Pool of Jade

July 24th, 2008

Report Summary

We started from the Bear Lake TH at about 6:30am. Things were calm at Nymph Lake, and I stopped to take pictures. On the way to Dream Lake, I got a nice view of Storm Peak and Longs Peak in a lingering alpine glow. At Dream Lake, there was a steady breeze that stirred up the water enough to prevent reflection pictures. From the east end of Dream Lake, we got our first good views up Tyndall Gorge. Shortly after 7:00am, we reached Emerald Lake. It was very windy so our stop there was brief.

The Emerald lake trail ends when you arrive at the east end of Emerald Lake. From there you get a great view up Tyndall Gorge with the huge buttresses of Hallet Peak's north face jutting from the left into the gorge towards the spires of Flattop Mountain's rugged south face. The route to Pool of Jade generally follows the base of Hallet's east ridge and north face. It's all rock hopping from Emerald Lake to the Pool, with steeper slopes and larger boulders on the upper half of the climb. From the trail's end, we scrambled south across the large boulders and rocks along the east shore of the lake where the crowds gather later in the day. Almost immediately, we were out of the wind; it seemed to be funneled across the lake, and right down the Emerald Lake trail. The lake quickly drops away, and we turned west and began the ascent. After a short distance, there's a gully that crosses from the east ridge down to the lake. This year it contained snow, but it was fairly flat where we crossed.

There are a few scattered cairns and an intermittent trail, but there's really not much choice where to go. The general route is pretty obvious, and Tyndall Gorge fairly small. We mainly focused our attention on maintaining altitude as we headed towards the base of the first buttress while picking what personally looked easiest to climb. As we rounded the first buttress, we saw a group of three technical climbers. From the first buttress to the bench where Pool of Jade lies, the slope is noticeably steeper, and the rocks and boulders are larger. That portion of the hike was the most challenging and interesting from a route finding perspective. Working our way through that area, especially on the way down, gave us a full body work out. It's also where we ran into some snow that was unavoidable. The snowfield was too steep to climb straight up, and there was more snow beyond the rocks directly across it. We stopped for a few minutes of discussion, and then Sandy traversed it to investigate. She found there was a route on the rocks up the middle, so Ali and I followed, continuing our ascent.

After a bit more scrambling, we crested the bench where Pool of Jade is located. It's a small area, and just took a moment to reach the the Pool. The wind was with us again. Ali and I found a wind break, and had a snack, while Sandy and hiked up to the bench below Tyndall Glacier. It only took her about a 10 minutes to scramble up to the glacier. So once you reach Pool of Jade, you're quite close to the top of the gorge. I would guess it's 30-45 minutes to Flattop from Pool of Jade. I'm not sure about the route though, on the glacier or around it. We spent about 30 minutes around the Pool before heading back.

On the way down, our route through the boulders was roughly the same. However, when we got to the big snowfield, it looked quite different from our new perspective. It didn't seem like the same place, but it was. Partly this was because we went about 10 yards below where we had originally crossed, and were now surrounded on 3 sides by snow with about an 8-10ft drop straight down. I think that's what momentarily confused us. There was a couple sitting on the other side of the snow, roughly where we had stopped on the way up. They had seen us coming down, and said they were waiting to see what we did before deciding to continue. After looking things over, Sandy led the way down the snowfield on the other side, and came out on the rocks a bit below them. Once we were across, they thought it looked good, and continued up that same way. The rest of the hike was uneventful. The weather was clear throughout our ascent, but clouds began building on our way down.

This was a great hike with excellent scenery. Extending the hike from Emerald Lake to Pool of Jade requires stepped up effort, but the returns are worth it. This hike might be a good alternative to upper Glacier Gorge when you don't have time for, say, 12 miles round trip to Frozen Lake. The lead into Emerald Lake just is 1 1/2 miles versus 5 miles to Black Lake. However, the terrain up to Pool of Jade is more difficult than that between Black Lake and the lakes of upper Glacier Gorge. The flip side is route finding is more difficult in Glacier Gorge.

Hike Stats:

Slide Show

Click the picture to advance, or use the right and left arrows. Mouse over the picture for text.