Tag Archives: Kyle Rohan

4/11/2011: Dead Elk Couloir, RMNP

Here’s another trip report from last spring, Enjoy!

Monday 4/11/2011

Sinus issues have been slowing the Miss down the past few days, so she decided to stay back and rest while my roommate Kyle and I went up to RMNP to bag another line. Winds were much higher than forecasted and our original goal of the Notch Couloir didn’t look like too much fun since we would be at the mercy of the winds for a long time. We decided to go for option #2 and drop into Dead Elk Couloir, another line on my to-do list that I had been scoping for a while. We chose this because we would avoid the hike all the way around divide and I thought it would be a little more protected from winds, allowing the snow to soften up. We droppen in and rode to the downclimb, and found icy conditions as well as the winds ripping thru the choke. Not exactly what I was expecting. We slowly worked our way thru, being cautious of the ice and loose rock, and worked together to get our gear down each section. Continue reading 4/11/2011: Dead Elk Couloir, RMNP