You're so Vrain

You're so Vrain 

Having spent a couple years hiking and climbing around Peaceful Valley, CO and seeing the amazing ridgeline that runs along the northern valley and sits as the southern boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park, I began plotting a course to traverse across all the peaks and ridges around the Saint Vrain Glaciers. The route starts with the summit of Saint Vrain Mountain > Elk Tooth > Ogalalla Peak > Ooh La La > Cooper Peak > Marten Peak and ends descending from there to Monarch Lake.

After missing a chance last summer I set out with Wes at 2 am to take in the views from atop the ridges and peaks around the valley and on to Lake Granby. 

Saint Vrain has a well established trail with relatively gradual grade which made for a quick pace that got us to the summit as the sun was coming up. We hung around a bit on the top to take in the amazing views of the inversion sitting on the front range below. 

The path over to Elk Tooth was a mix of dense trees, snow, meadows, and the start of the rock scrambling. 

From Elk Tooth we could see what would be the best scrambling of the day start to come into focus 

We mostly kept to the north side of the ridge scrambling up and along ledges which was pretty easy to keep Class 3 but also plenty of options to choose small Class 4 and even 5 sections. We opted for a little fun through here as we were making great time! 

Final push up the ridge plotted by Wes :) 

Views from Ogalalla were breathtaking! View of the route taken thus far

Views of the route yet to come around the glaciers and over to Ohh La La and Cooper 

The ridge over to Ohh La La was mellow and straight forward so we opted to cruise along and take a break once we get there and recharge before tackling the last couple peaks. On Ohh La La we took a break and enjoyed sandwiches with motivational messages made by Bonnie and then got our "Ohh La La" on 

The route down Ohh La La was a steep scree shit show with no real clear path down but through. We preapred to descend and suffer slipping and sliding down rocks but were quickly met with some more fun uphill shennanigans when we encountered some offwidth snow and some more scrambling up Cooper Peak. After some salty snacks we headed over to our final peak Marten. 

We mostly stuck to the west side of the ridge but looking back the east would have been more straight forward low class scrambling. The north route up Marten had a couple Class 5 moves to gain the summit but the south side had a pretty solid Class 3 and Class 4 option, we were happy with a few more "fifthy" moves so stuck that route. 

We opted for more gradual vs direct route down Marten and were met with some beautiful forest and rivers that gave us an opportunity to drink some cold and fresh mountain water and give our feet a rest. 

The rest of the hike out was straight forward along a well groomed trail to Monarch Lake where friends were waiting to celebrate with us. Special shout out to Rocky Talkie for making some epic radios that allowed us to coordinate whiskey and snacks in advance of arriving at camp. 

Super grateful for mountain folks like Wes to join for fun adventures!