Spent the day riding around town, and stopped off at the art museum for free first Saturdays. Here are a few shots I thought came out decently.
This guy was speaking about OTR Trucking. Captivating.
Photos
New Camera
I purchased a used Canon 30D a couple of weeks ago, and wasted plenty of time deciding what to do about lenses. I finally settled on ordering a 50mm f/1.8 first, due to the low price and great image quality. Without further ado, here are a few boring test shots. It’s time to get familiar with
this thing before I get out taking some real photographs.
Item #1 on the list: figure out white balance.
A quick morning at St. Mary’s
Decided to head up with Nate for a quick hike up to James Peak. Due to winter-like conditions (full-on blizzard with several inches of snow with more falling) we didn’t make it, and turned back just above the “glacier.” It was still a fun morning, and Scout even started having fun once we headed down.
Nate struggling with his splitboard during a quick bootpack.
About to head down.
Skiing! Scout couldn’t keep up on leash so I let her go free and she just stayed in my tracks the whole way down. Could it be she’s turning into a good dog? Nah…
It’s hard to believe it’s May 10th.
Cristo Couloir, Quandary Peak – 4/27/08
It’s been a while since I’ve really gotten out there. Pretty high avy danger this year, going out of town, and miscellaneous projects all put a damper on it. This is nothing like some of the other peaks in CO getting hit (Capital, Pyramid), but I would die if I tried those. Wanted something with some challenge but semi-close and not something that would require a 12+ hour day, so I woke up at 3am and got ready to go.
When I don’t do this for a while, I start to forget why I do it. I was asking myself that last night when I went to bed, when I got up at three in the morning, and on the entire drive there. It took me a while to figure it out, even with views like this all around.
When the road is melted out, you can go straight from where you park to the 2,500′ couloir and start climbing. When it’s snowed in, you get to go an extra two miles on foot. That’s when I saw the first good view of what I’d be doing today.
It’s the farthest left strip of snow going top to bottom. The summit is in back.
45 minutes after I started or so, I was at the end of the road. Just in time for sunrise.
It was pretty cold this morning. 6 degrees and strong winds. Fortunately, the wind would die down through the morning.
I jumped behind some trees for a windbreak, and switched over from skis to crampons. There was a pretty decent view of the route from here.
A couple minutes in and you could see it all.
There’s a party of five non-ski mountaineers visible in that picture. Right behind me were two more skiers. After a while, we all ended up bunched together. For anyone interested, there’s a hell of a bootpack in place now.
When I go up in to the mountains, I tend to get a song stuck in my head for most of the hike. Usually, it’s some crap I heard on the radio on the way in. Today, it was Jingle Bells, probably because of the amazing amount of snow still around. I was climbing the couloir, Jingle Bells just constantly going off in my head. Almost ridiculous.
A couple hours of that and you get to the top. I made it there just before 10:30.
I hung out for a while to let the sun soften the snow. As cold as it was last night, and with the wind still going lightly, it took a while. I finally had to just up and go, because I was getting pretty cold. It was a tough ski out, with extremely variable snow, and me with skis that aren’t very good for it. Going down the road was worse, frozen solid and with big soft skis that were collecting ungodly amounts of sticky, wet snow. Finally made it back right at noon, for a 6-hour car-to-car time. Not too bad.
Capitol Peak – 7/30/07
July 30, 2007
Capitol Peak
14,something’
Did not make the summit here.
I got to the trailhead about 7:30pm the night before. I hiked in the 7-odd miles to the lake at the base of the mountain, threw down a sleeping pad and bag, and got to sleep sometime after 11pm. It was cold. I woke up at 4am and was moving in about 10 minutes.
View from pretty high up:
The summit ridge. I turned back from where I took this picture because it was getting late:
Taken on the way back down:
I was exhausted and slept a long, long time when I got home.
Missouri Mountain – 7/4/07
July 4, 2007
Missouri Mountain
14,067′
This is where it gets really stupid.
Andrew and I left Denver, at probably 2 in the morning, it might’ve been a little earlier. I’d been here before in early spring, but was turned back by a combination of exhaustion and an incoming blizzard.
The objective:
Skis? Are these guys out of their friggin’ minds? (The answer is yes.)
Incredible views when you get to the top of the ridge.
Andrew on the summit, wondering just how stupid what we’re about to do is:
Me, already knowing:
Remember, this is the 4th of July:
The snow was good for a couple hundred feet, but then it was completely unconsolidated. We were sinking knee-deep with our feet on in heavy, heavy slush. That lead to this:
Yes, it’s as steep as it looks.
On the way home a tire blew out. I was pissed.
Mt. Democrat – 6/16/07
June 16, 2007
Mt. Democrat
14,286′
The lifts had stopped turning a few weeks before, but my friend Andrew and I weren’t done skiing. Word was that snow here was pretty solid, so we set off early in the morning to hit a 14er and do some skiing. I’d been here before, but Andrew hadn’t. This was his second 14er.
They don’t call it Kite Lake for nothing:
Andrew slogging up the rock pile:
The flat valley in the distance is where South Park, CO is. It’s gorgeous down there, but the wind really rips in the winter.
Me:
Eating a bag of fish on the summit:
Getting started:
Enjoying the corn:
Andrew ripping down a nice steep section:
Fun was had by all. The snow eventually ran out and we had a mile or so hike out over sharp rocks.
James Peak – 5/20/07
Originally written 5/20/07
This week I had been planning to go do something reasonably epic with a guy from work, but he backed out so I stuck to something closer to home and shorter, James Peak via St. Mary’s Glacier. This would afford me the time to take a nap and look at houses before seeing the girlfriend. I woke my ass up at four in the morning, was on the road at quarter after five, and on the trail at quarter after six.
As usual, I famously lost the trail (never been there before) and ended up climbing a reasonably steep snowfield instead of the glacier. Got a nice view of Evans at 7am. Still looked to have a reasonable amount of snow.
As I got up over the hill I was climbing, I found a park some sledneckers had setup. Not at all what I was expecting.
Picture of where I wasn’t going, but looked to have some pretty sweet lines available:
Bancroft on the left, James on the right:
Above 12,000′ or so I started seeing these tiny little flowers. The flowers themselves were less than 1/4″ across.
After much elevation gain/loss and postholing through unconsolidated snow fields walking in my T2Xs (because I didn’t know where I was going and never bothered to see if my old skins would fit my new skis – they didn’t), I made it to the summit. An old married couple got there just as I did, and they said they’d tele’d James Peak every year for 25 years (except in 2002, they said there hadn’t been enough snow). The woman used T3s, and I think the guy had leather boots. I was amazed at how totally they killed it on the way down. I wish I’d thought to get pictures of them. Anyway, summit shots.
As I was getting ready to go, a guy who said he’d smoked a bowl before starting up showed up. We chatted for a few minutes. He was definately stoned. There was also a pit dug on the summit where it looked like someone had bivy’d for a night recently. Shot of my tracks + those of the old tele-rippers:
Mine are the big wide ones. The two people there are the married couple. Tons of fun on some great corn. I straightlined the bottom hundred feet or so to make it out across the flats, and got pretty damn far. On the way out, I found that the CMC was having some avalanche/glacier class. There had to be at least 50 people there. Here’s a small handful of them:
All in all, a great day. 4 hours 45 minutes car to car, a bit of sunburn, and some great corn. I might have one more day on skis next weekend, but after that it’s probably going to be time for dry adventures with boring descents. Oh well, such is life.
Dead Dog Couloir – Torreys Peak – 4/21/07
Originally written 4/21/07
Got back at it again this weekend to go after a line I’ve wanted to do all winter. I packed all my gear up Thursday night, and dropped off the dog with the parents. Friday after work I headed straight up, parked, and started the slog to the summer trailhead around 5:15pm.
All that stuff must’ve weighed 40lb. Finally made it there about 7, and it was still light. I was glad to not have to set up my tent by headlamp. Threw everything together in a few minutes, and had a home for the night:
Now, my sleeping bag is rated for 15F, and it didn’t get out of the 20s last night on top of Copper, yet I was pretty f’n cold. I also was treated to a wonderful smell reminiscent of Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef when I opened it up in the morning.
Hit the trail about 6:30am, with solid skintrack to follow:
Came around Kelso and saw the first view of Torreys.
Not much later, trying to be artsy while taking a break:
A few hours later, a storm was blowing in and I was less than 100′ off the summit. I was beat though, so I sat down and enjoyed a bag of fish (Sweet + Spicy Tuna) and a clifshot. Finally made it up, to some pretty solid winds coming in.
Proof I was there:
Then I was on my way. The ever-popular Dav Shot:
On the way down I beatered it pretty bad, somehow ended up with my hand punched about a foot and a half in to the snow. Now sure how exactly, but I’m glad because it stopped me from sliding a fair ways. Of interest to anyone planning to head up there in the near future, the snow was solid and stable all the way down, at least about half way down.
My tracks at the end of it:
Quandary Peak – 3/17/07
Originally written 3/18/07
Start time: 3/17/07 6:15am
People: Myself, and my friend Andrew.
RT Distance: 7.1 miles (per gps)
It’s been a while since I’ve summitted a 14er – or anything that didn’t have a chairlift most of the way up. With this being the last weekend of winter for the year, I needed to get out and do at least one calendar-winter 14er. I woke up at 3am, we met in Morrison at 4:30, and blasted up the hill.
It was still dark out when we started, but the sun was right behind us. About 15 minutes in, we were treated to this:
The snow was pretty frozen early on, which, while not as important to me since I was skinning up, was very important to my friend who was still postholing every once in a while. After we got past treeline, things got pretty solid. Now for some pictures:
One ptarmigan of many who were wandering around on the snow. This one let me get within about 6 feet before it scuttled away:
Me and my bitchin’ goggles:
Me skinning up the mountain:
Andrew hiking up (no AT bindings):
Once we hit about 13,500′, the going got a little slow. I was out in front of Andrew and some guy who was hiking up and had left a little before we did. They looked like Tim and Gerard on Everest – Beyond the Limit at the end. I wasn’t doing a ton better, and didn’t think to get any pictures of it. I got to the top about 20 seconds after two people who’d climbed Cristo. The wind was insane. Now for the summit photos:
Andrew:
Me:
Me having fun leaning into the wind:
After screwing around on the summit for half an hour or so, we took off. The ski down was great up top, mediocre in the middle, and horrendous at the bottom. Both of us were falling 3′ into the snow – with our skis on. Nice, eh?
Me:
Andrew:
Around treeline we stopped under some trees and made some black & tans. Hit the spot for sure:
The end.
Next time: Dead Dog Couloir
Through Polarized Eyes 