Category Archives: San Juans

Fourth of July in the La Platas

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The La Plata Mountains are a small subrange of the San Juans that reside in the far southwest corner of Colorado northeast of Mancos. A handful of craggy peaks make up the bulk of this small range, a majority of which can be explored in just a few days time. The mountains are named after the silver deposits discovered there by the Spanish exploration of the region in the mid-1700’s. As one of the farthest away sets of thirteeners from my house, I’d always wanted to get down there to check them out but it’d been a long time coming. Finally this year was the year, and I found myself making the long drive down there from the Vail Valley over the 4th of July weekend. Read more…

Winding it Back at the San Juan Solstice

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There’s not much to say that I haven’t already said about the San Juan Solstice. It’s got it all – incredible aesthetics and scenery, an acumen of being a well-run event thanks to a very dedicated race director, and the lure of the San Juans and the sleepy little town known as Lake City. Being into it’s 31st year now it’s as time-tested as races come. And even beyond all that for me personally, it’s got the nostalgia factor as this would be my 5th running of the Solstice dating back to 2017. Keep Reading…

Opus Hut

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Last month I got an opportunity to head down south and spend 2 nights at the Opus Hut near Ophir Pass. It was sort of a last-minute invite that I was able to say yes to on a whim, and it turned into an awesome weekend of powder skiing and hut time with a great crew. Sometimes it’s really nice when a spontaneous plan comes together. The Opus Hut sits at 11,765 ft just to the east of Ophir Pass. It was built by Ophir resident Bob Kingsley, a master timber framer, between 2006 and 2011 after he bought the parcel of land the hut sits on. Keep Reading…

Back to the Weminuche: Stormy Gulch 13ers

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A couple weeks after our Sunlight Basin pack-in, Steve and I headed back down to the Weminuche to try for a few more peaks at the tail end of summer. The destination this time around was Stormy Gulch via Trinity Creek. From there we ended up hitting Peaks Two and Three to the northeast of Vestal Basin, and Peak Eight to the west of Silex Lake. Keep Reading…