Mountaintop adventures
May 5, 2025
It’s a pun that’s been around for at least several decades: Ithaca is Gorges. The t-shirts may not be as ubiquitous these days (does gen alpha consider them ‘cringe’?) but the slogan is well-deserved.
Continue reading “Robert H Treman State Park”
May 5, 2025
I drove north from Ithaca on NY-89, along the shores of Cayuga Lake to Taughannock Falls State Park. It was early morning on a rainy weekday in the Finger Lakes, and I was excited to squeeze in this gem of a hike before work.
Continue reading “Taughannock Falls”
May 4, 2025
I drove through the small town of New Paltz and began climbing the switchbacks up onto the Shawangunk Ridge. It was a rainy day in early May, and clouds obscured the tops of the ridgeline. Soon, I was within the cloud layer, driving in thick fog.
Continue reading “Enjoying an ORTBO at Lake Minnewaska”
May 3, 2025
I drove through the picture-perfect town of Cold Spring, tucked alongside the Hudson River amidst the hills of the Hudson Highlands. This was an auspicious little corner of the Empire State. It was here (and only here) that glaciers managed to carve a broad, navigable river through the ancient Appalachian Mountains. An entire book could be written on how notable this intersection of river and hills would prove for explorers, revolutionaries and industrialists alike. At the very least, it’s home to some spectacular hiking.
Continue reading “Bull Hill (aka Mount Taurus)”
May 17, 2025
I zipped along CO-82, just north of Twin Lakes, heading west into the central Sawatch Range. It was 6:30 am, but with the longer days of spring time, sunlight was already spilling over the Mosquito Range behind me. I passed the trailhead for La Plata Peak. Then roughly 1.5 miles later, I reached our designated parking pull-off for today’s adventure on Lackawanna.
Continue reading “Lackawanna Ski Descent”
April 13, 2025
We arrived around 6:30 am for a “ridge hike” on Mount Guyot, a tucked-away 13er in Colorado’s Front Range, just East of Breckenridge. This was the first of three “big outings” of the Colorado Mountain Club’s excellent Alpine Climbing School.
Continue reading “Mount Guyot and musings on snowshoes”
April 12, 2025
In Spring 2025, I signed up for the Colorado Mountain Club’s excellent Alpine Climbing School. The “school” is a mix of zoom lectures, online materials, outdoor practice sessions, and, for the “team track”, group outings to practice technical skills on real objectives in the Rockies.
Continue reading “Sliding around on St Mary’s Glacier”
March 9, 2024
On a sunny Sunday in March, I decided to drive west to Rifle area and enjoy some snow-free hiking along a curious geological formation called the Grand Hogback. My first adventure took me to the underrated but still regularly-hiked Rifle Arch. But that hike ended in a steep cliff band midway up the hogback.
Continue reading “Harvey Gap and the Grand Hogback”
March 9, 2025
I zipped along I-70 West, through Glenwood Canyon and Glenwood Springs, following the Colorado River downstream towards Rifle. The night prior, the umpteenth winter storm had pummeled the High Rockies, dumping powder on its 14ers and ski slopes. But I was in the mood for a “normal” hike on firm soil.
Continue reading “Rifle Arch”
March 2, 2025
I followed the snaking curves of Golden Gate Canyon Road to the popular trailhead for Mount Galbraith. The Colorado Rockies were near peak snowpack in early March, but down here in the foothills, just west of Golden, the grassy slopes were largely bare.
Continue reading “Mount Galbraith”