Climbin!

A year ago this time I posted an entry about hiking Baldy Mountain with three of my friends. Unfortunately we got to just over 13,000ft and decided we were exhausted. This year however, I not only made it to the peak, but I also had plenty of energy to spare! I've been working really hard this year to eat right and stay in shape, and it really paid off. Unfortunately I didn't bring my GoPro like an idiot, but here's our adventure in iPhone photos and some of my friend Kate Payne's photos. Remember that when I state a phrase like "a couple hundred feet from the peak," that's vertical feet... not how many feet we actually climbed, which can sometimes be 6x the vertical feet. Another misconception about climbing a mountain is that you climb up on the way up, and down on the way down... but that is so not true. On top of the switch backs below treeline, there are a ton of ( what I like to call mini mountains) on top of the actual mountain, so you're constantly climbing up and then back down while gaining altitude. This makes climbing Baldy really fun, but I guess also exhausting for some.
*Don't forget that you can click on the photos for bigger versions.

Tripod photo by Kate. So high, yet the hike only really begins here.

Me claiming 13,000ft. This is where we stopped last year, but it's only the beginning of my entry this year.

Kate checking out the view.

Up and down and up and down.

Can you find the path?

How about this time? Constantly looking for those blessed rock stack markers.

That's a long way down...

Finally over that hill, not surprisingly the peak doesn't look any closer.

One last photo from her camera before the gnarly final accent to the peak.

These rocks are really grippy, but also loose and fragile.

Since they were grippy, I chose the "move quick so they don't break" method.

You can't look at your feet when the path gets narrow, the dropping on both sides of your view creates a tunnel-vision like effect that makes everything get distorted.

The last photo we took together before I departed on for the peak.

She had fun while I was gone...

She had fun while I was gone...

She had fun while I was gone...

After two more humps I reached the final climb!

I was so excited that my "hike" turned into a slow jog at this point.

Almost a 360° panorama from the top. The 10 pics are below.

1.

2.

3.

4. My personal favorite.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Oktoberfest, Snow & Fall

This past weekend Breckenridge held its annual Oktoberfest on Main St. which I was very excited about. Because I'm finally 21, it was my first Oktoberfest I didn't have to walk around just watching everyone drink. I proudly bought a 1 pint mug and filled that sucker up with the most delicious German Lager Weizen (wheat) beer. Unfortunately the only day I could attend Oktoberfest because of my work schedule was Saturday, which happened to be the one day it was stormy. I thoroughly enjoyed myself nonetheless, and look forward to hopefully enjoying it the entire weekend next year, with nice weather as well.

Sunday Morning, picture courteous of Breckenridge Ski Resort's facebook page.

Photo courteous of Breckenridge Ski Resort's facebook page.

The trees have only just begun to change but there's been quite a bit of snow on the peaks around Summit County the past two weeks. It reminds me of two winters ago when the snow came early and got everyone excited but ended up giving us a pathetic winter. It makes me wonder what this winter will really be like. I've read a lot of different things online. Some say La Nina comes in two's and will be back for another round, while others say La Nina has only struck in two's a few times in history and to expect a more average winter. As much as I'm still cringing at the thought of snow, thinking of a steep and deep powder run always makes me excited. I would honestly rather have another La Nina season... but only time will tell!

Photo courteous of Breckenridge Ski Resort's facebook page.

Enough about snow, fall has just arrived! I recently found a really cool article about some of the best places in Colorado to catch the colors, and Boreas Pass Rd. between Breckenridge and Como made the list. (Read the full article here.) If you've skimmed around my blog you've probably seen the three pictures my old roommate took from Boreas Pass. There are a few other places I plan on visiting in a couple weeks for hiking and pictures, I'm really excited for this fall!

A New Year, A New Look!

I actually have a pretty extensive html/css and graphic design background for never taking any classes. I decided that since you're all going to be stuck reading my blog for a few more years now (due to my acceptance into the four year program), I better give you something nice to look at. It took me about 4-5 hours total to put this new look together, and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out! I will definitely be adding and changing little things here and there, so bear with me.

I'm really enjoying my classes so far this semester. I'm taking Music Appreciation, Algebra (my worst enemy, which is actually treating me well so far), Conversational Spanish, and my first four year program class, Contemporary Marketing.

It's been VERY chilly in Summit this week, and incredibly, several of the peaks in and around Summit County have been covered in snow for the last week or so. There have been rumors of another La Nina season on the way... so I'm trying to prepare myself for another 50 feet. I can't say I'm too upset, I can never have enough powder days. I really wasn't excited for winter to come because I feel like I got shafted on a warm, sunny summer (check out the entry from late June when I woke up to 8" of snow.) But I have to say that thinking of shredding the steep & deep (the deeper the powder, the steeper you want your run to be... you have to ride it to know what we mean) is making me excited. I have a lot of friends who are living in Vail this winter and riding Vail and Beaver Creek, so I think I'm going to finally go with the Epic Pass so I can ride more than 10 days out there. It sounds like this season is going to be just as epic as the pass!

Fishy Business

The Dredge is a restaurant in downtown Breck that floats on a section of Blue River that is more like a little pond with an entrance and exit to the Blue River. The pond was stocked with Rainbow and Brown trout so you can feed them off the bridges leading out to the Dredge. I decided to attach my GoPro to a probe and test out the underwater footage since it's waterproof, I got some pretty cool shots!

Here's a little footage. It's starts off with a fish that mistook my GoPro for something edible, HAHA!

Colorado - A Biker's Paradise

This past week the inaugural USA Pro Cycling Challenge rolled through Colorado and ended up being a massive success. Richard Scharf from Visit Denver noted in a news article that tens of millions of people from 160 different countries watched the race on television, and towns like Breckenridge reported their largest crowds in history. While expected revenue for the state was estimated around $70 million, rumor has it that it ended up being closer to $100 million. The race highlighted 11 cities this year, including Colorado Springs, Crested Butte, Salida, Steamboat Springs, Vail, Breckenridge, Golden, Denver, Avon, Gunnison, and Aspen. The 11 different cities for next year won't be chosen until December, yet the committee is already getting overwhelming amounts of bids, which they say, "is a good problem to have". Excitingly, the first five overall winners were all from the USA, with Levi Leipheimer coming in first.

I was kind of bummed I had to work because I really didn't want to miss the race and all the action that went along with it. Luckily me and a fellow co-worker (because of our good work ethic) got to go out with two of our managers and watch the race go by on company time, I was stoked! There was an insane amount of vehicles, including police cars/motorcycles that started driving down the road a good 10 minutes before the first group of bikers cruised by. What was even more surprising was that once the first 5 bikers went by with their entourage, it was a good 5 minutes before the next large group came through. Below is a video I took with the first 4 leaders, followed by the next group (which was also the largest). The video below that are the highlights from TV of stage 5, that ended in Breckenridge.

Colorado doesn't just cater to road bikers though! The week before the Pro Cycling Challenge Breckenridge hosted the Breck Epic, an annual mountain bike race that has began attracting riders from as far away as British Columbia and Puerto Rico. As described from Breck Epic's Facebook page: "Are you tough enough? The Breck Epic is a 6-day ultra-endurance mountain bike stage race held in the sprawling backcountry surrounding the Victorian mining town of Breckenridge, Colorado. If the course were a person it would be dressed in black leather and brandishing something nasty, but it does have a tender side – proceeds from the B.E. benefit local open space initiatives and trail improvements." (I actually just got the statics on this race: 6 days - 251 miles - 42k vertical... wow.)

 The Breck Epic was also a success, noted in The Summit Daily by Mark Halwa from British Columbia: "Eight of us from British Columbia just came down to participate in the 2011 Breck Epic. On behalf of all of us — we're very impressed! We experienced a first-class event, well built and challenging trails, very nice, helpful people in all the shops and restaurants, and all eight of us left behind a bundle of our disposable income.

We, too, live in a mountain biking/outdoors community, but the level of cooperation to build the mountain bike trail network you have — as well as that great paved trail between Frisco and Breck — is very apparent, and I'm sure you folks are very proud of what you have.

Some time ago I'll bet the question was asked, “If we build them (mountain bike trails), will they come?” Well, you did build them, we came, we'll be back, and we'll probably spend even more money next time. Congratulations to Mike McCormack and his team for putting on a world-class event in a community that has something very special — you rock Breckenridge!"

Okay, okay... So you're not a road biker or a mountain biker, I get it. You're apart of the younger generation whose into the dirt jumping, race tracks, pump tracks, and more... Don't worry, we covered that for you this summer as well. A project that has been three years in the making, also known as the Frisco Peninsula Bike Park, that started last fall, has exploded into a plethora of jumps, wood features, twists, and turns at Frisco's Recreation Center. This may not be completely accurate, but as of now, the bike park consists of three different pump tracks for different levels, a slopestyle mountain bike park, a pump track, and I believe a race track is underway. Here are some pictures from their blog, which you can check out at www.friscopeninsulabikepark.com. Oh yeah, did I mention that it's free?