St. Mary's Glacier Hike/Ski

See PHOTOS from our adventure HERE
See a sort VIDEO from our adventure HERE or at end of post.

Yes, Hike and Ski! We got our turns in for July this past Saturday at St. Mary's Glacier. 10 consecutive months of skiing now, hoping to hit 20 at some point.

St. Mary's Glacier stays around all summer and is only about an hour drive from Denver. Once you get to the trail head, there is a short 3/4 mile hike up to the lake. On the far side of the lake, the bottom edge of the Glacier can be seen stretching up the hillside. We made our way around the lake and started up the snow towards the top. There were a few other people hiking up and one guy on skis just finished his descent as we climbed.


The weather was beautiful with blue skies and a bit of a breeze to keep you cool as you hiked. It did not take us long to make it to the top of the Glacier where we threw off our packs and hiked up a bit more over the ridge line to see what was on the other side. You could see the top of James Peak (13,294 ft.) in the distance.


After a quick snack, we strapped on our skis and headed down negotiating the variable and wavy snow conditions. As the snow melts during the summer, wave like patterns are created across the surface of the snow. Tricky to negotiate, especially on teles. But we enjoyed our turns in the dirty snow that was soft in areas and crusty in others. Towards the bottom we saw a large group of snowboarders headed up with rails, shovels and coolers in tow. It would be a great spot to hang out for the weekend and build some jumps. We finished with almost 900 vertical feet under our belts for the month of July.


As we headed down the trail back to the car, with our skis strapped to our packs, we got quite a few inquisitive looks and comments from tourists taking a short day hike to the lake with their kids and dogs.

"Did you go skiing!?", one man asked, "You guys are hardcore!", another women stated. Guess we are hardcore, but we just think of it as a nice walk in the mountains with the opportunity to enjoy where we live.

We are thinking we may head up there again for our August turns. It should still have some pretty good snow pack then as well.

Colorado Rocks!


See PHOTOS from our adventure HERE
See a sort VIDEO from our adventure HERE or below.

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Mt. of the Holy Cross

See photos from the trip HERE
See a video clip of the Holy Cross valley HERE
See a panoramic video clip from the summit HERE

Well, it was quite the interesting weekend to say the least. On Saturday morning we headed out towards Vail to do some hiking, fishing and camping in the Holy Cross Wilderness. As I drove up Tigiwon Road, the eight mile access road to the campground I had a wee problem with my truck. White smoke stated to appear from the undercarriage and I lost all power on the gas. Upon stopping around a corner, I exited to find pretty much all the transmission fluid leaking out onto the road. Ends up I blew the transmission. The truck was towed to the nearest mechanic to sit for the weekend. Fortunately our friends Jaimee and Wes were on their way to join us, so we threw all our gear into their truck and continued on. We were a bit short on room in the Xtera, but it all worked out and we made it to the campground.


After setting up camp we hiked a bit up one of the nearby trails to Notch Creek and did some fly fishing near a beaver pond. The little brookies were biting and we caught a few before we headed back to camp for dinner.


Bright and early on Sunday, 4:00 a.m., Melissa and I woke to hit the trail and hike to the top of Mt. of the Holy Cross. As the sun rose, we arrived at the top of Half Moon pass, about 1,000 ft. vert from camp and at treeline. The trail then heads back down to the valley floor another 1,000 ft. We were not looking forward to tackling that on the way back. After traversing across the side of Notch Mtn. we got our first impressive look at Mt. of the Holy Cross. Quite a site and very imposing to see what the rest of the hike would look like along the north ridge. See a video clip of the Holy Cross valley HERE


After descending to the valley floor and crossing a raging creek, we again began to ascend back towards treeline and the corniced ridge to the summit. We hit some rough bouldered areas along with snow fields and the long cornice, but most of the trail was dry and clear of snow. The views surrounding us were amazing. The snow cornice provided relief from picking through the rocky ridge. After the snow ended we had a sharp ascent to the peak through a rock filled face.


Finally at the peak, mostly covered by snow, we rested and enjoyed the views for about 40 min. This was 14er number 10 for me (plus two double ascents) and nine for Melissa (out of 54 in Colorado). We shared the summit with four other humans and two canines. One of the girls at the top was only 11 and planned to hike all the 14ers by age 17. We wish her good luck and happy climbing! See a panoramic video clip from the summit HERE



After a snack and some hydration we headed down. It was going to be a long trip back. Sometimes you think the way down will be easier than the way up, but after hiking over five miles with 5,000 ft of vert, every step down takes as much effort as the steps up. We saw quite a few Marmots in the boulder field near treeline. As we got closer the the valley below, we remembered the 1,000 ft. of vert we were approaching that was between us and our campsite. The trail that switchbacks multiple times on the way back up to Half Moon pass ends up being one of the hardest parts of the route. We are used to heading all downhill back to the trail head. We pushed through it and returned to camp with another 14er in the bag, 11.5 miles of hiking with almost 6,000 ft of vert in about 9 hours (and one blown transmission).

What a great weekend, for the most part!

Which one will be next on the 14er checklist? Stay tuned to CO Adventure to see.


See photos from the trip HERE
See a video clip of the Holy Cross valley HERE
See a panoramic video clip from the summit HERE

Arrowhead Golf Day

See photos HERE

Melissa, Rich and I went golfing at Arrowhead Golf Club, south of Denver, for a Fathers Day Celebration on Friday. The views were amazing! So much that it greatly distracted us from our games. We won't mention the final scores.

We saw deer, fox, gold eagles and bull frogs on and around the course. Missed out on the bear and mountain lion that the staff said were around as well. It was a beautiful blue sky day and we all had a great time.





See photos HERE
(Rich contributed some of his photos to this album)

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26 and counting

See photos from our weekend HERE
See a pond skimming video compilation HERE
See a bouldering championship video HERE

Colorado in June, what a place! Another great weekend in the mountains. We headed up to Vail on Saturday and met up with our friends Jaimee and Wes at the Vail Teva Mountain Games. Every spring, they put on the country's largest celebration of mountain sport, soul and culture, with professional and amateur outdoor adventure athletes from around the world competing in seven sports and 21 disciplines including mtn. and road biking, trail/mud running, kayaking, rafting, climbing, fly fishing paragliding and dog competitions. They also have art, vendors and live music.


We caught the IFSC Bouldering World Cup finals for men and women. There were some crazy athletes in this comp. Click HERE to see a quick video of one of the women flashing (completing on first attempt) a route. We also saw the end of the Kayaking Freestyle event. Jaimee and Wes headed back to their camping spot down the valley and Melissa and I took off back over Vail Pass to the condo in Keystone. We enjoyed a dip in the hot tub and slept in a bit Sunday morning before Erich showed up to head up to Arapahoe Basin with us. Yes, the Basin is was still open. Last day to be exact. September 15, 2008 - June 7, 2009. That's quite a season! 26 days for me and 25 for Melissa. So far …

The day started out a bit cool, but with mostly blue skies. The snow was almost a slush, but more like a granular slush because of the cool temp. There were only a few runs left open, but we got some good turns in and met up with my friend Waxler for a few more runs. About three quarters of the way up the mountain, there is a flat area with a pond that has formed from the melting snow. This results in many people trying their hand at pond skimming, some more successful than others. Click HERE to see a compilation video of a few people trying some skimming. The last guy had a rough time at it and ended up ejecting from his skis and supermaning across the slush and ice. He was a bit scrapped up and cold at the end, but OK overall.


As we headed to the car, a storm moved in and the weather took a quick turn for the worse. Snow/hail began to fall and thunder clapped all around. We found out later that the top lift was hit by lightning, fortunately no one was hurt. This ended up being part of the same storm that hit the Denver area producing baseball size hail and five tornadoes. Glad we weren't there!



Well, that ends the "resort" ski season for '08/'09. But the skiing is not done yet. We are attempting to ski every month till the resorts open again. That will mean earning our turns by hiking into areas like St. Mary's Glacier or 4th of July Bowl. Stay tuned to CO Adventure to see how that turns out for us!

See photos from our weekend HERE
See a pond skimming video compilation HERE
See a bouldering championship video HERE