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A Day in the Clouds
I went south this weekend and hiked into Willow Lake to climb Challenger Point (14.081) and Kit Carson Peak (14.165). It was an incredible hike and both mountains were great climbs. The camping at the lake wasn’t that bad either… Here is a video of the trip and a few pictures as well. I’ll upload a full gallery in a bit.
Climbing Challenger Point from Willow Lake
On the ridge climbing towards Challenger Points summit
Jim and Tyler enjoy Pringles at the top, a tradition
Greys and Torreys
Ticked 2 14ers off the list this morning. Greys Peak (14.270) and Torreys Peak (14.267) are near Denver, off of I-70.
Here is a little video. Thats definitely the closest I’ve ever been to a ptarmigan (a semi-rare alpine bird that hops around).
South Arapahoe Peak
The plan was to climb South Arapahoe and traverse to North Arapahoe, but I was going to be cutting it close getting to work at the library by 2, so the classic traverse will have to wait.
South Arapahoe rises sharply above my right shoulder
Approaching the saddle, South Arapahoe is right of center here.
The wading game
Trevor and I have had a rough few days fishing. After unnsuccesful attempts at Grand Lake, and then Brainard/Red Rock Lake, we went down to Rocky Mountain Angler (local fly store, incredible, do go) and asked for help.
Brian told us some great places to check out in Rocky Mountain National Park, as well as a few lakes in the Indian Peaks which are still frozen solid. Last night we went back to Brainard to try out the new flies and see if our timing, right around sunset, would help.
The fish were definitely rising, but I didn’t have the right size fly. The hatch is still tiny, and I was fishing something that kind of looked like what was flying/landing above the water, but was about 3 times too large. The frustrating thing was seeing the fish hit my fly, just to figure out it was indeed fake, and spit it out.
We took the Hero and got some cool video, were hoping to make a fishing epic by the end of the summer. Now we just need to catch something.
That ripple out there is a fish tasting, but not taking, my fly
Mt. Neva, round 4
Attempting Mt Neva’s north ridge for the fourth time tomorrow morning. I’m leaving Boulder at 4 am so I’ll have plenty of time to hike up there before any storms start building (I hope).
Hopefully I can edit this post with a picture of me on top.
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It’s done! Scratch Mt. Neva off the list.
Mt. Neva, north ridge is visible from right to left
The hard part. Never felt like I needed a rope, but it is a bit "airy"
Once above the steep streaked wall, its a walk in (2 mile high) park
On top, 12'836'
Awesome Jeep Ad
I thought this new Jeep ad was awesome, plus the new Grand Cherokee looks incredible.
From the Archives: 1959 First Ascent of Mt. McKinley’s West Rib (via High Places: The Blog of the American Alpine Club Library)
This is a blog post I wrote over the last 2 weeks at the AAC library. Make sure you check out the pictures on Flickr, they look incredible for being 51 years old (to the day!).
Thanks,
brendan
via High Places: The Blog of the American Alpine Club Library
