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In 2003, I was offered the chance to be a part of the first, live televised summit of Mount Everest. The catch– it was as a contestant on a reality television show. The series was called “Global Extremes – 4 Runners of Adventure” and in short, it took a whole bunch of contestants to [...]  Christy follows the route pioneered by Albert Ellingwood, ninety years ago. Often there was only one way to go along the ridge, which meant we were likely following in his exact footsteps. “…perhaps two miles of interminable pinnacles, sheer on both sides. It was worse than it had looked. Many could be circled on the east side, but many must be taken straight on. Up and down, up and down, over rock that was very slow and called for much care. I got liberal samples of about all the varieties of rock-climbing known– smooth faces, cracks, chimneys, ledges, noses, razor edges and what not. Two or three real nasty stretches held me up for from 5 to 10 minutes each. I pushed steadily and as fast as I could, but slowed up from the weariness as I neared the ridge at the head of the Basin.” -Albert Ellingwood, as recounted in his notes and published in Jeff Arnold’s book, Albert Ellingwood – Scholar of Summits. read more>>>  The group trudges up to Camp Muir, at about 10,000 feet,with the Nisqually Glacier, Cleaver and Ice Cliff in the background. Because it was such a great climb and since we came home with so many pics, I thought I’d share some more.  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>>>  Christy and Lissa on the ridge, seen here form the summit of North Traverse Peak. The route heads to the highpoint out to the left, Grand Traverse Peak. Christy, Lissa and I did the Gore Grand Traverse the other day. Not to be confused with the popular ski race, the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse, often discussed here on the blog and which was a grand disappointment this year, the Gore GT is a Vail area ridge traverse between North Traverse and Grand Traverse Peaks, and requires an approach and descent via two different valleys, creating a really cool loop. read more>>> |
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