With my snowshoes on Craigslist and Ben and Brian’s skies packed away for the season, it was finally time to dust off the trail shoes, strap on our 8 lb. packs, and kick off the unofficial start to the summer of 2014. The Sangres were an easy choice with the amount of snow still lingering around the rest of Colorado, and Adams and it’s surrounding 13ers were more than a worthy objective. Keep reading…
I’ve devoted my 2014 to tackling some of the trips that have been put off for far too long. This started last month with the hut trip off of Cameron Pass and, this past weekend was Alice’s elusive Rabbit Hole. I have been looking forward to climbing it for the past few years; however, many things have gotten in the way, not the least of which is the last 2 years of depressingly low snow levels. I was initially worried that the group size may be too large, but, as the week progressed, climbing partners bowed out for one reason or another. Not to worry though, Mike was still in and I always enjoy a day in the hills with the Human Topo. Keep reading…
In the state of Colorado, the word “Spring” can have many meanings. For my neighbors on Eliot Street, it means they can finally come out of their homes, sit on their porches, and wonder where I could possibly be off to next. For the friends I travel these hills with, it’s the season they’ve been waiting for all year, a time to strap on the planks and ski until the snow turns to grundle in mid to late June. For others, it’s straight up couloir season. And believe it or not there are actually people who just like to snowshoe. I’m not sure I fit into any of these categories, but I always do love this time of year. Keep reading…
On Memorial Day I was able to escape the city and check out another Front Range ski route that had long been on my wish list – the Northeast Face of Bald Mountain A (13,684 feet) outside of Breckenridge. Partners for this superb day of spring hiking and skiing wound up being David Yarian and our resident member of the “I Snowshoe with Skiers” club, Dillon Sarnelli. We met at the Trex lot and motored up to French Gulch, following the TH directions Brian laid out in our guidebook (he skied this route in 2011 and included it as the first chapter of the Front Range section). Once at the parking lot we geared up and began the long ascent up the French Creek drainage. Keep reading…