February 21st, 2016. Just one of many bluebird days during the winter of 2015-16, and fitting to tag a peak named Audubon on such a day. The quick reference I had for this name is the speedway in Germany, but I think a likelier origin is John James Audubon, a Haitian-born nature lover and bird watcher – I mean, ornithologist – for whom the Audubon Society is named. Keep reading…
This past Saturday Anna-Lisa, Jax, and I made the morning drive down 25 and across to the Lily Lakes TH. Our objective – 13,081 ft “Huerfanito”, a small and often overlooked peak that resides smack in the middle of the dramatic high summits of the Sierra Blanca. “Huerfanito” was the only peak above 13k in the area that I had yet to summit, which was fitting as the word huerfanito translates to “little orphan” in English. Read more…
With one of the nicest high pressure systems of the summer hanging over Colorado, Brian and I decided to take a day off work and head south for a leisure hike up a duo of peaks that had eluded us earlier in the year. Spread Eagle Peak (13,423 ft) sits in the middle of the range just north of Hermit Pass and bicentennial Rito Alto Peak. It’s immediate neighbor to the southwest, UN 13,524 (aka Peak of the Clouds), combines nicely with a climb of Spread Eagle via a short, mellow ridge. Read more…
Good friends are indispensable in this life: both necessity and luxury. I knew Ryan was extremely busy this year with both wedding plans and a trip to Peru, so I’d assumed a prior talk about him repeating Lizard Head to lead me up was not in the cards. But when I omitted Lizard Head in my list of summer plans at the engagement party for him and Steph, he prodded: “Not interested in the gecko, anymore?” or something along those lines. Read more…