Spring is here. The busy work season is winding down, the backcountry snowpack is deeper and more stable– this is often the time we get to pursue our personal skiing goals. I have to say we’re really looking forward to this next objective.

Christy, Chris Davenport, and I are setting out to ski the Centennials. Put simply, the 100 tallest mountains in Colorado are called the Centennial Peaks. Fifty-three of them are 14ers, and the other 47 are the tallest of the 13ers. The three of us— having already skied the 14ers— are aiming for the remaining Centennials, to ultimately ski the 100 tallest mountains in the state.

We’re keeping an open mind on this open-ended project. A few things are worth noting:

• We have no idea how long it might take to complete, most certainly more than one season. If winter hangs around we could get a lot done, but if summer arrives early we’ll have to stop and resume it next year. Of course faster is better, but we’re not tying ourselves down to any timeline.
• We’d like to ski as a group when possible, but that’s already proving to be a challenge with our schedules. We plan to ski together for much of this May, and we plan to finish as a group.
• There is a lack of info or beta on many of the peaks regarding skiing, including whether or not some of them are skiable from their summits (i.e. Jagged and Teakettle). We’re ready to just go and see what we find. We won’t know until we try.

And that’s part of what we think will be fun, the whole unknown variable. It was about a year ago, when Christy and I joined Chris Davenport on his “Ring of Fire” Volcano Tour that we hatched this plan. We were having such a good time on the ski mountaineering road trip we decided we had to do something similar this year, and more close to home. At the same time we noted that after a quick Google search on the topic that there was still a virtual void of info available. So we put together a website, Centennialskiers.com, to share it all with the greater Colorado ski community.

It’s time to get started. Christy and I skied Pacific, Atlantic (see post here) and Dyer this past weekend. Some photos are below. Be sure to check CentennialSkiers.com for the full posts and for regular updates through the spring. And don’t be too concerned with the lead we have on Dav right now, as soon as he gets home and sets his sights on this, he’ll be caught up in no time.