Mountaintop adventures
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”
Jan 3, 2025
I parked in one of the large, paid lots at the base of Manitou Springs. It was 7:45am on a Friday in early January, and the lot was basically deserted. From the lot, I caught a glimpse of a bullet-straight cut through the pines of the nearby foothills below Pikes Peak. That cut was my intended hike that morning: the Manitou Incline.
Continue reading “The Manitou Incline and Barr Trail to Barr Camp”
October 20, 2024
It was late October, and we were nearing the end of “dry” hiking season in the Colorado Rockies. The aspens were bare. The bushes had turned orange and brown. And a recent snowfall dusted talus fields on the highest summits.
Continue reading “Mystic Island Lake”
October 13, 2024
I spend a lot of time in Eagle County, Colorado. So it was only a matter of time before I tried the much-hyped Booth Falls trail. The timing was more or less an accident. I’d overheard that this weekend in October was the last for the “hiker express” bus between Vail Village and the Booth Lake/Booth Falls trailhead.
Continue reading “Booth Lake and Booth Falls”