Fall has officially arrived in the Colorado high country. Days are getting noticeably shorter now, nights are chilling down and we’re past peak for fall colors with dustings of snow in the high alpine across the state. It’s always nice to get out around this time for those last few dry-ish peaks of the season, not knowing when things will definitively be snowed in for good. Steve was up for getting out as well, and so we decided to head to the West Elk Wilderness northwest of Gunnison to hike its namesake high point, West Elk Peak. Keep reading…
I think Ben and I changed plans 4 times for this trip, because of the vagaries of mountain weather forecasting, and barely finalized our itinerary before it was time to start it. This was the right weekend to visit Crested Butte – after wildflower season, after Labor Day, and before Leaf Peepery. Riding with me from Denver to meet Ben in Crested Butte was my adopted son, Carmine, who had turned 16 in the last couple of weeks.
The approach began very easily, as we proceeded up the excellent Copper Creek trail. After an hour, however, we had to find the place to leave it and nothing looked great – we just found a way up the steep forested slopes that overhung there road to get up to Queen’s Basin. After the trees thinned, we followed a dry watercourse to the alpine grassland of upper Queen’s Basin. Here it is from Ben’s view looking back and then mine a bit further up, scanning the way to White Rock Mountain. Keep reading…
At least once a summer for the past few years I’ve made an effort to head over to the Roaring Fork Valley and run something cool around Aspen. The Four Pass Loop might just represent the pinnacle of wilderness trail running in the entire state of Colorado, if not beyond. It’s just such an aesthetic, logical, flowing loop that takes on, as the name suggests, four unique passes and five or six different drainages (depending on how you count them) along the way. The scenery is top notch and the trails are high quality. Keep reading…
We’re deep into winter now up here in the Colorado high country. It’s been a cold one this season and coming off the tail end of another round of storms, spring still feels a long ways off. One of the best ways to break up the grind a little bit, other than escaping to the desert or booking a tropical getaway of course, is to go on a hut trip. There’s just something refreshing about rounding up some friends, skiing to a cozy backcountry cabin miles from civilization, cranking up the furnace and enjoying a feast, games and conversation late into the night. It’s always a good time. Read more…
