Sound like fun? It all depends on your perspective, literally. From it’s top, it’s a fast, steep descent towards Snowmass, and on nordic skis it can almost be scary. When tackling this stretch of the Owl Creek Trail from the opposite direction(pictured), the only thing ‘flying’ is your heartrate, into the red that is. Participants in next Saturday’s 22nd Annual Owl Creek Chase , the 21 km skate race from Snowmass to Aspen, will...
So what’s this all about? Joel Gratz, an enthusiastic skier and amateur meteorologist out of Boulder, Colorado, has launched his Colorado Powder Forecast, with the singular goal of helping powder lovers stay abreast of incoming weather news of the ‘cold smoke’ variety. Distributed via email, his discussion includes day-to-day predictions for snowfall in the various mountain zones of Colorado, sometimes going so far as to predict actual powder quality as a function of the snow’s...
It’s official. We don’t need the certificate as proof, but we do think it’s pretty cute that the government of Nepal takes the time to issue these. I’m sure they’ll be cool to have somewhere down the road. Maybe the Colorado Mountain Club should issue certificates for 14er & 13er summits. I’m sure the employees of the CMC are happy they don’t. Happy New Year!
Who said Christmas is just for kids? Not Amy and Neal. With a little supervisory help from the grandparents, and with a few hours free before starting Christmas dinner, they left Reed and Nina to play with presents and snuck out in seek of their own. It looks like Amy got what she wanted. Having just wrapped up a casual-paced morning of gifts and coffee, Christy and I headed to Highlands...
What a shame. There was too much snow for Christy to effectively show off her new green ski pants at Aspen Highlands the other day. Were it not so much fun, she might have actually cared that her ’08-’09 ski season fashion debut went largely unnoticed. The twenty inches that fell by Sunday was augmented by another storm that came through Tuesday, with yet a third walllop expected Thursday. Things are looking good. Most of Aspen Mountain...
Having just passed through a rather porous security check, we stood on the tarmac of Lukla Airport and awaited our flight. It was the first clear morning in three days, and the planes which were reported to have departed Kathmandu, were headed our way. Eager for their arrival, we listened. They were our way home. Approaching planes can’t be seen from anywhere in or adjacent to the terminal. Instead, passengers...
The tree is up. After skiing Saturday morning, we grabbed our $10 US Forest Service tree tag, and with saw in hand, headed out to hunt for our trophy. We knew just where to go. Our secret spot outside the town of Redstone has provided our tree for the past two years, and it would again today. A few hours later it was lighting up our living room. Though not a big deal, I was slightly disappointed when my goal for a repeat of...
The Little Nell, yesterday. (the Little Nell, yesterday) Resembling a scene out of the early season playbook from upstate New York’s Hunter Mountain, a.k.a. “The Snowmaking Capitol of the World”, the recent low temperatures have allowed the still primitive-by-east-coast-standards snowmaking system of Aspen Mountain to crank out the fake stuff. An anonymous Aspen Ski Company insider, identified only as ‘M. Blakeslee’, confirmed that, if temperatures stay low and snowmaking continues, top-to-bottom...
Dirk, Christy and I agreed- if we didn’t see a sleeping bag for a few weeks, we’d be just fine. I say that because when you consider the different camps on the mountain, and their varying levels of comfort (or lack thereof), well, it’s just great to be home. Having a toilet is nice, too. Let’s review. Basecamp ~15,000 ft. Pros- Flat, grassy and dry with direct sun from 7:30am to 5:30pm....
As part of getting all caught up after our trip, we’ve been chipping away at the Himalayan-like pile of mail that awaited us at home. That means flipping through a glossy ski or climbing magazine faster than Christy can cover a fluffy fashion mag while waiting to check out at the supermarket. So we almost missed the ad. Last June, Art Burrows asked if we’d be interested in taking part...