North Park Skiing - Nokhuloir and Zirkel/Flattop

[mrwaffles989]

Feel like I'm spamming the board, therefore this is the last report I will post this season. Unless I do Leuthold Couloir on Mt. Hood Memorial Day weekend, any takers?? Need a partner

So fresh off the boat in JFK International airport on a Tuesday, I arrived home and found work (highway construction) was delayed b/c some BS lack of funding issues. Can't re-surface roads when it is chilly out, so appalachia ice climbing was the name of the game:





Disgusted I sold my CHX season pass and was missing out on skiing to come back to Pennsylvania, I felt I had to do SOMETHING! I unpacked my gear, than reloaded said gear into my car, and headed west, not knowing if my cheapo vehicle would make it. She raced like a champ across the middle American plains:



Left Thursday morning. Friday night I was bivying at Cameron Pass in Colorado. Saturday held Nokhuloir in the cards. I set off with an alpine start of 9am, this would bite me in the ass snow wise later.

The crags come into view after a brief skin:



This region is called, by some, the Colorado Alps. Kinda like the chamonix aiguilles, but not really. But sort of

Skinned up the whole way, the snow started pinwheeling just as I was approaching the "top". If we really would like to be technical, nokhuloir is more of a col, not a couloir, so I hereby claim we should amend the name to Nokhucol. The slope angle was 37deg, measured. You read reports of 45-50, we need to stop this blasphemy.



Summit views cette beau:

Lack the knowledge of the nearby peaks' names:


Some fun ski lines, it appears, are nearby:


Time was of the essence due to warming, so no break or snack on the windy col.

Entrance:


My skiing was marginal at best. Snow was wet, too wet. Slabby and crusty in spots. I had to "split" the video numerous times to eliminate my "rests", and to make the music correlate



Look back up, Grand Central Couloir is off to climber's right:


Skied out through the trees and was back at the car smoking cowboy killers and enjoying the sun 4hrs after departing the highway.

Next off I headed to Mt. Zirkel

The zirkels have attracted me since I was an 18 y/o U. of Wyoming student driving to Steamboat. Any climber skier has surely taken notice of these beauties:



There is a prominent bowl on the left side of the cirque. I always thought this was Zirkel, but turns out it's Flattop. Zirkel is a bitch to access. Started from Big Lakes TH or similar name, then hiked down Helena Grizzly trail. Climbed up Zirkel and traversed over to Flattop. I figure the route was about 30 miles or so. Flattop spit me out much further South than my starting point.



Started skiing/hiking:







Skinning was horrendous. Deadfall. Everywhere. Unavoidable. The whole area needs a good major burn. I thought crevasse fields were bad....Until I went to Routt National Forest and experienced hell. Guess you can't fall in die, so that's a major plus. Camped for the night, and the next day headed up Fryingpan Basin en route to Zirkel and the Continental Divide.



I wanna say this is Big Agnes Pk: It has most likely only been skied a handful of times, if ever It's way back there and surrounded by wilderness. Plus about 6 people live within a 30 mile radius.


A very windy Red Dirt Pass:


I then rode a rocket to Mars:


So I am MrWaffles, and being an idiot, lost my brand new $400 dollar tent up on the ridge. Wind blew it right off the straps. Learned my very expensive lesson though, now I strap my new tent with a biner, or keep it in the sack. I had camping equipment because I was doing a tour/traverse, and I didn't know which drainage I would pop out in...ergo I brought all my overnight gear up the mountain. I apologize to the LNT zealots, I did spend 1 hour retracing my steps looking for it. Think it's down Red Dirt Pass, so any summer hikers, you have a free tent. Cost per night in the fucker: $200.

Dropped in around 3pm. The snow was slabby with a crust. No cracks or settlement when I poked my way into the entrance. No recent avy's on similar aspects, or new snow for that matter. Slab wasn't too thick either, and very wide open runout.



Look back up


Traversing to a drainage:




Beautiful lake and surroundings:


Nice corn was harvested here:


Started slogging out, what the fuck is this shit:


If you know the area, I descended down to the Shafer ranch border and started heading north:


Sans tent, I bivyed on a dry spot under a tree for the evening. Praise Jesus my sleeping bag wasn't blown away.

Started hiking/skinning out the next day. Took a well deserved break along the banks of the Platte River:


My tracks may be visible in this photo:


Made it back to the car, then went to Walden and ate a delicious cheeseburger.

Last time I was in North Park, it was years ago with an old girlfriend up on the Diamond Peak. Even before that, we hiked up to Seven Lakes in the Zirkels, and I was just teased with the area's beauty and remoteness. Waited a few years to head back and get Zirkel. Now I'm reminiscing about the old college daze, and my former stomping grounds around Laramie, WY. The snowys, laramie range, zirkels, and neversummers. Will have to go back again and ski something in the Rawahs, only range I haven't skied.

Until next time, happy touring Maggots!!!

[mrwaffles989]

Too big. Too much stuff to ski. Sad to be in the East for the next 6 months or so. I will have to stop logging on here.

[Grape_Ape]

Bummer about your tent. Very nice trip report. Where in PA are you?

Edit: duh...just saw Scranton. My condolences.

[klar]

Your contributions are the definition of "not-spam". Impressive, high quality stuff, keep it up.

[thin cover]

High quality is spot on. Nice work on some awesome looking touring

[mrwaffles989]

Lol thanks for sympathy. But hey thoseice climbing pics are from Scranton. City's dead and rampant with dope fiends unfortunately. Some good cliff diving round here and I have a crotch rocket to keep me entertained slaying the back roads. Working six 12s for the foreseeable future to get those $$$ saved for next ski season.

Thanks for comments comrades.

Bummer about your tent. Very nice trip report. Where in PA are you?

Edit: duh...just saw Scranton. My condolences.

[Fritz]

Nice looking pics. The peak(s) you were looking at to the west from the summit of the crags are Mahler and No Name, left to right. Great skiing on those as well. We hit both branches of the Y on Mahler about this time last year. Looking pretty good still considering this was a "bad snow year" according to the CO Weather Butthurt Thread

[hatchgreenchile]

Zirkels are out there. Way to get after it.

[Shredhead]

My skiing was marginal

Now I'm reminiscing about the old college daze, and my former stomping grounds around Laramie, WY. The snowys, laramie range, zirkels, and neversummers. Will have to go back again and ski something in the Rawahs, only range I haven't skied. !!!

Not really too bad for a Cowboy!

CSU Class of 81.

My freshman year was the first year 14 was open in the winter.
We ate a lot of mushrooms and ripped the shit out of it on our Europa 99's, but didn't really make it far from the Hwy.

Thanks for reminding me how much fun we had on the Never Summers and the Rawahs!

[mrwaffles989]

^^ Oh I used to love the border war and the battle of the boot thing when I wasn't out in the mountains.

I really wanna ski the rawahs. Was poised for attack on the middle rawah? years ago after spring semester, and saw a big spring avy rip away, packed up camp and drove straight to Pennsylvania for the summer, lol. Coming in from Woods Landing in Wyoming, damn Rose Valley is gorgeous. And that ranch out there, holy f0ck!

Behind (west) the Zirkels, what's the one peak, Big Agnes or something? That is way the fuck back there, first descent possibility anyone??

[mrwaffles989]

Prolly some steamboaters have gotten her for sure. She is aesthetic as fuark.

Oh also as a sidenote, blew the fking head gasket on my $600 aquamarine 1997 plymouth neon last night. Least it didn't happen on I-80

[Trace Hardslab]

Yo waffles, from the 'center of the universe' of Cham to the 'cowboy obscurity' of North park, you've been a busy boy! Thanks for sharing your pics.

You skied the more southerly of the 2 giant cirques on Flattop right? I've eyed those for years, they hold snow well into late spring & summer. They seem to hold smooth snow too, notably devoid of cornice fall, avy debris & rockfall. I've wondered about an approach from Lone Pine Cr, map shows a dirt road headed N to Monahan Cr. Probably dreamin' about that road due to deadfall though.