Summer in the High Country

Me on the third class section of Ellingwood Ledges.

Josh and I were both able to get Friday off so Thursday night we headed down South to the Sangre de Cristo range for some backcountry alpine climbing. We bounced our way up a bumpy 4WD road for a few miles to reach the trailhead followed by a headlamp approach to Upper Colony Lake. In the morning we were up at first light and roped up for the Ellingwood Ledges route on Crestone Needle (III 5.7, 2000'). This is one of the 50 crowded climbs in North America which we observed firsthand with four other parties on route, on a Friday no less. The climbing was fun on a bomber welded conglomerate and we moved quickly staying ahead of the other groups. Josh put in a great lead up the crux pitch in a right facing dihedral just below the summit.


Ellingwood Ledges route with Upper Colony Lake in the foreground.

From the top of Crestone Needle we headed to nearby Crestone Peak. This is one of the classic fourth class 14er traverses in Colorado. We opted to down climb the Needle instead of rappelling. this was a bit exposed with challenging route finding, but it went off without a hitch. The down climbing completed it was another fun scramble up more conglomerate to the summit of the Peak. We descended the Peak via the NE Couloir to Bear's Playground just as the skies opened up. By the time we made our tent we were soaked to the bone.


Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep that liked the salt in Josh's pee.

Saturday we intended to climb the Prow on Kit Carson but were feeling a lack of motivation so instead opted for a leisurely hike up Humboldt Peak. The highlight of this fun grassy ridge was all the baby animals. We saw lots of baby marmots, pikas and some baby ptarmigan. On the way down I took a slight detour to do a wonderful mile long ridge traverse to recover some gear we had cached the day before in anticipation of our Kit Carson climb. Josh had a nice warm lunch ready for me when I made it back to camp and we spent the afternoon swimming in the lake, bouldering, napping, eating, playing with sheep, and generally having a great time. Somehow the rain showers avoided us for the majority of the afternoon.

First Raft Descent of the Big South Fork of the Cache de la Poudre

Adrian Matthew Glasenapp put together this series photo of Sean and I on Double Trouble. Thanks Adrian!

Sunday morning I picked up Sean Davis nice and early for a mission to the headwaters of the Poudre. To the best of our collective knowledge, this Colorado kayaking classic had never been rafted. The Big South is an absolutely beautiful creek with steep 200 fpm gradients and tons of III and IV between the numerous class V drops. We put on early to allow ample time for our exploratory descent, but were soon caught up by the 50 or so kayakers that ventured down Big South that day. We had unwitting chosen the busiest day of the year on Big South. The extra encouragement, beta and safety from the numerous kayakers was most appreciated.

All told we had a pretty great day. We missed a line in one of the first drops, Starter Fluid, and I swam a short waterfall. Then we had to carry or line the boat a few times in the first gorge because the slots were just too narrow for our wide selves. At this point we were feeling like rafting Big South may not have been the best idea. Things turned in our favor really quick with Prime Time gorge and Double Trouble. This section was awesome and our lines were spot on. We arrived at Double Trouble just as Leif Embertson and crew finished pulling a log out of the line. It took a little convincing to get Sean on board, but we hit it perfect and had a great line. We had quite the gallery of carnagavoirs expecting to see some swimmers, but I believe they were equally entertained by our clean line.

Slideways is the final big rapid on the run. Here the creek plunges through a quarter mile of boulder choked class V+. The raft crux here is a boof between two boulders on the right, but before we even got there we got bounced left and completely missed our line. The left is extremely nasty and flipped us instantly. Fortunately neither of us had a bad swim. The remainder of the day was uneventful albeit a bit slow due to some wood, around which we were quite careful.

Another highlight of the day came when I was running shuttle. I saw two moose. I previously had no clue that there are moose in Colorado, so needless to say I was quite shocked when I rounded the corner and there were two of the gangly big nosed creatures standing in an alpine meadow.


Leif Embertson got this pic of Sean Davis and I cleaning Double Trouble. I know my position looks funny, but it is an anticipatory highside.

Maroon Bells

The classic picture of the Maroon Bells from Maroon Lake.


Josh making photogenic turns in the Y couloir. Crater lake, where we set basecamp, is the close one.


Josh fixed this one up to show our route. He also has a really cool video of me skiing on his blog that I couldn't steal. Hit the link in the right panel for more pics. From the top of the Y couloir I actually skied the sick cliffed out line skiers right of the route shown.

Last weekend, Josh and I escaped on Thursday to head out to the Maroon Peaks near Aspen. After sleeping in until 4 Friday morning and much dirking around (mostly my fault) we finally managed to climb Maroon Peak via the Bell Cord couloir. We then had a sweet ski down the Y couloir after carrying our skis over the top. It was a long day, but one of the most fun I have had in the mountains in quite some time. It was neat climbing in a simply beautiful setting. Friday night we ate and drank as much as possible before passing out under the stars in a lush meadow right on the shore of the lake. When we woke up Saturday morning we didn't even attempt to climb Pyramid Peak per the original plan. We were too whooped, so we just soaked up the view until the tourist-day-hikers came in.