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.
Photos
The Return of Mountain Bike Wednesday
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
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.
Loveland Pass “SuperMoon” Night Skiing
After a fun afternoon of skiing at Loveland, a bunch of us went to Silver Plume for dinner and to kill a few hours before sundown. We decided to do a little bit of skiing at Loveland Pass, on account of it being the largest, brightest full moon in (and for) 18 years. Arriving shortly after dark, and the party had already started.
Mount Massive Ski Descent
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.
A Weekend of Skiing in the Roaring Fork Valley
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.
Silverton Avalanche School Level 2 – Part 2
We woke up Saturday morning to find ourselves snowed in by a 5′ tall drift on the walkway out. Showing more motivation than I at that point, Dobish went out and started shoveling.
Silverton Avalanche School Level 2 – Part 1
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.
Fun day with a huge crew at Berthoud Pass
An email circulated over the past week (as it usually does), talking about plans for the weekend. Berthoud Pass was the choice. As tends to be the case, no one was really sure how many people would show up. There are always random drop-outs at the last minute, leaving group size a mystery until we meet up for the carpool. Nine people and two dogs made it, for the second largest group I’ve ever been in in the backcountry. We were skinning by 8:45 or so, not too bad given the laziness imparted on our group by the warming hut on the top of the pass. Our selected route resulted in a pretty heinous skintrack through some dense woods, but Lauren was happy after recently switching to Dynafits (and earlier this year, lighter boots – a weight savings of nearly 5 pounds per foot) and had no problems keeping up. Continue reading
Friends of Berthoud Pass On-Snow Weekend
This past weekend, Friends of Berthoud Pass held the on-snow portion of their grassroots avalanche education program. I volunteered to facilitate groups both days, and I’m exhausted after two ten-hour days up at the pass. Tempted by breakfast burritos at the instructor refresher, Lauren and I signed up to show up at 6am Saturday morning to prepare the beacon-rescue scenarios. When the 4am wakeup call is three weeks away, a free breakfast burrito sounds like a great deal. At 4am, it’s suddenly a much-worse bargain. Nonetheless, we dragged ourselves up there way too early. Continue reading
Through Polarized Eyes 
