Twelve years ago lordhelmut put up one of his old legendary TR’s about a trip into the Gores. Their crew did a series of ridge runs that day, culminating in a connection between Peak Z (13,327′) and the “barnacle attached to Z’s backside,” Peak Z Prime (12,975′).
Times were much simpler back then. And as such, the unbridled enthusiasm of virgin Gore summits combined with the pre-apocalyptic internet era inspired Brian to publicly christen Peak Z as “Deion Sanders Peak.” This was due to the fact that since Deion believed he “deserved a salary that equaled a QB’s, Z-Prime probably feels it deserves just as much respect and attention as its larger, ranked neighbor.” And so naturally, the connecting ridge between Z and Z Prime became “The Prime Time Traverse.” Keep Reading…
Ski season is over in Colorado, for most of us at least. It wound up being sort of an odd spring with great coverage and ski conditions throughout May followed by a dramatic warmup in June. We went from something like 120% snowpack in the northern regions to an impressively rapid melt off, and all of a sudden spring ski season was over as quickly as it began. May was the month this year, and though I stayed close to home I managed to get out for ten days in the month on skis, revisiting some old peaks and lines and exploring a few new ones. Keep reading…
It’s been an interesting start to the year so far, with several large storm cycles rolling through Colorado punctuated by long periods of dry, sometimes unseasonably warm weather in between. The overall snowpack has lagged behind the median several times only to play catchup with big dumps to get us back to average. And the variable weather has created a somewhat complex avalanche situation state-wide that’s likely only going to get more complicated before it improves. Keep reading…
A hut trip to Janet’s Cabin has been on my Colorado bucket list for years. As a lifetime skier of Copper Mountain, I’ve always known that there was a hidden cabin way up in the woods somewhere beyond the gate of West Ten Mile, the most westerly run on the mountain. I had skied past the gate dozens of times and pondered an outing beyond the rope lines. I had also seen plenty of fully loaded snowshoers and skiers riding the Kokomo and Lumberjack lifts en-route to a stay at the hut. Keep Reading…
