Still too nice to rest

After a full morning skiing on Thursday, an evening of yoga, a couple of hours riding dirt roads on Friday, and 3 hours of hilly mountain biking Saturday, I called my buddy Jay to see if he wanted to ski the next peak south from our Thursday ascent. Sure enough he was game so we were off at 5 am today to summit and ski Augusta. We figured on a slightly shorter ascent (Augusta is a little more than 12,500 ft while Purple is just shy of 13K) so we slept an extra hour. That put us at the trailhead around 5:30 and we easily summitted by 9.

The snow bridges are getting a little thin making for some interesting approach marches

We had been following deer tracks almost the whole way. As I came around a small knob I had six deer run out in front of me and cross over to Angel Pass (the saddle in the upper left of the picture). You can just barely see the deer above the rock band marching in a line. Right after they crossed to the pass 4 more deer ran out in front of us.

There's the foreshortened summit still about an hour away. Our route took us up to the left hand ridge just at the base of the large rocky area. From there it was a ten minute scramble along the ridge to the summit.

Each step towards the summit gets harder and harder. Here's Jay suffering just below the final snowslope leading to the summit ridge.

The obligatory summit photo with the Elk Mountains in the background (Aspen is just 18 miles behind me) and me sporting the short sleeves. It was a warm day even by 9 am and we quickly clicked into our bindings for the descent. The first 1500 ft were perfect peel away corn on the south facing aspects. Our descent route took a slight turn eastward which meant much softer snow particularly the top 4 inches because of a little downpour last night. It almost felt like powder skiing despite the fact that we had to work pretty hard to keep our skis tracking. Our final shot on the descent was through a tight little chute about 300 feet long with a nice sustained 40 degree pitch. The walk out was beautiful with the sun shining, sandals on my feet, and cool snowmelt running through my toes. Back at the car I soaked my aching shins in the river and then drove home for pizza and beer.

We do more by 9 am than most people do in a day

Woke up at 3:30 am yesterday to go skiing with my neighbor Jay. We drove out of town by 4 and headed up Slate River to park at the trailhead by the old Pittsburgh minesite about 10 miles outside of town. When we got to the trailhead we found two very fast moving streams had washed away the bridge and it was going to be impossible to cross on foot. We decided to drive my truck throught the rushing water on a jeep road next to the trail. I was pretty nervous about the depth so I had Jay lean out the passenger side door with a ski pole to probe for the depth. The water was moving pretty fast and eventually came up to the top of the wheel well but we were able to cross after an adrenaline producing few moments. From the jeep road we began our four hour ascent of Purple Mountain, which is a very steep and pointed peak that dominates the drive into town. After a couple of hours of skinning we began to get great views of the summit.
Here we are about 2 hours shy of the summit. Our ascent route took us to the base of the summit pyramid and then we took off our skis and front pointed and kicked steps in our ski boots up to the rocky ridge on the looker's right.
Here's Jay skinning up to me just before we popped off our skis to begin the hairy 50 degree front point to the ridge. After we gained the ridge we had about 20-30 minutes of a class 4 scramble through the first band of rocks. Then we had to cross the snow slope below the ridge because the cornice was huge. Crossing the slope was a little burly with about 900 ft of exposure above some gnarly rocks and chutes. A fall would have been pretty bad and Jay nearly went over backwards when he reached the next rock band because he punched through some pretty rotten snow. After that little bit of exposure it was an easy 5 minutes to the summit where we had some snacks and waited for the sun to soften the snow for our descent.
Here's the obligatory summit photo. The first few turns were a little unsteady for me as I haven't been on skis since March and the slope was super steep. After getting my skis under me we cut skiers left across the face to the rock band in the middle looker's right of the summit pyramid. We skied the line through the chute in the middle of the rock band. It was about 5 good turns of 45-50 degree tight chute skiing that opened up into the huge bowl we had skinned up. After about a good 3000 plus vertical feet of descending we were back at the truck. I was a little concerned about the stream crossing because the snowmelt had already begun even at such an early hour. Going back across the stream the water came up over the hood of the truck and scared us witless but we made it out ok. We were back in town in no time and having breakfast at the Paradise Cafe when most people were still waking up.

Gibson's New Routine

Our day usually starts with a cup of coffee from Camp 4 and then it is time for some exercise.


There are about five rivers that drain into the valley here. They are running pretty swiftly this time of year. Gibson will not be denied his swimming. Most days Gibson follows me on my bike the 10 blocks or so over to what is known as the Lower Loop. From the start of the loop we can easily access the slate river for some swimming. Here are some photos from the river bank.

The cool thing is that the ridge behind us on the right is actually called Gibson Ridge.

The views of the ski area are pretty lame.

Mother's Day Mtn Bike

The snow is finally melting off some of the trails around CB allowing a couple of rides to open. I rode up to the mountain to do the Upper Loop. It turned out the whole Upper Upper Loop was clear all the way to Brush Creek so I rode that then climbed back up Whetstone Vista for a challenge. Re-rode the Upper Loop in reverse then turned around and came back down Tony's to town. Click for ride description.

Here's the trailhead in Mt. Crested Butte. Just a little bit of climbing before an awesome downhill with switchbacks.

One of the many views of Whetstone. This is from just above the Brush Creek drainage.

The beginning of the descent into Brush Creek.

Wildlife ride

I went out for a 4 hour ride this morning. Basically, I took the out and back option (really the only choice if I ride from town). I cruised down to Gunnison fighting an unusual headwind from the South. I rode down the highway a little past Almont where I took some county roads that bypass the highway and are really quite beautiful. Gunnison is a ranching community and the county roads roll through a lot of different ranches. I headed West from Gunnison and looped out to Hartman rocks and then back towards Almont. On my way through Gunnison one of the ranches had a bunch of sheep that got loose and were milling about in the road. As I neared the center of Almont a coyote stopped in the middle of the road about 100 ft from me and proceeded to stare me down. He was about Gibson's size and after a few moments he moved off the road and just kind of watched me ride by. Once in Almont I turned up Taylor Canyon and cruised up to Jack's Cabin cutoff (dirt road steep climb) and on back towards town. I was fortunate that the headwind I had fought southwards decided to turn around and become a steady 20-30 mph headwind coming from the North. There's nothing quite like putting out nearly 300 watts and riding 10 mph. To break up my suffering I had a golden eagle rise up out of the scrub and literally fly right out in front of me. I have never seen the markings on the topside of a raptor's wings before. Now I know where all the Southwestern Native American artwork comes from. Very cool.

Lots of things going on

Again my posting has been sparse but I've been pretty busy lately. On Monday I decided to see if I could get a consulting business going from out here in the Butte so I basically spent the day networking. It actually went pretty well so I decided to incorporate my own business. That was Tuesday. My new company is called Axtell Consulting Group, LLC. Mount Axtell is an awesome backcountry skiing area up by Kebler Pass overlooking town. Basically, I will be drumming up some business via my East Coast contacts over the next few weeks. I don't really want to go into too many details here but things look promising.

This morning I was invited to the CB Rotary Club's weekly breakfast meeting so I went up to the resort for the meeting. I think I will follow in Mr. Prescott's footsteps and become a full fledged Rotarian. I know I should be leery about joining any organization that admits Wayne but they do a lot of good work.

Went for another hard group ride tonight out of Gunnison. A couple of local pros showed up as well as Dave Wiens so the pace was pretty brutal at times. We did a loop that included the dirt road climb I rode last week so that's where I got shelled. I took a few chances on the downhill and reeled in a few people but if it weren't for a regroup I would have been in the grupetto. The road riding out here is not half bad despite a lack of variety - there's something to be said for the incredible scenery (hell, I'd be happy riding my trainer just staring up at these mountains). One of these days I am going to ride right off the road gawking at the amazing views.

The West is the Best

So we're still unpacking, organizing, and generally drowning in boxes, paper, and used tape. Fortunately, half our day is spent outside in the most beautiful place on Earth. I woke up this morning really wanting to go for a mountain bike ride but didn't really feel tackling Hartman's Rocks on my own without a map. I spent the morning organizing my garage and while I was out there our neighbors Tim and Ann asked if I wanted to join them for an afternoon ride in Hartman's. Obvious answer... We piled into Ann's truck and drove down to Gunnison and headed out into the sage around 2. We got in a coulple of hours of awesome singletrack and really wild slickrock sections. Hartman's is huge and very Moab like in a lot of places.

Odds and Ends

Sorry for not posting for a couple of days but I got wrapped up in a book and lost track of the days. Tues and Wed were mostly filled with errands like getting our licenses, getting Gibson his, and joining a gym. The gym has some great Yoga for Kim and lots of spinning options for me. I went riding both days with last night's ride being a shop ride out of Gunnison. It was really fast paced and basically as competitive as the EBCC Wed rides. There were a couple of local pro mountain bikers, some top flight adventure racers, and a couple of other ex-racers. It was another beautiful ride up yet another canyon but I couldn't really focus on the scenery as we were basically in race mode. After the ride I headed back to CB for fish tacos at Teocalli Tamale where I am already on a first name basis with the staff. Today I am off the bike and will try to get in a nice hike with Gibson and some pics.

Home Sweet Home

420 Whiterock Ave in Crested Butte, CO. Technically we are now second home owners. Fingers crossed that this is our only home after Wed evening. Kim's car is parked in front after a 2500 mile journey on the back of the car carrier - if only our damn movers drove as fast as the car guy. We won't have any of our stuff until Friday which means my whole weekend is shot in terms of extended riding.


As soon as we moved in I actually had work to do for my old company back in Hartford. Trust me when I say the view is much better from my perch in our new family room than from my 20th floor rat cage. In case you're wondering the old owners left the couch, coffee table, and carpet amongst other items.


Here's Gibson relieved to be in his new pad and not in yet another hotel room or back seat of the truck. He immediately stole Kim's seat and lazed away the afternoon in the shadow of Mt. Crested Butte.

Tomorrow we will get our new drivers licenses and cars registered as well as our phone and internet (I am piggybacking on some random WiFi right now). The satellite guy came a day early and installed our dish but we have no TVs until the movers show up so it is books and internet radio for entertainment until then.