Descending from Capitol Pass towards Capitol Lake and Mount Daly. We went up around the backside of Mount Daly as it’s seen in this photo. We pulled off a fairly large adventure run around Snowmass, Capitol, and Daly last weekend, a linkup of trails we refer to as the Superloop. We frequent a good number of local trailrunning loops in the range of 18-26 miles, and we thought this longer...
We ran into, or rather were passed by, Linden Mallory and Ben Koons on Buckskin Pass. We had a great run on the Four Pass Loop last Thursday, an ideal escape from the madness of Aspen on the 4th of July. The trails are dry and the flowers were setting up to be in full bloom soon. (more…)
Our South Fork Pass camp. It has been unusually hot and very crowded around town, so we decided to escape on a little camping trip last weekend. And whereas we often seek solitude in far away places, we took a chance on a local spot where we’ve always wanted to camp, up by South Fork Pass. (more…)
Skiing the Pearl Couloir on Cathedral Peak.
Christy climbing Gold Hill. The 2013 Elk Mountains Grand Traverse was this past weekend. As our last race of the season, we were thrilled to finish well– Christy was the first female to cross the line and we nabbed the top spot in the Coed Division. And after twelve finishes here (six as a team), our time of 9:55 was the fastest we’ve done together, and PR for Christy. (more…)
Independence Pass Or don’t even go. Here are two photos of recent natural avalanches that sum up conditions in the backcountry around Aspen. (more…)
It’s just different up on Chair. For whatever reason, its location– between McClure, Kebler, and Schofield passes– seems to draw several times more snow than nearby mountains. I probed around high in the basin and measured 300cm , almost three times what we have in Aspen. Christy, Joey, and I joined Al and Ruthie up at their cabin recently and we had our first full touring weekend of the winter....
Just an overview, the map misses much of the detail unfortunately. Click to enlarge. Neal jokingly referred to it as the “Outward Bound Course in a Day” loop. I’m not exactly sure how long it is, but our estimates put it in the 40-mile range. It had 11,000+ vertical feet climbed over five passes and it took all day (about 12 hours with stops). (more…)
A map of the loop. Click to enlarge. It’s a loop that we hadn’t done before– Capitol Creek to Avalanche Creek to Hell Roaring Creek. Though friends say it’s longer, we figured it to be about 26 miles, with 7300 feet of vertical gain. (more…)
That was about all I could do on my run the other day. East Maroon to Triangle Pass to Conundrum was the goal.
I knew I’d be in chase mode. I haven’t been out for more than a few short runs since Hardrock, and these guys were so fast, I went out with the simple goal– to just keep up.
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
