At 12:30am, my alarm buzzed, pulling me from what could be described as “sleep” in only the most generous of terms. I had been drifting halfway between consciousness and unconsciousness, a mixture of exhaustion, anticipation, excitement, nervousness, and discomfort preventing either one from fully taking hold. As I blearily struggled to align and insert my contacts, a white light appeared from around the corner, accompanied by voices. Keep reading…
On Thursday Brian, Rick, and I got a 4am start from the Camp Bird gate closure, intent on giving the Snake Couloir on Mt. Sneffels a go. Any hope of getting a reasonable amount of sleep was dashed when we tried to plow through a snow bank blocking access to Angel Creek Campground a few hours prior, resulting in a high centered vehicle and a ninety minute effort to free it. With a day like the Snake ahead of us we knew we could’t afford to push back our start time, so we did our best to suck it up and began the long zombie walk up the dry road on schedule. Read more…
Many of us in the hiking and climbing community knew of and/or shared a day in the hills with the late Jim DiNapoli (aka “Dancesatmoonrise”) during his time here on Earth. You could say he really made the rounds when it came to pursuing friendships forged from time in the mountains. Among many things, Jim was known for his uniquely colorful photos and creative articulation in documenting his mountain adventures. Keep reading…
We bring it on ourselves. Primarily resulting from the activities we partake in and the way we go about pursuing those activities. The idea was simple. Climb capitol in a day from the car going as light and fast as possible. Now I’m not talking Andrew Hamilton fast, but deliberate fast. At the last “first Friday” block party in Golden I mentioned this idea to Carl and he agreed it sounded like a fun day. The last time he climbed capitol without skis was like 8 years ago and he wanted to revisit the peak, he was in. We chose a couple weekends with some weather flexibility and a plan was set. Keep reading…