Gerry Roach describes the South Ridge route on Meeker as “one of Colorado’s finest tours” that is seldom done due to its length. He goes on to say that after decades of mountaineering, this mountain remains one of his favorite places. With that paragraph and a willing climbing partner in Andrew, I already had both feet out the door. We set out from the Copeland Lake TH in Wild Basin at about 4 AM. Keep reading…
I’m sure Salida locals have climbed and skied this behemoth of a peak (thought I don’t personally know of any), but there’s not much, if any, documented ski descents of the east face of Mt. Ouray (edit – Ted Mahon’s short TR came up yesterday on centennial skiers.com…..). Also, given the fact that my ex-wife and I tried to climb and ski the peak several years ago, I think I’ve finally found an experience worth sharing – so here we go. Keep reading…
With several feet of new snow falling up north and the ensuing avalanche issues still fresh in our minds, our group decided to head down south to ski in Yankee Boy this past weekend. With good coverage and a low CAIC rating, the excellent weather forecast is what put us over the edge. The San Juans are indeed a commitment to drive to from Denver, but with a combination of factors as perfect as we had, pulling the trigger was an easy call. For years Brian and I have looked forward to skiing some of the lessar-known lines in the basin. Keep reading…
Brian, Rick, and I decided to load up the car with gear and drive down to the San Juans this past weekend. We were not entirely sure what we’d find in terms of snow stability and coverage, but we managed to talk ourselves into taking the plunge. Tracking the CAIC reports and weather the week prior to our departure helped somewhat, but it’s nearly impossible to drive 350 miles to go ski steep terrain in March and feel totally confident about your decision. That said, we did have some reliable local beta that seemed to be giving us a green light. Keep reading…