Tombstone Ridge

Teresa, Jim, Stan and I met for a get-to-know-you and training hike. We’re planning a week-long plus trip for this summer and I’d only hiked with Jim before. From Boulder we carpooled up to Rocky Mountain National Park and reached the road closure on US-36 where we’d begin our hike. Snowshoes weren’t immediately necessary.

Beyond the road closure, US-36 was partly clear from the recent warm and sunny temperatures, plus the high winds that frequent this area. In some spots, the only snow was that previously compacted by other foot travelers.

Across the valley we had views of Ypsilon, a peak I’ve had my eye on for a while now.

Once we reached the old Hidden Valley ski area we turned and headed up hill, taking turns to break trail.

As we topped out on the ridge we were greeted with views of Longs Peak and other summits to the south.

To reach the summit we had to head back east toward some rock outcrops that marked the highest point of the ridge.

We passed by the first couple of rock formations and headed to one that we hoped would be the tallest.

After removing our mittens we scrambled up to the top.

From our new vantage point we surveyed the other rocks and decided two more might be the same elevation or taller.

However, the rock we were on held a summit register, so we signed in and snacked in the sun. Once the wind started up again we departed for the next possible candidate for the true top of Tombstone Ridge.

This top was easily reached and we didn’t waste any time continuing on to the final of the three candidates.

Jim again led us up a short scramble to the summit. While this rock didn’t hold a summit register, it did have a small cairn built on top. By eye-balling it we couldn’t determine which of the points was the highest, but felt that nothing else could claim to be taller than the three points we’d visited.

Here we hopped down snow covered rocks back to treeline where we had to put our snowshoes on again. Thankfully, we hadn’t tried to ascend this route in the deep and unconsolidated snow which would have required much more effort than our route up more open slopes that had been wind compacted.

Back at the road we quickly zipped back to the car and then drove down to Lyons for a late lunch and beers at Oskar Blues where we discussed in more detail our plans for the summer.

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