On Tuesday we got a foot (~30 cm) of snow  down here in Fort Collins, and at least as much in the mountains.  The weather forecast predicted nice and sunny weather for Thursday and Friday, before a another chance of nasty weather for Saturday (typical Colorado fall weather). So for Friday, I picked Lily Mountain (WØC/FR-Ø50) – a short 4 mile (~6.5 km) round-trip – for my next activation.  This summit is right next door to last week’s activated Estes Cone (WØC/FR-Ø39), just a few miles outside Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), and should provide some pretty nice views of the surrounding mountains, covered in fresh snow. I grabbed my snowshoes, Sorels, Pulka and other winter gear and headed to the mountains.

Trailhead: 8799 ft / 2682 m
Summit:   9786 ft / 2983 m
Elev. gain: 1684 ft / 513 m
Roundtrip: 3.4 mi / 5.5 km

Compare this summit with my other activated summits

How to get there:
Take US34 from Loveland towards Estes Park through Big Thompson Canyon. In Estes Park, take Highway 7 (S St. Vrain Avenue) to the Lily Lake area (turn left). The trail-head is approximately at mile-marker 6, just after passing through some rock cuts made for the road. It is not well marked and in on the right side (west) of the road (coming from Estes Park). If you pass Lily Lake, you missed it – but make sure to take a look at the very scenic Lily Lake area to make the detour worth your while.

Parking/Trailhead

View Larger Map

Red Tape:

The trail-head has only room for a few cars (approx. 5-6). There is more room further up in the Lily Lake area and you can walk back to the trail-head (~ half a mile). There are no facilities, water, maps or anything like that… just a sign indicating that you are indeed at the Lily Mtn. TH. Lily Mtn. is part of the Roosevelt National Forest and all their rules apply. It is one of the few trails near Estes Park which is not on NP land – it is therefore a popular hike for dog-owners. There is cell-phone coverage all the way up to the mountain… so make sure to turn it off for an undisturbed experience.

The Ascent:

Based on the snow situation at the trail-head, I opted for hiking boots/gaiters instead of Sorels and snowshoes. Even though the snow got deeper and deeper reaching higher elevations, I still think it was a good decision based on the terrain.  It was easy to follow the trail at first, I could even follow some tracks made by a hiker ahead of me until his tracks deviated too much from my plotted route to the summit. On the first half of the trail, I hardly gained any elevation – an indicator that it will get quite steep at some point (see elevation profile above). The trail parallels the highway which can be occasionally seen (and heard) until the trail turns sharply to the south-west. That’s where I got deeper in the woods, on steeper terrain and in deeper snow which made it hard and sometimes impossible to follow the trail. The GPS with the necessary way-points sure helped me find the way up to the top. The final several hundred feet to the summit requires the use of all of your extremities to get up and during the last ~30 ft (10m) of elevation you have to do some climbing moves to get to the top of the rock-outcropping where the summit is.

The Summit:
The first thought was: “wow – what a view…” and the second was: “careful” – since the summit is not very large and the snow and ice on-top made it even smaller to move around safely.

The weather was cooperating very nicely, there was hardly any wind and the sun on my back warmed me up to a comfortable temperature, even without wearing all my jackets. First, I took some pictures and enjoyed a cup of hot tea, before setting up the equipment. The small size of the summit with the very steep cliff made it difficult to anchor the guy-lines properly. Nevertheless, I felt comfortable with the setup since there was only a light breeze. Naturally, that turned out to be a false sense of security… a sudden gust knocked down the antenna during my QSO with Tom (KZ7ZZ ) – and I lost him for a minute (sorry Tom).

Luckily I was able to catch the mast before it tumbled down the cliff. The fact that I was using a shock-corded whip (instead a ‘normal’ whip) for my vertical Buddipole saved me from buying a replacement whip (again). After rectifying my mistake, I not only had contacts with the regular SOTA chasers (thanks guys), but also talked to some folks who had never heard of SOTA before. Hopefully I sparked an interest for SOTA with these HAMs. I made contacts on 20m and 10m, the highlights certainly the QSOs with CM6FJJ (Javier in Cuba) and KP4/NØAX currently on a DXpedition in Puerto Rico (~4500 km), all with 5W into a BP.

The Descent:

I wanted to avoid to climb down the steep cliff I came up. Therefore I was looking for an alternate route down the summit. Unfortunately I missed my tracks at the bottom of the summit and had to bushwhack (snow-whack?) my way down to the TH, making it a much steeper route than planned (see route on the right). The snow and ice covered rocks and dead trees did make for a challenging descent.

Nevertheless, it was a great day to activate a summit – quite warm conditions, with incredible views into the snow covered mountains in and around the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Some video impressions:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvbF-zQnYNk

If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube.

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!! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and bold mountaineers... there are no old-bold mountaineers. Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required - enjoy!