Finding Timo

North Ridge - North Arapaho, for the mountain masochist among us. Class 4+

Table of Contents Preface/Rating SystemIntroductionApproachThe RouteVideo of North RidgeArapaho Traverse and ExitSummary and Additional Resources Preface/Rating System Quick disclaimer: I like to highlight and markup some of my pictures for route clarification. Black/white lines= general directions, landmarks and/or Class 1 sections. Blue Lines=Class 2 sections. Red= Class 3 sections. Purple…

Hidden Valley Backcountry Skiing (March 9, 2021)

Intro Backcountry Skiing comes chock full of benefits and risks, almost in equal measure. It is a discipline that rewards methodical and purposeful learning with a deeper connection to nature. It can also be very dangerous for the uninitiated and seasoned veterans alike; avalanches don’t pick favorites. However, by arming yourself with the right gear and planning knowledge, backcountry skiing…

Hikes in the north TABLE OF CONTENTS NORTHSOUTHEASTWEST Journal

Part 10: Adventure Crescendo

Intro After my parents left, it was time to load up and head back to El Diente for our last 9-day hitch there. Though we’d really only been on the project for something like two months, we’d experienced a lot of adversity in that time. Two crew members gone, bear and rat attacks, miserable weather, etc. I started to feel a bit sad that we’d be moving on. For me, we really came together as a…

Part 9: Highlight and Lowlights

After what seemed destined to become a summer of increasingly escalating situations, my trail crew and I finally developed a routine. That isn’t to say things didn’t happen (and oh boy, did they), but we kind of just grew accustomed to the seemingly random nature of our situation. Adapt or die, I guess. Time seemed to pick up in the bigger sense, we still worked hard, and days certainly didn’t…

Part 8: Tragedy and Recovery

Intro. By the time my second hitch began with SWCC (Southwest Conservation Corp), I was ready to crush some trail work. Our destination this time would be the slopes of El Diente in the Kilpacker basin. El Diente is the farthest west 14er in Colorado, and the area around it is very wild. There was an old trail through Kilpacker Basin that suffered from erosion and human pollution, so our job was…

Part 7: Mesa Verde

After my close-call on Engineer Mt., I was ready to bury myself in Conservation work. Our crew’s first nine-day hitch was going to be in Mesa Verde National Park. Taking a break from the snowy winter-land still stubbornly holding on to the high country, we headed west from Durango to warmer climes. Intro: History and Legacy Mesa Verde National Park is another often overlooked treasure of the…

The Twilights at Sunset

Part 6: Intro to SWCC and The Subtle Art of Falling Down A Mountain

This post is divided between an explanation/introduction to Conservation Corps and my close call on Engineer Mt. If you just want the mountain story, skip to the section header that reads Engineer Mt. If you’re curious about what kind of a job I’d signed on to for my 2015 Colorado summer, proceed below. Southwest Conservation Corps is a branch of Americorps and tangential to Peace Corps. While…

#tbt Nowhere Nevada, 2015

Part 5: From SF to Durango (May 15-June 1, 2015)

The trip so far!

Ah, San Francisco, the iconic and prohibitively expensive city by the bay. As someone who has only visited, the common gripes of the locals haven’t really affected me. However, that isn’t to say there aren’t any, in fact, SF is often the poster child when it comes to modern urban problems.

Despite the fame brought to the city by its seismic history, Golden Gate Bridge,…

Bam, nature 

Part 5: The Great West Coast (May 3-May 15, 2015)

I looked back at my friend and frowned, suddenly very aware of what I had been asking. Jumping into the frigid North Pacific SEEMED like a good idea when I’d first proposed it, but now, on a rock fifteen feet above the deep, I was encountering some internal resistance. What would motivate such a heinous assault on common sense, you may ask? Why the uncommon nature of the situation, of course!…

Part 3: Welcome to the West 4/20-5/2 2015

“So, let me see if I understand this,” the barkeep said, eyeballing me skeptically. “You’re 24 years old, you ain’t married and you ain’t just got outta jail, and you’re just…driving ’round the country?”

            I’d been in Omaha less than an hour and I already felt like a pariah.

           I tried to calmly explain my tentative plans about the future and how I was making…

Part 2; Modern Manifest Destiny

Don’t let the title fool you. The old Manifest destiny, if you are unfamiliar, was a widely held belief in the 19th century that westward expansion of American interests throughout the North American continent was not only justified but inevitable. What ended up happening was nothing short of terrifying and involved lawlessness, greed, murder, and the forced removal of thousands upon…