This past Friday Steve, Jason, and I managed to finagle a day off from work to take advantage of a picture perfect state-wide weather forecast. The three of us set off from the Antero trailhead with the intention of exploring the Baldwin Creek drainage to the west of Cronin Peak. If all went well we hoped to summit Mt. Mamma from there, and maybe its immediate neighbor, Boulder Mountain as well. Keep reading…
I talked to Steve last week and he indicated he was ready for another alpine adventure of some kind. With Christmas and New Years around the corner I figured it’d most likely have to wait until January, but as it turned out we were both able to get Monday off from work, which happened to be the winter solstice. Although I haven’t summited many peaks on the solstice, there’s something unique about being out there on the shortest day of the year. Read more…
The forecast called for a perfect autumn day: cloudless and a high of 42 above tree-line, with little to no wind. So Brian and I swung by Highlands Ranch to pick up Ben on our way to the Sangres and to the Horn Creek trailhead for a day hike of Colony Baldy and post-hike bar-b-q. Besides us three, we had Ben’s dog, Jax, a canine alpinist, and my brat, Opus, a cute mutt whose terrier heritage manifested itself in growls in the car and at the trailhead. Read more…
I had another day of PTO to burn and figured I’d keep up the yearly tradition of heading to the Sawatch for a big slog to sort of say goodbye to summer. I didn’t really have anything specific in mind, just something reasonably accessible that would get me and the dog some exercise up on a long ridge line. After a few minutes of research I found something that fit the bill perfectly – a few TRs exist out there detailing what is loosely called the “Emma Burr Grand Slam”. Read more…