Carl was up for another ski on Memorial Day as we begin the final push towards getting descents in before the end of the spring season. Wes from (skier25 from 14ers.com) would end up joining us, we met at the Lookout Mountain exit off I-70 and motored to Leadville. Already the weather was promising clouds, which we could live with as long as the visibility was better than what we‘d experienced two days earlier on Evans. Keep reading…
We were all up for some more descents this past weekend despite the deteriorating weather forecast. For awhile Carl, Caroline, and I had talked about a two night camping trip to Elkhead Basin to ski Belford, Oxford, and Missouri. As fortune had it, we all left with less than we wanted to leave with, but some good ski mountaineering was had nonetheless. Caroline, Carl, and I met up in Golden after work on Friday and headed for Leadville. The plan was to meet Sam at Vicksburg and backpack into lower Elkhead Basin as a group of four. The plan went off without a hitch, we were pitching a camp near the old broken cabin just below treeline after a few hours of tough skinning. We flattened out some tent platforms with skis and shovels and found ourselves warm inside sleeping bags by 11:30pm. Keep reading…
I met up with Carl at the Park and Ride off 285 and 470 at 4:00am on Saturday morning. We drove to the Denny Creek TH where Lance and Caroline had car camped for the night, we all shook hands and were on the trail by 6:30. Continuous snow started about 200 yards from the parking lot, the trail was well packed by previous feet so we chose to boot it for awhile. It was refreshing to get out with new partners, this would be my first day out with any of them. Keep reading…
Okay after Monday Stu is down to 11 peaks remaining with 9 weeks of time before his permanent relocation. Since 6 of the 11 are located in the Sawatch, we decided to tick off another “easy” climb while these snow conditions persist: Mt. Yale. We decided to attack from the Avalanche Gulch side as the avy danger seemed to favor a wind-blown ridge, although turns out SarahT, Ken Nolan, and friends summited via the standard route the day before. I‘ve been on the lookout for my first 14er summit ski descent since December, and it turned out my disappointment would continue as we wound up making the last minute decision not to carry skis. Attempting the north-facing aspect of Silver Creek Bowl just didn’t seem prudent given the time of year and avy situation. I‘ll get one eventually though! Keep reading…