Just before New Years I joined up with Rick, Dave and Zach on an exploratory tour into the northern Eagles Nest Wilderness. After a long sled approach we skinned out along Elliot Ridge and skied off Meridian Peak before exploring the Cataract Creek basin a bit in search of some bonus turns. It was a fun day out, and really the first true backcountry day of the season for me. Keep reading…
Four years in a row now Anna-Lisa and I have kept up the tradition of visiting a hut on or around Christmas. It’s a seemingly fitting thing to do given the quaint, festive nature of spending a night or two in a small log cabin deep in the Colorado backcountry. This year we decided to head to the Betty Bear Hut west of Hagerman Pass, best accessed via Ruedi Reservoir to the east of Basalt. The Betty Bear Hut is tucked away on the north side of the Fryingpan River valley only about 5 miles west of Turquoise Lake, but the Continental Divide and Hagerman Pass separate the two preventing easy access to Betty Bear from Leadville. Read more…
After a successful ski of Rainier the day prior, Dylan, Nolan and I packed up and motored down to Trout Lake, a small town between Hood River to the south and the Mt. Adams Wilderness area to the north. With near-perfect weather continuing to hold throughout the weekend and two more climbing days before our flight home, we knew we had a great shot of skiing Mt. Adams and potentially even Mt. Hood. Read more…
In June of 2012 a few of us headed up to Washington and attempted a climb and ski of Mt. Rainer via the Fuhrer Finger. After spending the night camped halfway up the mountain we tried for the summit the next morning and soon found ourselves in a total whiteout. Not fancying the idea of being in glaciated terrain with zero visibility we turned around some 2,500 feet shy of the top and got out of there. Then with most of the Pacific Northwest socked in for the following 8+ days, we gave up on Rainier and headed south for greener pastures. Ever since I had always wanted to return and finish the job, and it finally came to fruition 2 weeks ago along with an awesome crew in Dylan Friday and Nolan Amos. Read more…