Well with only 13 peaks left on his list, Stu has the rest of them planned out to be completed by the end of May, after which he will be leaving Colorado for good (I feel very sorry for him but he‘s gotta do what he‘s gotta do). I‘ve committed to see his goal to finish them all through with him, as he was there for me when I was hell bent on the same feat. Keep reading…
A little sick of long drives to remote corners of Colorado, Ryan and I decided to continue our training on a mountain closer to Denver. Longs seemed perfect for the task. We decided on the North Face to mix up the climbing a bit and take another baby step towards Kieners (we‘re getting there). After a bit of research we discovered a gulley that starts at Chasm Lake and spits you out right at the base of the North Face; we thought it would make a great outing to link these routes together and descend the Keyhole, making for a full traverse of the mountain with Chasm Lake as the starting point. It turned out to be a great day, although very physically difficult. We departed from the TH at 6:00am on the dot, fully prepared for the -20 temps the weather service was calling for. We ascended above treeline as the sun was coming up, arriving at Chasm Junction roughly 2 hours after our departure. Continue reading…
With Stu‘s permanent relocation to Ohio coming in May, he has made it a goal to finally finish off the 14ers before then. With Capitol being his largest remaining challenge, we figured it had to happen either now or in May. We chose now, although in hindsight I think I would have preferred spring snow to the verglass/unconsolidated sugar we faced. Stu, Ryan, and I left Boulder at 2am on Halloween night and headed for Aspen. Keep reading…
After a long work week and a wedding next weekend, it was time to get a trip in. With all of the attention the Thunder Pyramid traverse has received recently, the decision was a no brainer. Ryan and I left Westminster at 1:45am, pulled into the Maroon Lake TH at 5:00am started off up the trail 15 minutes later. Keep reading…