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 Good call, Dav. Sometimes you just have to play the hand you’re dealt.
Not that skiing isn’t one of my favorite things to do, but after six or seven months of winter, the arrival of summer is definitely welcome. As we all know though, nature doesn’t always follow a set schedule and this year’s prolonged snowy spring was a good example of that– summer really didn’t seem to declare itself until just a few days ago. In fact there’s still so much snow, even Aspen Mountain is set to be open this weekend.
So rather than fight the trend, we’re still skiing. Earlier in the week, after some flakes fell in town on Memorial Day, Chris Davenport– just back from a successful expedition to climb Mount Everest that included a rare ski descent of the Lhotse Face– made the call to head up to North Maroon Peak, where we found conditions to be more like March than June.
Until things dry out around here, the ski season will likely play out a bit longer. And if all the days are like this one, we should have no problem making the best of it. read more>>>
 Christy leaves her mark on, among other places, page 12. Off season’s here, and now that Aspen has effectively shut down, anyone with free time enough to get away has been packing up and leaving town.
This spring, that ever-present drive to hit the road has us heading to Canada to keep the ski season rolling for a little while longer. I’ll head up to Calgary on Monday to meet Sean who will be coming out from the Battle Abbey Hut with a group of friends from around here, and we will hit a laundry list of ski spots in the greater Banff and Jasper area.
After a week with Sean, he’ll head home and I’ll hook up with Christy, Dirk, Art Burrows and Art’s friend and local guide, Greg Franson in Golden, BC, and we’ll head out on an 80 mile ski traverse from the Bugaboos to Roger Pass. It’s pretty safe to say it’ll be a good time. read more>>>
 Adam on the East Face. The days are longer, the temperatures milder and the lines are more filled in- it just feels and looks like spring.
Seizing a sunny day between spring storms that have been dumping on us lately, Anda Smalls, Adam Mosczynski, Christy and I set out to climb Castle Peak and ski its East Face. It was a great day by all accounts– blue skies, fun climbing and spring powder conditions on an Elk Range classic.
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 The view from the top. Spring is here. At least according to the calendar. And though it isn’t a tradition to try to get out on the first day of the new season, with Christy and I both free this past Sunday, we set our sights on an objective we’ve had for some time- Buckskin Benchmark’s Southeast Face. The 13,370 foot summit just north of Buckskin Pass sits between the giants of the Elk Range and looked to have a fun, direct ski down it’s southeast face. read more>>>
 Lo Semple, rocking the fanny pack, on the second climb up to Burnt Mtn. after skiing the Hanging Valley Wall in the background. Click any image to enlarge. That was fun. At least in a sort of now-that-it’s-done kind of way.
Seriously though, despite the sore feet and added challenge of having to finish on a broken ski, Christy and I both felt that it was one of the coolest things we’ve been a part of this season.
Kudos to the Aspen Skiing Company, who saw past the obvious logistical hurdles of an event such as this, and ultimately gave the green light to send 150 or so people on this huge tour of the four mountains on a busy weekend day. Between getting gated terrain open early, to allowing uphill traffic on Highlands on an already crowded Saturday, to OK’ing a race course that regularly hopped in and out of the ski area boundaries which would have burdened the ski patrol in the event of a rescue– there were likely a dozen reasons why they might have considered saying no to the whole idea, but they didn’t, and everyone had a blast. Hopefully this was just the first of a new annual event. read more>>>
So it’s all set. The new Power of Four race is officially “sold out” with 75 teams of two registered to start in the morning. I was out yesterday with Dirk and Pete Swenson, helping with the course marking between Snowmass and Buttermilk.
About 11,000 feet of vertical gain with ski descents of [...]
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