With an unusually long period of relative stability persisting in the backcountry around Vail, Dave Bourassa and I decided to head out for a late-January tour in the upper-Piney Creek area. With no particular plan in mind we skinned up to the base of the Piney Bristle summit block, skied down into upper-Piney, climbed and skied a neat line off “Peak D” and then ascended back up to Dave’s sled at sunset. Read more…
Summer is more or less over in Colorado, with snow starting to accumulate in the high country as winter’s grip slowly tightens. But as per usual the late-summer/fall window made for a nice venue to bag some peaks and ultimately hit my 500th thirteener summit this past Sunday, a nice milestone to reach just ahead of ski season. As I fell behind on keeping up with blog posts throughout the fall I figured I’d summarize things in one go. So without further ado, here are the highlights… Read more…
The “Three Apostles” are a trio of rugged peaks in the central-Sawatch Range about 8 miles to the northeast of Taylor Park Reservoir. The most prominent peak in the trio, Ice Mountain, is one of Colorado’s Centennial 13ers and is perhaps best known for its classic snow/ski route, the Refrigerator Couloir. It is flanked on either side by North Apostle, also a Centennial, and “West Apostle” peaks. The three of them together make for a fun scramble traverse that was only first completed in 1954 according to Roof of the Rockies. Keep reading…
I have tried, and failed, to run the San Juan Solstice ever since I got into trail running. Ben always talked about what a great race it is, and I certainly knew it went through some of the state’s best areas, so I was keen to try it for myself. But year after year, it just kept not happening. Suffice it to say, this was a long-awaited race that I was very excited to finally run. Last year we actually still made it down to Lake City on the days of the cancelled race. We had our reservation in an Airbnb saved, so we figured why not make the best of it? Keep Reading…