Wooden Ski Day at Brainard Lake CMC Cabin
Beautiful Single Track, the South CMC Trail!
John, Brigida, Robert, Carrie, and I skied the CMC South Trail to the CMC Brainard Lake cabin, in honor of Wooden Ski Days. Carrie actually borrowed her wooden skis from Gary Neptune, for the full experience. We arrived about 30 minutes late for the big group picture, so we just took our own!
Here is a map of the Brainard Lake Ski trail system.
Snow Mountain Ranch makes me smile!
Dennis at Winter Park
I dropped Dennis off at Winter Park resort and then I went Cross Country skiing at YMCA of the Rockies, Snow Mountain Ranch. It was a fantastic day for skiing. I used mostly green wax with a tiny bit of blue extra.
President’s Day Blizzard Hits Denver
The only time running on pavement is acceptable is when it’s covered with snow!
I love running in the snow. It cushions the blow to the joints, it doesn’t make you wet, and the blanket of snow makes the world quiet. This President’s Day, I had a 90 minute training run on the schedule. I had a lovely time on the Platte River trail and then ran down the Cherry Creek Bike Path. By the end of my run, it was snowing so hard, I could only see about 20 feet in front of me. Fun times!
Jane and I do our impression of Charlie’s Angles. The Third Angel took a hike!
David and Jane on the summit of Humboldt Peak.
Topographic Map of Humboldt Peak
The rest of the state was being pummeled by strong winds, snowstorms, and laden with avalanche hazards. David, Jane, and I were looking for some place to go where we could safely summit a peak and it seemed the Crestones might just be the solution.
Jane has already climbed all the 14ers, but when there is opportunity to climb one in winter, she’s game! And, since I had not done Humboldt before, it looked like a great idea. I booked a room for the three of us in the tiny town of Crestone; so on Friday we drove down and arrived at bedtime. We made some tea and gathered our gear for the next day.
Would the mild forecast hold out? Would we make the summit? With a half marathon distance and over 5,400 ft of gain, it was bound to be a long day! What would the snow be like; would it be post hole madness or nice consolidated crunching?
Clare, Tom, and Frank on the summit of Lackawanna Peak
At ~12,000 ft on the direct south slope of Lackawanna
Tom climbing the lower slopes of Lackawanna. You can see hwy 82 below him.
The Route and GPS Waypoints
Good times were had by Tom, Frank, and Clare on the Lackawanna legburner route, which was climbed on Sunday. The 4 mile round trip journey featured 3,450 feet of gain! It took us 6 hours to get up the peak (mainly due to the deep snow over the first half of the route) and 4 hours to get down. I was very thankful to Frank, who both supplied the pictures and drove us there!