We’ve been having what can rightfully be described as a spectacular fall season in Colorado. Weeks of crisp, clear evenings and cloudless bluebird days with high temperatures in the 70s. While the leaves are gone from the aspens, the cottonwoods and birches in the valleys are all brilliant shades of yellow and orange.
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Is it possible for people to love the outdoors too much? Studies have shown that getting out in nature is one of the best things you can do for both mind and body. But is it good for nature? How many people can nature sustain before it stops being nature?
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After my recent ignoble defeat on the Wetterhorn, I was thinking that I would be ending my 2022 climbing season on a down note.
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In my ongoing pursuit to climb Colorado’s 14ers, so far I have managed to finish 18 out of 58 of them. That puts me squarely in the beginner-intermediate category, I think. This year I’ve been trying to improve my skills and fitness by focusing on longer and more difficult climbs. And so far, I’ve had success.
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Peak bagging is a strange pastime. Getting up at gawdawful hours of the morning, driving all over the state to spend all day walking up and down steep slopes until your toenails turn black all because a mountain appears on some arbitrary list. Is a 13,000-foot mountain less worthy of climbing than a 14,000-foot mountain? No. But the 14,000-foot mountain is on a list. Actually, the 13,000-foot mountain is on a list too, a different list. But one list at a time.
Continue readingHiking is a simple activity. A walk in the woods requiring nothing much more than strong legs and sturdy boots. It’s certainly less involved than cycling. Or is it? If you’ve browsed any of the hiking-related retailers like REI, Backcountry, etc. lately you’d think you couldn’t possibly survive a hike without carbon fiber hiking poles, high-end Italian hiking boots, the latest GPS watch and a complete water filtration and storage system. Which made me think of this. An oldie but goodie and if you live in Colorado (or Portland, I presume), probably more relatable than ever.
Mt. Massive is the second highest mountain in Colorado, only 11 feet shorter than its neighbor across the valley, Mt. Elbert. It makes up for those 11 feet by being the mountain with the most area over 14,000 feet in the contiguous 48 states. With a summit and four sub-summits over 14,000 feet and a three-mile-long summit ridge Mt. Massive is truly massive. If you’ve been to Leadville, you’ve seen Mt. Massive and you may have mistaken it for a whole mountain range. Massive doesn’t so much dominate Leadville’s western skyline as it IS Leadville’s western skyline.
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Most of our mountain climbing to this point has been in our local range, the Sawatch, or near Fairplay in the Mosquitoes. Looking for a change of scenery I wanted to try something in the Sangre de Cristos south of Salida. The problem is, most of the Sangre peaks are above my pay grade in terms of climbability.
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