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…
Fall is in the air. Soon the days will be cold and dark, trails will be snowed in and we’ll be well on our way to ski season. But not quite yet. At least not before it was time to head up for the 7th running of the Devil on the Divide trail race in Empire, Colorado this past Saturday.
This was my last carryover race from last year’s cancellations, and having never run it I was pretty excited to finally check it out. Zambo ended up joining for the 22K and Anna-Lisa came up and hung out with our friend Sarah Banks who was shooting race photos near Herman Lake. Overall there’s a lot to like about the Devil on the Divide. Despite the elevation gain and sustained time up high the course felt more enjoyable than difficult. Lots of time in the alpine means it’s easily up there with the most scenic races I’ve done in the state. Keep reading…
With just three weeks to go before the Devil on the Divide it was time to get a few mountainous long runs on the schedule. Sticking to the theme of exploring new trails and frankly, as a means of staying motivated to run this late in the year, I decided to head over to Marble and check out the Avalanche Pass area. Keep reading…
“I’ve definitely done sketchier things in my mountaineering career. But not many.” That was the feeling I had looking back at up at my summit one gorgeous summer evening in Iceland. I had just returned from a successful climb of Kirkjufell – one of the most iconic peaks in the country and the source of much anxiety over the past couple of hours. My journey had taken me out the front door of our Airbnb all the way to the top of the towering mountain across the bay. Keep Reading…
