The Sneffels Traverse: Hut to Hut through the San Juans

July 1, 2023

Telluride to Ouray via the Sneffels Traverse

Our shuttle van left Ouray around 7 am for Last Dollar Pass, and the start of the Sneffels Traverse. We trundled up the rough dirt road, through rolling hills of green grass. The morning sun shone through sparse stands of aspens. Patches of hillside were covered in thick blooms of purple lupine. A herd of elk moved about the hills below us.

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Hiking Beaver Creek’s Overlook Trail

June 18, 2023

Hiking ‘On Resort’ at Beaver Creek

Around 7 am, I wound my way up Village Road toward Beaver Creek’s upscale village complex en route to hike the Overlook Trail. The morning sun flickered through stands of quaking aspens and cast long shadows across the lush golf course. In winter I’d of parked a few miles downhill, in one of Beaver Creek’s $10 day-skier lots. But in summer, the far more convenient Ford Hall Lot is free and open to all.

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Skiing Quandary Bowl

May 23, 2023

A stormy spring

I met my friend at the trailhead for a springtime outing skinning/skiing Quandary Peak. From the looks of the parking lot area, a few fresh inches of snow had fallen the night prior. Even at Quandary’s lofty trailhead—roughly 11,000 feet above sea level—the snow looked wet. But with any luck, things would be a different matter near the 14,271′ summit.

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Spruce Knob, West Virginia, via the Huckleberry Trail

April 15, 2023

Almost Heaven

My day began in Pittsburgh, about three hours north of Spruce Knob. I left my hotel around 4 am, crossing the Monongahela River on I-376. Even in those small hours, plenty of trucks rumbled about on the highways of southwestern Pennsylvania. But the roads grew progressively quieter and smaller as I worked my way South and East into the rural mountains of West Virginia.

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