Snow and Fourteener Skiers

For the time being we’re on a vacation from global warming, as the northern hemisphere snowpack reached record levels this winter.

Colorado, yesterday.

If the snowy season had been hot and dry, we’d have heard endless spew from the “Warmists” about how doom was now upon us. Instead, much climate change rhetoric seems to have died down to a potent silence. Meanwhile, despite our well used jackets we still feel the climate has warmed — yet as always we’re skeptical about associated politics and preaching.

But summer is just around the corner, so expect the shouting to begin anew. To that end, here in Colorado I expect we’ll get a warming event fairly soon, and when that hits our overburdened mountains the floods may be of epic proportions (both floods of water and words).

Meanwhile, fourteener skiers here in Colorado are pounding our epic snowpack. Ted Mahon completed his descents of all 54 peaks with his and Al Beyer’s stunning new route on Capitol, as we blogged a few weeks ago. Next in line is Frank Konsella, who’s headed for Mount Harvard this weekend as his last descent of what looks to be a well executed project.

Konsella’s fourteener ski list starts with a 1996 descent of Torrys. As was the case with my somewhat lengthy ‘teeners project, Frank got energized to ski them all quite a few years after his first, and picked them off quickly after that. While I admire and enjoy Chris Davenport’s having skied them all in 12 months, and Mahon having a fairly fast project as well, it’s nice to see Konsella bringing it down to earth. Fact is, unless you’re leading a lifestyle with tons of free time and job flexibility, and are blessed with a string of good snow years, you’re simply not going to do complete ski descents of all 54 peaks at a scorching pace. Thus, unless you’re going for a record like Dav, my recommendation is to leave off the speed effort and simply enjoy the process. Oh, and one other thing, don’t leave the hardest for last.