Marble & Avalanche Creek
A 12 mile trail running loop outside of Marble, CO through Buckskin Basin, over three passes and through two forks of Avalanche Creek.
Taylor and Star
Christy drops in for the third ski of the tour. They’re right in our backyard yet somehow Christy and I had never skied Taylor Peak or Star Peak. It was time. We caught a really good view of the 13,000 foot summits last week on our flight to CB for the Grand Traverse. Armed with a couple of photos and a good idea of the terrain having skied up in...
Mace Peak Loop
Cresting Mace Saddle, the high point of the loop around Mace Peak. A week of sun and warm temps crusted up the powder in the backcountry, so we thought a different type of ski tour was in order. We grabbed the light skis and made a loop around nearby Mace Peak. (more…)
Climbing and Skiing Colorado’s Mountains – the guidebook
The new, must-have guidebook to Colorado backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. As a Colorado backcountry skier, the mere prospect of spring brings excitement. But I found myself particularly psyched for the upcoming season after poring over a copy of the new guidebook, Climbing and Skiing Colorado’s Mountains – 50 Select Ski Descents. This book is long overdue. It’s co-authored by Ben Conners and Brian Miller, two Colorado ski mountaineers who...
Snowmass to Conundrum (and then some)
Christy and I are both registered to run the Bear 100 in a few weeks, we thought it would be a good idea to do a long trail linkup from our Bear training playbook two years ago– Snowmass to Conundrum.
The Snowmass-Capitol-Daly Superloop
Descending from Capitol Pass towards Capitol Lake and Mount Daly. We went up around the backside of Mount Daly as it’s seen in this photo. We pulled off a fairly large adventure run around Snowmass, Capitol, and Daly last weekend, a linkup of trails we refer to as the Superloop. We frequent a good number of local trailrunning loops in the range of 18-26 miles, and we thought this longer...
The Inwood Arete
The rocky ridge on the mountain’s north side climbs for about 2,000 feet to where it joins the standard East Ridge route. After our run up Quandary’s East Ridge we decided to climb the mountain a second time (the next day) at a more casual pace. The north side of the mountain has a seldom visited, semi-technical climbing route called the Inwood Arete that we wanted to explore. (more…)
Margy’s & McNamara
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...
The Zion Traverse
Through some of the narrows on the descent from the East Rim to Weeping Rock. We ran the Zion Traverse last week– a linkup of existing trails across Zion National Park that measures about 48 miles and reportedly gains around 10,000 vertical feet. Christy and I are big fans of established courses such as the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim (or roundtrip) and the Four Pass Loop, so it was time to...
Kokopelli
Mary’s Loop Like a couple of elk forced down to lower elevations by snowfall, Christy and I headed to Fruita to go for a run. Most people associate Fruita with mountain biking. While the biking is nothing short of awesome there, many of the trails work equally well for a run. The rolling, semi-technical Kokopelli trails are the best, since the bikers aren’t moving as fast and as a runner...
About Christy & Ted
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
