I’ll have to move faster if I want to make the self-timer photo. Route: South Slopes Team: Ted (solo) Ahh, the mighty Mount Sherman. Quite a change from the Wilson group just a few days earlier. It was the perfect peak to wind down on after an aggressive May (ten peaks in fourteen days). Being unable to sell a day trip to anyone I knew, I went alone. From the...
A 2004 ski descent of the Northwest side of Wilson Peak.
Dirk on Mount Wilsons summit, with El Diente behind. Route: North Face Team: Ted, Dirk Bockelmann After descending El Diente, we traversed as far as we could towards Mount Wilson and began climbing. Switching off trail breaking duty in regular intervals, we made pretty good time up the very direct North Face. This peak, like El Diente, warranted another visit. At the top of the snowy north face exists a...
Skiing was easy on the soft, north facing snow. Route: North Face Team: Ted, Dirk Bockelmann After some pretty good days so far this spring (we were just in the Sangres), and with a week remaining before work starts up, I figured I should keep charging. Dirk was free as well, so we decided to head down to the San Juans with the three peaks of the Wilson group in...
Eventually there was enough room for some fall line turns. Route: West Face Team: Ted, Christy Having just skied down from the summit of Ellingwood Point, most of the climbing for Blanca was already done. From near the 13,000 foot mark, we switched out of ski mode and into climb mode, and although Blanca Peak is the 4th highest peak in the state, from here it’s pretty easy. Christy and...
The sun crests the saddle between Blanca and Ellingwood and warms the chill. Route: South Face Team: Christy, Ted After coming off our big push in the Sawatch the weekend prior, we wanted to check out the Sangres. There was enough snow down there still to ski, but it was going fast. We made the drive to towards Alamosa and then up the horrendous Como Lake Road to a reasonable...
The ski line and route (dots). It’s a straightforward one. Route: East Face Team: Christy, Ted Moving south from Columbia, Princeton would be next. I was unaware at the time how good the coverage was this spring in the Sawatch Range. Princeton, in particular, wouldn’t hold this much skiable snow for a few years. We figured it would be a good one because of the easy access on the Mt....
Route: South Face from Horn Fork Basin Pretty good timing for soft snow. Team: Ted, Christy Feeling motivated after a textbook spring ski of Mount Elbert, Christy and I headed to the North Cottonwood Creek trailhead, for Harvard and Columbia. In order to nail these two descents in one spring day we thought it best to make a high camp so we packed in all our stuff and set up...
The West Face of Columbia, seen from Harvard earlier that morning. Route: West Face Team: Ted, Christy The thought of not trying for Columbia right after Harvard, even if it was a bit warm and a bit late was not one Christy or I wanted to entertain. At this point in time I was barely halfway through the ski list and wasn’t set on skiing them all, but Christy would...
The cirque has several couloirs to ski. Route: Box Creek Cirque Team: Christy, Ted, Dirk Bockelmann With a perfect weather forecast for the next few days, Christy and I went directly from Mt. Bierstadt to Mt. Elbert. We met up with Dirk and Sable at the Mt. Elbert trailhead, near the Lakeview Campground. Some comfy car camping with a big fire made for an easy night and following morning. We...
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
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