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 Christy descends to Cooper Lake from East Maroon Pass, through flurrying snow and graupel. Forty-one miles, 9,600 feet of gain, with a high point of 12,900 feet over three passes and four valleys– that counts as a pretty long day in my book. Our friend Tim always tells Christy and I we’re “masters of the long day.” I guess in a relative sense experience does lend itself to smooth adventures, but just because I sum up our big days in 500 words or less doesn’t mean they all go off without a hitch. Besides, I’m not sure you can ever truly master anything out in the mountains, but in Tim’s defense, we do love to try.
So with the Bear 100 two weeks away, we were looking for one last long day on the trail. In search of something new and different, we decided to connect four classic valleys we’ve visited many times before, but never all in one push. Here’s the map of our Snowmass, West Maroon, East Maroon and Conundrum linkup: read more>>>
 The inaugural Aspen Backcountry Marathon was this past Saturday. Christy and I both took part in the fledgling event that saw 240 starters, a majority of which seemed to be from out of town, an impressive number considering it’s first year status.
Kudos to Aspen’s Special Events Department for getting this one off the ground. Permit issues and liability concerns can make it nearly impossible to start new events these days, yet the surging popularity of races demands more capacity. Since many events sell out to their maximum permitted sizes, sometimes so quickly a lottery is needed to determine who gets in, new races are needed.
The good sized field started out from Wagner Park at 6am Saturday, and followed popular biking, hiking, and running trails that were carefully connected so as to make a big loop around town. It first climbed Smuggler, then cruised through Hunter Creek and Van Horn Park, along the Hobbit Trail to Four Corners and then down the Sunnyside Trail. read more>>>
 And here they come with less than 1km to go. The leaders-- Tee Jay Van Garderen, Tom Danielson, Javier Acevedo, George Hincapie and Eduard Beltran, pictured here from right to left, finished in front. In what was one of the coolest new events to come to Aspen, the second stage of the inaugural USA Pro Cycling Challenge finished in town Wednesday. The 130+ mile course started in Gunnison and climbed over Cottonwood Pass before heading to Aspen via Independence Pass, where a reported 3000+ fired up spectators lined the road to the summit, giving it a feel akin to an Alps stage of the Tour de France. Christy and I weren’t able to be up there, so we watched from town and were completely blown away by the whole thing. Having watched hundreds of cycling race stages on television through the years, it was entirely new and totally impressive to see these top riders blast by in person. Hopefully it’s just the first of what becomes an annual event. read more>>>
 The massive ridge. With the start labeled, we first climbed south to Len Shoemaker Peak and then followed the ridge as it swung north, all the way to Pyramid. Click to enlarge. Totally psyched and somewhat surprised to have actually pulled it off, Neal Beidleman and I sat on Pyramid’s narrow summit in the afternoon sun and processed it all.
It wasn’t that we thought it couldn’t be done. Through the years there have been scattered reports of groups completing different sections of this traverse. Our concern had to do with the time and weather. The horseshoe-like ridge is so long, with so much loose, semi-technical terrain to navigate, we didn’t know if there was enough time in the day to cover the ground. Plus, we were in a stormy pattern and it had been raining every afternoon, and we thought it was a good bet that weather would send us fleeing off the ridge before we could complete it. read more>>>
 Christy, on the final descent from Buckskin Pass. On Saturday, Christy and I got out on our favorite local linkup of trails and passes, the Four Pass Loop. According to some friends who had been out there earlier in the summer, the lingering snow and high water levels, the theme of summer thus far, had made the trip pretty challenging. But it seems that summer’s persistence has finally won over spring, as we knew it eventually would, and the whole loop is now in pretty good shape. So get out there soon, because it’s already August, and there’s only about 6 good weeks before the snow starts flying up there again. read more>>>
 Joey, in front as usual, makes his way up towards the Bells. The season went on and on and we stuck with it as long as we found things good, but we’ve decided it’s time to pack the gear away for the summer.
It was a great spring and I thought I’d share some photos from various days that didn’t make earlier posts of their own. read more>>>
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