Indian Peaks - Part 1

This weekend, Laura and I spent two days hiking in the Indian Peaks Wilderness which is very close to where we live.  On Saturday, we set out to climb Mt Audubon, one of the easier summits in the area.

I never tire of seeing marmots, as they are one of the most awesome mountains beasts.  Very soon after breaking out of the trees, we spotted our first marmot.

This guy was checking out the view of Mitchell Lake below.  Since we were carrying our snowshoes, I had decided to leave my better beast lens at home to save weight.  Big mistake, as the marmots were abundant.  Here is a view of Mitchell Lake without a distant marmot:

Because of the snow, we lost the trail, and ended up hiking up the side of the mountain, until we reconnected with the trail in a marmot filled meadow.  While these wilderness marmots were not as skittish as the plain old National Forest variety, they were not nearly as friendly and photogenic as the National Park dwellers.  While eating lunch at the top of the mountain, a marmot walked right by us.  Stupidly, I left my camera on a distant rock, and by the time I recovered it, the marmot had escaped.  Here we are at the top, shortly before the marmot strolled by:

But all was not lost.  On the way up we had witnessed the most awesome of snow activities: glissading!!!  We watched as two mountaineers took the quick way down below the summit.  When we passed them on the trail a little while later, they informed us that they didn't need their ice axes for this particular glissade.  Perfect, because we don't own ice axes.  After lunch we set off for the snowfield and a new adventure.  Laura was typically cautious, but I couldn't control my excitement.  Unfortunately I listened to Laura and put my camera away during the actual glissade, but I still got pictures of her racing down after I was done.

For those who are unfamiliar with glissading, it's kind of like sledding, except instead of using a sled, you just use your ass!  And instead of going down a 'hill' you go down a mountain!!  While your buttocks don't always appreciate being frozen numb, hitting bumps, and being damp for quite awhile afterwards, it is without a doubt, the most fun you'll have in the snow, especially since it's your reward for climbing a mountain.  I'm pretty much over downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and sledding now that I've discovered glissading.

We passed quite a few marmots on the way back down, and never needed the snowshoes as the snow was well packed on the trail.  Despite missing out on some good marmot shots thanks to my bad gear decision, it was an awesome day, and there would be more opportunities tomorrow....