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…
It’s just a fact of nature that no matter how much snow we get over the winter, summer will eventually run its course and the snow will disappear. I personally love and welcome this transition, as by this time of year I typically lose the motivation to shoulder a 35 lb pack of ski gear and hike for miles on dry ground to ski a thousand feet of marginal summer snow. 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…
Andy (adimmen on TGR), his buddy Mike, and I decided to go for some short, bang-for-your-buck lines in the Tenmile this past Sunday. Originally we were looking at something a bit more committing in either the Gores or the Elks, but proximity and the prospect of getting a good night sleep in our own beds ultimately won out. Wheeler’s North Face seemed like it could provide just the right mix of challenging climbing and skiing. Read more…