Category Archives: Fourteeners

Insights into the Pacific Northwest: Good Snow and Bad Weather

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Six of us pulled into the Paradise parking lot on June 2nd, eager to gear up and approach Mount Rainier for a ski attempt on the 3rd. The previous night we had sat on the porch of the Whittaker Bunk House contemplating our future as rain pelted the roof over our heads for hours on end. Skeptical moods were only reinforced when we arrived at a socked in Rainier Rainier Ranger Station and received reports of heavy weather/precipitation over the previous week. Read more…

Torreys Peak: An Adventure on the East Face

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As the search for good skiing becomes more and more desperate, short, bang for your buck lines close to home tend to become more and more appealing. After seeing late week photos of Torreys from Stevens Gulch, it was evident the recent storms had improved coverage/conditions tremendously. With this in mind, Torreys was an easy decision. Read more…

Little Bear via the Southwest Ridge

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Normally by January Colorado’s snowpack has reached respectable totals, enough to make inbounds skiing a priority. This year has been different. Inbounds skiing has been a bust, and even backcountry prospects are few and far between and marginal in quality. Rather than sit around and whine about it, a few friends and I decided to go ahead and take what Colorado seems to be granting this year; a solid window for winter hiking. Continue reading…

A Nice Fall Day in the Tenmile

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Is it ski season yet? Although for some the answer to this question may be “yes”, what realistically awaits the Colorado skier at this stage of the game is either rocks and core shots in the BC, or low-angle, man-made ice ribbons at the resort. As much as I wanted to try to ski somewhere on Saturday I just couldn’t quite bring myself to do it. Last year I was the first one on the lift at A Basin (on October 10th I believe it was), and I remember getting a few marginal turns and then having to wait a legitimate five weeks before finding anything worthwhile. Keep reading…