A couple of things to cover today. First, a few more photos from last weekend.
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| Saturday we opted for resort skiing at Aspen Highlands (staying away from the backcountry because of high avy danger), but still hiked the famed Highland Bowl for a bit of exercise and avalanche spotting. Sure enough, looking southerly from the top of Highland Peak you could see these major natural releases off the east side of Highland Ridge. They ran thousands of feet to the valley below and were sure killers similar to the one that got an avalanche class student a few years ago.
I saw quite a few friends at Highlands. It was fun doing the hike with Ward, a well known and liked Aspenite who does computer work for 10th Mountain Huts along with many other clients. I saw long time friend P. Bingham at the summit — we had a good laugh joking around about my old nickname of the “avalanche magnet” as sure enough there I was, and there were a few avalanches a short distance away. Hopefully that distance will not decrease. Overall it was good to see so many people enjoying the new snow where the ski patrol had made it safe — and good not seeing any tracks leading out into the backcountry where the avalanche conditions were definitely not appropriate for anything but tedious “avoidance” route finding. People are listening to local avalanche reports and making appropriate plans for the day. As long time local and rescue expert Steve Crockett and I spoke about the other day, there are a LOT more people backcountry skiing, but no big increase in avalanche accidents. Proof that someone is doing something right, and kudos to all the volunteers who have worked so hard for so many years with avlanche safety education. |
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| I’ve forgotten how to eat on the cheap, but when I visited the on-mountain restaurant I was re-educated by this young man who was feasting on crackers and small canisters of condiment peanut butter, enhanced by honey and jelly packs. We did buy some hot cocoa, as this creates a more ethical environment for condiment dining. Good to know some of skiing’s most important traditions are alive and well. |
Update, March 7, the CODE Jeep is sold! Chris says “now I’ll build an even better Jeep!” That’ll be interesting, perhaps I can convince him to include a ski rack.
Springtime, so here we go with something only semi-skiing related but some of you more automotive minded blog readers might be interested in. My friend and website client Chris Overacker, owner of CODE4x4, is selling his totally tricked out Jeep YJ Wrangler. If you’re looking for a real recreational rock crawler that also serves as a trail jeep and somewhat of a daily driver, at $15,000 this is one of the best deals I’ve ever seen. You’d spend twice that to build one this good from scratch. More, this is a professionally built rig with none of the hacker junk you’ll frequently find on “built” jeeps for sale. Write a check and you’re ready for turnkey Moab fun! Info here.
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| CODE YJ in action. |
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
