From the summit of Storm King Peak. It’s wild back here. Last weekend, Christy and I went down to the Weminuche, in the heart of the San Juans. It’s an incredible place, one of our favorite spots in the state. The Weminuche Wilderness handily takes the award as Colorado’s largest wilderness area. At nearly 500,000 acres in size (Maroon Bells/Snowmass is 181,000 acres by comparison) it is so vast, with...
Just the three of us on top of #100– Ted, Christy and our good friend Nicholas Feuillatte. Christy and I climbed Gladstone Peak on Saturday, a 13,913 ft. scree covered mountain in the San Juans, and with that summit, Christy has stood atop the 100 tallest mountains in Colorado. So I will say once again (and for the umpteenth time this year), congratulations Christy. For some background on the 100...
The group trudges up to Camp Muir, at about 10,000 feet,with the Nisqually Glacier, Cleaver and Ice Cliff in the background. Because it was such a great climb and since we came home with so many pics, I thought I’d share some more. (more…)
Lindsay, Angie, Craig and Nick descend the Emmons Glacier. Last April, when warm weather and dusty snow seemed to call an end to the Colorado spring ski season, we booked tickets to the Pacific Northwest and set our sights on some peaks in the Cascades. But when winter made a surprise comeback here at home, we were faced with a decision. We could head up to Rainier and Hood as...
It’s all downhill from here, or at least from a little farther up. Neal climbs up from Taylor Pass. “Thirty-seven.” That was his answer to my question as to when he thought he had reached his top form, and after which he first noticed his speed, stamina and general physical condition begin to deteriorate– in other words, when things started going downhill. I didn’t think it to be an inconsiderate...
North Apostle, Ice Mountain and West Apostle, left to right, frame the valley on the hike in, under cloudy but dry skies. Lake Ann and the west peak were our destination. The wilderness rehabilitation continues and for the second week in a row, we managed to escape the summer crowds and find a little peace and quiet. Well, it was quiet at least with regards to the lack of people,...
An amazing overnight that included a climb of the west ridge of South Maroon Peak.
A moderate pace up the moderate slope, as an avalanche instructor/forecaster, Josh knows better than to assume the moderate rating is as safe as it sounds. If you haven’t checked the CAIC website as of late, the current avalanche danger rating for the Aspen zone is moderate on all aspects and elevations. With five ratings on the avalanche danger scale– low, moderate, considerable, high and extreme– moderate is just a...
Shhh. Maybe this time if we’re really quiet they won’t notice us…. Nope. We recently skied Clinton Peak, 13,857 feet, which was Christy’s 99th summit of the Colorado Centennials. Now all that remains is Gladstone Peak. Because we regularly discuss similar sounding adventures and lists concerning 14ers, it may help to explain the Centennial Peaks list in greater depth. Simply put, if you compiled a list of the tallest peaks...
South Maroon- just the five of us– (l to r)Kent, Lissa, Christy, myself and “Pat” the goat. I couldn’t discern it’s sex so, like the SNL skit, I named it “Pat” (photo courtesy of Lissa’s camera shot by some solo guy from Gorky, Russia). Click all pics to enlarge. Christy, Lissa, Kent Harvey and I did the Maroon Bells Traverse on Saturday, twice. And I came home with a lot...