After a winter seasons work Mark and I were ready for some time off to play outside and see some friends. I spent another winter as a ski instructor in Leadville, while Mark helped his mom and niece move into a new house, buy a new van and adjust to some other changes in their household. Once his mom was moved and her old house sold, Mark was able to start focusing on himself more. With our work wrapped up, we marked our calendars for “Nic and Mark Party Time,” and took two weeks to have fun together before Mark READ MORE
Tag: skiing
Skiing the Box couloirs: Mt Elbert
The first winter I moved to Leadville (2019-20) Matt White and I were one another’s main ski partners, logging many early mornings on Chicago ridge near Ski Cooper and exploring Leadville east. That was my first winter backcountry skiing, and Matt and I learned a lot together. After a few winter’s away, Matt moved back to the area and we are both excited to be skiing together again! We’ve spent quite a few ski days together this season: a few moonlight skis, some resort days at A-basin and Copper Mountain, and some incredible powder tours on Chicago ridge. With the READ MORE
Podcast Release!
About a month ago, Mark and I did an interview with Mason Gravely from “The Adventure Sports Podcast” about our ski traverse of the Colorado trail. The episode was just published and you can listen to it on the podcast website, adventuresportspodcast.com, or find episode 882 The First Ski Traverse of the Colorado Trail – Nicolette Jones & Mark Johnson of The Adventure Sports Podcast on most streaming services. If you want to learn more about our experience, you can read my blog post about it here and find a piece I published in Wild Snow here.
A Spring Ski Traverse of the Colorado Trail
On April 9th Mark and I set off from the Waterton Canyon trailhead to attempt a spring ski traverse of the Colorado trail. Less than a month later on May 6th, we arrived at the southern terminus of the 486 mile trail in Durango! The most remarkable part of this experience is that there is no brief way to describe it, thus the lengthy blog post. (Take note of the different pages on this post and be sure to click through all of them to see photos from the whole trip and read about it from start to finish!) At READ MORE
Let’s go for a walk in the snow: Mark and I set out to ski (and hike) the Colorado Trail
Mark and I are setting out to do a ski traverse of the Colorado trail: a 486 mile trail that stretches from Durango to Denver. We will resupply every 3-5 days with the help of some friends who have graciously agreed to help us out. We are planning about 25 days total from start to finish. Although Mark and I have both done long distance treks before, the snowy element provides an extra challenge on this endeavor. We have spent this winter refining our winter camping skills and dialing in gear to use on this trip. We have been planning READ MORE
Sleeping in the Snow: Some More Experiences Learning to Winter Camp
Mark and I have spent a couple more nights in the snow as we continue to refine our winter camping system. While we won’t say winter camping is easy for us just yet, every time we go out it feels more manageable. Right now, the biggest challenge that we have been encountering is balancing comfort at camp and the weight in our packs. Winter camping requires a fair bit more gear than summer backpacking, but we are doing our best to keep pack weight to a minimum to make it easier to hike faster and spend more time in the READ MORE
Oh What Big Eyes You Have Couloir
Mark, Parker and I set out to do an aesthetic line that had peaked our attention last season. The “Oh What Big Eyes You Have” Couloir sits off of East East Red peak. It consists of a steep continuous ski, down a 20 ft hallway made up of tall cliffs on either side. Date: May 7, 2021 Distance: approx. 9.5 miles round trip Elevation Gain: 3700‘ Trailhead: Gore Range Trail We got up early for another ski, but after our adventure on La Plata, this start felt fairly mild. We started up the Gore Range trail in the dark, enjoying the READ MORE
Skiing La Plata Peak
Date: April 29, 2021 Distance: 8 miles round trip Elevation Gain: approx 4,200′ Trailhead: La Plata trailhead La Plata peak had been on Parker’s ski list for a while and when we viewed the north face at the break of day, Mark and I could see why. The face boasts a beautiful web of snowfields, couloirs and rock outcroppings. The early spring skiing start was especially challenging for me. I had gone to a pool session (to learn to roll a kayak) the night before in Alamosa. I didn’t get back to Leadville, and bed, until 11 pm with my READ MORE
Twelve hours and a midnight start: Skiing Mt. Daly
Date: May 23, 2020 Distance: approx. 14 miles round trip Elevation Gain: approx. 5000′ Trailhead: Snowmass Creek Mark had set his sights on mountain biking and all but put away his ski boots when Parker called us with a flash of inspiration: ski Mt. Daly. I was working in Aspen for a couple months before I started thru-hiking the CDT, so all of us were in the Roaring Fork valley making the adjacent peak a perfect objective. Mark and Parker had surely spent many a day gazing at the face of Mt. Daly which stands out even against the backdrop READ MORE
A Little Line off of Woods Peak
Date: April 18, 2021 Distance: 4.8 miles round trip Elevation Gain: 2,600′ Trailhead: Watrous Gulch As the spring snowpack consolidated, Mark and I found our first day to take advantage of it this season. With a fairly restrained time window, we decided to ski something with a short approach that allowed for easy skiing. We decided on Woods peak which sits just North of I-70, not an hour drive from Denver where Mark is currently living. There were several other groups leaving from the trailhead when we parked around 7 am. Different groups were choosing different strategies to navigate the READ MORE