What better way to kick off the season than to debut a new outfit. Looking good, Fry. Our season has begun. Not wanting to wait another month for the lifts start running here, Christy, Kathy, Joey, and I headed up to Montezuma Basin yesterday. It’s a haul to get up there, but when the snow is good, it’s definitely worth the effort. For anyone considering heading up that way, the...
It was twenty-five degrees with snow on the ground this morning. Hopefully it’s not too late to post some fall color pics from a recent trip to Kebler Pass. (more…)
Christy descends to Copper Lake from East Maroon Pass, through flurrying snow and graupel. Forty-one miles, 9,600 feet of gain, with a high point of 12,900 feet over three passes and four valleys– that counts as a pretty long day in my book. Our friend Tim always tells Christy and I we’re “masters of the long day.” I guess in a relative sense experience does lend itself to smooth adventures,...
The massive ridge. With the start labeled, we first climbed south to Len Shoemaker Peak and then followed the ridge as it swung north, all the way to Pyramid. Click to enlarge. Totally psyched and somewhat surprised to have actually pulled it off, Neal Beidleman and I sat on Pyramid’s narrow summit in the afternoon sun and processed it all. It wasn’t that we thought it couldn’t be done. Through...
Christy, on the final descent from Buckskin Pass. On Saturday, Christy and I got out on our favorite local linkup of trails and passes, the Four Pass Loop. According to some friends who had been out there earlier in the summer, the lingering snow and high water levels, the theme of summer thus far, had made the trip pretty challenging. But it seems that summer’s persistence has finally won over...
The last ski days of the 2011 spring season in Aspen, including the southwest face of South Maroon and Independence Pass.
Sometimes, you just have to play the hand you’re dealt. Not that skiing isn’t one of my favorite things to do, but after six or seven months of winter, the arrival of summer is definitely welcome. As we all know, though, nature doesn’t always follow a set schedule, and this year’s prolonged snowy spring was a good example of that– summer didn’t seem to declare itself until just a few...
A ski descent of the the south side of South Maroon Peak, and a circumnavigation of the Bells.
The approach, justified. Well actually, skiing 13,300 foot Mount Daly is almost always a great day, as it was for us last Saturday. In fact, I think it would probably be a hugely popular Aspen objective, much like Mount Hayden, were it not for the drawn out approach. So I say “grind” half-seriously, because the climbing and skiing is usually really fun and worthwhile once up in the basin, it’s...
Christy leaves her mark on, among other places, page 12. Off season’s here, and now that Aspen has effectively shut down, anyone with free time enough to get away has been packing up and leaving town. This spring, that ever-present drive to hit the road has us heading to Canada to keep the ski season rolling for a little while longer. I’ll head up to Calgary on Monday to meet...
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
