Colorado - Rocky Mountain National Park: View from Many Parks Curve. Iron Dike. Glaciers of Rocky Mountain National Park - Glacier Basics. Glacier Basics This page was written to familiarize visitors to this site with what glaciers are, how they behave, how they shape landscapes, and how they are impacted by climate change. In addition to the words and images on this page, you can also access a series of interactive animations and graphics that allow you to "see" the processes and structures described below. These information modules are written in Adobe Flash so your web browser will need to be have a plug-in for Flash 7 or higher. Fortunately most computers and web browsers come with this player already installed. If your web browser doesn't read these files you can download a player free of charge at < >. What is a glacier? A glacier is a perennial mass of snow or ice that is large enough and heavy enough to flow, like a very thick fluid. •• Return to the top of the page •• The anatomy of a glacier Essentially all glaciers have accumulation and ablation zones.
Types of glaciers. Glaciers of Rocky Mountain National Park - Glacier Basics. 2. Longs Peak | Rocky Mountain National Park. * SUMMIT ELEVATION: 14,255 feet * TOTAL ELEVATION GAIN: 4,850 feet * DURATION: One Day * SNAPSHOT: Your first taste of thin air on a nontechnical ascent THE HIGHEST POINT in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, an imposing pyramid called Longs Peak, towers over a cluster of incisor-sharp granite spires with names like Spearhead, Pagoda Mountain, and Sharkstooth.
Longs beat back numerous summit attempts until 1868, when one-armed John Wesley Powell, who later notched the first descent of the Grand Canyon, bulled his way to the top via Keplinger's Couloir. These days, there are 150 lines of varying difficulty established on Longs, including those up the 2,000-foot Diamond, the largest wall in Colorado. "It was my playground when I was in college," says Tom Hornbein, who, in addition to being the first person to successfully ascend Everest's West Ridge, has climbed Longs more than 70 times.
"It has all the flavors of so many different mountains. " Rocky Mountain National Park - Rocky Mountain National Park. Iron Dike. Videos & Podcasts - Rocky Mountain National Park.