Starting and finishing a summit of Mount Massive adds 26 miles to the 14 1/2 miles East Slopes route of Mount Massive, a perfect challenge for THE LONG RANGER – and in Winter to boot! No traffic once on the trail made the going a tough, slow: slog!
I’ve added a page to help flesh out what the Sawatch Continental Divide Ridge Traverse is all about. For now, this is an open project – one that I may myself revisit in the future.
At long last! I’ve compiled my footage from this audacious attempt to cross the Sawatch Range on foot and unsupported via the Continental Divide.
Presented here is episode 1 through 6 of the Slowlans series for your viewing convenience and enjoyment. When I started editing all this, I had no idea it would be such a large project, coming to almost an hour of runtime that took two+ months to finish. Enjoy.
Episode 6 finishes the line up summiting La Plata, Elbert and finally Massive, then descending into the Leadville Fish Hatchery.
If you’re interested in running Nolan’s 14, one of the best way to preview the line is to fastpack it! You’ll get a taste of what it’s like to link up big parts of the route, without having to backtrack, and the load makes for good training. Episode 5 starts up the Missouri Gulch Trailhead Continue reading…
A new version of my Slowlans guide is out! New to this version is a website under my new guise, Long May You Range, revised routes, new maps, PDF downloads, and revised segment narratives to name but a few major changes. What’s Slowlans? Slowlans is a guide to for backpacking the Nolan’s 14 line where Continue reading…
If you’re interested in running Nolan’s 14, one of the best way to preview the line is to fastpack it! You’ll get a taste of what it’s like to link up big parts of the route, without having to backtrack, and the load makes for good training. Episode 3 starts off on the summit of Continue reading…
Justin and Drew Bob embark on their ultralight backpack/fastpack of the Sawatch 14ers on the Nolan’s 14 route. Episode 1
I’ve been planning my future Sawatch adventure and the more I looked at it, the more I realize that the reputation of the Sawatch being full of gentle heaps of talus hills and nothing else is only true if you decide to ignore some nightmare ridges just off to the side from the more popular Continue reading…
I love drawing lines on maps and dreaming of sufferfests to do. I seem to squeeze out the most enjoyment from long ridge runs. I love being up high, teetering on top of a knife edge between two drainages, without the need of a trail to follow, yet having an obvious route in front of Continue reading…
I HAD SO MUCH FUN on my “failed” Nolans run. “Failed” in quotes, as I believe I set my intention on trying to do the best I could do to get through summiting 14 14ers in a row in less than 60 hours. But I came up short – only summiting 7. Cutting it short Continue reading…
Update: It’s done! Go here: https://slowlans.longmayyourange.com/ I’m creating an online backpacking guide! I’ve decided upon making one about backpacking the Sawatch 14ers, based on the Nolans 14 challenge. Can you backpack the Nolans line, aka SLOW-lans? Sure! But perhaps, with a few tweaks and knowledge on how to resupply or even skip a peak if Continue reading…
The Colorado Trail is an awesome thru-hike route! But I noticed while hiking the CT, that much of the time that the best parts of an area you hike through just aren’t really showcased. The trail just weaves itself along a contour line below treeline, and you miss out on seeing most of the high Continue reading…
My time in Salida on tour soon came to an end, after a little time at the hostel with an honest to goodness shower. Time for me to travel north! Out of Salida, there’s some pretty awful highway riding to get directly to the next town, Buena Vista, and the day I set off saw Continue reading…
I took a ride out from Salida to Poncha Springs then onto Chaffee County 210 to the rarely visited (by 14er standards) Little Cochetopa Trailhead, which gives you access to Mt. Ouray, a Centennial peak @ 13,971′. The last few miles of the well-maintained road turned into a legitimate 4WD track, and it was a Continue reading…
I’m presently in the Salida area, enjoying the incredible weather, tough training, and reconning potential routes. Salida and its people are incredibly friendly, bike shops and bike people are everywhere, and the mountains are crazy-accessible. I rode here from Colorado Springs, having taken the bus from Boulder -> Denver -> Colorado Springs to save some Continue reading…
The summit of La Plata, my third fourteen thousand foot mountain for the day, still seemed impossibly far away. The storm system that had surprisingly reappeared just over my shoulder was now again not so quietly building up force. Thunder boomed. On any other day I would have called it.
Took a little spin on the Colorado Trail – admittedly, the first “mountain” bike ride I’ve taken since around April – not that I haven’t been riding bikes, or riding bikes in mountains, but somehow it’s all completely different to some that it’s bikes on dirt, rather than pavement. To me: not so much. That Continue reading…
Step, step, PULL, Step, step, PULL. Step, step – I’m not saying I’m always on the verge of feeling sick, but today – Monday, I’m there. And I’m not ready, anyways. This surprisingly happens quite a bit: underestimating the time it takes to get gear together to make a trip happen. Even with my style Continue reading…
Summer totally flew by for me, but I was able to take a few little trips out and about to check out the, “backyard”. I’m moving soon, so it seemed like a good idea to see what’s out there. Here’s a small 4-day trip to Leadville and back, with a little side-step hiking. First, here’s Continue reading…