This winter just keeps on giving.
Continue readingSalida
Snow Stake
It’s been two whole weeks of recovering from the Covid. I’ve been lying around the house doing nothing more strenuous than reading and the occasional coughing fit. My test went negative on day 13 and I was feeling mostly back to normal. I was dying to get outside.
Continue readingA better sense of snow
The key factor in staying safe when going out into the backcountry in winter is understanding what is going on with the snow. And what is going on with the snow, you might be asking? Well, as I learned in a recent avalanche course, a whole lot.
Continue readingWhat I love most about living in Colorado
…and a happy New Year
To start off 2023 Mother Nature gifted the Sawatch range and indeed, most of Colorado, with a major dump of new snow. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center map went red overnight. High avalanche danger = great skiing. Just make sure you stay inbounds.
Continue reading‘Tis the season
Ski season! We made our first trip up to Monarch this season to check out the conditions.
Continue readingFirst-world mountain problems
I was doing a gravel ride the other day when I encountered a problem that I’ve only seen happen in the mountains. A first-world mountain problem, if you will. No one’s going to starve, get hurt, or die but it did sort of mess up my plans for the day.
Continue readingThankful, mostly
In this season of transition between autumn riding and winter skiing it’s a good time to stop and reflect on the past year to give thanks for what we have.
Continue readingBanana Belt 2022
It’s on the list, it must be climbed
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.
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