We began our spring 2014 Centennial Skiers season with Red Mountain.
We’re lucky that the mountains in Colorado are so accessible. For the most part, the high summits in the state offer year-round climbing and skiing to anyone who wishes to do so.
We’re three weeks into 2014, and with a stretch of beautiful weather and a good amount of snow already this season, Christy and I climbed and skied UN13811 (as in “unnamed summit that’s 13,811 feet in elevation”) last weekend. And thus began the 2014 Centennial Skiers season.
Shorter days, colder nights, Labor Day has come and gone– is it too early to start talking about winter? We don’t think so. We’re getting psyched for the upcoming season and the opportunity to ski the remaining Centennial Peaks.
We’re pretty sure everyone has gotten over hearing about skiing at this point, but the snow just continued to hang on in the Sawatch Range so I was able to check off a few more peaks this past weekend.
I’ve been looking forward to this ski descent for a long time. Hagerman is one of the big, hidden gems of the Elk Range. Well, it’s not really hidden, its just remote and overshadowed by its big brother, Snowmass Mountain, the 14er, just a half a mile away.
Some years the spring season wraps up around late May, but this year’s April snowstorms have kept some skiing options open later. Since we’re still staring at a sizable list of Centennial Peaks to ski if we hope to finish next year, any extra summits we can still get are a welcome bonus. To start off this “June Bonus Round” we went to Mount Silverheels.
With the spring skiing season winding down and my partners Ted and Christy having to go back to work, I still needed to play catch up on a few peaks that they had already skied in the past. Fortunately the snow in the northern and central mountains is holding up really well so there are still some good options for me.
We added three more checkmarks to the list by skiing Columbia Point on Sunday, and with it wrapped up an incredibly successful Centennial Skiers road trip.
The Centennial Skiers RV road trip continues. After a successful few days in the Sawatch range,
the Spyder Land yacht set sail south for the Sangres. Our first stop was California Peak, a massive mountain in the southern part of the range near the 14ers Blanca and Lindsey.