When in [insert place], do as the [people who live in place] do. For Colorado, that’s going into the mountains. At all times of the year. Especially winter. I grew up between a beach and a swamp in southern Virginia, so I had neither mountains nor snow for my...
Sawatch Fourteener 5-Pack: Shavano-Tabeguache, Belford-Oxford, & Mount of the Holy Cross
Mount Shavano & Tabeguache Peak I pulled out of the garage two hours before dawn for the two hour trip to the Blank Gulch trailhead. As passed Mt Princeton & My Antero, the clouds hung low as the sun came up. The weather was going to be iffy, but...
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....
A Grumpy Day on Mount Lindsey
I didn’t like Mount Lindsey and it didn’t like me either. After Crestone Needle we’d backpacked down the South Colony Lakes Road in a rush to be able to drive & find a campsite near the Lily Lake trailhead before it got dark. We did make it with daylight...
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...
Maroon Peak
Before we hiked Maroon Peak, the folks who I asked about the climb all said, “It’s a long day.” Every one, exact words. Heeding their advice, we arrived at Maroon Lake Trailhead at 04:00. Marina, Kevin, and I camped at Silver Bar — down the road between Maroon Lake...
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...
