The 4th of July fell on a Monday this year, so we had a long weekend. In interest of escaping the crowds for the holiday weekend, Nate had secured backcountry permits at Lawn Lake. This is one of the premier backcountry sites in RMNP.
We hiked in on Saturday and established camp. This was forecasted to be an inclement day (although it ended up only sprinkling lightly for about 5 minutes), so we spent the afternoon fishing at Crystal Lake. This area has some world-class alpine lake fishing. I caught my first trout!
On Sunday we explored some granite crags on the south/southwest slope on Mummy Mountain. The main objective of the trip was to begin developing a new route on the cliffs on the south/southwest slope of Mummy Mountain. The guidebook shows no climbing, despite the fact that the entire south slope is studded with 100-500' high buttresses of granite. Nate had noticed this area in 2012, had put up a few single pitch routes in 2013 and a four-pitch route in 2014. In June 2021, we put up a
6-pitch first ascent (which we called "
Alien Rollout"). So, on Sunday, we scoped the south/southwest slope on Mummy Mountain for potential. In the process, we found ourselves a mere 300 feet below the summit, so we summited Mummy Mountain as well. After our summit bid, we descended back to some crags we had scoped out, located a nice line, and started up. Unfortunately we had to retreat two pitches up because of some thunder and threatening clouds on the horizon (it was a good thing we did because it soon began to hail and then rained for three solid hours). We were psyched about the line we had located and the potential for a 6-pitch route to the top of a big tower.
On Monday we attempted to climb
Honcho Boncho Buttress on Fairchild, a 5.7 adventure route that ascends the prominent buttress in the middle of the wall. However, we bailed off due to loose rock and high objective hazard. We explored the area between Crystal Lake and Lawn Lake on the way back to camp. We arrived back at camp just after noon, and after some discussion (the mosquitos being one topic, the potential to do a day of hard cragging another), we decided to hike out, even though we had camp permits for that night as well.
It was a trip full of exploration and adventure in a beautiful mountain area, and sans the 4th of July crowds. Sometimes I need to let go of my innate yearning for an objective and just enjoy being out in the mountains exploring. The following page gives photos and route overlays from the weekend. Enjoy!
