Elusive Pikas

Tuesday I ventured into RMNP to climb Sundance Mountain.  It was the first time I had been in the park since July 17th when Laura and I climbed Storm Peak with our friend Aaron.  After bushwhacking up Storm Peak, we had our planned ascent of Mt. Lady Washington cut short by an approaching storm.  Here is the view from the summit of Storm Peak with the massive north face of Longs Peak towering above us:

We navigated the ridge towards the Keyhole (the easiest route used to climb Longs Peak) and then descended into the Boulderfield.

While Mt. Lady Washington was tantalizingly close, we made the wise decision to head back via the Longs Peak Trail.  While we made as fast a descent as possible, we were still caught in the thunder and lightning hailstorm for over 2 hours on the way down, as there are many miles of trail above treeline.  With every step I took, my not-at-all waterproof boots expelled water like a saturated sponge.  Needless to say, due to the wet and miserable nature of the hike, I didn't take any more photos that day.

The weather in the mountains wasn't looking promising Tuesday as I approached Sundance Mountain.  The easiest way to climb this mountain is from Trail Ridge Road, as it's only about a mile and 1000 vertical feet to the eastern summit.  I parked opposite the Ute Trail and bushwhacked towards the summit (there is no trail).  The approach is from the left in the photo below.

Because this is an easy climb, my real goal was finding beasts.  I thought I had seen some elk up on the tundra, but if so, they were gone by the time I got there.  Luckily, I found a couple of fatties kickin' it in a rocky area.

This guy was peepin' things when I showed up, no doubt unaware of my harmless nature.  After a while I looked over towards his nearby chill buddy, and lo and behold, he was yawning!!

No morning coffee for this marmot!!

Once I reached the eastern summit, I stupidly sprained my ankle while boulder hopping.  I decided to abandon the traverse to the western summit of the mountain at that point, as it was going to take longer with a bum ankle and the weather didn't look promising.

On the way down I heard some pikas and decided to try and get some photos.  So far pikas have been much less cooperative than marmots.  It took me a long time to spot this guy, as he kept calling, then ducking behind the rocks.

This was shot with my telephoto lens and then cropped; you can imagine how hard it is to spot one of these guys.  I was able to get a little closer, and got one more picture of him sounding the alarm before he darted away.

On the way back, I passed this tarn with views of Longs Peak and the Continental Divide in the distance.

Back near the road, I found some awesome marmot condos.  Unfortunately, my presence scared them away.

The sun was playing peek-a-boo all morning, and I waited awhile hoping the marmots would reappear.  They didn't.  When the sun finally came out for a few seconds, I took some photos of this very attractive marmot neighborhood:

As the storm clouds started to approach, I decided to call it quits and head home to nurse my ankle.  Hopefully I'll be sufficiently healed to climb Longs Peak this weekend.  Longs Peak is the highest mountain in RMNP at 14,255 feet and the 15th highest mountain in Colorado.  Because it's a long hike and thunder storms are attracted to the mountain (usually developing in late morning or early afternoon), we're aiming for a 3:30am trailhead departure.