A Successful Orizaba Expedition in '09 !

Last month I was lucky enough to accompany Joe and three strong climbers, Dan, Dean and John on Timberline Mountain Guides' annual trip to Mexico to climb El Pico De Orizaba, and we had a truly memorable expedition.

We were dealt some adverse weather, and not everyone on the team made it to the summit, but we had a great trip nonetheless.

We met some fantastic people, ate some delicious food, and had a hell of an adventure up on the mountain. The full picture set is available at my Flickr account.

I'll be looking forward to next year's expedition!

Ames Ice Hose & a Blizzard? Sure.

Yesterday was a great day in Telluride if you like ice and snow, or more like snowy ice, and come to think of it, snowy everything (snowy rock, snowy gloves, snowy jackets, snowy pants, snowy boots, snowy faces, snowy ropes - just snowiness in general, if that's a word, which I'm pretty sure it isn't).

My good buddy John and I decided to head over from Ouray to climb the mega-classic Ames Ice Hose. The Ice Hose was one of the few routes I knew I needed to climb when I came out here for the winter and it didn't disappoint. It's an unbelievably elegant looking line, snaking its way six hundred feet up a massive cliff sitting high above the old mining village of Ames. The route is steep, atmospheric and amazing.

At times the ice is no wider than your shoulders as it passes through the second pitch chimney, and by the top you're in a sea of it. Amazing. One of the best routes I've done in a while, and the storm we climbed in only added to the character of the whole experience. The complete picture set is up on my Flickr account. Awesome stuff (the climb, that is).

Colorado Climbing & Skiing: Still Pretty Alright

Well I figured after I mentioned coming to Ouray for the climbing in a post about going to Crested Butte for the skiing, I should maybe post a few climbing shots.

A few days ago I went out with my friend Libby, and we had a good ol' fashioned multi-sport day. We started out by heading up to Red Mountain Pass, which sits south of Ouray and east of Telluride, and taking advantage of some really nice stable snow conditions before an impending storm (which is now dumping on us here in the San Juans), we skinned up Red Mountain #1 to ski a couloir into the Gray Copper drainage.

As we were skinning up and getting pretty close to the summit of the peak, Libby mentioned how much she would miss the area after she split next week, and she said she liked how close to the sky you feel around here. I couldn't help but agree.

I'd say Libby was living pretty close to the sky dropping into the couloir.

We were able to find some pretty soft snow that had blown from the west onto this northeastern aspect. Surprisingly soft powder all the way down made the booting at the top all the more rewarding.

The start of our line is somewhere to the left of the prominent black crag at the top of the gully. Not bad for two weeks of warm warm weather after the last snow.

After we finished skiing back to the car, we headed to the ice park for a few laps on some ice and on Libby's project, a tricky and wicked pumpy M7+ called Super Dave. Unlike most of the hard mixed lines in the park, this one has no bolts on it and takes a selection of cams and nuts in the crack it follows. It's hard. I may need to make it my project too.

It starts out with some cruiser ice up to a thin crack that splits the headwall above. You climbing is an athletic series of moves off hooks, torques and some fairly crazy stems. The light was flat when we were down there, but here you can see how steep it is as Libby dominates the business section of the climb.

Needless to say, she fired it.








Tomorrow it's off to Telluride to say hello to one of the San Juan's mega-classics, the Ames Ice Hose. Reports will be forthcoming.

TMG Guides Unite and Shred Pow (Go Skiing)!

Much as I love living and climbing in the Northwest, this winter I thought I'd head to Colorado in search of the one climbing medium we don't really have in Oregon - ice. I decided I'd spent the season in the US's ice climbing Mecca, Ouray Colorado. Well Ouray happens to be pretty close to another of the country's winter hotspots, the backcountry ski paradise of Crested Butte, home most of the year to TMG guide Johnny Mackinnon. Needless to say I had to head up and get in some skiing.


I feel like some places just sort of beckon one to do something - Yosemite makes me want to climb rocks, Big Sur makes me want to go surfing, well Crested Butte is one of those places and it makes you really want to go skiing. The terrain is amazing. The town sits on the southern end of the Elk Range, about forty miles south of Aspen, which guards the northern end of the range. Between them is a plethora of ridges, bowls and glades that look like a dream. Anyway, with John as my guide (meaning I get to make him break trail most of the day!) we got out there and got ourselves into some of the "creamy creamy pow" (read soft powder).
We toured a few thousand feet up a ridge on the backside of Mt. Emmons, between the Wolverine and Redwell basins, and we skied a very right couloir called The Wrong Chute.

We had a great time. We took more photos that are up on my Flickr site. If you like to ski and would like to try the Colorado backcountry, John will be working all winter with Crested Butte Mountain Guides. Fun.