The San Juan Solstice 50 miler down in Lake City has had a rough couple of years. In 2019, the historic snow and avalanches in the San Juans rendered the course un-runnable (not to mention the threats of flooding in town), which cancelled that year’s race. The 2020 version was scrapped again, unfortunately, as this time we had COVID to thank. Keep Reading….
Last week Brando, Brian and I set off from the Gore Creek Campground and once again made the long approach up into Deluge Creek. This time, the objective was to climb “Snow Peak” (13,024 ft) and hopefully ski off its south side down to Gore Lake. I had gotten a look at Snow’s south face from the summit of “West Deming” the week prior, and after flipping through some old pics of the face taken in past ski seasons to compare snow totals, we decided it’d be worth going to check out. Read more…
It’s been a good snow year in Colorado so far. On the heels of the most recent January storm cycle, a wave of high pressure moved over the state for a few days and Brian and I decided to take advantage. After mulling over a few options we landed on Crystal Peak’s east face, a classic route on a friendly peak that Brian and I first skied back in 2012 and eventually went on to include as one of the 50 routes in our guidebook. Read more…
One of my only firm goals for this year was to finally wrap up the Colorado Bicentennial list, that is, the 200 highest peaks in our state. It’s a project I had technically been working on since 2003, dating all the way back to my first summit of Mt. Elbert when I was 18 years old. Well, last month Anna-Lisa and my long-time friend Stu Clark joined me on a gorgeous fall hike up Organ Mountain in the San Juans. And with that summit, I’m finally finished. Keep reading…