Sean leaves his mark, with a slight brown tinge. Down low the dust is everywhere and soon it will be up here as well. Bummer. Just when we thought we finished a season without a dust layer, it arrived. Actually, we never really acknowledged the lack of dust. And how soon we forget. With somewhere north of six dust events around Aspen last season(it was pretty bad, read here), we...
The signs were pointing to an exceptionally busy Saturday at Highlands. So we decided to hit one of our favorite lines on Highlands Ridge and made it a “one and done” day.
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...
After climbing the couloir from Como Lake, Christy starts along the ridge towards the base of the couloir. Route: Southwest Face/Hourglass Couloir Team: Ted, Christy After a huge drive from Aspen to Alamosa the long way (without Indy Pass), we opted to crash in a hotel. The next day was going to be long, so some better rest than we’d likely get in the back of the truck would be...
A close up of the Aspen area form the summit. Not only are Pyramid and the Bells looking large, but Aspen Highlands can be seen in a unique perspective. Route: North Ridge Team: Ted, Christy, Dirk Bockelmann Trying to keep the momentum going, we headed down to Holy Cross. The three of us headed up the road on snowmobile, all the way to the Halfmoon Pass summer trailhead. Earlier we...
A couple of climbers deep in the park. To get right to the point– it hasn’t snowed in a while so we went ice climbing. (more…)
Christy makes her way across the rolling basin to the East Ridge. Route: Yawner Gullies (SW) Team: Ted, Christy We had come off Sneffels the weekend prior, and decided to head back down to the San Juans for a combo ice climbing trip/ San Luis Peak ski. After a couple of days in the Ouray Ice Park, we made our way to Creede for the night. It just so happened...
A January 2010 ski of the Birthday Chutes on Mount Sneffels.
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...
Nice toss Christy! I’ve played disc golf at 17,200 feet (Everest Basecamp- see below) but horseshoes at 14K? It was a first for me. Click to enlarge. After a string of fall storms brought snow to much of the state, winter has been on everyones mind. Usually we’re excited to pull the stuff out of the closet and head up to Castle Peak’s Montezuma Basin for some early season skiing...
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
