With our late-summer dry spell continuing into October and showing no signs of cooling off, it was time to head south and finally pay the Sangre de Cristos a visit in 2020. Down to just seven 13ers left in the range, I decided on Mt. Herard and “Medano Peak” from the Wet Mountain Valley side via Medano Pass. Medano and Herard reside about four miles to the northeast and a vertical mile above the Great Sand Dunes. Read more…
A few summers back Steve and I packed into Slate Lake intent on climbing Peaks Q and L, but a freak mid-September storm dropped several inches of snow on both peaks the night we arrived. Through sheer stubbornness we managed to eke out a summit of “Peak L” despite the snow, but packed out a day early leaving what would’ve been my Gore 13er finisher for another day. Read more…
Keeping the tradition of an annual summer trip down in the San Juan’s going, sights were set on another Beartown slog fest. This was initially supposed to be in Glacier NP, but with COVID putting a nice damper on everything, not to mention the local Blackfoot indian tribe completely closed off access to the entire Eastern side of the park, the decision for a plan B was pretty obvious and easy. Keep reading…
Treasure and Treasury Mountains are the high points of a long, curving ridge line extending from Whitehouse Mountain just south of Marble down to Yule Pass northwest of Crested Butte. The two peaks reside in the Raggeds Wilderness, and are separated enough from the rest of the high peaks of the Elks to feel as though they belong to their own little mini-range. And in many ways, they do. The peaks are named after an old fable of gold buried by a French mining expedition in the late-1700’s, and William Yule’s failed attempt to find the lost treasure many decades later. Keep Reading…