This past Saturday Anna-Lisa, Jax, and I made the morning drive down 25 and across to the Lily Lakes TH. Our objective – 13,081 ft “Huerfanito”, a small and often overlooked peak that resides smack in the middle of the dramatic high summits of the Sierra Blanca. “Huerfanito” was the only peak above 13k in the area that I had yet to summit, which was fitting as the word huerfanito translates to “little orphan” in English. Read more…
With one of the nicest high pressure systems of the summer hanging over Colorado, Brian and I decided to take a day off work and head south for a leisure hike up a duo of peaks that had eluded us earlier in the year. Spread Eagle Peak (13,423 ft) sits in the middle of the range just north of Hermit Pass and bicentennial Rito Alto Peak. It’s immediate neighbor to the southwest, UN 13,524 (aka Peak of the Clouds), combines nicely with a climb of Spread Eagle via a short, mellow ridge. Read more…
Finally, summer is here. To cap off what I can best describe as a hard-earned, tumultuous, even frustrating at times, spring ski season, 23 of us (yes, twenty-three) skied the Tuning Fork on Torreys Peak and grilled out in the green meadows down below. Skiing Torreys has turned into a yearly tradition of sorts; a sendoff to ski season (for most of us at least) and a welcoming of summer and new activities to come. Read more…
I call this a bucket list item for a number of reasons. First, the Sangres see a snowpack like this once maybe every 5 years or so. Second, of all the grand peaks in the Sangres, from the town of Westcliffe, Horn Peak kind of steals the show, and the East Face is its showcase. There’s nothing really special about the route itself – it’s basically a long version of Crystal’s East Face or a less interesting version of Red’s Southeast face. Keep reading…