Saturday morning I met Brian at Vail Pass after nearly 2 feet of snow had fallen in as many days. With the entire pass being more or less untouched, we decided to make our way to the east side and lap low-hanging fruit runs for several hours. After 3,600 feet of turns we skied back to the car and grilled out as temps dropped and even more snow rolled in. Keep reading…
A few weekends back Rick, Brian and I decided to finally check out “Outpost Peak” (12,362′) on the west side of the Gores. Outpost is a bit of a local’s favorite, with access straight out of town and several ski routes including a generally winter-friendly option in the south ridge. The peak itself is the high point of a north-south ridge line that separates Pitkin and Booth Creek drainages. Keep reading…
On Saturday Steve and I got out for what will probably be our (or at least my) last 13er summit of the year. Cold temps and an encouraging start to snow season conspired to shut down the fall peakbagging window a few weeks early this year. So in place of a few bigger goals we were trying to sneak in before the season change, we found ourselves just looking for an easy outing. “Mascot Peak” next to Mt. Yale made for a fun, quick morning leg-stretcher, capped off by a few ales at Eddyline to officially wrap things up. Keep reading…
September 10, a fine fall day, and I was visitin’ my cousin, Steve for a few days in Denver, and so decided to tag with him on some type of mountain traverse. This here’s Cletus, and Steve’ll be mad as a badger to see i done commandeered his email account. So we get to Montgomery Reservoir and head up the jeep road. There’s a sign, “No camping,” and then there’s no more signs for miles. I account this a failure on the part of the Forest Service… Read more…