Every mountain biker who calls Colorado home has more than likely heard of the idea of riding down a 14er. Upfront disclaimer, it’s sort of a dumb concept in general. Most 14er trails are either off-limits to bikes, too steep and technical to make it feasible, or simply don’t have a trail to the summit at all. A small handful of them however are technically rideable, the most common of which seems to be the east ridge on Mt. Elbert. Keep reading…
In the spring of 2021, Dylan and I completed the Grand Traverse Ski from Crested Butte to Aspen. It’s known one of those uber-classic Colorado events and being into it’s 25th year, is the longest running ski mountaineering race in North America. Around a decade ago race organizers decided to add Grand Traverse summer events, namely an ultramarathon from Crested Butte to Aspen which follows a very similar route as the ski race, along with a mountain bike race from Aspen back to CB the following day. Ever since finishing the ski I had wanted to go back for the run and bike races, and finally did so at the beginning of the month. Keep reading…
For several summers now I’ve headed over to the Elks and pieced together a big wilderness loop of some kind. I’ve always felt if you’re gonna spend all day on your feet whether it’s for training purposes or not, you might as well look for something unique in a cool area to make things more interesting. With its vast network of trails, there are lots of options for these kinds of big days in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness. So I decided to check out another loop in the Capitol Peak area of the northern-Elks which had long been on my wish list.
This one is a tad on the obscure side in that I haven’t noticed too many people mention it or run it over the years. One or two trip reports from over a decade ago can be found online, but generally speaking, this linkup doesn’t seem to get as much traffic as some of its more popular siblings (Four Pass, Three Pass, etc). The route goes like this… start at the Capitol Creek TH and follow the ditch trail up to Capitol Lake. Continue up and over the pass north of Capitol Peak… Read more…
A few weeks back I took Jax down to the Winfield area and ticked off the “new” LiDAR 13er that sits to the south of Huron Peak. It was a nice day out, and one of the only peaks I’ve hiked up to this point in the summer. A few years back a group of us scrambled across the Apostles Traverse, hitting West Apostle along the way which happened to be my final 13er in the Sawatch Range (at the time). Fast forward a few years and LiDAR elevation adjustments have added/removed a few dozen peaks to the list, including several additions in the Sawatch and even one in the Gore. Keep reading…