Fishing the Gunnison Gorge

June 13, 2008June 14, 2008

Just got back from a three day rafting and fly fishing trip through the Gunnison Gorge, a 14 mile stretch of the Gunnison River downstream of the famous Black Canyon in Colorado. Due to this winter’s record snowfalls, the river was flowing at more than double the normal flow, and the normally emerald green water was a murky brown color full of silt. Also, we were too early for the famous stonefly hatch, which is unusually late this year. Unfortunately, these abnormal conditions put a serious damper on the fishing action. Despite the slow fishing, the trip was still fun just to raft through this spectacular canyon and to camp along the river with my dad and our buddies, with the deluxe camps provided by Rigs.

See many more photos from our trip below.

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Cirque Mountain Sunrise

June 13, 2008November 10, 2013

[+] Sunrise alpenglow on the peaks above Yankee Boy Basin, San Juan Mountains, Colorado.

This last Monday I woke up at 2am, drove up to Yankee Boy Basin, and hiked in the dark via headlamp up to the ridgeline of Cirque Mountain, a 13-thousand footer with a nice view of neighboring Mount Sneffels. With a solid overnight freeze, the snowpack was hard as a rock and the hiking was easy with my crampons. Dawn was just starting to break when I got to my destination, so I put on all my layers, put the hand warmers in my gloves, and hunkered down behind a big rock out of the chilly wind while I waited for the sunrise.

Here’s a few digital shots of the sunrise. You can see my large format shot here.

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Snowpack Dust Pollution

May 29, 2008May 1, 2015

Today I hiked and snowboarded down Mt. Sneffels (see the riding photos in the next post). Here’s the classic view looking from the summit into Blue Lakes Basin. Notice all the ugly brown snow?

When it’s windy in the western states, dust blows from the deserts and ends up smothering the mountains. It’s a phenomenon that has probably happened naturally through the ages, but has become much worse in recent decades due in part to large scale grazing which erodes the desert soils. I’ve even heard that some of the dust blows all the way across the Pacific from huge dust storms in China!

In any case, the dust has a terrible effect not only on the snowpack but on the entire watershed. The dark dust absorbs much more solar radiation than pure white snow, causing a rapid meltdown of the snowpack. In heavy snow years like this year, it could cause flooding problems. In light snow years, it can cause premature meltdown, leading to drought conditions during the summer.

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Mt. Sneffels Descent

May 29, 2008November 10, 2013

This morning my friends Parker and Aimee and I hiked up and snowboarded down Mt. Sneffels, the iconic fourteener above Ridgway and Ouray. Oddly, this was only my second time on this local 14er; the first time was way back in June 2005 when I rode down a different line, also with Parker and Aimee.

[+] Parker McAbery snowboards down Mt. Sneffels.

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Memorial Day Ride

May 26, 2008May 19, 2013

Windy and unsettled weather up on the pass today. We did a nice long route that I’ve had in mind for the last few months. The mountains in this area form big broad basins above treeline, offering mellow skinning up above 13,000 feet. We splitboarded up one basin and rode down an entirely different one.

[+] Fortunately the wind was to our backs during the whole hike up.

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Late May Powder Day

May 24, 2008May 19, 2013

Jeff and I were pleasantly surprised to find some fresh powder this morning up in Yankee Boy Basin. Not a whole lot of powder, but powder nonetheless. The surface below was fairly soft and the new 4-5 inches of snow was pretty well bonded, providing some great cruisey late season pow turns.

[+] Making progress on plowing Camp Bird Road. It’s almost to the spring trailhead now. What a snowpack!

[+] Jeff Skoloda skis some powder with Mt. Sneffels behind.

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Skiing Kismet

May 17, 2008May 19, 2013

On Saturday some friends and I skied/snowboarded down Kismet, a 13,694 foot peak neighboring Mt. Sneffels. A solid overnight freeze, bluebird skies, and perfectly smooth snow made for a dreamy high-speed cruiser descent.

[+] Skinning up Kismet, with Gilpin Peak, also 13,694′, in the background.

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Cathedral’s Pearl

May 16, 2008May 19, 2013

On Friday I met my friends to hike and ride the Pearl Couloir on Cathedral Peak, a rugged 13,943 ft. mountain in the Elk Mountains near Aspen, Colorado.

[+] Approaching the Pearl Couloir, which is the curving chute above Ann’s head in this photo. Though the weather was cloudy and threatening to storm, and we knew the snow conditions wouldn’t be optimal, we decided to head up the couloir anyways.

[+] Bootpacking up the steep Pearl Couloir.

[+] The last section up to the summit ridge was very steep, requiring some nerve-wracking scrambling up rocks and very steep snow.

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Trust for Public Land – Wilson Peak

May 14, 2008November 10, 2013

I am pleased that the Trust for Public Land recently published a magazine article about Wilson Peak featuring one of my photos of this iconic mountain near Telluride. I am even more pleased that access to Wilson Peak has been secured by the Trust for Public Land after years of being blocked by a Texan developer.

Wilson Peak is one of Colorado’s most beautiful and most recognized peaks, and in 2007 a Texan real estate developer who owned some mining claims below the mountain closed access to the standard hiking route (all other routes involve much more dangerous mountaineering). After negotiations with the National Forest Service made no progress, The Trust for Public Land stepped in and was able to purchase critical portions of the property in order to reopen and protect public access.

You can read the online version of the article here.

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Skiing Abrams Mountain

May 11, 2008May 19, 2013

Abrams Mountain is the big pyramid-shaped peak that you see towering at the head of the Ouray valley as you drive in from the north. Today we skied/snowboarded a fun 3,000-foot line down this mountain. There’s so much snow up in the high country still; we’ll be skiing into July probably. Here’s some pictures.

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