Category Archives: Hikes & Scrambles

Searching for Snow in the Mosquito

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Rick, Brian, and I set out in an attempt to ski the South Couloir on Clinton, also known as Monica’s Descent or “The Lewinski Slot”. After taking a look at the chute from above we realized what we were really searching for was decent snow, something that seems to be in short supply these days. An early start from Montgomery Reservoir had us to the base of Clinton’s East Face in less than two hours. From there it was a mellow snow climb to Clinton’s summit ridge, with some short sections of talus booting. Keep Reading…

Heading Towards Spring on Crystal

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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…

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…