I recently made a map of all summits and lakes in Rocky Mountain National Park, and unofficially decided I need to visit all of them. One of the summits I had not yet been to is Battle Mountain, located about half a mile northeast of Granite Pass north of Longs Peak. It's an easy half-mile class 2 jaunt from Granite Pass and I have passed by numerous times on ascents or descents of Longs Peak, but I had never thought to tag the summit.

We had just had a huge snowfall (3-4 feet in Estes Park and more in the mountains), and the RMNP road to Bear Lake and Glacier Gorge parking areas was still closed as the plows worked to clear it. But Longs Peak trailhead was open. So Battle Mountain sounded like a good objective. It ended up becoming a two-day effort.

On Saturday, I was one of two people breaking trail (there was another skier ahead of me who I eventually caught up to). The snow was deep, and as we reached treeline I occasionally found myself up to my waist. It was quite a good workout. Both the skier and I decided to stop at around 11,200 feet; I'm not sure where the skier was headed, but with still a couple of miles of wallowing for me to go to get to Battle Mountain, it didn't look feasible. But I had enjoyed the trench-building process, and admired it on the hike out. On Sunday, the main RMNP roads were still closed, so I decided to return to Longs Peak and extend my trench. It was pretty smooth sailing until the previous day's endpoint (what had been 3.5 hours of wallowing on Saturday was an easy 1 hour 15 minutes on Sunday). When I got there, I was happy to discover that a trio of skiers was ahead of me and headed for the Boulderfield, so I shamelessly snowshoed up their tracks through the deep snow all the way to Granite Pass. From here I was on my own again. I wallowed my way to the summit of Battle Mountain, most of it in a whiteout. The cloud movement was spectacular, with quick transitions between whiteout and bright sunny skies, and the clouds moving in and out over Longs Peak teasing me with brief views. It was quite the spectacular day.

Below are photos from my two-day effort getting to the top of Battle Mountain. A new summit for me!

Day after two-day snowstorm where it snowed 3-4 feet in Estes Park. 

This day was spent creating a trench up to about 11,200 feet. It took me (and a lone skier I caught up with) just over 3.5 hours to get to the turn-around spot, which normally takes just over an hour in summer conditions. But it was a great workout. 4 hours 54 minutes car-to-car (included lots of short breaks).

On this day, I extended the trench to the summit of Battle Mountain. It me 1 hour 15 minutes to get to my turn-around spot from the previous day. 6 hours 18 minutes car-to-car (included a long enjoyable break just below the summit).