Dragon’s Tail Couloir – Colorado Snow Climb in Rocky Mountain National Park

Dragon’s Tail Couloir in Colorado is a classic climb with a short and sweet approach. It’s less than 2 miles to hike in with only 665 ft of elevation gain to the end of the hiking trail. From here, the snow climb began for us to reach Dragon’s Tail Couloir but how low the snow level starts will depend on when you go during the Spring season. The snow climb is 1800 ft and said to get as steep as 50º but it was steeper when we went. See elevation profile at end of post.

CLIMB: Dragon's Tail Couloir
TRAIL: Nymph Lake Trail > Emerald Lake Trail > Dragon's Tail Couloir > Flattop Mountain Trail
TRAILHEAD: Bear Lake Trailhead
MILES: 7 miles 
TIME: 5 hrs
DATE I WENT: 4/15/24 
DIFFICULTY: moderate-challenging
ELEVATION: 11,937 ft
ELEVATION GAIN: 2,465 ft
HIKE PERMIT: no
PARK PERMIT: yes - I recommend getting an annual National Parks Pass
PARK RESERVATIONS: required from May - Oct
LOCATION: Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Just want to hike to the alpine lakes? Click here for my blog post to hike Dream Lake and Emerald Lake.

Dragon’s Tail Coulior has been a bucket list climb for the past year. To be honest, this route wasn’t even on my radar yet this season but when we heard two days prior that it was currently in good climbing conditions, we made last-minute plans to head out there on Monday before the incoming storm.

We were originally thinking of skiing in, climbing, then maybe skiing the Flattop Mountain Trail down because my ski levels are not that of skiing a couloir yet, but we ultimately decided not to take our skis which was the right call (unless you plan to ski the couloirs).

There was a storm coming in later this afternoon so we had to make sure we were efficient with our time getting up and down. The weather forecast said it would be sunny with a high of 28º mid-morning, wind chill of 18º with winds of 10mph at around 12,700 ft; the clouds were supposed to take over at noon and the storm would hit as early as 3 pm.

So I packed winter layers to be prepared for if the storm came early and we took longer than expected. We had bright blue skies and a really hot climb.

Climbing Dragons Tail Couloir

The Bear Lake Trailhead is a little under 2 hours from Denver so we had an early wake up call.

We started the hike at 6:45 am, reached Dream Lake at 7:17 am, Emerald Lake at 7:45 am, and began our ascent toward Dragons Tail at 7:50 am. The 1.7-mile hiking trail was completely covered in firm snow and icy in sections when we went in April 2024.

The snow climb, including the couloir, is about 1.2 miles with 1,800 ft of elevation gain according to my GPS tracker, but it’s about half a mile as the crow flies.

The beginning of the climb was mellow, hiking on snow with an easy grade. The sun had been baking in the sun for about an hour by this point so the snow was starting to soften. There was still firm snow underneath the top layer but it was softer in some sections than I prefer.

Since the grade was relatively mellow and there was only one other party climbing the same objective, we felt comfortable hiking up to the rock at the bottom of the couloir before pulling out our ice axes and helmets.

At 8:15 am, we were heading up Dragon’s Tail couloir. It was so hot with the reflection of the snow that I actually ended up de-layering down to my bralette for almost the entire climb. Gotta love spring climbing…

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We did each bring a second ice axe/ ice tool because we read it gets steep up higher and since I am scared of heights and not as comfortable climbing without a rope, I wanted to make sure I had a tool to help me with the steeper snow/ ice section just in case I needed it. I’ve had a somewhat strong waterfall ice season that’s built my confidence for climbing on vertical ice and having an ice tool with me simply gave me added peace of mind, even if it was unnecessary.

I didn’t end up using it.

Stating the obvious, but the snow got softer throughout the day.

We climbed directly up the middle and there weren’t many tracks to follow, but I enjoyed leading the way. We took the left fork at the Y junction which is the standard climbing route (there was also a big cornice on top of the right fork) and it’s supposed to get a bit steeper with class 4 rock/ mix climbing.

We found one short section that got steeper, but not steep enough to need our second axe. There were also some bucket steps in this top section but I didn’t use it much—it was either not there enough or I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t see it. Regardless, I forged my own path (& likely created bucket steps for all the men behind me) for about 90% of the climb.

The rock section was non-existent for us this early in the season. I guess I expected this couloir to be more demanding and harder. But it felt moderately chill and really fun! Of course, having the right partner to go with makes all the difference.

We got to the top of the couloir at 10:17 am. It got steep again just before reaching the top and the couloir narrows a lot which I enjoyed.

From the top, you can see frozen Emerald Lake directly at the bottom of the line. Flattop Mountain can be seen in the near distance but we decided not to hike to it so we could enjoy the views of Longs Peak and Rocky Mountain National Park, and get down before the storm came.

The hike down is about 4.2 miles when it’s dry, but we probably cut down a few switchbacks since the trail was mostly buried in snow. We even saw some ptarmigan (white bird in the photo above)!

It took us 1:40 hrs to hike down and we were back by 1 pm with a couple of hours before the storm rolled in.

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