Dirk and Christy on the col after descending the West Ridge of South Maroon Peak. We’re cresting the hump of the summer season, that busy time of the year when the crowds around town and the craziness at work can wear you thin if you’re not careful. So with no big events and an open weekend, we opted for a short backpack/peak climb to get away from it all, if...
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...
Originally planned as a birthday outing that was tabled when work interfered, Christy, Dirk and I rescheduled the day jaunt up Capitol Peak one week later. A blessing in disguise, the delay put us on the route with just one other party as opposed to the relative mob-scene that reportedly overran the peak the weekend prior. After a 5AM departure from the trailhead we were up at Capitol Lake in...
Dennis Scholl and I made it to the top of the 14,018 foot peak, the first time for the Miami based art collector, winemaker, philanthropist and Colorado peak bagger
The race was awesome. Reflecting on it briefly here, a few things stick out– I improved on my prior 2007 time, cutting off 1:16, with a good amount of credit due to meeting my goal of getting through aids stops faster. A crash in the early parts slowed me down for a bit, a simplified strategy for food and fluids worked better than my mixed menu last time and the...
Summit #93 for Christy, looking out towards Mount Champion A couple of weekends ago Christy and I climbed Casco Peak and French Mountain, 13,904 feet and 13,940 feet respectively, and in doing so put Christy just five peaks shy of reaching the summit of the 100 tallest peaks in Colorado. LaPlata Peak, 14,336 feet, the North Face couloirs still holding plenty of snow and the long Ellingwood Ridge climbs to...
Neal Beidleman traversing snow to the entrance of the Grassy Gullies This is a quickie, both in the day and the write-up. Here’s the debrief: Neal had the morning free and wanted to go do something fun. I’ll be at Hardrock next week and was looking for more than a routine trail run. Very direct and in parts runable, we both agreed a fast lap on North Maroon’s Grassy Gully...
Hitting the trail for a quick jaunt up towards Buckskin Pass on Saturday was our first visit to the area since ski season. Some useful route beta for the Maroon Bells area was learned. Here’s the report: Buckskin Pass and the Four Pass Loop The only news from down low is that as you pass the wilderness boundary sign there are four new trail washouts from the recent rain. Higher...
We met in Aspen in 2000 and have been happily stuck in the rockies ever since, getting out in the mountains every day we can, in every season and by all means possible. Read More
