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 The approach, justified. Well actually, skiing 13,300 foot Mount Daly is almost always a great day, as it was for us last Saturday. In fact, I think it would probably be a hugely popular Aspen objective, much like Mount Hayden, were it not for the drawn out approach.
So I say “grind” half-seriously, because the climbing and skiing is usually really fun and worthwhile once up in the basin, it’s just that more often than not, getting in and out can be a real grunt, sometimes feeling like the hardest part of the day.
It has a lot to do with the super-early starts needed to get up in the basin early enough in the day, that to get the necessary alpine start, you’ll be skinning in the dark timber through the late hours of the night, trying to navigate without any well defined trails and it’s just easy to get off route. 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>>>
(Christy here) This weekend I had the honor of attending the 37th Annual Sportswomen of Colorado Awards Celebration. Prior to receiving a letter a few weeks back notifying me that I was the recipient of an award for Superior Performance in Ski Mountaineering, I was not familiar with the organization. Honored to be included, I headed to Denver, and along with my parents, attended the gala event. As it turned out, this was one of the most inspirational and special events I have ever experienced.
Founded in 1974 by the YWCA of Metropolitan Denver, in cooperation with Gart Brothers Sporting Goods Co., Sportswomen of Colorado is recognized as the first community-based organization in the nation to honor athletes at the state level. With the amount of exceptional athletes who live, train, and participate in women’s sports in Colorado, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it has such a long history here. Past Sportswomen of the Year include names like mountaineer Ellen Miller, mountain biker Alison Dunlap, swimmer Amy Van Dyken, and figure skater Dorothy Hamil. 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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