Independence Pass
Or don’t even go. Here are two photos of recent natural avalanches that sum up conditions in the backcountry around Aspen. read more>>>
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 Chris approaches the top of the Burnt Mountain climb on Snowmass. The 3rd Annual Aspen Snowmass Power of Four Ski Mountaineering Race was this past weekend. It’s great to see this race so popular and run so smooth. Very often new events can be disorganized and struggle to find support. Fifty-eight teams of two took on the full course (14 more did the “Power of Two” half course) in perfect spring weather, and my guess is that those numbers are only going to grow in the years to come. Continual tinkering with the course has made things a little more fun and slightly faster. If a couple more discussed changes take place next year– including a more interesting route for the last climb– the race would likely become a Colorado favorite, if it isn’t already. Congrats to everyone who was there, particularly Max Taam and John Gaston who nabbed the win in an unbelievable 4:54– a time that’s really hard to comprehend when you consider the course is over 25 miles long and climbs more than 12,000 vertical feet. Even though the minor course modifications make the finish times hard to compare year-to-year, the gist is the same, and faster is better. read more>>>
Back in 2008, I put together a crude website where I posted thoughts and photos from my 14er ski project. Unaware at the time the direction it all would take, my attention slowly shifted away from that site and towards this blog. Eventually the blog took up all of my available time, the original site on tedmahon.com was left behind, and with it, I lost those early reports of the ski descents though 2008. In the five years since then, Christy also finished skiing the 14ers and put together her own separate list of descents. Some overlapped with mine, others were new (and often repeats for me), some were shared on the blog as they occurred, and still others went unreported. After I realized how many 14er ski days we had between us– 113 at my count– I realized I needed to consolidate it all. The old lists are coming down, and the new one will be posted on our header menu at the top of the page. read more>>>
Christy, Joey, and I joined Al and Ruthie up at their cabin recently and we had our first full touring weekend of the winter. Even if the stability wasn’t good enough to ski some of the big lines, it was such a great couple of days of skinning and skiing. read more>>>
For the superstitious skier, it’s usually a bad idea to talk about a snow storm before it arrives. But this ski season so far has been lacking in terms of snow, so whatever steps we’ve taken to keep from jinxing the snowfall hasn’t been effective, and there’s a storm on the way. So I’m going to take the opposite approach and share some powder pics from earlier in the season in hopes that it brings the snow. Chris and I were in Canada in December at CMH Valemount and shot photos for Kastle’s new ski, the BMX 128, and I think we came home with a few good ones. Here’s to the anti-jinx! read more>>>  Joey in the Pope Chute. In need of a change of scenery after a hectic holiday stretch in Aspen, we went down to ski Silverton Mountain last weekend. They were a little light on snow, and the temps were frigid (-22F as we drove to the ski area Saturday morning), but Christy, Joey, and I still had a great time. read more>>> |
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It took a little while, but I finally managed to get the trip reports from our 14er ski descents back online.
It’s just different up on Chair. For whatever reason, its location– between McClure, Kebler, and Schofield passes– seems to draw several times more snow than nearby mountains. I probed around high in the basin and measured 300cm , almost three times what we have in Aspen.
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