Clear Creek Canyon

Well, the ski season is working itself to a close and I'm starting to wonder if I'm going to get my next 6 days in to hit 75. At this time of the year if its cloudy and been raining/snowing, it's generally not worth hitting the high alpine and those lines that I've been waiting for. Between the oddly wet weather and the dust layer the snow seems to be melting on the days that I'm at work and reaccumulating on the days that I'm off (Note: this would have been awesome had this been mid season, Cooly season-different story). Our plans to climb and ski the Emperor Couloir on Torrerys scrapped because of the wet weather, my buddy Jeff and I headed to Clear Creek Canyon to get some climbing in. Great climbing weather, well overcast and not too hot, however I gotta say my climbing leaves something to be desired, I guess that's what I get for not hitting the gym all season. It was a ton of fun to get out on some rock, but man I'm out of climbing shape. I don't have any pictures from today, but I've got some pictures from last weeks trip up to Golden Cliffs (much easier climbing than Clear Creek) and Mel's first finished route (5.7! not bad!)

Right after the crux


Close to the top!


and shackles banged!

I'm so proud! Headed up to Boulder Canyon tomorrow for some more bolt clippin' I hope to grab some more pictures while I'm at it.
Stereo- Soul Rebel by Bob Marley

Quandary: Christo

Early Morning Start at Quandary

I'm sitting here feeling pretty burnt out by the week on this Thursday evening and I finally got around to digging into some of the photos from my trip to Quandary last weekend. Pretty good trip, however we dawdled a little too long up top and by the time we got skiing, the snow was pretty slushy and bottomless. It was still a really fun couloir and a great climb up and another 14er off the list of things I've been thinking about skiing. And considering the weekend looks full of strange precipitation it might be until Monday that another ski trip comes around. Short spring season what with all the raining on the weekends and the dust layer melting fast. I'm starting to think that I'm going to have to save a lot of the objectives for next season.

Summit Shot

Anyways onto Quandary: We started around 6 am from the trailhead, which was a short hike to the place to crampon up. Crampons on, it was a straightforward and fun climb up to the summer. We made it in about 2 and a half hours which I gotta say I'm pretty impressed with for a 3000 foot climb up to a 14er. Mainly scenics from this trip as the snow was pretty beaten by sun and a ton of Colorado Mountain Club folks that were roped up and climbing up Christo. They didn't even think to bring skis with them! Silly mountaineers!

The foggy couloir

It was a beautiful climb especially because half of it was the most humid I've ever been on the way up a Front Range mountain. I've never dripped sweat like that on the way up a coolie. There was a cloud that sat in the valley until mid morning and then suddenly evaporated. The clouds drifted out and in between peaks in a beautiful way all morning. It was like being privy to a slideshow of mountains slowly unveiling themselves. Here's the photos and I hope that the weather takes enough of a turn that I can get up on some more high peaks this weekend.


Up and up!


The mountains slowly peaking out of their veils


The high alpine plants reveal themselves


A high alpine bivy!

Great trip and great day. Here's to hoping for a few more this season.
Stereo-The Bravery-Bad Sun

Ode to the Weekend

Friday morning. Coffee pot's broken. But I've got another 6 hours of enslaved working to get through before a weekend of climbing and skiing. I've always said that solace can be found through sweat and goal setting in the high alpine, however there is no time that I feel like I feel it more than on Friday morning before heading to work. I find myself craving to go on a bike ride, to call up a friend and see if he wants to go crag, but instead I'm headed to 711 to go get a cup of coffee as our coffee pot is broken.
Tomorrow morning at this time I'll hopefully be headed down a couloir on a 14er and I'll have been awake for about 6 hours and climbed 2500 vertical feet already. And hopefully, I'll be looking at something like this.

(photo from 14ers.com)

A Weekend in Dry Gulch

"Go to the mountains and get their good tidings"
-John Muir

As Loveland closed last weekend (sad) I finally had no excuse to go skiing at a resort and instead had to drag my lazy ass back up the hill to the life of a backcountry ski bum. Sweet. As the weather looked iffy all weekend with Saturday as the close winner, Mel and I decided to try (second time this season) for the collar line on Citadel. I made sure to prep myself by watching the movie Steep earlier in the week to get excited about some steep climbing and skiing. We'd been up to this line in March during a Low Avy danger bit but had been chased down off the ridgeline by a considerable amount of wind. The weather this day seemed to be saying either wonderful corn descent down this incredibly aesthetic line that is bounded in by huge rock walls, or that it would be so bad we wouldn't make it past the trail head (there was a 10% chance of the second so we thought we'd give it a shot.

We were greeted by blue skies and slight wind at the trailhead, so we decided to give it a go and made the bench that leads us to the line at 1000 feet of climb in record time. I was totally set and stoked about the fact that we were going to get to ski this line. All the clouds in the ski were moving heavily east and not towards the north which is where we were. Ah life in the mountains. As we gained the saddle that marked the 2000' mark and the ridge line that we would follow we were forced face down onto rocks by 60 mph sustained gusts of wind. We hung around for 20 minutes face down on the rocks hoping that the wind gusts would die down. Just as we started to discuss climbing further, a gust came along and ripped Mel's sunglasses straight off of her face and down into the bowl. We realized there was no climbing further and we had better ski the face below us, which was rock solid bulletproof snow.

Sometimes the mountains tell you yes and sometimes they tell you no. Citadel that day was screaming a big fat no at us, and I'm glad that we listened to it, even if the skiing sucked. I was especially glad when we got a view of the line that we had wanted to ski and there was avy debris of a recent wet slide on it.
On to Sunday......

Citadel (3rd times a charm!)

Being that it was mother's day, Mel had to run off to brunch with her Mom. I had been wanting to continue some backcountry exploration and found a willing partner in my buddy Owen who I'd done some skiing with last season. We headed up late with a couple of potential plans as the weather forecast was way dicey. We were greeted near Loveland by a ton of snow coming down and so plan B of heading back Dry Gulch with an attempt at Hagar or one of the other bowls at the back of the gulch in mind, it was. A longer tour but always good to get the exercise, except when my skins suddenly start carrying an entire glacier uphill with me. This got so bad that by the time we reached the real ascent I was moving at a pace of maybe a quarter of my usual. After halfway up the ridge line and above treeline, I decided to eschew my skins and packed the skins and skis and booted it up the rest of the way (hardly as enjoyable). We reached a beautiful cirque full of wonderful lines, bowls, rocks and drops. Next season I plan on spending a ton of more time in this area. The terrain looked AMAZING and the access out of a gate in Loveland would be incredibly easy to access. Needless to say I'm stoked and here's some stokeage to share.

Owen charging down into the bowl


where'd this knee deep powder come from?


into the blue yonder!



and the beautiful tracks...

chargin' the line.

There really is nothing I like more than an unexpected knee deep powder day :)
Stereo-Groove Armada-Suntoucher