Crested Butte Ski Season 2016-17. So Far.
You can make lemonade out of lemons. Or this year, you can make beer out of grain, hops, yeast, and water. Which is how this year is going so far. It’s beer, not lemonade.
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Author: Frank Konsella
Review: Off-Piste Ski Atlas Silverton, CO
The San Juans are one of my favorite ranges for backcountry skiing anywhere. Lots of vertical, plentiful snowfall most seasons, and terrific access thanks to the miners of the late 1800’s. Silverton lies in the heart of the range, and if you haven’t been, you should go.
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Review: Off-Piste Ski Atlas Crested Butte, CO
If you are looking for an in-depth guidebook, this isn’t it. While there are directions to the trailhead, and a general discussion of skintrack locations, that’s it. No hand-holding here. The atlas contains only the most relevant information, such as aspect and location, along with aerial photos of the zone.
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5 Things Backcountry Skiers Should Stop Doing
It’s that time of year- Festivus! And part of Festivus is the airing of grievances. No, these aren’t 5 things backcountry skiers should stop doing that have anything to do with something important, like avalanche safety. They aren’t things that are going to get you killed. These are just things that annoy me- so take it with the grain of salt and humor that is intended here. Chances are, most readers will even do some of these things, especially the last one. So here you go, my Festivus airing of grievances in 2017:
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Dumb Things Done Part 3 of 3
“Dumb things” is probably a little bit of a strong statement for what I hope these blog posts will be. Perhaps “Avalanche mistakes I’ve made and the lessons I’ve learned from them” would have been a more appropriate title, but missing the eye-catching alliterative aspects of this one. Part 1 can be found here, and part 2 is here. It is my hope that these posts will at the very least offer something to the reader to learn from, since near misses are less talked about…
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Colorado Ice Climbing in November
As I write this on the last day of November, the temperature is in the teens and it got well
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Red Table Mountain: The Big Loop 10.2.16
When Brittany and I let our friend Ann know that we would be in her neck of the woods for a wedding on 10/1, she said “Great, I’ve got a ride just for you!” Sounds great, we said- what do you have in mind? “Oh you know, your kind of thing.. It’s an adventure ride. No one really rides it. It should be like 30 miles and 8 hours and 6000′-vertical. I haven’t done it yet.” We thought, an 8 hour adventure ride the day after a wedding with an open bar. What could possibly go wrong?
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Boss Lake Trail on the CDNST 9.11.16
Earlier this summer, while I was waiting for Brittany to finish running shuttle for the Monarch Crest, I started talking to some other mountain bikers on Monarch Pass. They were heading north of the pass to ride the Boss Lake Trail, which is part of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. Hmmn, something new, I thought? The more I looked at it on the map, the more I wanted to add another Monarch Pass area ride to the list. Asking around a bit, the few riders who knew about it said that it was steep, rugged, and technical. Perfect.
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MTB: Tunnel Lake Trail to Tincup 8.20.16
After a great downhill to the Tincup Pass road, I had a good sized climb ahead of me back to the continental divide. Mountain biking in this area is always a trip compared to Crested Butte. In Crested Butte, everyone expects mountain bikers. Around here, people are mostly on their ATV’s, and they look at me like I just successfully landed on the moon. I had never been down the other side of Tincup pass- and it’s much harder than the East side.
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