(Aborted) Estes Cone

Getting ready for Halloween...



Sunday we planned to summit Estes Cone near Estes Park in the Rocky Mountain National Park. This was supposed to be a 6.5 mile round-trip with 2,000' of gain

However, a surprising amount of snow when we arrived and a very steep ascent at the end (1,000' in 0.7 miles) meant we would not summit

The trail head is the trail head for Longs Peak - which I will never be doing

"The most difficult portion of the (Longs Peak) hike begins at the Boulder Field, 6.4 miles into the hike. After scrambling over the boulders, hikers reach the Keyhole at 6.7 miles. The following quarter of a mile involves a scramble along narrow ledges, many of which may have nearly sheer cliffs of 1,000 feet or more just off the edge. The next portion of the hike includes climbing over 600 vertical feet up the Trough before reaching the most exposed section of the hike, the Narrows. Just beyond the Narrows, the Notch signifies the beginning of the Homestretch, a steep climb to the football field-sized, flat summit...57 people have died climbing or hiking Longs Peak. According to the National Park Service, 2 people, on average, die every year attempting to climb the mountain"











This is where we turned around - a pleasant 4-mile round-trip with no more than 500' of gain. The second pic is Estes Cone





Looking back at Longs Peak from Highway 7



Saint Catherine Chapel near Allenspark



Jesus thinks he's #1 or he's scolding us

Hudson's Birthday

Hudson had his 6th birthday on Wednesday. He got several stuffed animals and a nice jacket

Bear Peak

A great run on Thursday - Green Mountain (5.3 miles, 2,344' gain) in 1:19:14. A personal best (partially attributable to the presence of fruit eating bears and partially to an incoming storm)

I didn't see any bears and beat the storm by 10 minutes. It was snowing in the mountains of Indian Peaks Wilderness



Today met up with Leadville Chuck at NCAR as we were going to run Bear Peak (5.6 miles, 2,381' gain). Expectations - based on what I had read - was a run similar to Green Mountain but a bit tougher



Looks fine. Right?

HAHAHA!

Books and websites did say it was "brutal" as far as steepness (going up Fern Canyon). They also mentioned the scrambling at the top

Too few mentioned the possibility of death. There was one final move to the narrow steep summit that was Class 3 or Class 4. It was like going around a (rock) corner onto a (rock) landing and immediately climbing (rock) stairs that were 3'-4' each. With a gusty wind. And if you tripped or slipped, you died. No exaggeration. Coming down was much harder than going up

Kudos to this guy - an ultra runner - for agreeing
http://nolimitsever.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-south-boulder-and-bear-peaks.html

Here are pics from the summit - I was sitting



Boulder





Green Mountain



Mandatory





Not sure - this is looking south or south-west



Indian Peaks

2011-12 Boulder Sweet Leafs

If you are not a hockey fan, you may want to skip this post

Last Tuesday was our annual fantasy hockey draft. After a solid 2010-11 (beat Dan "Bruce" Bangert for 5th place on the last day of the season), nothing short of our 2nd championship is expected by our rabid fans

I think we lost two franchises but gained two new franschises for twelve teams. Doug Hinds (pictured below, on right) is the new Commissioner



Our league has 2C, 4W, 3D, 2G and 2 Utility positions. Categories are G, A, +/-, PIM and PPP for skaters and W and Save % for Goalies

Ladies and Gentleman, your 2011-12 Sweet Leafs

Eric Staal, Centre
Eric has a Stanley Cup and a Gold Medal. Last year he had 76 points, 72 PIMs and 29 PPP

A good Ontario boy. Eric is the type of guy who's cool to hang with but a guy you should not trust to drive your girlfriend home. Possible Sweet Leaf captain






Mikko Koivu, Centre
Mikko is rock solid and unspectacular. Last year he had 62 points, 50 PIMS and 22 PPP in only 71 games. He was a Sweet Leaf last year as well






Steve Ott, Centre
Steve is here for one reason:



Aside from his 183 PIMS last year, he actually put up 32 points with 10 PPP


Daniel Sedin, Wing
Daniel Sedin is The Man - and the defending scoring champ. 104 points with 42 PPP. Vancouver crushed my soul last June but I'm still on the bandwagon




Patrick Sharp, Wing
Patrick is a classy Thunder Bay boy who put up 71 points with 26 PPP. It's not his fault he plays for Chicago






Drew Stafford, Wing
Drew was a "smart" pick - meaning you really do not want to draft him but he is the best available player at the time. No one will ever appreciate the pick

51 points, 34 PIMS and 19 PPP in only 62 games is good stuff. But Drew Stafford always misses games. It's not like he's fighting. What's up, Drew?






R.J. Umberger, Wing
R.J. was drated because at the time he was supposed to be on the 1st line with Rick Nash and Jeff Carter. He's already been bumped back to the 2nd line

Still, he managed 57 points last year. Solid - but no guarantee he won't be waived at some point. His upside seems limited




Andrew Brunette, Wing
Andrew is on a line with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Sharp. Given he averages a weak 0.3 PIMs per game, he needs to put up good numbers. Fast - or it's waivers




Steve "Little Stevie" Sullivan, Wing
One of Don Cherry's favorites. Steve was a last minute pick when I read he was going to be on the Pens top line with Malkin and James Neal

I just waived him for Joffrey Lupul. Sorry, Stevie. Good luck




Andrew Ladd, Wing
We waived Andrew Ladd for Sheldon Souray earlier in the day. Sorry Andrew. Good luck in Winnipeg




P.K. Subban, Defense
Other Jackass GMs do not appreciate P.K.

38 points, 18 PPP and 124 PIMs - as a rookie. P.K. - see you in a Team Canada jersey in Russia come 2014...






Tobias Enstrom, Defense
No one knows Tobias. That's what happens when you play in Atlanta

The 26 year old Swede has put up back-to-back 50+ point seasons. Last season he had a decent 54 PIMs and an impressive 28 PPP

Hey, Tobias - who's the chick?






Mark Giordano, Defense
Mark put up 43 points, 67 PIMs and 25 PPP. For a lousy Calgary team. And Calgary will be lousy again. If things go poorly (as expected) he seems like a guy that will goon it up




Tomas Voukon, Goalie
Tomas was my 2nd overall pick. I expect better games than his Washington debut (an 82% save percentage)

What is going on in the pic below? F*ck!




James Reimer, Goalie
My season hinges on James Reimer. I need him to be as good as he was last season.

No pressure, James - it's not as though you're the starting goalie in Canada's largest city playing on Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday....




Mikka Kiprusoff, Goalie
I love Mikka Kiprusoff but I was devastated when I clicked "Draft"

Mikka is still good - but his save percentage has sucked 3 of the past 4 years (last 4 - 90.6%, 92.0%, 90.3%, 90.6%)



Mikka! Stop pounding Tomas Voukon - he's your Sweet Leaf teammate




Well...there you have it...I waived two guys while writing this blog...

The Boulder Sweet Leafs - your 2011-2012 Champions

Mount Audubon

Sunday we went to the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area and hiked up / ran down Mount Audubon

A trail near ours was closed for a Search & Rescue operations. A 70-year old man has been missing several days. It gets cold at night - the entire area is above 10,000'

Mount Audubon is an 8-mile round trip from the Mitchell Lake Trail Head with 2,789' of gain to 13,223'



Did a short detour about 50 minutes into the hike over to this "point" for a nice view of Rocky Mountain National Park



Catching up to Maureen on the trail to Audubon



It was a brutal hike - we were still tired from Friday and the trails became more rocky with a cold wind



Eventually we did make it. The Indian Peaks have spectacular views







You can see Lake Granby over on the east side of the Divide



Looking Northwest. Longs and Meeker at the back right



Mandatory summit pic. We took one of us together but I looked stupid. Since this is my blog I went with this pic of just me. Bwa-hahahaha!



We lost the trail on the way down. No big deal for me but "certain" people with shorter legs were not pleased



We mostly ran back as we were hungry. The plan was for me to go ahead, grab food and drinks and then come back to meet up with Maureen. I grabbed a few protein bars and cold drinks and about half a mile from the trail head I heard her talking. And then I noticed something to my right about 12 feet away. A BIG ASS MOOSE!

We hung out until he was further from the trail before walking by. Maureen had also seen a female and their baby before I had arrived (without the camera)

Colorado is awesome