Echo canyon.

The Ridgway trails are short, but sweet, with fun, swooping singletrack on the hills just south of town. There is great potential here for many more miles of high quality riding. Hopefully, this will happen soon. Umfortumately, trailwork is being held up now by the usual involved beurocratic approval process from the government land management agencies involved.
What’s there now is a good hour’s worth of fun!

High winds today but still good snow to be found on high, north facing slopes.
Luther and I skied the north couloir on Gilpin (left of center in the photo) today.

I skied the Snake Couloir on Mount Sneffels today with Luther Birdzell. The forcast was for extremely high winds, but they stayed at bay until we were off of the summit. Conditions were prime for skiing the steep stuff after the recent snow storms: chalky powder on a well consolidated base. It made for super fun skiing in the 50+ degree, narrow couloir. The road into Yankee Boy Basin is plowed to over 11,000 feet so getting to the summit via the normal, southside route is easy: 3 hours from the car.
We rapped off the summit into the Snake, then skied to 12,000 feet in Blaine basin from where we could skin back over Dyke Col and return to Yankee Boy.
All in all, the skiing is fantastic for this time of year, but it will turn to crap in a hurry as soon as the dust layer surfaces, possibly in a few more days.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of riding with Ridgway’s very own hardman, Randy Charette. Randy carries the proverbial “big stick” when he rides and pretty much destroys any and all in his path as is evidenced by the unlucky fellow pictured here.
We rode the classic Gunny Loop, which has a fast, furious, flickable and fun (4F) descent. Hopefully, he’ll be crushing it like he did here at the Breck Epic, in which he’ll be competing this summer with his wife Jen.

Chasing down Colleen across the Colorado National Monument.

It’s been a great weekend in the Grand Valley. Though it’s still stormy in the high country, temperatures and conditions have been perfect for the desert trails and I’ve been keeping busy on them. I’ve been sticking close to home after being gone so long but there’s plenty to do close by. I was able to do an out an back on the Ribbon with Cody Oates of Aspen on Friday. Here’s a few photos.

After three ass kicking rides over the weekend, I was pretty damn sore all over. Two days of office work, domestic chores and resting has me ready for more intense aerobic and full body action that only a single speed can deliver.
Unfortunately, the weather may have other ideas, at least for today. If so, I’ll take advantage of a recent well spent $7 pictured below. There’s something about the Nuge that just soothes the soul no matter how bad things get outside. Plus, the added benefit of it being on vinyl gives it that special audial quality and requires more attentive listening, if only during the two twenty minute sides.

Mark Cartier & I spent four days on the Tokasitna Glacier waiting for the recent snow to clear from the West Face so we could have a shot at the Harvard Route on Mount Huntington This didn’t happen and with just a few days left on our trip, we decided to bump over to the Root Canal Glacier to try Ham ‘n Eggs on the Moose’s Tooth. This route is a bit lower and faces south, so we figured it was more likely to be clear. Also, we were getting pretty bored sitting around, doing nothing for the past four days.
It was a good call: Ham ‘n Eggs was clean and in good condition. We had spectacular day on which to climb it. The weather and views were amazing! It was a perfect day to be in the mountains. We completed the ascent to the REAL summit (not many go all the way across the ridge to the true summit anymore and, yes, in case you were wondering, the summit still matters) in 9 1/2 hours round trip from our camp. The route had some very fun climbing and is festooned with fixes anchors, many of which are in need of some cleaning. Here’s a few shots.

I had a brief, but action packed break at home between trips this weekend with family. Today, I’m heading for Alaska to climb Mount Huntington with Mark Cartier. We’ll be up there until May 7th.
Besides some quality time at home, sipping margaritas, spinning some vinyl and hanging out with my family, I was able to get in three great rides at the Lunch Loop. The cactus is starting to bloom here and the temps are quite pleasant: mid 70’s. The desert should be in full bloom when I return.
Here are some photos from this weekend’s rides.