Category Archives: Thirteeners

Ice Mountain: Refrigerator Couloir Ski

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I drove my car as far as I could past Winfield in the pre-dawn hours of what would turn into an awesome spring day. Parking at a camp site about half a mile in, I shouldered my setup and began trudging up the dirt road towards the standard summer TH for Huron. Eventually I came to a clearing, where Matt, Frank, Brittany, and Jarrett had camped for the night. I was apparently just on time, as they were just throwing their packs on to begin the day. Keep reading…

A Quick Ski Tour on Horseshoe

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Horseshoe Mountain granted us an awesome spring day in the Rockies featuring some sporty climbing and skiing in a gorgeous setting. Though our group was split up for basically the entire day, we all managed to find something fun to do on this peak. Keep reading…

Kit Carson and Columbia Point

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My Dad, his girlfriend Janet, Stu and I headed to Westcliffe the night of August 6 and stayed at the Mountain View Inn, our “basecamp” for climbing the Crestones, Kit Carson, and Humboldt (my final four fourteeners) on the 7th and the 8th. I would highly recommend this place, it was extremely well kept and relatively cheap. Stu and I woke up at 2:30am and piled our gear into our rental Jeep which we picked up in Salida the night before (I would also highly recommend a rental for the South Colony Lakes road if you have the money). We headed for the South Colony Lakes Jeep trail with the intention of getting as high as we could in the rental vehicle. We ended up being able to reach the upper TH and we were on the trail by 4:30am. We had two climbing days avaliable to us to summit the four peaks. Keep reading…

Longs Peak: Loft Route & Some Bonus 13ers

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With my hiking partner Stu on a vacation in Yellowstone, I found myself sitting in Boulder, bored and anxious to do some hiking. I was flipping through the Longs Peak section of Roach‘s book and noticed the “Longs Grand Slam” which collects Longs and its four surrounding thirteeners. I have always wanted to summit Longs via the Loft route and I figured I could get some thirteeners along the way. I left Boulder at 3:00am on Sunday and arrived at the Longs Peak Ranger Station at 3:45, the parking lot was completely full as expected, I parked along the road and left the trailhead at 4:00am. The trail to the Chasm Lake turnoff was heavily populated, I passed probably fifty people along the three mile hike to the turnoff. Keep reading…