Timing is everything. Sometime last Saturday I noticed Bob Perlmutter peering through the telescope at the Sundeck on Aspen Mountain, following the progress of a skier on Ski Hayden (Hayden Peak’s north summit). I had been tracking the solo skier as well and after noting Bob’s interest, knew exactly who to recruit as a partner. After a half dozen more skiers followed suit up there on Sunday and Monday and...
Sometime around mid-August we are all ready for a break from the summer season. Between the traffic and resulting people, the heat and the apex of the busy work season, the overall hectic pace of life in and around Aspen usually results in a desire to just ‘get out’ for a bit. Sometimes all that is needed is some sort of catalyst. Saturday was my birthday. And with that said, the trip up to the remote lakes bearing the name...
More specifically, Conundrum Creek trail up to Triangle Pass, down to Copper Lake, up to East Maroon Pass and down East Maroon Creek. The route can actually be completed in either direction, in our case Todd Clark, Christy and I began the day at the Conundrum Creek Trailhead (8800 ft.) and ran most of the popular trail up 8 miles or so to the famous hot springs (11,200 ft.) that bear the trails name. FYI, the lowest...
His Holiness the Dalai Lama was in Aspen this past weekend.
Skiing the Conundrum Couloir on the 4th!
At 13,988 ft., Grizzly Peak is the tallest 13er in the state and a regular on many ski mountaineers spring tick list. Dirk and I found it in pretty good shape last Thursday. [singlepic=13,361,500,,center] Technically, Grizzly falls in the Sawatch Range and not in the Elks but with popular access beginning a short way up Independence Pass on the Aspen side, it feels pretty local. If you put together a list...
A late spring (June 1) ski descent of South Maroon Peak.
Route: North Face Team: Christy, Ted, Dirk Bockelmann [Christy here} While there has been a lot of great skiing this spring, nothing would mean more to me than getting North Maroon Peak. For a while now Dirk and I have both pondered whether we were ready for the North Face or not. Ted has skied it a couple of times… Turns out we were ready! We got started on the trail at 4:15 after...
Memorial Day Weekend – The Official Summer Kickoff Someone needs to let Snowmass Lake know it’s Memorial Day weekend and not midwinter. It’s still totally frozen up there. Christy, Josh Hirshberg and I headed that way last Saturday for a few days. Getting up the 8 mile trail is adventure enough for most. We had two peaks to ski– Snowmass Mountain and Hagerman Peak. Christy was happy that what in...
A spring climb and ski descent in 2008 of Hagerman Peak, near Snowmass Mountain and Snowmass Lake. We don’t hear much about Hagerman Peak. Even being one of the tallest (top-ten) local peaks in the Aspen area, it seems to garner little attention.
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
