Summer is more or less over in Colorado, with snow starting to accumulate in the high country as winter’s grip slowly tightens. But as per usual the late-summer/fall window made for a nice venue to bag some peaks and ultimately hit my 500th thirteener summit this past Sunday, a nice milestone to reach just ahead of ski season. As I fell behind on keeping up with blog posts throughout the fall I figured I’d summarize things in one go. So without further ado, here are the highlights… Read more…
With just three weeks to go before the Devil on the Divide it was time to get a few mountainous long runs on the schedule. Sticking to the theme of exploring new trails and frankly, as a means of staying motivated to run this late in the year, I decided to head over to Marble and check out the Avalanche Pass area. Keep reading…
Last Friday a group of us climbed Castle Peak (14,265 ft) and skied its east face route, a classic Elk Range line and one that I’d been looking at for several years. The day went off without a hitch as a recent storm had deposited a good amount of snow high on the face, which settled nicely and made for a great corn run down into Castle Creek. This snow year has been a bit of an odd duck with tons of snow falling east of the divide but much of the rest of the state remaining below average. Read more…
Last Sunday morning Dylan Friday and I ripped off our skins and skied down to the base of Ajax Mountain, completing the Grand Traverse ski race from Crested Butte to Aspen two and a half years in the making. After being cancelled due to COVID only a couple weeks before race day last year, it was time for redemption for many racers this year and those who stuck with it were rewarded with one of the finest nights the event has seen in its 23-year history.
Dylan and I first signed up for this one in late-2019 and put together a pretty solid training regimen throughout the winter leading into March of 2020. After the race was cancelled we took the option of rolling over to 2021. Fast forward a year and we approached the race with cautious optimism the second time around. Though numerous races have gotten back onto their feet over the last 6 months, the Grand Traverse entails several aspects beyond COVID that need to fall into line to successfully pull off a race to Aspen. Keep reading…
