Darcy Conover

My friend just emailed this photo from the Spyder booth at SIA in Denver!

Photo: Zach Ornitz

Location: Anne's Woods

Haven't written in a while... winter has been going well!  I headed out to Utah for the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City.  We skied for a few days at Snowbird - 3 ft of fresh pow!  I shot for one morning with local photographer, Andrew Burr... here are some photos.

After the weather somewhat shut us down in the Cascades we returned to CO determined to ski several more 14ers.  Monday morning we drove over to Pikes Peak and discovered that the ski season is quickly ending in CO!!  But we went for it anyway!  Pikes Peak is a unique 14er because a driveable road goes all the way to the summit, so it allows for a "reverse ski".  We drove to the summit and dropped into the couloir with the most snow (having to down-climb rocks for about 30ft).  It was a pretty warm morning and the "snirt" from the dust storms CO received was quickly warming the slushy snow.  We skied down as far as we could (about 1500ft) and then threw on our crampons and climbed back up.  A pretty fun and different 14er ski experience!  Photos: Adam Moszynski

Here I am test driving the Expresso Bike at Jean-Robert's Gym with JR as my personal trainer. I am "chasing my ghost" from my previous ride- a great motivator!

With over 20 different rides the Expresso Bike is an amazing piece of equipment for cyclists and workout enthusiasts alike. You will push yourself to new limits and won't believe you are on a stationary bike!

 Powderwhore's new movie, BREAKING TRAIL, premiered last week in Aspen.  The Howell brothers did it again!!!  (Just a little differently this time!)  Powderwhore is no longer focusing primarily on the telemark turn.  BREAKING TRAIL highlights riders of all disciplines choosing their own backcountry adventures.  Check out the trailer here... or just buy it!!!

South Colony Lakes is one of my favorite areas in Colorado... no, the world.  With two lakes surrounded by the soaring rock cliffs of Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle, this area is breathtaking!  Adam and I had been to this are two years ago to climb Crestone and Crestone Needle.  We returned this summer to climb Humbolt, Kit Carson and Challenger, which we did in one awesomely long and memorable 13 hour day!  

First we hiked a few miles into the lakes and set up camp at a lower lake.  Bright and early we climbed up the rocky indefinite trail to a wide saddle called the "Bear's playground" area, then up the east ridge, over a few false summits to Kit Carson.  From there we dropped down through a ledge system to the saddle and the up the east ridge of Challenger.  There is a small amount of route finding and exposure involved. 

Then we retraced our steps all the way back to the Bear's playground where a ridge line connects to Humbolt.  We were pretty tired but decided to make the push.  We were rewarded by a solitary snow storm at the summit surrounded by sunshine everywhere else!

And then we got ENGAGED!!!!

Having lived in the Aspen area for five years now I can't belive I have never climbed Snowmass Mountain for camped at Snowmass Lake.  The Lake is stunning and well worth a couple of relaxing days spent fishing, swimming and just relaxing!  The 8 miles of wilderness trail to the lake (10,980') is relatively quick with most of the vertical gain at the end.  I suggest arriving at the lake in early afternoon in time for a swim before a sunset dinner with the peak towering above!

Due to unfortunate circumstances this approach photo is the only photo we have from this excursion!

From the lake it is 2.5 miles and 3,112 ft from the lake to the summit of Snowmass.  The hike is fun because most of it is just hopping huge boulders.  Definetly worth the trip!

I had been dreading runniing Mt. Harvard since I thought it would be a looong, boring, crowded slog up a dirt hill.  (I was wrong!)  We started late in the day because it was a classic CO bluebird day, so we didn't see anyone!  We went of the South Ridge through Horn Fork Basin, which was stunning.  Here is Adam in the lower basin with Harvard in the backgroundNext we followed the rocky ridge line up to the summit, chasing after a few friendly goats!

So we didn't get as many 14ers done as I had hoped this summer due to eary snow, but we did climb quite a few.

Sunshine & Redcloud

Beautiful approach through forest (with many cool camp spots) and then fields of wildflowers up to Redcloud. 

The mile long scree ridge to Sunshine offers awesome views.

Here we are on the summit of   See the ridge run in the background?!

Not every season can you ski 4th of July bowl on 4th of July!!!  This season we had so much late snow in the Aspen area that a solid ribbon of snow still stretched from the top of the bowl all the way to the river.  We drove to the top of Independence Pass and then walked the wildflower covered ridge to the drop-in.

Danny Brown put together this awesome edit all from an April morning shredding pow on Ajax.  Check out his other videos at www.classicaspen.com

Ever been in -53 degrees with wind chill?  There is nothing like it- especially while shooting.  Feb 7-10 we shot stock footage with Warren Miller Productions for Winter Park and it happened to be the coldest week of  the year.  After driving 6 hours from Aspen in a blizzard (should have taken 3) and doing a full 520 on I-70 we had a late dinner and discussed the next three days.  Luckily the storm hard brought 8 in of freshies for the shoot.  And in 2007 Winter Park opened up some new pretty gnarly terrain!  We had three great days of shooting & fun with new friends.  The only casualty was my right bog toe... the tip is still a bit blue!  Here are some behind the scenes shots:

Whit Boucher sending it Day 1

Freddie Mooney gettin some

Woops! I have been slacking on the uploading... not on the adventuring though!!!  Now that it's back to winter it's back to skiing & shooting with friends.  Here are some sample shots from Ryan Shorney at Snowmass the other day with Brian Anzini.  We had to search for some pow but fortunately, Brian knows the stashes!