The third and final climb of the day, out of Lenado to Four Corners and home. In seasons like this, when the steeper backcountry skiing isn’t all that safe, we keep ourselves busy with races. And part of the fun in that is in the training days. Many of the seasons races are already behind us. The Power of Four, the Vail COSMIC (for Christy), and the Highlands Skimo Series...
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…)
Chris approaches the top of the Burnt Mountain climb on Snowmass. The 3rd Annual Aspen Snowmass Power of Four Ski Mountaineering Race was this past weekend. It’s great to see this race so popular and run so smooth. Very often new events can be disorganized and struggle to find support. Fifty-eight teams of two took on the full course (14 more did the “Power of Two” half course) in perfect...
It took a little while, but I finally managed to get the trip reports from our 14er ski descents back online.
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....
For the superstitious skier, it’s usually a bad idea to talk about a snow storm before it arrives. But this ski season so far has been lacking in terms of snow, so whatever steps we’ve taken to keep from jinxing the snowfall hasn’t been effective, and there’s a storm on the way. So I’m going to take the opposite approach and share some powder pics from earlier in the season...
Joey in the Pope Chute. In need of a change of scenery after a hectic holiday stretch in Aspen, we went down to ski Silverton Mountain last weekend. They were a little light on snow, and the temps were frigid (-22F as we drove to the ski area Saturday morning), but Christy, Joey, and I still had a great time. (more…)
The start of the loop course. Photo courtesy of the Aspen Daily News Thanks to everyone involved for getting last nights ski mountaineering (skimo) race off successfully. Donning headlamps and the lightest touring gear they could find, about 30 people, a majority of whom were women, lined up for the 5:30pm start. It was the first of a series of four races to take place at Aspen Highlands this season,...
The “Caderettes” from left to right: Suzanne Leydecker, May Selby, Heather Kroeger, me, Chandler Stapleton (AVSC alumni), Katie Ryan (AVSC alumni and current US Ski Team member), and John Supon, our token male and adaptive ski racer. Last Friday morning, an email titled, “Welcome to the Caderettes” appeared in my inbox. Little did I know that a quick mention earlier in the week from our friend Rocky about participating in...
While we’re waiting for the snow to arrive, I wanted to pass along a cool video by Jordan Manley on the sailboat skiing adventures in NW Iceland offered by Borea Adventures. Iceland: A Skier’s Journey EP3 S3 from ARC’TERYX on Vimeo. (more…)
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
