Here is the route up Mt. Royal as taken from my Dad's GPS.

From the top you can see views of the continental divide, the Dillon resevoir and the towns of Frisco, Dillon and Silverthorne.

Mt. Royal - 10,502'

This weekend, my cousins came up to visit. On Friday night we out to dinner and then went to a local bar to play air hockey, darts and pinball. On Saturday after blueberry pancakes and bacon we headed down to Frisco for a hike up Mt. Royal (pictured here). Mt. Royal is the Northernmost peak in the Ten Mile range. It is on the side of Peak 1. The hike goes around the backside of the sheer cliffs. It is pretty steep trail, but there are great views at the top.

Mt. Lincoln viewed from the top of Mt. Cameron. The mountains were like a moonscape.

The Decalibron

Mt. Democrat - 14,148
Mt. Cameron - 14,238
Mt. Lincoln - 14,286
Mt. Bross - 14,172
Today I bagged four fourteeners. We climbed Mt. Democrat, Mt. Cameron, Mt. Lincoln and Mt. Bross. Collectively this hiking route is called the "Decalibron". I thought the hike wasn't as much fun as some of the ones we had done in the last few days. We started at 7am and were back to the car a little after noon. 7 miles, 3,600 vertical feet. The weather wasn't nearly as good as yesterday. By the halfway point of the hike, clouds were building in the sky. As we headed down Bross we got snowed on a bit. This picture shows Mt. Lincoln (right) and Mt. Bross (left) from Hoosier Pass just South of Breckenridge. The trail starts on the other side of the mountains from Kite Lake.

Crowded Trail

On our way down we were pushed off the trail by a mountain goat headed up the trail.

On the summit of Quandary Peak - 14,265', my first fourteener of the year

On the Trail up to Quandary Peak in the distance. The trail was very nice and mostly free of snow the entire way.

Quandary Peak - 14,265'

Today my Dad and I climbed Quandary Peak just South of Breckenridge. It was a straighforward hike up the East ridge. 6.7 miles roundtrip 3,400 vertical feet. The weather forcast for today was severe blue skies and it certainly lived up the billing. From the summit the views were incredible. You could see nearly every major mountain range in the state from the Elk and Sawatch Ranges in the West to the Sangre de Cristo Range going down to New Mexico in the South and Long's Peak and the Front Range in the East. A very nice mountain climb overall. This picture was taken about a month ago. There was considerably less snow on the mountain today.

Bald Mountain - 13,684'

Today my Dad and I climbed Bald Mountain on the East side of Breckenridge. The summit is a lofty 13,684' feet. This is the first real mountain I have climbed this year (hiking from the top of the T-Bar up Peak 8 doesn't really count). It was a pretty tough hike despite being only 5 miles round trip. A good portion of the hike was climbing a snowfield on snowshoes up a steep ridge fighting a vicious crosswind. The view from the top was spectacular and well worth the hike. It is one of the highest mountains around and the skies were very clear today. It was a good warm up for many of the bigger climbs I have planned in the next few weeks.

End of the ski season :-(

Today was closing day for Arapahoe Basin. In a way it was kind of sad. It was pretty crowded and not much of the mountain was open. The weather was beautiful and I realized that it really did snow a lot yesterday. Most of the bare spots around the mountain were covered and the skiing was pretty good. My Dad arrived yesterday to hang out for a week of vacation. He was on skis and I was on my snowboard. People on the mountain were going crazy going off of jumps and pond skimming. It was a fun atmosphere for closing day.

I ended up skiing a total of 118 days at 10 different resorts in Colorado this year. This easily eclipses my skiing total for the previous 22 years of my life combined. Between January 22nd (my first day of work for Mountain Safety) and April 18th (the Breckenridge employee party) there were only three days that I wasn't out on the snow. Two were because I was sick and one was after my broken nose. Last night at dinner the waiter pointed out that 122 days of skiing is 1/3 of a year. If it weren't for my injury I would have easily exceeded that. I had a great time. Colorado had an above average year for snow which kept conditions good until today (Although California had one of their best years on record. Mammoth received nearly twice as much snow as Breck). You would think that after skiing so much I would be over it, but it is exactly the opposite. I have so many other skiing related things I want to do, resorts I want to ski at, trips I want to go on, and skills I want to work on. I guess I am doomed to being a skiing fanatic the rest of my life. I still have about another month in Colorado to have fun. I will be shifting from skiing to other outdoor activities like mountaineering and mountain biking.