I think Ben and I changed plans 4 times for this trip, because of the vagaries of mountain weather forecasting, and barely finalized our itinerary before it was time to start it. This was the right weekend to visit Crested Butte – after wildflower season, after Labor Day, and before Leaf Peepery. Riding with me from Denver to meet Ben in Crested Butte was my adopted son, Carmine, who had turned 16 in the last couple of weeks.
The approach began very easily, as we proceeded up the excellent Copper Creek trail. After an hour, however, we had to find the place to leave it and nothing looked great – we just found a way up the steep forested slopes that overhung there road to get up to Queen’s Basin. After the trees thinned, we followed a dry watercourse to the alpine grassland of upper Queen’s Basin. Here it is from Ben’s view looking back and then mine a bit further up, scanning the way to White Rock Mountain. Keep reading…
Between spring skiing, the summer race season and spending a lot more time on the mountain bike this year, I had somehow not hit a single new thirteener dating all the way back to October of last year. So now being into late-August it was time to finally get down to the San Juans and hike a few peaks. As Steve needed to be in Durango the following evening, I drove down and met him for dinner in Ridgway before we motored over to the Thistledown Campground above Ouray. Keep reading…
4th of July fell on a Monday this year, and I found myself in the Sangres for the holiday weekend. The forecast was not especially enticing for Sunday, so John and I made a single peak objective for the day: unnamed 13,546, adjacent to centennial Adams and next to scenic Willow Lake. The night had been rainy and the dawn revealed an overcast gray sky. While not cheerful, it made the long approach from the trailhead much more cooler and enjoyable than my prior two visits. Keep reading…
It’s no secret that this year’s spring season has been a temperamental one in terms of weather, snowpack, and ski conditions for just about every skier in the state who doesn’t enjoy absolute freedom of schedule. The high country has been continuously raked by winds and dust storms throughout most of April and into May. Our snowpack ended up being nothing to write home about (slightly below average and with some aspects and ski lines never really coming into condition). Keep reading…
