The thought of skiing a high peak has been nothing more than a distant memory to me for the past few months as our snowpack has gone from being nonexistent in November/December to thin and unstable in January/February. With late winter bringing a decent dose of snow and some warm temps to go with it, Brian and I finally decided to come out of our shells and give an east facing, low-angle line a crack. Continue reading…
Is it ski season yet? Although for some the answer to this question may be “yes”, what realistically awaits the Colorado skier at this stage of the game is either rocks and core shots in the BC, or low-angle, man-made ice ribbons at the resort. As much as I wanted to try to ski somewhere on Saturday I just couldn’t quite bring myself to do it. Last year I was the first one on the lift at A Basin (on October 10th I believe it was), and I remember getting a few marginal turns and then having to wait a legitimate five weeks before finding anything worthwhile. Keep reading…
This trip had been in the back of my mind since the first time I saw Vestal and Arrow from the summit of Sunlight in 07′. These peaks are just spectacular from afar, and they reside in the heart of an equally spectacular wilderness area in the Weminuche. I always knew I would head in to climb them at some point, I just didn’t know when the opportunity would arise. Well with early September generally lending to good weather windows in Colorado, and the potential for four consecutive days off work, Labor Day weekend seemed like a good time to make this trip happen. Keep reading…
With spring winding down and summer on the doorstep, it seems that any time now rock climbing and hiking should start to take priority over skiing. But this season has featured some incredible snow totals and it’s hard to not continue taking advantage of it. Brian expressed interest in hitting something close to Denver with good bang for the buck, so naturally it didn’t take long for the classic snow routes on Grays and Torreys to enter the conversation. Keep reading…