So far, so good. Joey and Sean descend into the White Canyon near Hite crossing, Utah, upstream of the swimming slots known as “The Black Hole.” The Black Hole. It sounds scary, right? Well, if claustrophobia, freezing cold water and flash floods get you nervous then this slot canyon run probably isn’t best for you. But if you’ve got a good wetsuit, booties and a perfect weather forecast then a...
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...
Another awesome night at “Airport.” Glow in the dark discs, and a satellite or two light it up. Click to enlarge. The hump of the ski season upon us and spring is coming. Punxsutawny Phil thinks otherwise, after seeing his shadow he declared there to be six more weeks of winter– but apparently Staten Island Chuck (who? read here) says Phil’s got it all wrong. After Christy and I opted...
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...
We made a trip to the Maze District of Canyonlands National Park for a little backpacking.
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...
Five of us hit the river last weekend. Jann “take me to the deepest snow” Stoeckl collects some prewinter face shots. Even though the Gunny Gorge is in close proximity to Aspen and that when put together, our group has logged some considerable miles on the waters of Colorado, Utah and beyond, only one in the group, Tim, had completed this run before. So armed with five inflatable kayaks and...
“…and you can do more than you think you can.”- Ken Chlouber, Leadville 100 Race Director A once-a-year scene, at 4am the headlamps from 509 starters head down 6th street. 46% didn’t make it back within the 30 hour cutoff. [Christy here] That was just one of the many over-used motivational quotes that Chlouber repeated during the somewhat evangelistic pre-race meeting the morning before the 2009 Leadville 100 trail run....
**Update- She’s finished, around 25:40 smiling, 7th woman overall. **Update- Christy’s doing great, left Twin Lakes Aid station at 6:10 pm, 40 miles to go–ahead of schedule!! On a late August morning back in 2002, Christy and I trudged up the road towards Leadville. After tagging along with my friend and his crew for much of the day, my friend dropped from the race, leaving me without support. Christy was...
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...