Colorado Backcountry: Radiobeacon Mountain - Rollins Pass

Radiobeacon Mountain

Location: Radiobeacon Mtn, Rollins Pass, Forest Lakes Cirque
Riders: JP, Alex
Start: 10am - 4pm (at car)

The day trip started kinda late compared to normal adventures, but I met Alex up at his house in Coal Creek Hieghts around 8am. He cooked up a quick breakfast and we decided on checking out Rollins Pass. Much less snow then Jones Pass we were happy to four wheel the cruiser all the way back to Forest Lake trailhead and lakes. Searching out the window for some good snow we almost settled on a small patch above Yankee Doodle lake, but ventured on and found a nice stash off the north pitch of Radiobeacon.

 
We set off downhill, bushwhacking our way toward the snow. The hike was pretty nice and we made it to the north base/forest lakes area of Radiobeacon in an hour and a half. From there we decided to boot pack up to a small snow filled couloir that was hidden from the road. We took a few laps in spring like conditions under beautiful bluebird skies. On the decesent, we headed a bit further south and ended up below the southern ridge of Radiobeacon. This snow field was the destination and after 1 lap we were done. Got in maybe 20 or so good turns and it started to get way patchy.

  
At that point we decided to bag snowboarding for the day (except maybe from the ridge descent) and summit Radiobeacon. Alex and I booted our way up the north face of Radiobeacon to the southeast ridge. It was a pretty steep climb and we were happy to get a workout. Near the top we were greeted by a false summit and had another 400 ft or so to go. We summited Radiobeacon and decided to head north along the ridge and check out all the lines in the forest lakes cirque. Super sick, gnarly steep cliffy lines all around, too bad there wasn't enough snow coverage to hit 'em. We found a nasty rocking wind packed couloir and tried to shred down as far as possible. After a few really bad rocky turns we were boot packing down and out around cliffs back to the car.

 
We probably logged 5 miles or so hiking and 20 or so good turns, all in all it was a good trip and good to get out and scout the conditions. Rollins isn't ready after the early Oct. storm.