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...
Two Christy’s? Can the world handle that? Actually she was caught in two shots that made up this panorama, approaching the top of Willow Pass. On Sunday, my 37th birthday, Christy and I ran a trail linkup that started at Maroon Lake and finished with a beer and pizza at the Snowmass Mall. Rather than find ourselves in yet another grand birthday outing that’s both physically strenuous and technically elaborate,...
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
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...
Running Midway Pass a 19 mile route from Independence Pass to Hunter Creek.
Amos Whiting, Dirk and I headed to Mount Sopris on Friday. Our initial plan was to ski the Crystal Chute, the 6000 foot couloir that descends towards Carbondale, a line that has been on all of our ‘ticklists’ for some time. After shuttling a car to the couloirs exit, or at least where we believed it to be, we drove towards the Dinkle Lake trailhead and made our way up...
Much to some locals’ dismay, the regular season in Aspen wrapped up last Sunday. If you ask me, it’s a blessing in disguise because like most sports, it’s the post season where things get exciting. For many, work stops until the tourists return for summer, the area snowpack is usually at it’s annual peak and the beautiful spring weather morphs the snow into its safer, predictable, spring variety. If the...
With the big snow that fell Monday and Tuesday came the text from Chris Davenport– Sievers Mountain on Wednesday, who’s in? As testimony to both the classic status of the Sievers tour and Chris’s ability to rally the troops, nine of us assembled at Snowmass under bluebird skies and began. Nine is definitely on the large side for a backcountry ski group and with three climbs and ski descents that...
If the set goal for the day was to ski good snow we would have been let down. Instead, Christy, Tim and I went to Hayden on Sunday and filed it under the category of “getting out for some adventure” rather than “epic backcountry day”– and that small label change made it appealing. After all, when I was up here last Tuesday the snow left much to be desired and...
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
