What a weekend!!

Sorry I’m a couple days late! We had ourselves quite the weekend here in Telluride and I had a lot to catch up on when Monday came around! Great weather, great music, and great beer! What else could you ask for? My buddy Chris was in town from Minnesota so I had the pleasure of playing tour guide for the weekend. I love having friends come to visit in Telluride…always cool to see how excited people get when they arrive in this gorgeous valley!

First up on the weekends agenda was to check out the festival.  We picked up some last minute tickets and headed in to Town Park. Chris and I are both originally from Milwaukee, so we had to make sure to catch the Violent Femmes (also originally from Milwaukee). Good company, cold beer, and good music made for and awesome Friday night! Blues and Brews is always such a fun festival and this year proved to be no exception.

Saturday turned out to be a very action packed day. Chris and I had climbed Mt. Sneffels last year and he was interested in summiting another peak this time around. My living room window looks out at Wilson Peak (14,017ft) and so that seemed to be the obvious choice. Climbing 14'ers in this area is serious business and we wanted to make sure we were adequately prepared. Despite our best efforts, we were ultimately under prepared. We left the house at 6 and by the time we arrived at the Rock of Ages trailhead it was already 7am. The trek begins just below tree line and then snakes up and around the peak making it a somewhat tedious 10 mile excursion. After a couple hours of walking up scree, we arrived at the false summit. Everything up to that point had been pretty mellow…but things were about to change. We ran into a couple guides at the top of the false summit and they were bringing out the ropes and harnesses. Roughly 3-4 inches of snow had fallen on the highly exposed north facing slope we were preparing to cross and it became evident that we were missing some essential gear. Since a fall in this area could prove to be fatal, we made the decision to turn around and come back another time. It’s always tough to turn around on a climb…especially when you’re only 200ft below the summit! Knowing we made the right call we began our descent through the talus fields back to the trail head. It was a  long and arduous hike down but eventually we got back to my truck. We quickly swapped our hiking books for flip flops and headed home. Slightly disappointed and with tired legs made for the decision to recline on the patio and enjoy and ice cold beer. I feel we earned it!

The trail just above Navajo Lake.

The climb up to the false summit.

Knowing we made the right call we began our descent through the talus fields back to the trail head. It was long and arduous but eventually we got back to my truck. We quickly swapped our hiking books for flip flops and headed home. Slightly disappoint and tired legs made for the decision to recline on the patio and enjoy and ice cold beer. I feel we earned it!

I’m hoping to get out on a nice hike later this week. The leaves are just starting to change here in Telluride so look for that in my next update. I love this time of year. The valley lights up with color as the leaves change. Hopefully I can get some good pictures. Cheers!