I know I say I’m proud of my little girl often, but I’m going to keep saying it. Every year, we look forward to our annual mountain excursion that we’ve shared since she was 2 (with the exception of when she was 3 because that was the summer her little sister was born). Our adventures are normally 2 nights out but she’s been begging for a longer trip ever since my last week-long outing 3 years ago. I told her this was the year and after our hike up West Maroon during our family’s car-camping trip to Gothic last summer to see the wild flowers, I knew what our destination would be. Read more…
Ben and I concocted this eccentric loop because I’d already bagged Spread Eagle and its two northwestern neighbors, unofficially named Silver and Cloud peaks. But we both needed Rito Alto and Hermit, and the couple reports of the unnamed peaks along the ridge west of “Mas Alto” lake, along with zero beta on the ridge connecting it to Hermit, enticed us to decide on an itinerary of Hermit Peak, Eureka, then 028, 060 and 062, followed with a climb to the crown jewel (for height anyhow), Rito Alto. Keep reading…
It had been far too long since David and I had gotten out together for a backpacking camp trip…two years ago we were backpacking in Patagonia and Spain, and I’m not sure I had been out “true-camping” since then! It was well past overdue and David organized a small weekend trip for us outside of Vail up to Deluge Lake in the Eagle’s Nest Wilderness. We left Saturday morning around 8:00 – made a few quick stops for camp food, getting a headlamp back from a friend, batteries for said headlamp, string for dem bears, and Subway sandwiches before making it to the trail head by 11:30. Keep reading…
We bring it on ourselves. Primarily resulting from the activities we partake in and the way we go about pursuing those activities. The idea was simple. Climb capitol in a day from the car going as light and fast as possible. Now I’m not talking Andrew Hamilton fast, but deliberate fast. At the last “first Friday” block party in Golden I mentioned this idea to Carl and he agreed it sounded like a fun day. The last time he climbed capitol without skis was like 8 years ago and he wanted to revisit the peak, he was in. We chose a couple weekends with some weather flexibility and a plan was set. Keep reading…
