It was off the the Black Canyon to meet Chris for a weekend of slabs, splitters, and runout fun for Ben and I last weekend.

Ben and I met Chris at his hotel in Montrose on Sat morning to food shop and get ready for the day’s route.  The route we chose was called Ground Control To Major Tom (5.8+) and it was a first for all of us.   After descending the Chillumstone Gully (a rather bushy affair) we arrived at the start of the route.

The route consisted of slabs and cracks for the first 600 or so feet followed by 600 more feet of exit pitches to finally reach the top.  All in all, we figured the route was around 14 pitches and took all day.  Good job Chris! That was a BIG route!

After completing the climb, we drove to the north rim which was just 1000feet or so by sight but 1.5 hours by car.   Once there, we found camp and enjoyed some well earned burritos before bed.

The next day was a lot more casual climbing the five pitch route Maiden Voyage (5.8+)

A fun route.

When we finished we were off to drive back to Montrose only to learn that Chris’s flight was canceled but there was one he could make in Grand Junction and so we were off to race to make the flight.

…he made it

All in all, a great weekend full of adventure and incredible views.   The Black yet again provides.

BG

Chris @ Wall Street

A great weekend of fun in the sun as Chris, a frequent of the winter programs, met us in Moab Utah to warm up a bit.  Chris was aiming to refine his rock skills in both face and crack climbing and put those skills together by starting his tower count.  Towers, by the way, are freestanding pinnacles of rock -some people (Ben Kiessel)  have climbed more than a hundred!  the first day started off at Wall Street.  A climbing area right off of the road where 600 foot cliffs rise over the Colorado river!… Beautiful.

Wonder why they call it Wall Street?

Chris getting after it on "Nervoius In Suberbia 5.10-."

After lunch we headed for an evening at the Ice Cream Parlor.

The Ice Cream Parlor

That night was spent under stars, with a good camp fire, better food, and some guitar by Chris before bed.   As always, not much can beat a night in the desert with good friends.

Day two was the tower day with an ascent of the desert classics Ancient Art’s Stolen Chimney and Lizard Rock.

At four pitches of chimneys, faces, catwalks, and a summit the size of a microwave, Ancient Art is the perfect first tower for anyone looking for a wild and fun day out.

Ben starting off on the third pitch

The Cat Walk on Ancient Art

Climbing the back of the lizard's head.

Finally after crushing it on Ancient Art we hiked back to the parking lot, ate some food and capped the day off with an ascent of Lizard Rock.  A fun finish to an awesome couple of days.   Well almost finish… we did go back to the pool at Chris’s hotel and relaxed before a celebratory dinner at the Moab Brewery.

Fron left: Bill, Chris, and Ben (aka: baby)

BG

Aka: Daddy (… an inside joke)

Join Colorado Wild, Pine Needle Mountaineering and Southwest Adventure Guides for the 2nd Annual Banff Mountain Film Festival In Durango, Colorado.

When: Sunday, March 21 – 7:00 pm

Where: Smiley Theater – 1309 E. Third Ave, Durango, CO

How: Advance Tickets At Pine Needle Mountaineering: $10 Adults, $8 Students, or at the Door: $15 Adults, $12 Students (Kids 5 and under FREE)

Check out these videos of backcountry skiing and avalanche coursework in the San Juans with our guides and instructors.  The footage is provided by our friends at IDTV and thanks to our sponsors RAB, Osprey, and BCA!

Though snow conditions were tough, Dana and I still had a great Introduction to winter mountaineering course this last weekend.

Day one consisted of Dana slaying it on the vertical ice of Cascade Canyon where he learned the basics of belaying,  rope work, and climbing techniques.

Day two we made our way to over 11,000 feet to camp and live on the flanks of Engineer Mtn and learned how to set up a winter camp.

Day three was spent learning the basics of winter camping, snow condition analysis, anchors and snow anchors, traveling in avalanche terrain/ using avalanche gear, self arrest,  traveling as a rope team, and more.

Even though the snow conditions didn’t allow us a summit attempt, we had a great fourth day in the Ouray Ice park going over what was learned and slaying more ice.

All in all, we had a great course and I can’t wait for the next one.

click here for a  calender of the next course

BG

This last weekend’s Level 1 AIARE avalanche course was a huge success.  The recent storm that rocked Southwest Colorado and the San Juan Mountains left us a great snowpack to play with during this course.

After our classroom day of great learning, we ventured up toward Cascade Canyon north of Durango Mountain Resort to practice our companion rescue skills in the beautiful sun of Southwest Colorado.  We finished the day by heading to Colbank Pass to dig in the new snow and see how it was bonding with the old snow surface.  The snow was deep with almost 300 centimeters in some spots!  We all learned a ton about looking for strong over weak layers and performing some useful bonding tests to see how different layers could potentially be problems for backcountry travel.

Our last day was a huge success with some beautiful weather gracing us again.  We ventured up in the Red Mountain Pass area where we were able to get some great glimpses of the alpine and the avalanche activity that had been occurring as recently as the day before.  Great views of wind loading were obvious clues to the recent weather phenomenon that brought the new snow last week.  The skiing was incredible with preserved powder on most aspects.  This was the capstone to the day with smiles all around and lots of great knowledge gleaned from the full three days of avalanche education!  Until next time…

Aaron

Analyzing the Snow in our Test Pits

James getting ready for the Descent!

The crew on the skin track

Our turns in some great low angle pow!

Sarah and Evan feeling stoked!

The Southwest Adventure Guides ski posse had a great time exploring the skiing conditions in the alpine.  This was organized as an intentional opportunity to share tricks of the trade while getting out and enjoying the skiing of the San Juans.

We all met in Silverton for our guides meeting over coffee, and then carpooled to our starting point.  We decided on skiing near the Battleship slide path as it would offer some great aspects for skiing and provide opportunities to extend our tour up the ridge toward South Lookout Peak.  As predicted, the winds were ripping over the ridges from the west and loading the lee aspects toward Hwy 550.  After ascending the north ridge of the Battleship, we reconvened to discuss our options.  We decided to strip our skins at which point, Mark’s binding broke and his ski went careening down the south facing slope.  Obviously this left us with some difficult decisions about our next move.  We decided that the route down toward the unknown resting place of Mark’s ski was safe enough to venture into and ended with the luck of finding it resting in a rock garden well down the slope.

After climbing back up the slope and fixing Mark’s ski with straps (see the attached photo – it was a great fix), we decided to ski back down northerly facing slopes toward Hwy 550, one of the options we discussed that morning in the guides meeting.  Mark’s ski rocked it and we easily made our way back to the cars.

With a little adventure to keep us on our toes, we had an excellent day out that resulted in great turns, sound decisions, and great laughs among us all.

Aaron

The end of the year brought snow, cold, and another successful winter mountaineering course in the beautiful San Juan Mountains of Colorado.  Six aspiring mountaineers from Chicago to Texas to Colorado are now ready for bigger, bolder, and more committing climbs after successfully completing our four day Introduction to Winter Mountaineering course.

Day one consisted of students learning the basics of Ice climbing in beautiful Cascade Canyon.  Students practiced everything from basic anchors to ice screw placement and spent the day refining techniques on vertical water ice.

Day two started the winter camping and second portion of the course.  Students loaded packs and headed off into the wilderness snowshoeing up to the base of Engineer Mountain where they learned about setting up a “Quinsey” or snow cave and about the basics of setting up a winter camp.

Day three consisted of snow travel in avalanche terrain, basic avalanche forecasting (digging a pit), Avalanche Becon usage and searching techniques, snow anchors, and self arrest.

After three days of instruction, students finally set off to attempt Engineer Peak via the impressive Northeast Ridge.  There, the learning continued with rope travel techniques and efficient travel in steep terrain.  Though cold and windy,  smiles were ear to ear as the techniques from the past few days were applied and practiced while we negotiated the ridge to the summit.  Later, after down climbing back to the base of the peak we all reflected on the ascent, packed camp, and made our way back to the cars.

Well done guys!

BG