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7 Early Season Mountain Bike Rides near Crested Butte

May 25, 2017May 28, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella 0 Comment

In May, the valley of Crested Butte glows in emerald green while the mountains still glimmer with white. It’s a time of transition and locals know that the changes can be huge, even from day to day. Snowmelt can happen alarmingly fast in some places, and utterly slow in others. Even so, there are certain trails that melt out earlier than others, where avid mountain bikers can begin to satiate their hunger for “brown pow”. Here, we have listed 7 of the best early season mountain bike rides near Crested Butte for all to enjoy!

Backcountry Skiing Front Range

TBT: Rollins Pass Summer Skiing (June 2006)

May 18, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella 0 Comment

Back in 2006, I didn’t want the ski season to end. I mean, most years that’s how I feel. But, that was the year that I started to meet people who felt the same way. My friend Dave had talked about skiing some lines up by Rollins Pass in summer. So, when the calendar finally changed seasons, we headed up to that area of the Continental Divide.

Biking Gimps

ACL Recovery Update: 6 months post-op

May 17, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella 0 Comment

Every step of recovery is big. But, with improvement, each step takes longer and longer. After my knee surgery, improvements were fast with the first week. After a month, the straight leg brace came off and I was able to actually begin riding my trainer and improve my strength. At month three, I could ride my bike outside. And then after 6 months I can finally ride my bike on single track.

Travel

Bocas del Toro Boat Tour

May 15, 2017May 24, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella 0 Comment

The Panamanian archipelago surrounding Bocas del Toro is best done by boat. If you book your tour somewhere in Bocas Town, you’ll likely end up crammed on some tiny boat with 20 other tourists. So, when we found out that a boat tour was leaving straight from our dock at Koko Resort on the other side of Bocas Town, we were game on. A tour with 5 sounded a whole lot better than a tour with 20.

Biking Travel

Bocas Del Toro

May 7, 2017May 24, 2017 Frank Konsella 0 Comment

Our next stop was the archipelago of Bocas Del Toro in northern Panama, near the Costa Rica border. We kept seeing pictures of these islands while we investigated Panama, and since I’m a huge Survivor fan, I probably remember the islands from a few seasons ago. Bocas can be reached from Costa Rica, or from Panama City via plane,

Gear

Gear Review: Petzl Leopard LLF Crampon

May 4, 2017 Frank Konsella 0 Comment

The Petzl Leopard LLF crampon clocks in at 330 grams, whereas my steel ‘pons are a whopping 900 grams. Not only does the lighter weight make for a lighter pack and lighter feet when they’re on, but it also makes the trailhead game of “Should I take ____?” a whole lot easier.

Travel

Visiting the Panama Canal

May 2, 2017May 4, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella 0 Comment

US History doesn’t usually teach us that we vastly intervened in the politics of “Gran Colombia” and helped Panama become an independent country in 1903. Then we started work on building the Panama Canal ourselves. Oh, and yeah, 18 years later we paid Colombia $25 million in “compensation” for basically stealing a nation from them.

Travel

Panama City

May 1, 2017May 1, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella 0 Comment

We stayed in the Casco Viejo neighborhood which is the historic center of the city and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 2003). The city was actually founded in 1519 a different section called Panama Viejo. But after it fell in 1671 to Captain Henry Morgan, the city was moved 8km southeast to the current Casco Viejo. This peninsula was easier to defend and walls once surrounded the city.

Backcountry Skiing

TBT: Crystal Peak – North Face – then & now

April 27, 2017April 27, 2017 Brittany Walker Konsella 0 Comment

Crystal Peak will always be special to me. Back in April, 2006, my friend Dave Bourassa asked me to join him to ski the north face. When we arrived to the summit, the line had not yet softened. So, we had to bide some time for better conditions. Just below the summit sits a wind drift feature that typically forms and is a good place to seek shelter from the wind. We sat there for quite some time waiting for the sun to do its work, chatting. It was then that I confided to Dave that I was thinking of skiing all of Colorado’s fourteeners. I hadn’t skied a single one of them, yet though, and questioned whether a goal like this was even possible for me. So, I asked Dave if he thought I could do it, and he said he knew I could.

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