Alexanders Chimney

With the new snow falling and freezing temps in Rocky Mountain National Park, many of the classic early season alpine routes are now forming. Last week, Mitch Musci and I went into the Longs Meeker Cirque to climb the ice and mixed classic, Alexanders Chimney. The climbing was characterized by sections of steep snow, thin ice, and lots of rock climbing. We found conditions to be fairly lean as most of the ice was rotten and detached. Although lean, the climbing was good for the most part. We encountered hardly any ice on the crux chockstone pitch, negotiating it with difficult dry-tooling. We rapped from there as there was virtually no ice remaining on the route and it was late in the afternoon. Our late start found us hiking out in the dark for the last half mile below tree line. The ice is in in the high country. Look for conditions to improve but avalanche danger to increase in the coming days/week.