Past Featured Trip Reports

Jon's very first climb in Chamonix as well as nearly his first ever crack climb and I figure, "baptism by fire." Up we go on the 6:10 AM cablecar for a quick easy climb in the sunshine. The classic "Rebuffat" route on the Aiguille du Midi South Face. A few hard pitches that I've done before followed by a bunch of easy stuff he can lead too. Bring our packs up and finish for afternoon tea at the summit cafe. Brilliant.

After a successful climb of Capitol last weekend, I felt like finally tackling the Maroon Bells was in order. The traverse between the two peaks has interested me, but after a month of searching I couldn't find someone to lead us. Layne Bracy had done the traverse from south to north and told me the crux climbing was easier than the Peak to Needle crux on the Crestones. That gave me confidence that I could handle the climbing. I brought a 30m rope along just in case anyone wanted to rappel off the steep downclimbs.

Feeling a little bleary-eyed, I met Fabio (aka brenta) at the Glacier Gorge Trailhead at 03:00. I'd gotten no more than two hours of sleep the night before and I was feeling a bit weak as we began the long approach in the dark. Nonetheless we made steady progress and I was feeling pretty good when we arrived at the base of The Spearhead's north ridge a little after 06:00.

After one year of dreams, plans, efforts, a lot of preparation and even some hesitations “show-time” has arrived for the “Blanco” brothers. The moment Gabi and I have long waited with so much enthusiasm is here. Our “rendez-vouz” to climb this mythical mountain has come.

I was determined to get to the Sierra Nevada with my girlfriend, Julia, before she departed Spain for Canada. With two days of holiday left, I booked off the last two weekdays and worked overtime to finish early on the Wednesday, which with the weekend gave us four full days to play with. We found bus routes and booked a night’s accommodation in Capileira, a stunning pueblo blanco situated on the southern slopes of the Sierra at 1400m. We bought tickets for the Sierra Nevada Translation Service shuttle bus up to the Mirador de Trevelez, which at 2700m would give us quick access to the high peaks. We would then spend the next few nights camping and sleeping in unmanned refuges while using the days (I planned) to ascend the three highest peaks, and some subsidiaries (since we were there).

With a forecasted 60% chance of thunderstorms, I was not going to risk a late start on Pyramid Peak. I was on the trail by 3:45, and made easy progress toward Crater Lake. I found the unmarked turnoff for Pyramid Peak by the light of my headlamp without a problem, and mentally verified two things right off the bat: 1. This trail is steep, as promised, and 2. Colorado Fourteeners Initiative has really done a lot of work, making most of the trail very accommodating to the environment and climbers (aside from the inevitable steepness, of course).

Ever since I bought Gerry Roach's 14er guidebook 4 years ago, I have been intrigued by Capitol. When I read about the narrow knife edge across its' n.e ridge, I quickly wrote this peak off my list. I knew this ridge would "expose" my fear of heights. After some class 4 climbs here and there, I felt that I might be able to do Capitol along with the other class 4 14ers. I only had one day on this particular weekend to climb Capitol because of a wedding committment, so a long day hike was in order. My two potential partners bailed and I was fortunate as Brad Snider from summitpost was up for the abuse on short notice.

I didn’t anticipate anything out of the ordinary. I’d been up to Little Rock Creek Lake (and beyond) several times before and knew the trail wasn’t one of the best around. Sure, this would be my first time going to the saddle between Middle and West Como Peaks, but I was prepared to take it slow and expected plenty of bushwhacking, boulder hopping, scrambling, and route finding.

My friend Andrew and I had been trying to get together a trip to Jagged for five years. He lives in Durango, so it is one of his 'local' peaks, and myself, now living in Albuquerque, it is easier to get to than when I lived in Boulder. In years past, several attempts were thwarted by unexpected plans, jobs, and anniversaries. But this year, we made a point of it, and put it in the calendar, and actually bought the Durango & Silverton train tickets. Now we were committed (although all this occurred only two weeks before).

Luckily, I had five days off work over the 4th of July for a trip with my four year old Kessler. My 62 year old father wanted to come along too, which made this a three generation trip and the spread between the oldest and youngest climbers was a difference of 58 years! Chicago Basin was chosen since my father had climbed mountains in most western states, but not Colorado. Chicago Basin is said to have some of the best scenery in Colorado, so it seemed like a logical choice. Also, the mountains are more in tune with the other mountains my family was used to in other states, meaning that you would have to backpack to reach the higher summit, rather than the drive up and walk a few hours theme of some of the other 14ers. Mount Windom, along with Sunlight, is the most isolated of the 14,000 foot peaks in the entire state of Colorado. The train ride to Needleton would be an added bonus as well.