Backpacking in the Eagles Nest Wilderness – Peak C

Posted: August 29, 2011
By: andylibrande
In: Backpacking, Colorado, Summit County/I-70 Area
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When: July 17th – July 18th, 2011

Where: Eagle’s Nest Wilderness, Peak C, Upper Piney River Trail (TOPO MAP LINK)

Caitlin and I decided to add a little fun overnight backpacking trip onto a busy weekend. After going to a quick wedding reception in Frisco we headed over to Vail to embark on a short overnight backpacking trip. After driving down a very long dirt road (which uses the Red and White trailhead that we snowmobile in the winter) we finally reached the Upper Piney Lake Trailhead. Immediately we were greeted by a pretty nasty evening rainstorm which we decided to wait out in the car (and only took about 30 mins).

It quickly turned into a beautiful evening and as we started putting our packs on we were startled when two hudge BULL MOOSE popped-out of the brush 50 yards from us at the parking lot. Of course I had to get some photos of this incredibly rare occurrence (I have only seen moose in Colorado from a very far distance). Moose enjoying the tasty-treats:

Of course I wanted to get as close as possible and luckily we were down-wind from them. I sneaked over to an area with some thicker trees and tried to get as close as possible knowing that these animals are incredibly dangerous. I got this shot through the dense brush:

Right after I took that photo a jeep coming down the road saw them, slammed on their brakes and started taking photos as well. A group of car-campers nearby that were behind a small hill heard the commotion and joined in on the moose watching. I suddenly found myself in close proximity to two potentially dangerous creatures as the tensions quickly increased. The big guy looked around and gave me the stink-eye so I high tailed it out of there before he could test those hooves on me. Unfortunately the two never posed together but you can see both of them in this photo:

Moose distraction aside we started our hike in on an relatively easy trail with incredible views of the valley in front of us.

Caitlin measuring up against the local flauna:

Andy checking out the beautiful Peak C (Rough-rider Couilor is just visible on the notch to the right of the peak) We ran into a group that skied it on Sunday:

We backpacked in a few miles since the sun was setting quickly. Set-up camp and had a great cooking area overlooking two different valley’s. The next morning we got up and hiked around the area up the side of the mountain next to peak C. There are not really any trails in the area (and the ones there are poorly marked as we found ourselves somewhat misplaced).

We were camped at the bottom of this valley. To the Right is where the Trailhead for the Upper Piney is and a very large valley. In front of us in the valley is where the trail continues to Upper Piney Lake (which we missed this trail the night before). On the otherside of the peaks on the left is East Vail. The clouds made it hard to get a solid photo.

After watching the clouds build for a couple of hours a quick moving rainstorm scared us back down to the campsite where we got back just as the weather unleashed for 20-30 mins. Then it was back to clear skies and an awesome hike back to the car.

Beautiful valley views on the way back to the car:

Caitlin and I almost back to the car:

A view of the “Rip Saw” ridge from the road on the drive out:

Nice to get away!

Link to the full post: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/08/backpacking-in-the-eagles-nest-wilderness-peak-c/

4th of July Skiing at A-Basin

Posted: August 12, 2011
By: andylibrande
In: Colorado, Snow, Summit County/I-70 Area
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This year served up two completely different and incredible closing days. Vail’s closing weekend was April 24th and was completed with a condo in downtown vail, music, friends, family and two days of fresh powder!!!?!! Easily the best snow on a closing day I have ever seen (and it seemed appropriate considering I was there for Vail’s opening day which delivered deep fresh powder all the way back on November 19th).

Flash forward 72 days later and it is finally time for A-Basin’s closing day. Now A-basin has only been open four other times on 4th of July and the last time they were open this late was 1997. So odds of seeing another 4th of July ski day at a resort is fairly low and we had to make the most of it. So we had a lot of fun.

We got there just after 10pm. Virtually every parking lot was full to our surprise. Costumes on, time to celebrate:

Apparently we weren’t the only ones here to celebrate AMERICA!!!:

Best part about the wait in the ski line was throwing snowballs at people on the ski lifts. These 3 girls all wearing bikinis got dominated. If you look closely a snowball just ricochet off one of the girl’s faces…awesome.

Dodging snowballs:

Watching pond-skimming at the top of A-Basin:

The normal pond-skimming place was melted-out and luckily a new pond formed. I have never seen it form in this location before. The steep and abrupt entry made for some spectacular crashes. Here the crowd enjoys the views:

Clowns are horrible pond-skimmers:

People were yelling “AMERICA!!!” all day long and for good reasons! Here Caitlin gives the lift-line a demonstration in mogul skiing via bikini on surprisingly good snow:

If you fall while pond-skimming you nearly freeze in the 32 degree water and overcast sky. To make matters worse a little kid comes along and throws snowballs at your face as you are trying to climb out of the freezing water. This girl gets the worse of it as the crowd cheered the little kid on:

I Love America!!! Seriously it kicks ass.

Not all closing days are the same and this season provided two of the most unique and incredible days anyone could ask for.

Link to full post: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/08/4th-of-july-skiing-at-a-basin/

Crested Butte Spring in June

Who: Caitlin, her sister Lizzy, my sister Lizard, and myself. (Me + 3 women!?!)

When: June 11th-12th

What: A quick overnight camping trip

Randomly both my parents and Caitlin’s parents did the Ride the Rockies tour this year (~400 miles over 6 days on a road bike!) which made for a convenient excuse to drive them to Crested Butte to drop them off.

Caitlin and I thought it would be fun to drop off each of the parental units and then spend a night camping with our sister’s and enjoy the awesomeness that is Crested Butte.

Arriving in the early afternoon on Saturday we stopped for a delicious lunch at the Brick Oven in downtown Crested Butte which has a surprising great selection of beer. After gorging ourselves on a meatball, pepperoni, and pesto pizza my sister and I parted ways with our parents and headed out to Gothic to check out Stupid Falls.

Stupid Falls is a massive waterfall that is really easy to get to (essentially you turn right after the first bridge on the approach to Gothic and drive down the dirt road until you see a large point in the shape of the river). It was running at 2,300 CFS and was just massive.

Here is video of the falls along with a few photos:

Stupid Falls @ 1,100 CFS

Sister in awe at the power of the waterfall:

We finally met-up with Caitlin and her Sister and found a campsite along County RD 734 where the snowline was not much above the campsite.

Long exposure of the valley that night (~5mins long):

The valley was a contradiction of seasons with spring time at it’s fullest in the valley with mid-winter snowpack on the mountains:

We tried to hike near the Ol Be Joyful waterfall however the trail was closed due to a massive river crossing. Instead we went to a trail near Gothic on the Judd Falls trailhead into the Maroon Bell wilderness. Caitlin and I have done this hike before and we knew that it would be good for the sisters.

The girls with Mount Crested Butte (the ski area) in the background:

Lizard hugging a massive Aspen tree:

Black Bear Track right in front of the wilderness sign:

Sister with Spider Peak in the background:

Super green:

Link to full post here: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/07/crested-butte-spring-in-june/

Scenics from the Baja

If you haven’t already, please read the quick recap of our CABO SAN LUCAS trip here: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/06/down-in-mexico-a-quick-trip-report/

In summary I took a couple pretty photos. Below are some more scenics from the trip.

Enjoy!

Scenics from a Week in the Baja:

Panorama of a Pink Sunrise over the eastern beaches of Cabo San Lucas on the morning of May 9th, 2011. This is a photo that I stitched together and plan on printing. The print will be ~80 inches wide when I get it done. I witnessed nearly every sunrise on the trip as they were far more spectacular then the sunsets at Cabo. Plus it was very peaceful watching the beach slowly wake-up every morning from our awesome villa.

Click for a much larger version and enjoy:

One morning I was treated to the most colorful sunrise I have ever seen. The location of the sunrise caught me off guard as it was the first morning in this new spot and I didn’t quite nail the composition. It lasted for just a couple minutes and luckily I woke Caitlin as she is the only testimonial that this actually happened. Unreal colors over San Jose Del Cabo taken from the Las Palmillas Casita:

We kayaked out to Finisterra to see the Arch. Conveniently it was out of the water (extremely rare) and we were able to walk right underneath it. Here Caitlin is enjoying the view from the ocean and I am trying not to drop my camera into the water:

This is a small tunnel that we crawled through for fun. Andrew is standing in the other entrance while I am on my belly taking a photo from the small entrance. Located on Playa del Amor near the Arch.

Whitney at Playa del Amor:

Sunbathing at the Casita:

Did I mention that this whole house was just our groups for a few days!?! It was awesome with incredible views sitting above a violent ocean swell. This is a photo that I stitched together to get the full house.

This is the back patio of the first place we stayed at called the Villa at the Hacienda resort. We had an amazing spot that overlooked Finisterra right on Medano Beach and minutes from the Marina and downtown Cabo. It was pretty incredible.

Sunset over Finisterra (Land’s End):

So many more photos that I have it is hard to narrow it down sometimes.

Hoped you enjoyed!

Link to full post: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/07/scenics-from-the-baja/

Down in Mexico – A Quick Trip Report

What: A week-long trip to Cabo San Lucas area in Mexico

Why: Because the US State Department says it is really dangerous (OMG!!!)

Who: Andrew Giamberardino, Whitney Hoover, Caitlin Shay, Andy Librande, Billy Papa G, and Erin

Real Reason for going: We heard there is tequila down there

How: We sold our organs to help pay for our trip there and back

Overview: This is the nuts and bolts of the trip listed mainly because I tend to over-exaggerate everything and routinely mix-up events. The photos are on the light side but more will be coming. I took 3,000 photos on the trip and these ones get the point across.

El Arco de Cabo San Lucas with Sand Under the Arch which only happens every few years:

Saturday Day 1: Arrive early afternoon to Cabo; the flight between DEN and LAX was amazing as we were in a little plane and had great views of the snow-capped mountains. Get stuff at CostCo which outside of the meat and the amazing juice nectar the prices were not that great. Arrive at the best resort in Cabo San Lucas with incredible views and no-one else around. Drink.

Billy and Erin at our Villa with Finisterra in the background:

Sunday Day 2: Pick-up Caitlin. Pick-up a ton of fruit, delicious pastries, and more tequila at the grocery store. Get lunch at Taco stand where we tried Corazon Asado among other delicacies…Very hot in the city. Drink. Eat at the Hacienda restruatrant for dinner (which is a part of the resort we stayed at). Drink some more.

Powerful waves on the Pacific side of Playa del Amor:

Monday Day 3: Beautiful morning Kayak to Finisterra (“Land’s End”) also home to Playa del Amor or Lover’s Beach. Almost get destroyed by a massive wave. Walked under El Arco de Cabo San Lucas (which one can only do every couple of years when the tides are low). Snorkel. Eat late lunch at some random place with good fish tacos. Sweat balls off walking around mexican part of Cabo. Enjoy refreshing Coke. Walked into the most hilarious and out of place indoor Shopping MallI have ever seen. Drink. Late night dinner at The Office on the beach. Drink a lot. Have fun in pool when we get back.

Caitlin with El Archo as a backdrop:

Sea Lion literally laying underneath El Archo:

Tuesday Day 4: One hour drive to the city of Todos Santos. See some awesome art, buy some unique pieces, enjoy the 15 degree cooler weather there. Eat fish/shrimp tacos in a small thatched roof restaurant. Drive home on a road that is under-construction (where we saw a construction truck fall-off the road earlier). Late Dinner at Mi Casa.

The plaza at Todos Santos bordered by the town’s mission:

Wednesday Day 5: Early morning walk on beach with Caitlin, see a 50+ fishing boats leave at the same time for start of a fishing competition exactly at 7am, hang out at resort pool, breakfast at Hacienda Restruatrant, struggle at Paddle-boarding due to large waves, lunch at Los Michancos where you buy the Carnitas by the Kilo (probably the best meal of the trip), hilarious negotiations when shopping, pack-up and head to La Casita at the Palmillas near San Jose del Cabo. Cook dinner there which was a massive amount of delicious ribs.

Caitlin enjoying the infinity pool at the Hacienda Resort in Cabo:

Thursday Day 6: Andy hangs around as not feeling well. Others go ATV’ing. Andrew/Whit go to the One and Only for dinner, Andy and Caitlin go downtown San Jose del Cabo for Thursday night art walk, drink free tequilas and mojitos at the numerous art galleries, ponder crazy art, and eat delicious dinner at Meson del Angel. Get lost on taxi ride home.

The group about to chow down on some home cooking:

Friday Day 7: See best sunrise of the trip (and one of the best in my life). Say goodbye to Erin and Billy. Hang-out at the pool at Club 96 as Andrew provides a tour for some travel agents. Drink more mojitos. Hang-out at Casita. Andrew/Whit get tanked. Andrew makes funny dolphin noises. Go to San Jose del Cabo and eat dinner at Tropicana.

Andy, Caitlin, Whitney and Andrew set the course at the Casita in San Jose del Cabo:

Saturday Day 8: Wake-up everyone really early for sunrise (6:15am) and get some great photos. Walk on beach one last time. Pack-up all of our stuff and start drinking. Drop Whitney at Club 96 and go into town for Tequila and final souvenirs. Hang-out at pool until 2:15, head back to casita and leave to airport at 3:00pm. See Jessica Alba on plane to LA. Awesome view flying out of cabo of the two different houses as well as Los Arcos. Arrive to LAX where after sitting for 10 mins decide we need to off-load at the back of the plane, get on a bus which proceeds to drive around the entire airport taking 15 mins, walk through a deserted section of the airport for 10 mins, go through customs, pick-up baggage, go through customs random check which takes another 15 mins, run to baggage re-check, go through security, wait for another bus to take us to the small ass American Airlines Eagle terminal, board plane at 8:29pm with departure time at 8:30pm. Very close. Arrive to rainy and cold Denver with some tall weeds in the front yard.

Andrew and Whitney with a intense early morning sunrise:

Sunday Day 1 Post Trip: Realized I took way too many photos.

Link to Part 2 of the Adventure that has photos of more pretty things (click here)

Castlewood Canyon Spring Climbing

Location: Castlewood Canyon State Park Colorado

Dates: 3/26, 4/8, 4/9, 4/15

In between powder sessions in the mountains, hail storms in Denver, and intense wind along the front range we have been taking advantage of the beautiful climbing opportunities at Castlewood.

We have had several sessions (love the afterwork sessions) at the Fontainebleau area of Castlewood with Caitlin coming pretty close to sending Rocket Ship. Here she is on the first day out with the new Organic Pad March 26th:

Jake leading with style at the C-Section wall at Castlewood on April 9th:

The elusive Rambo made an appearance and we worked on the Plate Rock South Face Arete in an after-work session on April 15th:

Rambo up high on the Plate Problem with all of the committing moves at the top:

Eying out the most intense crack climb at Castlewood. The South Sentry is a perfect crack formation with a undesirable landing on a small boulder that is nearly impossible to protect with only one spotter/photographer…Rambo got up in it but the next moves were a little dangerous for our situation (4/15/11):

The largest herd of deer I have ever seen at Castlewood and surprisingly they weren’t too spooked (3/26/11):

Full post here: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/05/castlewood-canyon-spring-climbing/

Sick-Gnar Hidden Backcountry Spot

Posted: May 02, 2011
By: andylibrande
In: Colorado, Random, Snow, Summit County/I-70 Area
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Synopsis: We secured funding through a variety of grants to complete a quest that was so epic that the likes of Powder, Outside and other magazines were too scared to even cover this ground-breaking trek into the unknown.

Date of Ascent: February 19th, 2011

Expedition Team: Gathered from around the world each specialized in specific skills:

Trent from Oklahoma. Specialty is eating spicy foods.
Tweak from Virginia. Specialty is not picking up girls at the bar.
Caitlin from Minnesota. Specialty is pretending to be blond.
Bethany from lots of places. Specialty is dog handler.
Arthur from England. Specialty is being English.
Danielle pretending to be from England. Specialty is withstanding English humor.
Mike from an unknown location. Specialty is surprising people.
Andy from Colorado. Specialty is talking about how awesome he is.

Expedition Map (click for Larger): Below is the specialized satellite photo that we received from NASA of the basecamp. They were our only sponsors and provided us with instantaneous views of the changing weather, erupting volcanoes, and movements of the native (and extremely hostile!) tribes.

Interactive Expedition Map (click for Larger): http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=203858300141676234019.00049e9d29873c006d6dd&ll=39.628045,-106.077688&spn=0.006445,0.013733&t=e&z=17&ecpose=39.63537586,-106.07009034,3258.7,-141.401,61.105,0

Expedition Video: Brain Farm Cinema was on hand filming the expedition using a number of their highly specialized (and retardly expensive) cameras including the CineFlex. One of the crew members had to hike nearly 28,000 vertical feet with a 27 lb camera attached to their helmet to get this awesome POV footage.

Silverthorne Colorado Backcountry Gnar! from AndyLibrande on Vimeo.

Select Photos from the Expedition:

Skiing the Icy 70+degree couilor:

View of the vast untamed wilderness that surrounds this 45,000 ft peak:

On the twelfth day this Ferocious Beast (which I believe is a Yeti?) nearly killed every expedition member and managed to eat most of our dwindling supplies:

I hope all of you take this serious…

Link to Original Post: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/05/sick-gnar-hidden-backcountry-spot/

A Day at Zuma

Posted: April 28, 2011
By: andylibrande
In: Colorado, Snow, Summit County/I-70 Area
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Most of the resort season just ended this past weekend (April 24th)with record breaking snowfall (Vail 524″). This huge amount of snow kept us mostly in or around the resorts and as a result had less backcountry skiing days then expected.

Regardless when we got out it was awesome.

A perfect day in Montezuma 2/27/2011 with Trent, Tweak, Caitlin and myself with no one around.

The Cornices were crazy that day and a number of the normal lines we were unable to do due to the potential danger of releasing one of those bad boys. Trent wanted to ski “Baby Notch” and the way in required some serious hacking to make the cornice doable (there has never been a cornice in this line for the last 3-4 years):

Caitlin picked out a sweet line that is rarely covered in snow. Here she is trying to get lined-up and making sure that small wind-lip is nothing to be worried about:

Caitlin going fast through the line and onto the open snow-field:

Tweak crushing it in “Little Chute”:

Days like this make this place the best.

Permalink: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/04/a-day-at-zuma/

Random Snow Adventures

Posted: April 10, 2011
By: andylibrande
In: Colorado, Snow, Summit County/I-70 Area
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This snow-season has treated me pretty damn well. The season started off right with a full-blown powder day at Vail’s opening day…easily one of the best days I have ever skied Vail due to a combination of great powder everywhere, zero crowds, and so many runs that I couldn’t move the next day. Since then we have had a lot of snow and a lot of adventures. However I have lacked in my photos since I normally do not take my camera with me to the resorts/side-country.

Here is a sampling of what has taken place:

A-Basin Sidecountry Scott Miller Sequence:

Tweak eating some powder:

Matt (which is Evan and Monica’s kid) is killing it in the park this year:

Backyard shenanigans:

Big Air Competition Downtown Denver:

Pretty cool event but as with most ski competitions they get somewhat boring unless you are standing right there (ie on the side of a halfpipe or right where the landing is). The structure they built was fricking awesome and it would have been a lot of fun to be in the comp.

Luckily our buddy Brian hooked us up with a phenomenal viewing location on top of the Denver Post building that overlooks Civic Center park. Great spot to hang out with friends and see something new in Denver. Damn the post building is sick.

Crested Butte:

Had a crew of people meet up in Crested Butte for a weekend of great snow and our buddy Jake’s B-Day. It dumped all day on Saturday and we had bluebird all day sunday with loads of snow everywhere. I focused on riding all weekend so no camera patrol but had way too much fun at the best ski mountain and town in Colorado. Still in my opinion the best mountain town in Colorado (see what it is like in the summer)

Zuma:

Yes we had some good snow (and scary cornices) in Zuma. Here is just a taste of the usual awesomeness this place provides:

More Adventures to Come!!!

Link to full-post here: http://andylibrande.com/news/2011/04/random-snow-adventures/

Ice-Ice-Baby…

Posted: March 28, 2011
By: andylibrande
In: Colorado, Rock, Snow, Southern Mountains
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What: Ice Climbing in Ouray Colorado

When: Feb 11th-13th, 2011

Who: Andrew G, Hoof-Cakes, Caitlin, Brain G, Myself, meeting up with Vinny, Sarah, Andrew M, and some other dude’s whose names I haphazardly forgotten…yeah we had a crew.

Reasons why Ice-Climbing in Ouray is the shizzle:

Gear: Nothing like playing with sharp-pointy Ice Axes all day
Technique: The better at hitting/kicking you are the more fun you will have
Location: Comparing Ouray to the rest of Colorado is like comparing a Salema Hayek to Rosie O’Donnell
Ice Park: Huge area, easy access, plenty of climbs and beautiful things to look at. I am always impressed when I visit here. Plus you walk from the Motel to the ice-park.
Ice: Unreal formations everywhere.
Food: Classic Mexican at Buen Tiempo and a new favorite at Mouse’s Chocolates
Hot Tub at the Victorian Inn: Best views from any hot-tub I have ever gotten drunk in (here is an idea picture)
Not Driving on I-70: Well technically you can get here via I-70 but why would anyone want to drive on that road. Instead we enjoyed ~5.5 hours of scenic roadways and saw a incredible sunset over Monarch Pass

Yes. I was pleasantly surprised with how awesome our trip to Ouray turned-out. First off Ouray seems like a little bump in the road on the way to bigger and better things (ie Silverton, Durango, etc); however you only appreciate this town when you have spent some time here.

This is my third Ice adventure to this town with the previous two being on commercially guided trips with the DU Alpine Club back in college. Those were a lot of fun but this time was able to piggy-back on some friends with a bunch of Ice-climbing equipment and were able to explore on our own.

First day was spent at the New Funtier Area. Good area that has a number of concentrated climbs in a narrow canyon.

Vinny leading up some thin ice:

Whitney posing for the camera:

Andrew G. showing us how it is done on a sketchy pillar at the end of the day:

The second day we headed to the excellent South Park area which is much further in the canyon, however the actually area is in a wide-section of the river and makes for a nice place to hang-out and watch climbs.

Amazingly a Bighorn Sheep crossed under the canyon when we were setting-up the climbs. They hung out above us all day too: