May 2008

Crested Butte newspaper is full of flood angst, yesterday we ski slush that never got the nightly firm-up. Then today we head out for Mineral Point and what do we get? Full on blizzard conditions. Abused the Nytro driving on…

Had to deliver grandma Patricia (my mom) back to Crested Butte, so Louie and I loaded up our skis and the Nytro and headed over to the other side of the Elk Mountains. I’ve backcountry skied around Crested Butte quite…

It’s well known to the ski crampon cognicenti that Fritschi OEM ski binding crampons are less than ideal, because they rise with the binding rail and may have little bite when you’re in the higher heel rise positions. To solve…

Lynn Durr is a backcountry skiing peak off the Castle Creek Road out of Aspen. Once they plow the last mile or two of road, as they do every spring around this time, you can backcountry ski a quality 3,000 vertical feet from your tailgate. Our friend Bob Perlmutter got it more than once over the past week, so I figured we’d better get up there and see what was going on. Besides, nice place for son Louie’s first post-high-school backcountry skiing.

WildSnow Evening Edition… Blog reader Joel emailed me and pointed out that our countdown timer was set to the older, more optimistic Independence Pass opening date. (Thanks Joel.) Fact of the matter, Indy is buried in so much snow it’s…

Congratulations to Frank Konsella, 4th person in history to ski all 54 Colorado 14,000 foot fourteener peaks, a ski touring adventure par none.