After making the almost 2 hour drive up from Denver, I was ready to get started at the Glacier Gorge trailhead. An extremely dry winter so far meant that there…
The trail almost immediately turns to an ice sidewalk. Good thing I brought my Yaktrax, or else I would've spent most of the day on my behind.
Made it to Alberta Falls. Normally this would be a roaring cascade flowing from right-to-left, but it's almost entirely frozen over.
Heading-up the gorge. It definitely has a slight Cerro Torre feel to it.
Miles of beautiful snowy (and very icy) trail.
The Glacier Knobs make for some awesome terrain along the trail.
This would normally be Vale Brook flowing down the gorge. It's hard to judge scale here, but those icicles on the cliff to the left are massive!
We need more of these on our trails in SoCal!
Approaching the Loch. Perfectly blue skies and amazing lighting made for a very photogenic day.
The Loch. It was pretty much non-stop jaw dropping views the rest of the way from here.
A couple folks came along to take a picture of this goofy guy. I think this was my first time walking out onto a frozen lake. I was definitely a little more…
The trail continues along the edge of The Loch.
Looking back along The Loch.
Approaching the crux of the hike. I had read about this section and it had me a little nervous. Seeing it in person now has me REALLY nervous. The trail goes…
It took me a long time, pretty much crawling up the incline, trying to get traction off slight bits of exposed rock where I could, but I finally made it to…
Not a chance. I was dismayed to see that there was at least another 100' of wet glass. Pictures just don't do it justice. This section is REALLY steep. I sat…
The payoff at the top was the aptly named Lake of Glass. Yet another jaw dropping vista. And there was actually someone ahead of me walking straight across the…
So instead, I followed some tracks that went up and around the lake. It was probably an unnecessary detour, but oh well. Before all too long I had successfully…
Sky Pond at just under 11,000'. Definitely on the short list of my all-time favorite spots. I'm sure the adrenaline rush from the sketchy trail to get here…
Another view of Sky Pond. I'm definitely glad now that I hadn't given up at Timberline Falls!