Snowshoe Shenanigans!

In preparation for our trek around Torres del Paine in Chile I decided it was necessary for Logan and I to figure out how we deal with stress…you know, in case something goes wrong in a foreign country where neither of us speak the language. Besides, a little misery training always does a person good, right?!

That is how our plan to summit a winter 14er came to be – we were going to put ourselves in a situation that would result in misery for the sole purpose of making sure neither of us got murdered for being annoying, whining or generally unlikable. Looking back I basically created the perfect plan for my own death. Luckily we were able to convince Robb to join us. And by convince I really mean I said “Hey, can we crash at your place Saturday night? Oh, and by the way, you should come hike a mountain with us Sunday!”. What can I say, he’s agreeable like that!
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#ExplOregon: We would have died. Literally.

I proudly pack ALL of my weekend adventuring gear and backpacking essentials into a 22L Columbia pack and wrangled tent poles through airport security with big plans for some backcountry backpacking in Oregon with Erin and Weez. After a day of wandering around Portland on my own it was time to explore the great outdoors. On Friday morning I carefully packed up my food and reassessed my layers. The weather was much chilly than forecasted but we had high hopes for rising temps as the world woke up.

By mid morning we’d packed everything into the car and headed southeast toward the Three Fingered Jack trailhead. Our game plan was to spend the next two days/nights backpacking the 20-24ish [depending upon which website you ask] loop around Three Fingered Jack. In our diluted minds we’d spend the days hiking and exploring than camp along the trail with rainy but bearable temperatures that *might* drop below 20 degrees. The closer we got to our destination the more “uh, we might die” talk swirled around the car. The thermometer in the car kept spitting out lower temperatures…by the time we got to the trailhead, at 2pm, it was reading 11 degrees. ELEVEN DEGREES! In the afternoon…on a very sunny day. Oh, and we were surrounded by heaping piles of snow. As in the trailhead was not accessible because it was buried under 2-3 feet of fresh snow. This was not going as planned…
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Escaping to the Mountains

After a long week with many, many moments of “gah, I wish I could just turn the internet off” I spent my weekend doing exactly that. Sure, I had my phone on me and yea, I double tapped posts on Instagram but in the grand scheme of things…the internet did not matter!

It started with a friendly meet up with Chris and Marissa in Boulder. It was a freaking gorgeous day with bluebird skies and temperatures that should have left us in September. We spent some quality time frolicking around trails and making fools of ourselves before we decided we’d earned our weight in fries + beer. I guess the internet isn’t all bad if it gets you friends like these crazies…
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Local Love: Auckland Outdoors

Disclaimer: I’m an ambassador for Auckland Outdoors, a Colorado company I am about to talk about, and while I am being reimbursed for my work with them all opinions and such are my own! I applied to be an ambassador because I love the gear sharing concept they’ve come up with and how they make it easier to get everyone outside! If you have any questions/suggestions/thoughts…send them my way! I’d love to hear them and pass them along, anything to help make Auckland Outdoors more successful!

Let’s imagine a situation…one that many of you have probably been in.

You have friends or family flying in from out of town with big plans to go camping, backpacking or hiking. With the astronomical baggage costs they are packing light…which means they are coming without the proper camping gear.

Or, you have a friend in town that keeps saying they are jealous of your trips into the mountains…you plan out an easy adventure to get them experience the backcountry first hand but don’t have the gear needed to make their first trip comfortable and fun.

Or, you’re traveling to Denver without knowing many people in the area. You want to head into the mountains to do some exploring but don’t have the gear you need…and aren’t sure where to go.

You have a few options…
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A Weekend of Cliff Hangers!

I spent my long weekend roaming the wilderness of Utah, scouting out routes down canyons, chasing down a very sneaky river, camping on cliffs and experiencing a rainy night in the desert.

When Heather sent out the “whatcha doing Memorial Day Weekend” email I got excited. We’re on the same page when it comes to holiday weekends – head to the mountains but trek your way into the backcountry to avoid the crowds! When the follow up email had “CANYONLANDS” in the subject line I knew it was going to be a good weekend!
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{Lesson Learned} Stormy Hikes Above Treeline

Sierra Trading Post is pulling together stories of “biggest mistakes” and “lessons learned” for an upcoming Twitter chat. I’ve done some stupid things while exploring Colorado but naively hiking in the afternoon during predictable summer storms has by far been the most dangerous. Re-reading the stories I posted about these “adventures” is actually painful! Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes…

I have survived a few mishaps in the backcountry – hiking the wrong mountain on my first 14er attempt, nearly dying and desperately wanting to sell my mountain bike after misreading directions and shivering a lot on my first winter camping trip are a few of the more exciting ones. And I’m sure I’ll add to that list with time – sometimes I don’t extensively Google adventures before I pack my bags and head out.
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Learning the Cold Way {Winter Camping}

Remember that one time when we went winter camping with Sierra Trading Post? Turns out it was more than just a weekend in the wilderness. For us it doubled as a bit of a learning experience. Of course we expected a learning curve of some sort but we weren’t prepared for one quite as cold…

As I mentioned earlier we were a little under prepared in the gear department. We knew that going in and we knew it wouldn’t be a perfectly comfortable night. Heck, Chris and I are yet to figure out how to have a “perfectly comfortable night” while camping. We tend to be rather minimalist in our packing and I think we pay for it while attempting to sleep. This time we packed everything we owned but when you don’t have quite the right gear it doesn’t matter.
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Camping. In the snow!

:: Fun Fact :: About 99.9% of the photos in this post are kidnapped from other people…because somehow I managed to factory reset my phone and lose every single photo because I’m too lazy to empty out my overflowing DropBox. Basically, I suck, so enjoy everyone else’s photography!

A few months ago I jumped at the chance to go hiking off the Bierstadt Trailhead with Andy and Chris, two fairly cool dudes behind the social media platforms of Sierra Trading Post. An impromptu 9 mile hike up two mountains the day before my first 50K sounded like a fantastic idea…or not. But I still went, had a blast, rocked the 50K and look back saying it was all worth it!
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