Tried and True

Adventure beckoned. Whenever I need to climb but don't really know what I want, I head for one of my favorites: Wolverine Peak. Well, today was one of those days. Wolverine is tried and true. I can get mileage (13 miles RT), altitude, ridge running, incredible views, and a dandy summit all in under 3 hours. It's the perfect way to spend a few hours on a Sunday--A spiritual adventure!

Cupid and Grizzly Peak

Adventure beckoned. The mountains of Colorado! I had one partial day to climb, so I decided to head up into the Loveland Pass area to explore. With terrible winds and a looming storm, my hopes of climbing a few 14ers was dashed; however, I was able to summit two 13ers: Cupid (13,117) and Grizzly Peak (13,427). It was a glorious and keenly spiritual adventure!     

 

Gearing up for the climb into the mountains of Colorado.

 

 

Cupid as seen from Grizzly Peak

Summit of Grizzly Peak. The winds were cold and ferocious.

Cupid as seen from summit of Grizzly Peak.

Grizzly Peak as seen from route back up Cupid.

Nearing the summit again of Cupid Peak.

The winds were ferocious all day long!

Summit of Cupid. I come in peace.  

 



My wife caught a picture of me near the end of the climb.

Downtown Denver, CO as seen from our rental car.

Ridge to Summit

Adventure beckoned. Yesterday was a busy day around the house, so I compacted a day's worth of adventure into 3 hours. Swift, Tundra, and I followed the ridge from Flatop over to Ptarmigan Pass, up to the summit of Ptarmigan Peak, down to the Rabbit Creek Trail, and back to the truck. Not a bad way to spend 3 hours!

 

Cantwell Adventure Run

Adventure beckoned. The goal was to explore the Cantwell area. Tundra, Swift, and I adventured out into the wild with no particular game plan or desired outcome. We ran through the beautiful tundra, down to a wonderful river, up steep cliffs, and over plush blueberry patches. What a great day! 



 

Archangel Valley

Adventure beckoned. Jason II, Tundra, Swift, and I hiked up into Archangel Valley yesterday. We had beautiful weather and scenery. Amen! 

 

Nagoon Mountain & Twentymile River

Adventure beckoned. After last week's epic adventure into Crow Pass, my friend Todd Kasteler and I decided to crank out another adventure with the added bonus of packrafting. Our plan was to run up into Berry Pass, climb Nagoon Mountain, and packraft out on the Twentymile River. Leaving the Alyeska Prince Hotel at 8:15 with heavier packs than normal and clear skies, we quickly progressed up the Winner Creek Trail to Berry Pass. After a brief reconnaissance of the area, including the deteriorating weather, we made our way up the North East ridge towards Nagoon Mountain. The route consisted of steep loose scree, exposure, and mild route finding. The crux of the route was a sharp exposed drop-off almost 100 feet from the summit. Navigating scree, broken rocks, and exposure, Todd and I very slowly managed our nerves. It is crazy how one small section can take almost 45-minutes to negotiate! Safely down the crux, we blasted our way up to the summit, took photos, enjoyed the cloud covered "views" and made our way back down to Berry Pass for the next phase of the adventure... 

Below is a photo of the last sections of Nagoon Mountain.       

Below are two photos I took while waiting for Todd to negotiate the crux of the climb. The views were spectacular! Totally wild land.

Todd carefully negotiating the perilous crux.

The summit of Nagoon Mountain! The views were pretty much nonexistent.

The clear skies and nice weather we had at the start of the run unfortunately turned into high cold winds and fast approaching rain clouds.

Making our way off the mountain and back down into the lush green Berry Pass, Todd and I began the long decent to Twentymile River for the packrafting phase of the adventure.

Gearing up and refueling for the river. Let the good times continue!

After packrafting for several hours and problem solving challenges, we finally concluded our day at 7:45 p.m. for a total of 11 hours 30 minutes of adventure. Todd, thanks for a great one and God, thanks for the yellow paddle!