Category Archives: Sangres

Centennial Sunday – California’s West Ridge

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I get excited every time I visit the San Luis Valley. How could you not? It is a 122 mile long, 74 mile wide, vast high desert plain surrounded by mountains. And not just any mountains. To the west, the Sangres rise up like nowhere else in Colorado. Going from 8,000 to 14,000 feet in a matter of 2-3 of miles just never gets old. On every trip I am stunned by the relief off of the valley floor. The fact that most of the high peaks are as rugged as they come only adds to the appeal. Keep reading…

Conquistadores Mounting Earth Knockers

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Steve and I were looking for something new and relatively close and decided there were some breasts of the Earth to mount in the southern part of the state. West Spanish is a Bi and East Spanish is a prominent 12er. The two combined make for a nice rack, and with some crazy dikes in the region, we figured we were in for a treat.

We agree to haul a pair of bikes down there just in case the road to East Spanish and the Wahatoya TH was too rough. What we would later come to realize is how many shits the Honey Badger (Steve’s Rav-4) really gives (that would be none). Keep reading…

Sangres Six Pack: LB to EP, Plus 3

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I need to give Kiefer of 14ers.com the credit for coming up with this itinerary in a discussion last year. He couldn’t make it this year, but Ryan “Mountain Socialite” Marsters agreed to come along for the fun, and upped the ante by adjusting our schedule so we could accompany Andrew Hamilton for just a mile or two as he set out to try and break the speed record for the Fourteeners. (Ryan’s high school lacrosse coach is a friend of Hamilton’s.) Thanks to Ryan for his usual great company, for exercising restraint to allow me to lead some sections, and for some excellent photos – more than half in this report are his. Keep reading…

Kicking off the Summer in the Sangres: Mount Adams

      14 Comments on Kicking off the Summer in the Sangres: Mount Adams

With my snowshoes on Craigslist and Ben and Brian’s skies packed away for the season, it was finally time to dust off the trail shoes, strap on our 8 lb. packs, and kick off the unofficial start to the summer of 2014. The Sangres were an easy choice with the amount of snow still lingering around the rest of Colorado, and Adams and it’s surrounding 13ers were more than a worthy objective. Keep reading…