My 100th 13er/14er summit - Clinton/McNamee/Traver Peaks - July 2024

 Starting on Longs Peak in college, it's taken me about 20 years to reach 100 differently named summits of peaks over 13,000 ft.  The hiking partner that I've done the most mountains with is my good buddy Brad.  He and I went for a hazy day triple this time up by Breckenridge.  All the haziness was due to the wildfires  from Canada.  We hiked a few miles up to Wheeler lake.  From that point on, it was all off trail on tundra and talus.  The steep climb up Clinton was work, but the rest of the loop was pretty easy going. 

Mt. Democrat

Heading up Clinton

Quandary Peak from Clinton's summit

Looking down on Climax Mine from Clinton's summit

McNamee (right) and Trevor (left)

100th Summit - McNamee Peak

Traver Peak

Old junk left all over the place on these peaks from mining activity

Once we reached the summit of our third and final peak of the loop hike, I realized I forgot my camera on the McNamee peak's summit.  Doh!  Guess we have to repeat that one!  

There it is!

Not excited to hike to the top of Traver again for our 5th summit, we figured out a way to bail between the saddle between Traver and McNamee.  Then the long talus stroll back to Wheeler lake. 

Looking back

Wheeler Lake

Near the lake, there are some falls that we decided to call "Paradise Falls".  They may have an official name, but we don't care.  We will forever call them by our renamed name. 

Bald Mountain A - June, 2024

 Cami and I had a weekend away while our kids were visiting family in Nebraska.  Time to climb a mountain! We settled on Bald Mountain near Breckenridge thinking it would be a good warm up for the summer.  We weren't sure of the snow conditions, but figured because it is a west facing route, that the snow would be mostly melted.  This turned out to be the case and made for a pleasant hike.  The night before we took some shots of Breckenridge for kicks, then headed up to car camp at Hoosier Pass for some restless tossing and turning. 

Breckenridge at Night - Prints Avialable

Sunrise on Quandary

The gate was closed heading up to the summer trailhead which added .7 miles to the hike both ways on an easy dirt road.  The hike to reach the ridge was straightforward with just enough snow crossings to bring out a little complaining from Cami :).  Once we gained the ridge, the route became progressively more challenging leading up to some exciting little talus hops near the summit.  The wind was pretty strong for the entire time above treelike.  Cami ran out of steam and motivation before the summit, but made it quite a ways up there.   

This mountain had the perfect view for a panoramic image of the entirety of the Tenmile Range.  I put together a poster with all the peaks labeled with their elevations:

Tenmile Range with Peak Labels - Prints Available

Mt. Guyot

Mt. Silverheels

14ers

And the 360 panoramic summit video...  It was hard to keep the camera steady in the winds:

Ptarmigan Trail - Sept. 2017

Took a one morning (one night) trip to do a sunrise hike/shoot over Silverthorne for the early season colors.  Still lots of green, but lots of yellow and orange too.  Getting geared up for our big "Fall Colors" trip next week!

Sun dancing on Peak 1

Guyselman Peak

Mayflower Gulch - July 2017

Cami and I drove to the trailhead at Mayflower Gulch in the Tenmile Range this week with the intention of camping and hiking Atlantic and Pacific peaks the following day, but it ended up raining all morning Tuesday.  There were, however brief periods on Monday afternoon and night where the clouds broke and gave us some good views:

Mayflower Gulch at Night - Prints available