Tag: trad climbing
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Capitol Peak – The Harder Way
Capitol Peak is widely regarded as Colorado’s hardest 14er. After summiting this beautiful and horrifying mountain and coming safely back to earth, I finally see why it holds that superlative. I wish this was a simple tale of taking the standard route, “only” a Class 4 scramble, but my friend Ryan and I chose to…
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A Climb Worthy of Two Thumbs Up – The NW Ridge of The Thumb
The Sandia Mountains have a lot impressive granite fins and spires packed into a small mountain range. I remember hiking the La Luz trail for the first time in 2020 and seeing climbers dot the towering walls all around. At the time, I never really thought I would be one of those climbers, questing up…
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Baby’s First Alpine Climb: Wiskey Ridge, Sandia Mountains, NM
A few weeks after our little climbing adventure in Spain, Maggie and I had a free weekend. The psych was still high, so when Maggie asked me what we should do, I said, “Well I was thinking about this ridge traverse in the Sandias.” I showed Maggie the route and she was instantly stoked to…
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Learning to Climb Clean – El Rito, NM
If you’ve read some of my posts, you have probably come to understand that I quite enjoy hiking and running in the mountains. Spending five months on the PCT, doing nothing but hiking, was incredible and I loved every day of it. That said, the trail itself is kind of boring, rarely exceeding a grade…
Distance Over Time 