The tallest point in Hennepin County, Minnesota (my lovely new home) is 1,131 ft above sea level. Needless to say, these mountaineering posts from last spring will be some of my last for a little while until I can organize some sweet trips to some more exotic (i.e. non-Midwest) destinations. That being said, I'll hopefully have a bunch of deep fried food from the state fair and pictures of walleye to share in the near future.
The pics below are from a trip up Pettingell Peak ( ) back in April with Allen. We met on 14ers.com the night before and I was glad that he didn't turn out to be a catfish. Turns out, he had climbed with a couple of my buddies from Alpine Club at DU in the past. Pettingell was a relatively mellow peak with easy access from I-70 but provided us some warm-up turns for future Spring goals. We both had some binding issues on the tour up but luckily I had started to pack a pack of zip ties on these trips for just such problems. Once on top, we enjoyed views of Longs Peak to the North and a direct view of the Tuning Fork on Torreys Peak across the highway. In between Torreys and Loveland Pass was the glaring remnants of the tragic Sheep Creek avalanche that killed 6 people just a week earlier. The sight of the avalanche crown and debris put us on our toes for the ride down which turned out to be some pretty stable snow that had just started to soften from the noon sun. It was an easy trek back to the car past some early Spring hikers post-holing through the melting snow to try and get up to the lakes. All in all, a good day in the high country and a good start to the backcountry ski season.
-Tyler Grubb
The pics below are from a trip up Pettingell Peak ( ) back in April with Allen. We met on 14ers.com the night before and I was glad that he didn't turn out to be a catfish. Turns out, he had climbed with a couple of my buddies from Alpine Club at DU in the past. Pettingell was a relatively mellow peak with easy access from I-70 but provided us some warm-up turns for future Spring goals. We both had some binding issues on the tour up but luckily I had started to pack a pack of zip ties on these trips for just such problems. Once on top, we enjoyed views of Longs Peak to the North and a direct view of the Tuning Fork on Torreys Peak across the highway. In between Torreys and Loveland Pass was the glaring remnants of the tragic Sheep Creek avalanche that killed 6 people just a week earlier. The sight of the avalanche crown and debris put us on our toes for the ride down which turned out to be some pretty stable snow that had just started to soften from the noon sun. It was an easy trek back to the car past some early Spring hikers post-holing through the melting snow to try and get up to the lakes. All in all, a good day in the high country and a good start to the backcountry ski season.
-Tyler Grubb
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