Denver McDormans

Another snowshoe outing, this time in Clear Creek county south of the Urad mine. Pie at Jenny’s afterwards — always a treat!

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At the end of August, I climbed Maroon Peak and Snowmass Mountain, my last two 14ers. Starting with Long’s Peak in 1993, this goal took me 17 years to reach, but it was so worth it! My climbing travels took me to many parts of the state, seeing cute mountain towns that most people don’t visit. Some people have asked me what I’ll do now that I’ve finished these. My response is, “Whatever I want!”

In July we went to Crescent City, California to get together with Ryk’s family in honor of his mother, Dee, who died earlier this year. Foremost, we had a fantastic time visiting with everyone. Ryk’s nephew Scott is now grown & has his own family. Our Aunt Connie & her husband Jim joined us; Ryk hadn’t seen her in 28 years!!

We enjoyed a lot of beach time, hiked in the gorgeous Redwood forest and spread some of Dee’s ashes in the ocean, as was her wish. Though we spent over 5 days there, it ended all too soon. On the way back to Portland we stayed overnight in Eugene to visit Ryk’s high school friends Peggy and Tim, then spent a day in Portland just exploring. We had a great, great time!

On July 11th, I spent a beautiful day on a gorgeous climb up Mt. Lindsey in the Sangre de Cristo range in southern Colorado. The peak itself was nice, though not exceptional.  But the views, wildflowers and wildlife I saw added up to the most outstanding 14er climb that I’ve ever done.

On New Year’s Day, we all participated in the Boulder Polar Plunge, wading (or diving!) into the ice-cold water of Boulder Reservoir, where they cut a large hole out of the ice.  Leanne’s friend, Rebecca, had this on her bucket list and she encouraged Leanne to join her. The rest of us joined them both for moral support, plus, it’s for a great cause, benefiting the local Alzheimer’s Association. It was something quite different and fun to do as a family!

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Warren Greene, an old friend of mine who I ran cross country with in high school, wanted to know if I wanted to climb some 14ers late in the season.  We were going to climb Blanca, Ellingwood & Little Bear, but there was too much snow to climb anything but Blanca. We had a good time though and it was good to visit with Warren after all these years.

Here are some photos from our Labor Day weekend at Grand Lake. We had fun on the lake, in town and Ryk climbed Mt. Craig finally.

For spring break we drove down to Santa Fe, stopping along the way at Leanne’s mom & stepdad’s place in La Veta, CO.  You can find pictures of our trip here. We saw lots of cool artwork and ate loads of great Southwestern food! We also visited Bandolier National Monument, which Ryk & Leanne had seen before, but it’s better through the eyes of a child.

A few weeks ago we went snowshoeing at Brainard Lake, northwest of Boulder. It was an unseasonably nice day for February (but then again, Denver just broke the record for the driest Feb. on record…)  Good times, good times…

Two weekends ago I  climbed Engelmann Peak (13,362′) in Clear Creek County.  The weather was perfect, making for a supremely pleasant winter climb!  I climbed with a few other Colorado Mountain Club members, including Gyorgy, the crazy Hungarian, who taught me a lot of my mountainteering skills 15 years ago.

From the peak, looking east, you actually look down on Berthoud Pass. This is a view I’d never seen before and thought was pretty interesting. Notice the avalanche chutes on the left.