The Maze is the most remote district of Canyonlands National Park, lying west of the Green and Colorado Rivers in Utah. It is wild, remote, difficult, and dry. If you like arches, meandering canyons, ancient rock art, and above all solitude, then The Maze might interest you. Jump to...
A Big Day Climbing Capitol Peak
I was not going to mess around with climbing Capitol Peak. By consensus it’s the most difficult Fourteeneer. Many climbers have died attempting it. I took days of classes from the Colorado Mountain Club; backpacked & camped for a week of nights; and hiked, scrambled, & climbed multiple mountains....
That Awesome Rock on Crestone Needle
H & I climbed Crestone Peak in 2017. After two trips up Cottonwood Canyon to the Crestones, I’d had enough of that trail. For climbing Crestone Needle in 2019, we’d do the standard route from South Colony Lakes. The road up to the South Colony Lakes Trailhead is not...
Little Bear Peak
The best part of climbing Blanca and Ellingwood in 2016 was the knowledge that I would never have to walk that Lake Como road for the rest of my life. It’s rocky, it’s long, it’s unpleasant. But somehow, there I was again, walking up that rock-strewn abomination of a...
Sawatch 3-Pack: Mount Yale, Missouri Mountain, & Huron Peak
The hardest part of climbing Fourteeners is the driving. Yeah, there’s the scrambling and the backpacking and the camping and the elevation — but nothing’s harder than that drive. If you take one trip for each Fourteener, that’s over 50 separate trips with most being multi-hour drives each way....
Chicago Basin 1: Sunlight & Windom Peaks
We finally reached the Siesta Motel in Durango after the long car ride from Denver, stopping only for a Thai lunch in Poncha Springs. We were four — Julie, Jake, Marina, & myself — and we had a coal-fed steam train to catch in the morning. The plan? Ride...
Grand Canyon Escalante Route: Part 3
The weather, however, did not get better. Showers started before our early alarm went off, and slowly but steadily increased. By the time we put on our backpacks, it was flat out raining. And by the time we reached our 30 foot scramble, the Papago Wall, thunder and lightning...
Grand Canyon Escalante Route: Part 2
After our rest-ish day, it was now time to start solving the problem of getting back to the car. It was time to get moving. The day was going to be long one, so we got up early, broke camp, shouldered our packs, and began walking downriver.
Grand Canyon Escalante Route: Part 1
We loaded our packs then ourselves into the taxi in the parking lot of Grandview Point, where we left our car. At 08:00 the taxi dropped us at Lipan Point, a few miles to the east. Our problem for the next 5 days would be getting back to the...
Crestone Peak
For Crestone Peak, I wanted to come in via the Cottonwood Creek approach. Why? Well, I’ll go to lengths to avoid people on the trail and the descriptions of this approach included such words as “arduous,” “difficult wayfinding,” and “testy sections with a heavy pack” — not words that...
