Neal skis the June snow. Route: North Face Team: Ted, Neal Beidleman Our day on South Maroon last week was a great day by all accounts. At its conclusion, over beers at the car while looking back up towards the Bells we agreed North Maroon Peak still looked good. Neal was motivated by the idea of being able to ski all six Elk Range 14ers in one season– a feat...
Skiing the Upper East Face and Bell Cord Couloir on South Maroon.
Christy, with the East Face of Siberia Peak behind. Route: West Face Team: Ted, Christy, Dirk Bockelmann Take two. I skied “on” Snowmass Mountain back in 2002, but couldn’t claim it as a summit descent. So after Pikes Peak last week, I rallied Dirk and Christy for what has become our annual Memorial Day Weekend 14er ski trip and we headed over to Marble. A new side of the mountain...
The “Reverse Trailhead” meant we climbed back up after skiing. Route: Y Couloir Team: ted, Chris Davenport It would be a month after Pyramid before I skied another 14er. An eight day trip to Valdez, AK followed by a ski expedition to the tallest peak in Greenland, all sandwiched around buying and remodeling our condo kept me busy when Chris was stepping up his efforts on the 14ers. I was...
An April ski descent of Mount Lincoln.
Chris, in the big middle section of the Landry Route. Route: East Face Team: Ted, Chris Davenport, Neal Beidleman The advanced planning was minimal, consisting of a couple of organizational calls from Chris, laced with tones of muted optimism. The recon was even more limited. We had a few aerial shots of the route, a line that had only been skied once before back in 1978. The hazards were widely...
An early season ski descent of the Snake Couloir on Mount Sneffels.
On the summit, a gorgeous July day. Route: Cross Couloir Team: Ted (solo) In 2005 I skied during every month of the year. I had always heard of people in Colorado doing this, traveling to small desperate patches of sun-cupped summer snow just to be able to say they skied all year. September and August can be the toughest to pull off. July was easy, I went to Holy Cross....
With the ramp finished, a pole touch from the benchmark, we were ready. Route: North Face Team: Ted, Christy With the arrival of June, north facing snow was about all that was left. The view of Missouri’s north side from La Plata the week before showed it was still in from the top, or so it appeared. Christy and I were excited as we made the quick trip over Independence...
A late May ski descent of the North Face of La Plata Peak.