Absolutely Moab-ulous

As one of the leaders of Mountaineer Media—my university’s media production company—I had the opportunity this last weekend to attend the Moab Film Festival. My last excursion to the friendly desert community in eastern Utah was a half-decade ago. Back then, I was a fledgling photographer with bad practices and an over-inflated ego. Outside of being able […]

Sawatch Me Do Three

Missouri Mountain, Iowa Peak, and Emerald Peak Grand Slam ~15.5 miles round-trip; 6,300′ elevation gain. The turn to Chaffe County Road 390 and its subsequent vexatious washboard ruts felt all too familiar. Five months ago, I had kicked off the 14er season with ascents of Mt. Belford and Mt. Oxford—two of the three 14ers […]

Autumn’s Lost and Found

Unprompted excursions often give way to the most sincere adventure. Beset with staggering senioritis, I decided to trade a Saturday of homework on campus for a Saturday amidst the peaking fall colors in the Gunnison area. Despite only being two days into autumn, snow had already fallen in areas above 8,000 feet. Kebler Pass, a […]

Tooth Decay

El Diente Peak. A high mountain summit within the San Juan Range named for its tooth-like visage (El Diente translates to “The Tooth” in Spanish). If this peak is the tooth of the San Juans, then these mountains have clearly forgotten their oral hygiene. El Diente Peak, and its neighboring summits of Mt. Wilson and […]

Labor Day Ouray Soirée

I vividly remember the first time I knowingly laid eyes on Mt. Ouray (pronounced ooo-ray). Last summer, the Overcast Adventurers had the opportunity to explore the vast reaches of Colorado on a biology class trip called Ecoregions (a blog for which can be found here). It was on the first day of that two-week journey […]

Blue Note

To the north of Lake Irwin, a popular recreation area near Crested Butte, a wall of cliffs acts as a gate to the pristine Raggeds Wilderness. These cliffs span roughly three miles and rise hundreds of feet above the basins that sculpt the Raggeds. It was over the course of millions of years that erosion […]

Silence of the Lamphiers

With the end of August comes cooler weather, gentler sun, windier skies, and, for one of the Overcast Adventurers, school! Skyler was back up in Gunnison for classes, and I briefly left my life of state park maintenance to join him for a hike. We departed Gunnison on August 27th for the Fossil Ridge Wilderness […]

Massive Aggressive

East Slopes. 14.5 miles RT. 4,500′ gain. 6 hours. 20 minutes. High above the iconic Colorado mountain town of Leadville stands Mt. Massive—an aptly named wall of a mountain and several of its constituent sub-summits. It is the third highest peak in the contiguous United States, which is certainly not hard to believe when […]

Longs Island Iced Peak

Summits always entice me, and Longs Peak is no exception. When I resumed my job in Denver, I became acutely aware of the fact that I could see Longs Peak and Mt. Meeker almost every day on my drive home. There it was, towering over Denver like a faithful guardian of the Front Range. Every […]

Trip Report: Bagels and BelOx

Every day was (and still is) the same routine: wake up, go to work, go home, check condition reports, and go to bed with slight summit fever. Fortunately, my wonderful manager has been scheduling my weekends on weekdays. I had requested this for more solitary 14er hiking and climbing. My “Friday” was a Monday and after […]

The Overcast Adventurers

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