by todd | Oct 9, 2017 | Colorado, World's Best Backcountry Skiing Areas
Buy Silverton
Skier Gail Sovick braves the blizzard
Skier Kevin Krill Samples the Goods
December, 2000: I was a freshman at Fort Lewis College in Durango, sitting in a van full of other new students. The van was doggedly climbing up Coal Bank Pass towards Silverton, Colorado. I had applied to Fort Lewis for two reasons. 1) It had an excellent humanities department, and 2) it is at the foot of the San Juan Mountains, home of backcountry ski legends. Legendary backcountry pioneers like Dolores LaChappelle and Chris Landry made their homes in the San Juans. Legendary big steep mountains like Snowdon, Bear, Sultan and Kendall loom over the towns and highways like sentinels of a sacred place. Yes, I wanted to get a college education, but let’s be serious for a minute: I was a 19 year-old kid hungry for epic adventures and boundary-pushing weekends.
Skier Kevin Krill finds a natural terrain park
This was my place. The van full of students parked at the top of Molas Pass where we all stepped out, trying not to let our dropped jaws show too much as to make us look un-cool (we were 19 years old after all). We were on an Outdoor Pursuits day-trip, led by two very knowledgeable outdoorsmen. The class was titled “Terrain and Route Finding in Avalanche Country”. The instructors’ goal was to give us kids a primer on how to view avalanche terrain, how to notice avalanche prone features, how to understand the way an avalanche will move down different types of terrain. All day, we drove and hiked to dozens of locations to see classic ski zones like Anvil, Red 3, Kendall, and Prospect where the instructors emphasized how important it is to inspect avalanche terrain, plan your routes up and down. I’ll never forget the part of the day when our instructor said the following: “It would be so cool to have a folder full of photos of all the runs you want to ski, so that you can use them as you plan your next tour. From this moment, deep in the best ski terrain of the San Juans, the idea was born to create a terrain based photographic atlas of all backcountry runs.
I believe that just as a kayaker scouts his run and commits it to memory, a backcountry skier should too. Smack-dab in the center of an ancient volcanic caldera, Silverton is a true mountain town. Home to an extreme ski resort, famous mountaineers, miners and rich history, it is a fantastic place to visit and speaks for itself when it comes to remote and rugged towns. Many mountain ranges don’t have a year-round maintained road passing through them. The San Juan Range from Durango, through Silverton, to Ouray has three: Coal Bank, Molas, and the infamous Red Mountain. Highway 550 brings powder-hounds through some of Colorado’s most rugged and diverse ski terrain. Silverton Mountain ski resort, at the heart of the San Juans, boasts an annual snowfall of 400 inches. What is one part of the avalanche recipe that never changes? Terrain. Terrain is the only constant. With Backcountry Skiing Silverton and rakkup’s powerful planning and execution tools, you can read your run the night, week, or month before. You can refer to it as you travel through the field, assess your conditions, and adjust your plan as necessary.
Buy Silverton
by todd | Apr 26, 2017 | World's Best Rock Climbing Areas
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Elizabeth Furnace here and save money versus purchasing from within our app via Apple or Google. It’s exactly the same guidebook, but offered at a lower price on
rakkup.com.
Francisco atop Raising Arizona 5.7
Elizabeth Furnace is a beautiful area located in the George Washington NF. Only a 1 hour drive from DC, it is the sport crag of choice for VA/MD/DC residents. Its name is derived from early 1800s history when a blast furnace located in the region was used to make pig iron using the currents of Passage Creek as a power source. Ore that was mined nearby and purified by the furnace was then transported to the South Fork of the Shenandoah River and taken downstream for forging in Harpers Ferry, WV. Today, the region is primarily a recreational area for families, with camping facilities that are readily accessible to those hiking the Massanutten & Tuscarora trails. Other activities to be enjoyed nearby, besides rock climbing, are camping, hiking, and mountain biking. The area offers two main crags; the roadside 5 minute approach Talking Headwall, and the mountain top 45 minute approach Buzzard Rock.
Melissa on Failure to Communicate 5.7
This guide is a comprehensive collection of the Elizabeth Furnace climbing region. It includes both Buzzard Rocks & Talking Headwall. Located in the north eastern outskirts of the George Washington National Forest, it is only a 1 hour drive from the DC region.
Talking Headwall is NoVa’s iconic roadside crag. Talking Headwall offers great sandstone features with overhangs and is the location of choice for new climbers to practice and hone their skills. Featured climbs are “Leading Should Feel This Way” (5.10), “I Love Big Jugs” (5.8), “Furnasty” (5.12), “Pure Energy” (5.10), and many others.
Mike – Suzzanne – Scott on Failure to Communiate 5.7
Buzzard Rock, with clean tuscarora sandstone and solid gear placements. Buzzard offers great features with mostly slab climbing and minimal overhangs. It is the location of choice for new climbers to practice and hone their trad skills. Featured climbs are the iconic “Anonymous Flake” (5.8 – 5.11), “Pulp Friction” (5.9), “Ass Cannibal” (5.8), and the new routes at the Adam Kopley Memorial Boulder.
Please email f.fuentes.ae@gmail.com for route updates & corrections. Contributions to this guidebook have been made by Francisco J Fuentes & Sean Tracy.
by todd | Mar 23, 2017 | World's Best Bouldering Areas
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Boat Rock Bouldering here and save money versus purchasing from within our app via Apple or Google. It’s exactly the same guidebook, but offered at a lower price on
rakkup.com.
Athar Naseer, Gaping Crack (V3)
Boat Rock is a granite playground nestled in the heart of a bustling metropolis. It consists of monstrous boulders hidden within a beautiful southern forest. The contrast between this amazing paradise of sharp boulders and the fast-moving cement city that has enveloped this climbing Eden is stark and dramatic. Boat Rock is an amazing respite for the climber stranded in the city, and is the most extensive and varied bouldering park within a few hours of Atlanta.
Boat Rock boasts a variety of climbers that called the Boat their stomping grounds, including Robyn Erbesfield, Bob Cormany, Ron Kauk, Curtis Glass, Shannon Stegg, Jerry Roberts, and Rich Gottlieb who all have made Boat Rock a destination for those looking to develop technical skills in this slab filled area.
Alex Liu, on Easy Crack Traverse (V3)
Boat Rock is notorious for being saved from urban progress by advocacy groups, especially the Southeastern Climber’s Coalition. Today, the area is divided between being held for climbers, and still owned by others, so climbers have to be aware of where boundaries are. Future plans seem to incorporate the outlying areas that possess interesting problems into use for climbers of Boat Rock permanently.
The pinnacle of climbing season is late January, where it doesn’t usually get blistering cold in this area of Georgia. The closer to summer, the ever-present humidity makes its presence known to climbers. Spring and fall are beautiful times to enjoy this park, but as the foliage is beautiful on the trees, it does inhibit navigating the boulders for beginners and new-comers.
Boat Rock is a place for climbers of varying ability levels. This is a great place to develop great slab climbing skills, as well as crack climbing, edging and balance.
by todd | Jan 14, 2017 | World's Best Rock Climbing Areas
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Denny Cove here and save money versus purchasing from within our app via Apple or Google. It’s exactly the same guidebook, but offered at a lower price on
rakkup.com.
John Dorough on the classic, Magic Meat , 12a
Denny Cove is located down the street from Foster Falls and up the mountain from Castle Rock — putting it squarely in one of the most popular areas to rock climb in the South Cumberland region. Jason Reynolds (park ranger at the nearby Foster Falls) established the first routes at the cliff in 2011 and would later tell Steven Farmer and Cody Averbeck about the area. These two walked the cliff and were blown away by the variety of the different walls. Dubbing it a ‘Sandstone Buffet,’ the two recruited a core group of developers including John Dorough, Dave Wilson, Edward Yates, and Anthony Meeks. Over the next several years, the group would spend most weekends at the cliff knocking choss off of the buffet wall and making fun of each other.
Like Foster Falls, Denny Cove has a wall for everybody. Be it slabs, faces, to bunkers, Denny has it. Of special interest is the Buffet Wall which can really only be compared to the Lizard Wall in Little River Canyon, AL. Like Lizard Wall, the buffet wall is one of the driest walls in the region during wet weather. More importantly, the wall has a one of a kind climbing personality that blends limestone side pulling down low with classic pumpy Sandstone edges up high. This wall has nearly 50 5.12s with routes up to 100′ long — and is not to be missed!
In all, Denny Cove is a huge and highly valued addition to the Chattanooga climbing portfolio. It also represents a watershed acquisition project spearheaded by the Southeastern Climbers Coalition and the Access Fund. 10% of sales from this guidebook on rakkup will go the SCC to help preserve climbing access at Denny Cove.
by todd | Jan 12, 2017 | World's Best Rock Climbing Areas
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Parque La Huasteca here and save money versus purchasing from within our app via Apple or Google. It’s exactly the same guidebook, but offered at a lower price on
rakkup.com.
Gaz Leah on Prudence Clasico 5.13c , Virgincita Cave.
Hidden within the majestic valleys of the Sierra Madre Oriental, just outside the sprawling city of Monterrey, lies the wonderland that is Parque La Huasteca.
Gaz Leah on the first ascent of The Life You Can Save, 5.12+, Pico Independencia.
Gigantic spines of limestone cut the jagged landscape like knifes to the heavens and cascading canyons bestow hypnotizing vistas that reach as far as the eye can see. For decades, the park remained elusive to the outside world, an almost mythical place that few ventured into but the enigmatic Huichol people, whose annual pilgrimage to the pay tribute to Abuelo Fuego (Grandfather Fire) has been a tradition for millennia.
In recent years, the park has witnessed an awakening. The tales of it’s beauty have travelled far and wide, carried by images of it’s breathtaking scenery and signature views of Pico Independencia. Combined with it’s incredible selection of climbing routes ranging in grades from 5.7 to 5.14+, and boulders from V0 – V11, the park continues to attract visitors from across the globe and as far as the U.K., Germany and Sweden.
Clayton Reagan, Atodo Madre, 5.14a, La Bestia Cave.
Possessing a plethora of activities including sport climbing, bouldering, big walling, running, mountaineering, hiking, cycling, highlining, base jumping and camping, there is something to quiche the thirst of even the most ambitious adventurer!
Pargue La Huasteca Entrance.
