Category Archives: San Juans

Labor Day Weekend Down South

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04-DelicateDance

Labor Day weekend in the San Juans has become sort of a tradition over the years. The extra day, usually accompanied with decent weather, combine for a perfect time to bag some peaks. With a full year of long winter slogs, spring descents and summer ridge runs, your legs are finely tuned for long days, and the monsoon season is finally starting to calm down. For some, this is the culmination and final hoorah before hanging up the boots, for others, just another great weekend in the hills. Read more…

Jones Group Summits

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Once in a blue moon I get an opportunity to work out of my company’s headquarters in Durango. As fortunate had it, last Wednesday through Friday were my dates for 2013. A Durango-based work trip, leading into the weekend, in the middle of the driest, most reliable month to hike peaks in the San Juans? Sweet! I was stoked for weeks leading up to the trip. Little did I know mother nature had other ideas. Enter the record monsoonal flows of mid-September, 2013. Read more…

Yankee Boy Basin 13er Ski Descents

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With several feet of new snow falling up north and the ensuing avalanche issues still fresh in our minds, our group decided to head down south to ski in Yankee Boy this past weekend. With good coverage and a low CAIC rating, the excellent weather forecast is what put us over the edge. The San Juans are indeed a commitment to drive to from Denver, but with a combination of factors as perfect as we had, pulling the trigger was an easy call. For years Brian and I have looked forward to skiing some of the lessar-known lines in the basin. Keep reading…

Kicking Things Off in the Southern Mountains

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Brian, Rick, and I decided to load up the car with gear and drive down to the San Juans this past weekend. We were not entirely sure what we’d find in terms of snow stability and coverage, but we managed to talk ourselves into taking the plunge. Tracking the CAIC reports and weather the week prior to our departure helped somewhat, but it’s nearly impossible to drive 350 miles to go ski steep terrain in March and feel totally confident about your decision. That said, we did have some reliable local beta that seemed to be giving us a green light. Keep reading…