An unexpectedly smoky day, but probably the best of the so called Great Fourtneer Traverses in Colorado.

The Ouray 100 ultramarathon probably ranks as one of the hardest races in the country, clocking in at over 100 miles, ~42000 feet of vertical gain, at an average elevation of 10200 feet.

What a fun name for a mountain! Mount Sneffels stands tall among its neighbors and it really does catch your eye driving south towards Ridgway. This is the outing where I really learn Colorado is a pay to win state and I won’t apologize for saying that 😤. Beeeautiful views though.

Checking out what I think is the more boring part of the San Juans, only because it’s so isolated from all of the other interesting peaks to the east. My second so called Great Fourtneer Traverses in Colorado.

I’ve always wanted to do this ever since I saw the Mediocre Amateur video in what felt like another lifetime before the pandemic. I took the ridge direct, making it an extra long scramble 😋.

A fun scramble variation on what would normally be a slog of a route. My first taste of bomber Crestone Conglomerate rock!

The tackling the first of the so called Great Fourtneer Traverses in Colorado.

If we thought going up three separate Sawatch peaks by themselves was monotonous, how about doing three in one day 😂.

Yep this is already getting old lol. The third peak with similar mileage, views, and terrain profile, all while taking the same amount of time to summit. Although I will say that this probably had the best views of the Sawatch Peaks we’ve done, probably because there is greenery & vegetation as I’m learning.

Tackling another mediocre peak in the Sawatch Range.

Unacclimatized, sleep-deprived, and not even 2 hours after arriving to Frisco did we decide to go up Colorado’s highest peak, Mount Elbert.

The P3 Mount Defiance loop makes a rectangular shape on Strava I’ve come to recognize from everyone doing it over the years. A perfect low-stakes day for me and Haram as he prepares and crams some last minute vert for his upcoming race.

A nice group run to see some larches in the Chiwaukum Range. I should come here more often.

A failed attempt to get up Gothic and Del Campo peaks due to time but a great outing to decompress after work.

My friend Haram ran the Teanaway 100, a pretty hard 100 mile ultramarathon here in Washington with around 30000 feet of gain, and did it with almost no training (no exaggeration). And he managed to place 7th out of 23 at 32.5 hours, so a pretty decent performance. His previous biggest day was running the Enchantments, a mere 18 miles with 5000 vert - pretty bonkers accomplishment if you work out the ratio of performance to time spent/effort invested.

Up Sahale via the Quien Sabe Glacier route. Waffled a bit due to the forecast but glad I made it out (although I regrettably stubbed my toe on a rock and broke it).

This traverse covers the ridge of peaks directly south of Rainier from Stevens to Eagle Peak. I don’t think I’d recommend this one lol, mainly because it was a lot of work for views that didn’t change all that much (although it was cool to see the angle of Rainier change a little bit going west to east).

I was originally going to note how unremarkable Sourdough Mountain is except for the fact that it casually rises almost 5000 feet from Diablo Lake below. I guess I do take some of the easy peaks for granted sometimes - but I still think the views from the road are unimpressive compared to other national parks.

My first foray into the elusive Picket Range and perhaps one of the few peaks day-trippable in the area for my humble aerobic ambitions.

Tried to milk out the last of a weekend in the North Cascades after an exhausting day yesterday. A top 5 “gotta bring my mom” type hike for sure though - probably the best view of the southern pickets.