Author: Mike

Western Slope Mountain Biking

~ Mike ~ Leave a comment

It’s the winter that won’t stop. It’s been rainy and cool in Denver and dumping snow in the mountains for weeks, I hadn’t seen the sun in a while, and avalanche danger has refused to ease. What better way to spend the weekend than head west to visit friends and ride bikes in the sun?

It rained all Friday night (and was still raining Saturday morning) in the Roaring Fork Valley, so we decided to head West to the desert for some riding, and ended up at Mack Ridge. It was a very late start, not rolling until after 2pm.

It was perfect – sunny but fairly cool, fun singletrack, good riding company, and best of all – no avalanche danger.

Continue reading →

Pyramid Peak Attempt

~ Mike ~ 1 Comment

It’s not often that I’ll put up a post about an unsuccessful summit bid, but last Saturday was such an enjoyable and educational day in the mountains that I have to. It was an ambitious plan – drive from Denver, hike all the way in up East Maroon Creek to the base of Pyramid, climb it, and ski back, all in one continuous push. We were moving at 1:45am, covered the first few miles very quickly, and started running in to difficulties involving creek crossings and bushwhacking by 3.

Continue reading →

Mt. Sherman Ski Descent

~ Mike ~ 1 Comment

I’d been hoping to tick this one off quite a bit earlier in the season, but the weather just hasn’t been cooperating (and by that, I mean it’s been snowing non-stop all spring). Along for the ride were Lauren (skiing her first 14er) and Scout (there for her third summit of Mt. Sherman). After an absurdly early wake-up call (11:30pm, pushed back from 10:30), we made the drive and were on-trail at 3:30am.

Continue reading →

The Return of Mountain Bike Wednesday

~ Mike ~ Leave a comment

Even though ski season is still going strong, I’ve been itching to get out on the mountain bike. The sort-of-weekly MTBW got going for the year today, and I’m really anticipating summer now.

After much complaining about derailleurs last summer, Zach finally set up his bike with an IGH. A little bit of added weight but super-slick and incredibly quiet. I must admit, I’m tempted to do the same.


I forgot how difficult climbing with a 35lb mountain bike is, but I wasn’t hurting too bad thanks to some solid training over the winter.

MTBW is a highlight of my week in summer, and I’m glad it’s back. Of course, I’ll be back on snow in a couple days.

Almost (but not!) blown off Mt. Lincoln

~ Mike ~ Leave a comment

Earlier this week, Hans and I decided to shoot for Lincoln, despite the forecast for high winds (which has been the norm lately) and last year’s wind-related failure (despite the forecast for light winds that day). Carl joined the group a couple days ago, and YC came on as a last-minute addition. We met up at 4:30 to carpool, and were at Moose Creek by 6:30am. 15 minutes later and we were ready to go.

Continue reading →

Mount Massive Ski Descent

~ Mike ~ 1 Comment

We didn’t get an early start by any means yesterday. Jim and I decided on a 9am start from the Leadville Fish Hatchery, which meant I got to sleep in until 5am for a winter 14er climb and ski descent – unheard of! Granted it was two days after the DST changeover, but that’s still pretty late. On the drive out from Leadville I was able to scope out my line, and was pretty happy with what I saw. We made our final preparations in the parking lot, with Jim electing to go with nordic wax rather than skins for the approach. This didn’t work too well on the icy, spring-like morning snow. A few rewaxing sessions later, Jim threw on the skins and we were off.

Continue reading →

A Weekend of Skiing in the Roaring Fork Valley

~ Mike ~ Leave a comment

Last Friday, I headed up to Glenwood Springs to see friends Andrew and Katy and spend a couple days skiing in the Roaring Fork Valley, something I haven’t done since I was a kid. Lauren was along too, but was attending the Rippin Chix camp at Aspen Highlands. Look for some photos of that from her in the coming days. We got in to Glenwood mid-afternoon, went for a walk, had dinner, and watched Andrew’s hockey game before calling it an early night.

The next morning we drove to Highlands and took a warm-up lap before hiking the bowl.

Continue reading →

Silverton Avalanche School Level 2 – Part 1

~ Mike ~ 1 Comment

This past weekend, I joined Friends of Berthoud Pass on a trip to Silverton for SAS‘ Level 2 avalanche course. I wasn’t planning on joining them for this trip, but someone else had to drop out and I filled their spot on short-ish notice. Chris, Gary, and I left Denver late morning on Wednesday, planning to get over Red Mountain Pass with a little daylight left, and get settled in Silverton in time to get a decent night’s sleep. We made it, and beat all but one of the eight others joining us.

Continue reading →