An Ohio State Alum and a Penn State Alum Walk Into a Bar – Kelso Ridge

Normally I try to stick to 2 criteria when writing a trip report: 1) Write about a peak that isn’t well traveled, and 2) if possible, try to keep it timely. Well, I guess I’m throwing protocol out the window on this one. 🙂

That said, if you’re still here, thanks for reading and at the very least you’ll like the pictures!

Mat and I scrambled up Kelso Ridge on Torreys at the end of April as a snow climb. It was a great day out in the hills on a new route for both of us and the first of 5 or so mountain outings we’d do this spring.

I’ll preface this TR by saying that as an accountant, tax season gave me a good ass kicking this year. I had a few more outings this winter than the norm, but in all reality, my last big day out was in January on KC with Natalie. I wouldn’t call Kelso Ridge a big day, but it sure was a fun day, an excellent mountain therapy session with a great partner, and an outing that helped me quickly remember why we do what we do out here.

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The Spanish Creek Redemption – Winter Kit Carson

Spanish Creek. For 48 hours it remained untouched this winter until a brave and unsuspecting foursome went to work during the wee hours of Christmas Eve. By noon we weren’t even approaching treeline. We never stood a chance. For the next 30 days Spanish Creek would remain untouched.

December 24, 2015 – Jeremy Kreis, Justin Martin, Will Coleman and myself make it to treeline after 7 hours of masochistic trench building.

Peak: Kit Carson Peak (14,165′)
Date: January 23, 2016
Trailhead: Spanish Creek (8,260′)
Distance: ~11 miles
Elevation Gain: ~ 6,000 ft.
Participants: Natalie Moran, Dillon Sarnelli
Time: 16 hours

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Make Columbia Great Again

“Scree Hell”. We’ve all heard it. This mountain sets the bar so high, it’s how we measure every other scree descent in Colorado. It couldn’t be that bad, right? Yeah it is. I learned that back in 2012 on a 2 year blitzkrieg to finish the 14ers. It was a solo Sawatch slammer of a weekend that included the standard routes on Shav, Tab, Harvard and that infamous descent of Columbia. Four whole 14ers in one weekend. A feat only a noob could appreciate.

These days my main criteria seems to revolve around the path less traveled. And so three days into 2016, one day removed from the coldest New Year’s Day ascent of Massive ever recorded, and just 24 hours before tax season semi-hibernation, I found myself at the Harvard Lakes TH. I’ll be honest, until I did some homework, I didn’t even know Columbia had a southeast ridge. This probably has something to do with the fact that the ridge itself is almost 5 miles long and wraps around the entire Collegiate Peak Wilderness before reaching Columbia.

Peak: Mount Columbia (14,073′)
Date: January 3, 2016
Trailhead: Harvard Lakes
Distance: 12.5 miles (1/4 mile below TH)
Elevation Gain: ~ 5,000 ft.
Participants: K Bessler, Dillon Sarnelli
Time: 12 hours

Continue reading “Make Columbia Great Again”