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14,150′ Sneffels  Peak #52 Tuesday May 31 

Clear Across the Elks from Summit of Sneffels 14,150′

14,018′ Pyramid Peak #53 Wednesday June 1

An excellent view from high on Pyramid with Snowmass and Capitol in the distance.

After a couple days of rest in Telluride, it was time to head north and try and finish up a few more peaks.  I did a quick ascent of Sneffels from Yankee Boy basin (Only 3 hours round trip, including 30 minutes on top) and skied the south face and couloir direct,  and followed that up with a ski of the quite challenging and dangerous Pyramid in the Elks.

A buried trailhead in Yankee Boy Basin.

I closed out the month of May with Sneffels, making it my 16th peak of May. It was also a close-out peak in the San Juans as I was able to ski every peak in the San Juans now.

Lavender Couloir and looking southeast into the San Juans.

With very warm temps and June now here, I am lucky to have only Longs, Snowmass, and Capitol left.  Honestly I am not so sure that Capitol will be realistic to ski from the top this late in the season.  the coverage is good but snow conditions and warmth may not be safe enough. Fortunately I climbed and skied it last season so now I have officially skied every 14er as Longs and Snowmass are repeats.

Down from the danger zone on Pyramid……

For now I will still climb and finish the final peaks and try to put this project to bed in the next week or so.  It’s been such an amazing ride and I am thankful for all the good conditions, good fortune, great ski partners and of course the peaks for challenging me and allowing me to climb and ski them!

Once middle of June hits and I am done with all the skiing I will have more time to get the Trip Reports for each peak posted which tell the full stories.

Thanks for all the support-

Dr. Jon

Kit Carson- Outward Bound Couloir – May 10, 2016.

Wow- Kit Carson’s north Outward Bound Couloir was awesome yesterday.  Had a chance to get up and get down before the weather was too bad, although the summit was foggy.  Skiing right off the top was pretty straightforward since there is so much snow in the Sangres right now.   More soon on the Kit Carson Page. More peaks left, the Elk Range is calling now with good weather and high pressure setting in.

Sunrise near Willow Lake.

Garret on the Summit of 14,165′ Kit Carson.

Getting ready to drop into the OB Couloir.

More to Come!

Dr. Jon

#40 Crestone Needle (14,197′) – Thursday May 5.   CINCO DE MAYO!

#41 Crestone Peak (14,294′) – Friday May 6.

I wrapped up an incredible week, skiing 5 peaks in 6 days. The Sangres were definitely the highlight of this week’s adventure.   I took advantage of the stable weather and got to ski some amazing and nicely filled in (and steep!)  south facing lines on the Crestones on back to back days.  Originally my plan was to try and get both Crestones in the same day, but the warmest days of the year so far here in Colorado had other ideas.

Summit of Crestone Needle – May 5, 2016. Great view over to Crestone Peak and Kit Carson, all in amazing snow and ski conditions.

Even though I summitted and skied Crestone Needle before 9am- by the time I traversed over and looked at the bottom of the south “Red” Couloir on the Crestone Peak on Thursday – my gut and the conditions showed me it was way too soft to go up.  No worries – as I retraced my steps back to South Colony, spent another night at my ‘car camp’ and made quick work of the Peak the next morning very early by utilizing my own established boot pack and got up and down before the next storm system arrived!

Storm rolling in from the south as I skied down the south “Red” Couloir on Crestone Peak – a delightful line.

For more on both of these trips- please visit the pages for these peaks on the drop down menu for Skiing the 14ers.   (Still playing catch up since this was such a big week – put photos should be up soon!).  Now that May is here in full force, with a few days of rest I will be ready to get back out there to take advantage of conditions that have all my remaining peaks coated in good snow, and certainly skiable.  While there is much work to be done- it is certainly possible to finish all the peaks by early June to wrap up this project.  Ahhh…but I’ll keep telling myself to stay patient, stay hungry, and certainly stay humble. The mountains make the decisions and I will keep on keeping on.  Just a side note- It’s been very nice of a handful of skiers here in Colorado to reach out to me with words of encouragement.  I want to let any of my awesome ski-mountaineer friends or acquaintances that want to ski with me to please get in touch.  Having some more great ski partners for this home stretch will be critical to my success and I am so grateful.

See you on the next summit!

Dr. Jon

Pikes Peak Parlayed with a side of Antero and Holy Cross, all in less than 3 days.

Top of Antero 14,269′

A full moon ski on Pikes wednesday night into Thursday, followed by another long slog on Antero on Thursday, and an outstanding tour of Holy Cross on Friday pushed me to 34 peaks completed in 2016.

The trip report pages will be up soon with all the details.

Holy Cross Summit 14,005′ Peak #34 of 2016.

The snow is becoming phenomenal up high setting the stage for the month of May.

Pikes Peak Summit in the full moon at 1am on April 21.

With more bad weather coming this week, I’m gonna try and get a few more done before May hits and then I’m ready to go for it all for the next month with less than 20 peaks to go once we get into May.

Thanks for following along, more to come!

Dr. Jon

Peaks #29 & 30

Shavano and Tabeguache

Top of 14,229′ Shavano in a Brief clearing.

I parlayed a twofer to get to my 30th peak of the project by skiing Shavano and Tabeguache together on the southern end of the Sawatch Range.

With the weather being a great concern- I got a 6:30am start from the east slopes/Blank cabin trailhead and started in Blue skies and morning sunshine.

Gorgeous clear sunrise

Topping out at 9:30am on Shavano the clouds were already building and snow flurries began to fly.  Fortunately there was no wind. I knew I could move fast so I hustled over the ridge and climbed the east ridge of Tabeguache. Making that summit by 10:30am I was running out of time. Snow was closing in fast from the north and by the time I clicked on my skis I was getting snowed on. The easy east ridge and southeast slopes of Tab were loaded and I was back to the saddle between the two peaks in like 2 minutes.

Summit of Tabeguache 14,155′

A 25 minute climb back to the top of Shavano was the only way to get back down to my trailhead and to ski the angel. When the hail fell- I was worried that some lighting might follow- so I didn’t waste any time.

Climbing back to Shavano’s summit by the north Rocky ridge… Good thing the snow was better on the other side!

It snowed hard for 30 minutes and only let up when I came back up to Shavano’s summit for the second time in less than 2 hours. I looked at the clock- 11:11. Snow was pelting the peak to my south- and Antero to the north was getting hit hard. Fortunately I was in the clear. I clicked in and made some turns right off the top- only a small section below 13,900′ was a bit bare- otherwise I was lucky to find a small ribbon over to the Angel of Shavano- the prominent feature on the southeast face of the peak.

Looking down the Angel of Shavano as the storm rolls in.

I was home free- I made turns down the awesome classic Angel to timberline and around noon I escaped into the trees to the sound of thunder and a flash of lightning way above me. Back to the trailhead by 1pm it was an awesome six and a half hour tour covering 12 miles and 5,500′ elevation climbed and skied.

On to Lindsey in the Sangre de Cristos’s for an early start to beat the weather again tomorrow!

Bottom of the Angel of Shavano after skiing it.

Thanks for following along-

Dr. Jon.

Hello Everyone!  Jon Kedrowski here.  About to embark on an incredible journey through Colorado’s 14ers.  I’ll be out between now and June 2016 trying to ski as many of the peaks as I can, so follow along and enjoy the ride!