With roughly two feet of snow in the last 36 hours I knew Tara and I were in for a bit more than we’d counted on when we stuck with our plan of hiking up Green Mountain.
A few people had been out during and since the storm, but Gregory Canyon certainly wasn’t a well-packed trail.
A few flakes continued to fall from the sky, but our biggest impediment to staying dry was the random zephyrs that cleared trees of their snow load.
We took a breather near the Realization Point/Ranger Trail junction where the trails got more serious about gaining elevation.
By the time we reached the 4-way trail junction just west of Green Mountain’s summit the snow was nearly 3 feet deep and the trail much less traveled. We were rewarded with a bit of sunlight however.
It had taken us about 3.5 hours to reach the summit and we didn’t stay long at all. The much shorter (and more traveled) Saddle Rock trail provided us a descent route.
The most rewarding views came lower down as the backsides of the First Flatiron and the Sunset Flatironette came into view.
The descent went much quicker, only 1.5 hours, but we had to be much more careful with our footing and tired legs.
Complete photo album
Beautiful photos.
Thanks!