Last Sunday morning Dylan Friday and I ripped off our skins and skied down to the base of Ajax Mountain, completing the Grand Traverse ski race from Crested Butte to Aspen two and a half years in the making. After being cancelled due to COVID only a couple weeks before race day last year, it was time for redemption for many racers this year and those who stuck with it were rewarded with one of the finest nights the event has seen in its 23-year history.
Dylan and I first signed up for this one in late-2019 and put together a pretty solid training regimen throughout the winter leading into March of 2020. After the race was cancelled we took the option of rolling over to 2021. Fast forward a year and we approached the race with cautious optimism the second time around. Though numerous races have gotten back onto their feet over the last 6 months, the Grand Traverse entails several aspects beyond COVID that need to fall into line to successfully pull off a race to Aspen. Keep reading…
Treasure and Treasury Mountains are the high points of a long, curving ridge line extending from Whitehouse Mountain just south of Marble down to Yule Pass northwest of Crested Butte. The two peaks reside in the Raggeds Wilderness, and are separated enough from the rest of the high peaks of the Elks to feel as though they belong to their own little mini-range. And in many ways, they do. The peaks are named after an old fable of gold buried by a French mining expedition in the late-1700’s, and William Yule’s failed attempt to find the lost treasure many decades later. Keep Reading…
With the Sheep Mountain 50K coming up on August 1st (possibly the only trail race I’ll end up running in 2020) it was time to ramp up the miles and get some longer days in. This summer I’ve really tried to take advantage of the diversity of trails accessible from relatively close to home and explore some new routes to keep things interesting. In the spirit of continuing that I decided to head over to Snowmass Village and check out a cool route known colloquially as the “Three Pass Loop”. Keep Reading…
“Siberia Peak” resides about a mile to the northwest of Snowmass Mountain, and has got to be one of the least climbed thirteeners in Colorado. It’s short enough that it doesn’t make any of the popular lists, and it’s tucked away in one of the harder-to-access areas in the Elks (especially now with the upper leg of the Lead King Loop blocked by avy debris). If you do decide to climb Siberia, you’ll very likely have the mountain and the entire upper-drainage around Siberia Lake all to yourself. Read more…
