Lindsay, Angie, Craig and Nick descend the Emmons Glacier.

Last April, when warm weather and dusty snow seemed to call an end to the Colorado spring ski season, we booked tickets to the Pacific Northwest and set our sights on some peaks in the Cascades. But when winter made a surprise comeback here at home, we were faced with a decision. We could head up to Rainier and Hood as planned, or we could stick around and try to get Christy’s remaining 14ers skied. Wisely, we opted for the latter, but we were then faced with the challenge of trying to make use of our canceled plane tickets and car rental vouchers, and wondered if we would ever salvage any part of our planned Northwest getaway.

So when Lindsay Reither, a former Aspen Highlands ski patroller and IMG mountain guide, offered us an invite to join her and some ski patrol friends on a late August Rainier climb, all it took was a quick glance at the calendar and a call to Frontier– we were in.

Christy and I climbed Rainier in 2002, along with Chris Carmichael and Jann Stoeckl, and it was a thorough ass-kicking. We almost didn’t pull it off. Early May conditions and rookie mistakes (which I like to call “learning moments”) made for a real challenging climb up the Fuhrer Finger and descent of the the Kautz Glacier. Five years later, I returned with Chris Davenport and found things to be much easier– we casually left camp around noon, climbing the Fuhrer Thumb in T-shirts and visors, and skied the Wilson Headwall near sunset. read more>>>

Spearhead. The North Ridge follows near the sun/shadow line in the photo. Click all pics to enlarge.

Feeling as though we had done a good job taking advantage of what the Aspen area has to offer lately, and with plans forming for a climbing trip to Joshua Tree and Red Rocks this fall, we thought we’d change gears and hit the road for a little alpine climbing.

So on Dirk’s recommendation, Christy, he and I made the trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, with the goal of climbing Spearhead, a 12,575 foot peak, high in a glacial cirque surrounded by RMNP namesakes like Chief’s Head, Pagoda and Longs Peak, RMNP’s sentinel 14er. Of the ten or so established routes on Spearhead, we were aiming for the North Ridge, which at 5.6-5.7 and around 6 pitches falls in the alpine “fun” category — that is, fairly easy and very enjoyable, but serious enough to warrant ropes and protection. We haven’t done any multi-pitch trad climbing this summer, so for that reason, and for the purposes of getting us back into gear for our fall trip, it was perfect. read more>>>

The overview, click to enlarge.

It was another good one, and not just due to the fact that we had perfect weather, but that we put together a loop of trails and passes we had all seen individually many times before, but had never linked up in this fashion.

It came together after Christy, Neal and I were planning a long run together, but being a Saturday in August with a good weather forecast we realized our standard “go-to”, the Four Pass Loop, would be pretty busy. So we opted for a different linkup– slightly shorter, with a bit less elevation gain and one pass fewer yet still in the same neighborhood and hitting some trails that don’t see as many people.

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It's all downhill from here, or at least from a little farther up. Neal climbs up from Talyor Pass.

“Thirty-seven.” That was his answer to my question as to when he thought he had reached his top form, and after which he first noticed his speed, stamina and general physical condition begin to deteriorate– in other words, when things started going downhill. At the time, I didn’t think it to be an inconsiderate question, I was genuinely curious. But I later realized that to ask a guy 13 years my senior, and with a near lifetime more experience in the mountains than I, was actually a bit disrespectful. It implied that he had peaked, that he was over the hill, and my innocent curiosity put him in the uncomfortable position of having to actually nail down the exact start of his decline. I was asking him to admit that he was getting old.

But as certain as time may be, Neal still refuses to surrender to age, and he wasn’t going let me get away with forcing it on him. That would explain his answer, because I was thirty-seven, and it was the obvious, easy comeback to my unintentional call out. As in,”I may be getting older, but you’re right there with me, pal.”
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North Apostle, Ice Mountain and West Apostle, left to right, frame the valley on the hike in, under cloudy but dry skies. Lake Ann and the west peak were our destination.

The wilderness rehabilitation continues and for the second week in a row, we managed to escape the summer crowds and find a little peace and quiet. Well, it was quiet at least with regards to the lack of people, but the regular rolls of thunder and sheets of rain against the wall of the tent were at times pretty loud.

The weather pattern is in a full blown monsoonal pattern right now, which for our area means rain, heavy at times, and nearly every day. Discouraging as it may be, if you’re motivated, you can often sneak in an activity in the morning, before the deluge begins.

So unwilling to spend our days off at home, we had little choice but chance it. Christy and I headed over Independence Pass to Lake Ann, high in Apostle Basin in the Sawatch Range, just west of the popular 14er, Huron Peak. Framing the backdrop of the basin are the namesake “Three Apostles”, two of which are the Centennial 13ers, Ice Mountain and North Apostle, which we climbed back in 2002. It was back then, when on the summit of Ice Mountain, that we first saw Lake Ann out to the west, and set it as a goal to return here some day and explore the area and maybe even try for the third peak of the trio, West Apostle. Finally, eight years later, we finally checked it off our list. read more>>>

Dirk and Christy on the col after descending the West Ridge of South Maroon Peak.

We’re cresting the hump of the summer season, that busy time of the year when the crowds around town and the craziness at work can wear you thin if you’re not careful. So with no big events and an open weekend, we opted for a short backpack/peak climb to get away from it all, if only for a few days. Interestingly, as I started putting this post together afterwards, the Aspen Times ran a story about the Aspen Environmental Forum taking place in town this week, and a topic they discussed on the subject of “Nature Deficit Disorder”. You can read the story here, but to summarize, kids aren’t getting outside in nature enough, the urbanization of the world will continue, and when put together, these two trends could result in an increased disconnect between people and nature and the environment will suffer as a result.

Well, I don’t want to  start a debate on the pros and cons of environmentalism, land use, wilderness designation etc.– I’ve seen how quickly the conversation degrades when environmentalists and their counterparts get into it– but I do find the concept of “NDD” to have some validity. And I thought it was particularly relevant to our weekend, where Dirk, Christy and I headed out for a little wilderness/NDD rehab, and it was just what the doctor ordered.

The weather held, and on our way back to the tents we took a dip in the lake.

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