(on a related note, the register could use a few more sheets of paper). The wind at the summit dropped the already cool temperature down even more, and I'd put on my hat and gloves for comfort while eating lunch. The views to the south and west were spectacular. I had family fishing at the Loch, so I decided to complete the tour and head down the 'S Shaped Gully' on the northeast corner of Thatchtop. Before that though, I decided to walk down to the NW corner and get a view of upper Loch Vale, Lake of Glass and Sky Pond. After this side trip I traversed the bottom of the slope east while checking out several gullies that didn't appeal to me.
Eventually I found a cairn and a gully in the trees overlooking the switchbacks on the main trail that seemed to be what I was looking for. On closer inspection I noticed how washed out it was compared to the others, and what looked to be little trails braiding down the loose rocks somewhat like the Trough on Longs. Heading down the upper part of the gully was a nightmare, every rock moved and I eventually tweaked both of my knees on the steep descent. The next step was to traverse over to another smaller, more bare gully into some boulder hopping and into the trees. It wouldn't get much better from there though as the cairns led me into the lower part of the S Shaped Gully; a steep narrow crack between two rock outcroppings choked with icy snow and and muddy dirt sides. After limbo-ing beneath some convieniently placed fallen trees and almost eating it a few times on the snow, I finally escaped that stupid deathtrap and crossed Icy Brook(easily, lots of downed trees) and headed back up to the Loch to meet up with the rest of the group before the walk out.
Besides the Powell-Thatchtop ridge I haven't ever done, I'll go ahead and say the Shelf-Solitude route is the way to go for Thatchtop. It might involve some bushwhacking up the climbers trail, but the S Shaped Gully absolutely sucked going down. If it sucks going down, it has to really suck going up. Plus that, you don't get to visit two pretty lakes and enjoy not seeing a person from 6am to 1pm in one of RMNP's most popular areas like I did. Overall? Nice views, good ascent, bad decent...pretty good for an unranked peak.
