Witter

Climbed and skied witter today with the bro. Above the clouds, nary a breath of wind, steep snow, soft too. Started the day at 1:30am, left the house with a cup of coffee and the promise of a new day. Early hours walking the lonely road, the eastern glow awash in the sky above the clouds. Peaks looming overhead. A perfect day.

Humboldt

It was a tough day, 13+ miles 5,300 vertical, I started from the lower TH at 8,800 at 4:15am. The clouds were threatening all day, so I said some prayers asking for a cloud free Humboldt for the ascent. Wouldn't you know it the clouds stayed away and upon opening the summit register the first comment I read said "Praise God indeed". After that the clouds rolled in and it started snowing, I should have prayed for bluebird all day. I forgot the camera at home but wrote a little Humboldt TR anyways.

Shavano and Tabeguache

What a weekend, my toe hurts and my legs are really sore. All in all a great day, 16 miles, 6,300 vertical feet and skiing off the summit of two fourteeners. #33 and #34, running out of the easy ones! TR coming soon... Shav and Tab TR

What's left to do?

After breaking down the 58 14ers into easy, medium, and hard groupings, I figured there's about 14 beginner 14ers to ski, 22 intermediate, 20 difficult,and 2 most difficult.


According to my list I've complete 14/14 of the beginner 14ers.

I've done 22/22 of the intermediate ones

True to form I've only done 13 of the 20 difficult ones, left to do are Crestone Needle, El Diente, Windom, North and South Eolus, Sunlight, and Wilson Peak. This is what keeps me up at night.


In the most difficult category, I'm 0/2, with Pyramid and Capitol in a league of their own. It would be nice to ski all the 14ers but these peaks might just be too risky for me at this point in my life.

I like things organized into compartments, with 48 completed and 10 remaining, doing the 58 list. I hope to do 3-4 every year, so with 12 total left to do I hope to be done in about 4 years, by the time I turn 45. No rush, the mountains aren't going anywhere and the equipment keeps getting better.

Broken down by Range:
Front Range - done
Mosquito\Tenmile - done
Sawatch -done
Elks - pyramid, capitol
Sangres - The needle
San Juan -  sunlight, windom, euolos,  n.eolous, wilson peak,  el diente.


A high camp at south colony lakes and skiing the needle would be a great trip, so much exploring left to do in the Sangres and looking forward to it as I love the remote feel of that range.

Down in the San Juans you have to do the Chicago Peaks trip, hopefully one memorial day weekend we'll tackle that one. The Wilsons are a long way for home and pretty difficult, so I would imagine that they along with Capitol and Pyramid will be the last ones I get to.

Pikes Peak Ski

With spring ending and baby number 3 on the way I took the final trip of the 2008-2009 ski year and it was as good as it gets. TR here. Pikes Peak TGR TR

Ski Most of the 14ers

The following is a list of my "Ski Most of the 14ers" project. It all started on July 4th, 1998, with a ski descent of Torreys Peak with a pair of skis found in a dumpster outide my apartment. Since then I've tried to ski a few peaks a year, mainly on our annual Memorial Day trip. The latest trip was a debacle of epic proportions up to Lake Como, resulting in several days of pushing the route higher and higher up Blanca but ultimately succumbing to the beast. Next time we'll need to get a Navajo blessing.

A huge thanks to my many partners throughout these trips, Gabe Fielding, Steve Hetzel, Marcel Godbout, Chris Cavallaro, but it is my brother Mike that gets the most props for accompanying me on most of these journies. Never complaining, never wavering, the ultimate partner.

Date	Peak	Route	Trip Report	Partners	Summit Ski
7/1998	Torreys	dead dog	None	Mike	yes
6/1999	Grays	east slopes	No TR or summit ski, done right later	Mike	no
5/2000	S.Maroon	east chutes	No TR or summit ski, done right later	Mike Cab Perry	no
4/2001	Quandary	Cristo	Cristo TR	Cab	yes
5/2001	Challenger	Kirk Couloir	Challenger TR	Mike\Gabe	yes
6/2001	La Plata	north face	La Plata TR	Solo	yes
5/2002	Massive	east face	None	Gabe	yes
3/2002	Elbert	elbert trail	Elbert TR	Mike\Gabe	yes
11/2002	Bierdstat	West Slopes	None	None	yes
3/2003	Quandary	East Face	None	Marcel	yes
4/2003	Lincoln	Putnam Gulch	None	Hetzel	yes
5/2003	Belford	West/East faces	None	Cab\Mike\Jim	yes
5/2003	Oxford	west slopes	None	Mike	yes
5/2003	Missouri	North Ridge	None	Mike	yes
5/2004	Wetterhorn	East Face	Wetterhorn TR	Mike\Cab	yes
5/2004	RedCloud	NE Ridge Climb	Redcloud TR	Mike\Cab\Jim\Hetzel	yes
5/2004	Sunshine	NW Face	Sunshine TR	Mike	yes
5/2004	Handies	American Basin	Handies TR	Mike	yes
4/2005	Democrat	Standard ridge from Kite Lake	None	Solo	yes
5/2005	Harvard	South Face	Harvard TR	Hetzel\Gabe	yes
3/2006	Bierdstat	West Slopes	Video	Mike	yes
4/2006	Sherman	Hilltop Bowl from Four Mile Creek	None	Solo	yes
5/2006	Castle	Castle North Couloir	Castle TR	Mike	yes
5/2006	Conundrum	Conundrum Couloir	Conundrum TR	Mike	yes
5/2006	Snowmass	Snowmass Bowl	Snowmass TR	Mike	yes
1/2007	Evans	Northeast face	Evans TR	Mike	yes
4/2007	Bross	Moose Creek Gulch	None	Mike	yes
5/2007	Columbia	Three Elk Creek	None	Mike\Hetzel	yes
5/2007	Huron	East Face	None	Mike	yes
5/2007	Missouri	North Face	None	Mike	yes
4/2008	Grays	Stevens Gulch	Grays TR	Mike	yes
4/2008	Longs	Keplingers Couloir	Longs TR	Mike	yes
5/2008	Mount Yale	Avalanche Gulch	Yale TR	Mike\Jay	yes
5/2008	Mount Princeton	east slopes	Princeton TR	Mike\Hetzel	yes
1/2009	Uncompahgre Peak	South Ridge	Uncompahgre TR	Mike	yes
3/2009	Mount Antero	Baldwin Gulch	Antero TR	Mike\Gabe	yes
6/2009	Pikes Peak	Railroad Couloir	Pikes TR	Solo	yes
3/2010	Shavano and Tabeguache	Angel to North Ridge	Shav and Tab TR	Mike	yes
5/2010	Humboldt	South Slopes	Humboldt TR	Solo	yes
5/2010	Maroon	Bell Cord	Maroon TR	Mike	yes
5/2011	Lindsey	North Gully	Lindsey TR	Solo	yes
5/2011	Crestone Peak	South Face	Crestone TR	Mike	just below the step off the summit
3/2012	San Luis Peak	Yawner Gully	San Luis TR	Mike	yes
4/2012	Holy Cross	Cross Couloir	Holy Cross TR	Mike	yes
5/2013	Kit Carson	OB Couloir	Kit Carson TR	Bill, Otina	yes
5/2013	North Maroon	North Face	North Maroon TR	Mike	yes
5/2014	Mount Sneffles	Birthday Chutes	Sneffles TR	Mike	yes
3/2015	Mount Cameron	East Slopes	Cameron TR	Solo	yes
5/2015	Blanca Peak	NW Face	Blanca TR	Mike	yes
5/2015	Little Bear Peak	Hourglass	Little Bear TR	Mike	yes
4/2016	Ellingwood Point	South Face	Ellingwood TR	Mike	yes
5/2016	Mount Wilson	East Face	Mount Wilson TR	Mike	from saddle 100 feet below summit
5/2016	Culebra	West Ridge	TR	14ers group	yes

Total 14ers skied -- 49
By category, this is a rough outline of the relative difficulty of the combined climb and ski descent of the peak.

Quandary, Elbert, Bierdstat, Lincoln, Oxford, Redcloud, Democrat, Sherman, Bross, Princeton, Antero, Humboldt

Torreys, Challenger, Massive, Handies, Belford,Huron, Missouri, Sunshine, Harvard, Castle, Conundrum,Evans, Columbia, Huron, Grays, Yale, Uncompahgre, Shavano, Tabeguache, Lindsey, San Luis, Blanca, Ellingwood, Culebra

Longs, Wetterhorn, Snowmass, Maroon, La Plata, Holy Cross, Crestone Peak, Kit Carson, North Maroon, Sneffles, Little Bear, Mount Wilson

None

Game 5 turning point

The turning point was when Paplebon let up 2 runs in the top of the 7th, then after Big Papi’s home run made it 7-4, I said to Marcel “I can’t believe they let up those two runs, it could be 5-4 right now. Marcel said “Never say can’t, pick yourself up off the floor, go to that fridge, fetch me a coors light, and get yourself a boston ale you worthless piece of crap”. The rest is history.