Mountaintop adventures
September 2, 2023
The sun crept above the surrounding hills a I sped along an empty highway over La Veta Pass. This weekend’s adventure would be an overnight target: Blanca Peak and Ellingwood Point via Lake Como. On day one, the goal was just to reach the lake and set up camp.
Continue reading “Blanca Peak and Ellingwood Point”
July 17, 2023
I sped through the hot and dusty high desert of the San Luis Valley. Ahead of me, hot air off the pavement warped the jagged, hazy peaks of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Summer had come out in full force in the Colorado Rockies.
Continue reading “Kit Carson Peak and Challenger Point”
June 24, 2023
I left Denver at the crack of dawn, to beat the weekend I-70 traffic. I sped through the Eisenhower tunnel as the Sun rose above the rugged peaks of the Continental Divide. Ahead I saw only clear blue skies. We had been blessed with a perfect weather window.
Continue reading “Climbing Snowmass Mountain via the ‘direct’ route”
September 10, 2022
Around 3:15 am I drove through Minturn, past empty streets and darkened windows. Then, I began the long winding dirt road up towards the Halfmoon Campground. The sun wouldn’t make an appearance for another three hours at least. But even still, I arrived at a bustling trailhead filled with headlamp beams and dimly lit truckbeds.
Continue reading “Mount of the Holy Cross via Halo Ridge”
August 28, 2022
Our truck ambled slowly up the rough road to the South Colony Lakes Trailhead. It was mid-morning on a gorgeous, sunny Saturday in late August. Puffy white clouds had begun to coagulate as we donned our packs and divvied up the climbing gear.
Continue reading “Crestone Needle via the Ellingwood Arete”
August 8, 2022
Tackling New Hampshire’s Presidential Range would form the centerpiece of my recent New England high point road trip. The massive peaks rise head and shoulders above any other peaks in the Northeastern US. A majority of the journey takes place at or above the treeline. And a series of huts, shuttles, and base camps run by the storied Appalachian Mountain Club can make the ambitious journey a touch bougier and more European.
Continue reading “The Presidential Range Traverse”
I arrived in the small town of Westcliffe on a sunny Saturday morning. I sped along some dirt country roads towards the ‘lower trailhead‘ for the Crestones. This trailhead sat below treeline, in the open fields at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo range.
Continue reading “Humboldt Peak”
May 23, 2020, Echo Lake Trailhead
In late May, having settled into my new apartment in the Bay Area, I decided to set off on a backpacking trip. This trip would represent my first wilderness adventure in California.
I decided on a stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail near Lake Tahoe through the Desolation Wilderness. From the name alone I knew this would be pretty interesting.
Continue reading “Lake Aloha, and the Desolation Wilderness”
March 7, 2020, Adirondak Loj
The journey to Mount Marshall began on a largely ordinary weekend in early March of 2020. It was likely the last ordinary weekend of 2020. The novel coronavirus had already begun to increasingly dominate the news cycle. But that was hardly evident on this sunny, beautiful Saturday. Alpine and nordic skiers, snowshoers, and post-holers had already filled the parking lots of Heart Lake. Between the rows of cars, excited conversations took place in both French and English in equal measure. There’s usually one (maybe two) weekends in March where the bright sunshine of nearly-spring and the thick snowpack of a full winter collide. This was that weekend.
Continue reading “Mount Marshall (nearly twice)”
November 2, 2019, Adirondak Loj
I arrived at Heart Lake before dawn on a brisk day in early November. The target, a pair of classic high peak day hikes: Colden and Phelps! My original plan consisted of hiking the Santanoni’s. But torrential rain and high winds had plagued the Adirondacks in recent days, and I decided to target a couple of peaks easily accessible from the relatively dry and well-trafficked Van Hoevenberg trail.
Continue reading “Colden and Phelps”