Me at the summit of Peak 7 (12,677'). Peak 8 is in the background

Me at the top of peak 8 (12,998')

Bigger Hikes

Today I was pretty ambitious with my hiking plans. In addition to the Peak 9 chutes which I hiked last week, you can also hike to the top of Peak 8 and Peak 7 at Breckenridge. Today I hiked to the top of both peaks and skied down. The snow conditions were not great because of high winds over the last few days, but the hikes were a lot of fun and felt good to do. My main motivation for hiking the peaks was just to see what was on the other side of the mountain. I have been here for almost 2 months and I still don't know what is on the other side of the 10 Mile Range. I hiked peak 8 late in the morning. The hike begins at the top of the T-Bar (elevation 12,141'). About 45 minutes later I arrived at the summit of Peak 8 (12,998'). My head was probably above 13,000'. The view was spectacular. I'm going to try to put together a 360 panorama from photos I took at the top. After about 10 minutes at the summit I skied down Imperial Bowl and skied all the way to my condo in one run. It was about 3400 vertical feet in a single run. After lunch I headed back up the T-Bar to hike Peak 7. The hike to the summit (12,677') took about 25 minutes. The run off of Peak 7 was much steeper than Imperial Bowl. It would be fantastic on a good snow day. I basically only took two runs today, but they were both challenging and a lot of fun. It feels good to earn your turns.

On my way back from Vail, I stopped to watch some people Kiteski on the Lake Dillon Reservior. It seems like a popular sport up here. It looks like fun.