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 Still smiling. Click to enlarge. Go Christy. It’s your birthday. Actually, if you know Christy it’s more like a birth-week, or even month-long celebration, a notion confirmed by the candles that came with the dessert at the restaurant last night, some six days after the actual date. read more>>>  Clicked in atop Capitol but not out of the woods yet. Click any pic to enlarge. So Christy pulled it off, and what a finish it was. And not simply due to the fact that her final peak was Capitol, considered by my many to be the most committing ski descent of all the 14ers, but in the various challenges that presented themselves this past season. It may have appeared as though it all fell right into place, but in reality there were several occasions when it looked like Christy might not wrap it up this year. During the fall of 2009, with winter right around the corner, Christy and I began to talk about our goals for the next season. Among other things on her extra long list, she was really hoping to wrap up her own “Ski the 14ers” project. She had nine peaks left: Sneffles, San Luis, Holy Cross, Little Bear, Pikes, El Diente, Mt. Wilson, Pyramid and Capitol. A stout list for sure, but also a reasonable number to do in a season. But when we began to consider other things– a two week trip to Greenland planned for spring, another Elk Mountains Grand Traverse in March, Christy’s nordic goals, and both of our work schedules– Christy realized that in order to have the best chances of finishing this season, she should start on her list as soon as was safely possible. At a cost to other activities, (i.e. winter tennis league, sewing projects) she decided to make skiing these peaks a priority, and as her partner through it, I thought I’d share my take on Christy’s Homestretch. read more>>>
 Shhh. Maybe this time if we're really quiet they won't notice us.... Nope. We recently skied Clinton Peak, 13,857 feet, which was Christy’s 99th summit of the Colorado Centennials. Now all that remains is Gladstone Peak. Because we regularly discuss similar sounding adventures and lists concerning 14ers, it may help to explain the Centennial Peaks list in greater depth. Simply put, if you compiled a list of the tallest peaks in the state, the 14ers would comprise the highest summits but would only get you to #54. If you add the next 46 peaks down the list, the highest of the 13ers, then you have the 100 tallest mountains in Colorado, a.k.a the Colorado Centennial Peaks or Colorado 100. To see the list, click here. With Christy as a regular partner, I finished climbing them in 2006 and now she is just one peak shy of finishing herself. Unlike the shorter 14ers list, the goal for the 100 is not to ski them but more simply just to summit. In the summer months we hike and in other seasons we ski. And to answer the next obvious question– no one yet has skied every peak on this list. I should emphasize the “yet” in that statement. read more>>>  Nice toss Christy! I've played disc golf at 17,200 feet (Everest Basecamp- see below) but horseshoes at 14K? It was a first for me. Click to enlarge. After a string of fall storms brought snow to much of the state, winter has been on everyones mind. Usually we’re excited to pull the stuff out of the closet and head up to Castle Peak’s Montezuma Basin for some early season skiing but for some reason we weren’t feeling too motivated by the prospect. We wanted to do something different. Christy’s goal of climbing the 100 tallest peaks in Colorado is in its homestretch. The weekend before last she got one more behind her by slogging up Mount Silverheels, leaving her with only three to go. We figured that of the three remaining, Horseshoe Mountain, 13,898 feet, might make a good weekend/Halloween outing so off we went. Horseshoe Mountain is in the Mosquito Range, between the towns of Leadville and Fairplay and just south of the 14er Mount Sherman. Unfortunately, there have been an unusually high number of reported avalanche accidents and incidents this season already. The list is posted here. We hoped to stay off that list so we weren’t looking for anything too spicy and thought Horseshoe, with a couple of routes to pick from, would be a reasonably safe outing. And we figured since it was the summit we were after and not a thrilling descent, we could bring the skis, see what we found and make the call then. If it was too thin we could leave them behind. We knew it was on the receiving end of recent storms but it’s also one of the windiest places in the state and we weren’t sure if the new snow had been blown all the way to Nebraska, as is often the case. In sum– we wanted some snow, but not too much. And that’s exactly what we found, so we went skiing. read more>>> Christy decided it was time for a challenge. Through the years she had honed her skills on peaks in the San Juans, Sangres and Elks and she was at her peak in terms of physical and mental toughness. The weather looked good, the snowpack was stable– everything was right. She was ready for Mount Bross. Mount Bross – 14,172 ft. The line:
This required perfect execution. read more>>> |
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