Awesome pictures @Dan S !! Thank you for sharing. It reminds me of nice places outside of my office ha ha.

PS: Great looking boxer you have there as a helpful pack-dog

 

Bear spray, IMO, is as much for the bears as it is for us. After a problem interaction, most bears are destroyed by conservation officers. Bear spray, when required, can help teach a bear what it missed learning in instinct school. On the other hand, I heard a story about a heli-hiking pilot who dropped off a load of over-seas hikers into the wilderness only to see one of them wriggling & writhing on the ground as his helicopter pulled away. Returning to the group to see what the heck was going on, he learned that they thought bear spray worked like bug spray - the poor bugger that went first. Could be an urban legend, but makes me laugh anyway.

Either way, I could look at photos of your boxer having fun all day long. Thanks for the thread.

 

I know you are kidding, but before I get hate-mail, I will hasten to add that Zelda is carrying her own gear: food, treats, bowl, bug-spray, and jacket. And her pack weighs at most 6 pounds at the start of the trip.

 

Oh man, that is a cringe-worthy story.

 

Zelda is badass. Our dogs main deal is looking to see if they wanna go eat what is in the dog bowl.

 

We just went to Steamboat Springs, Rocky Mountain National Park, and the city of Estes Park for 6 days and got home last night. (wife, kids, M-I-L, and daughter's BF)

All we did was ride our eBikes up and down the ski resort, went on some short day hikes, wife and daughter got a hot air balloon ride for their birthday gifts, soaked in the hot springs, and ate (a lot). Didn't get to do any overnight backpacking (still haven't worked out how to get my cpap and oxygen working for long without AC).

 

Wow, a little bit of EVERYTHING on that trip! Where did you do the ballooning?

 

Steamboat is a beautiful area to spend summer time recreating. I was there for a work trip last fall for a couple weeks and spent evenings and weekends hiking in the area and thoroughly enjoyed it.

As a bonus, 140 vintage race cars showed up at the hotel I was staying at which were participating in the Colorado Grand 1000 Rally. Here’s my previous OF posting to photos of the millions of dollars of cars parked overnight at the hotel.

https://omegaforums.net/threads/automotive-pornography.20418/page-53
And continuing:
https://omegaforums.net/threads/automotive-pornography.20418/page-54

 

Wild West Balloon Adventures in Steamboat Springs. They actually landed across from our Worldmark Timeshare building! Not cheap at $275 pp.

(PS: My wife is in the blue hat, and the others are my two daughters, my son, and mom-in-law, and my middle daughter's BF hiding his face. I didn't get to ride our Trek eBikes with my wife, but rode with my oldest daughter on one day and then with the other the next day.)

 

Great thread. I love camping and hiking. Taking pictures and leaving footprints only ...



In fact, I prefer it 100 fold over any X-star hotel / city trips (my threshold for a city is 1.5 days).

In Switzerland we have two things which make backpacking very accessible, but in the same breath very exclusive.

1) The Alps, and
2) manned huts in the Alps.

And the exclusivity lies in the fact that about 95% of humanity are not able to move themselves between (2) in (1). I have met folk older than 65, and younger than 8 however ... so it is for all ages

(clicking pictures yields better res pics)




Having manned huts and a national association for them, throughout the Alps is quite unique (they also exist in southern Germany, Italy, Austria and maybe France, but nowhere else in the world ) as they allow one to spend days/weeks at a time in the Alps without having to descend into the valleys, and their standards/quality/condition is great due to proper organization and maintenance. One can totally escape civilization for a long time, and be greeted at the end of every day by super friendly folk whose job it is to cook you a nice 3-course hearty dinner, and a breakfast, before you are on your way the next day. Don't expect hot showers ... or any showers for that matter. I only once during a week-long tour had one shower (under glacial water in the open) ... and that was it. Don't expect fresh linen or privacy at the huts either ... but you can expect great friendly approachable people, a nice cold beer or some wine, and great nourishing food. It is mandatory to take a silk sleeping bag (very thin) with and sleep in that under the provided blankets/pillows. You might have a complete stranger sleeping next to you, or when its not full, in the same room, which will sleep many, or you may have a room for 12 all to yourself. All depends on the hut location and how many people are on their way. These are beautifully functional very old huts, most that I have been at originated in the 1800's. Some have books from almost 100 years ago (recently saw journals of ski tours etc, with pictures, from 1925). One usually meets serious Alpinists, and the disposition of the people one meets is simply stunning ... its quite difficult to explain.



Most of the huts are situated at around 2500m altitude, which is perfect altitude for most Alpine activities.

Either one enters/exits the tour by hiking up/down to the hut from about +/-1000m altitude (the nearest village/town). Or one does bigger tours/peaks, as there are quite a lot of 4000+ meter peaks, and a lot of glaciers that one can (or might have to) cross on the way to the next hut.



In a hut to hut tour, one usually hikes (when choosing the closest huts) +/- 10km in distance per day which includes about +/- 1300m up and possibly also +/- 1300m down (can be more) in that distance. Some days may be bigger than others. Or if one is motivated, more ... your trip, your plan. First 2 days are tough, but thereafter its a breeze.

Alpine hiking also requires planning, knowledge, experience, and equipment. Usually a climbing harness and a climbing helmet is required (some hits have a via Ferrata to get to them). If one plans hikes over glaciers, then addition of rope, crampons, ice pick and various other smaller ropes, carabiners, ice-screws, as well as the ability to navigate glaciers (if there is no path). For this one either does some sort of formal training (as with climbing, there are about 8+ knots to be done in your sleep, and many many techniques using ropes and carabiners etc), or goes with a guide...however if something does happen, and the guide is the guy to fall in the crevasse, then good luck. I think it’s better to go with people who know how little they know (and this respect the mountain and the glaciers etc) and have some basic knowledge. Sometimes, where it is very steep and there is no visible path (which may happen), the ability to pick the safest path is also required.





DONT want to end up falling down into a glacier ...



But one can avoid glaciers and carrying that extra equipment...its all in the planning.

Sometimes a bit of easy climbing to reach the hut is required, where it is very steep and rocky, and climbing rock-faces and through waterfalls (choice of shoes is also of utmost importance here).



Very few places on earth where water exists in all 3 states simultaneously!



I absolutely love hikes like this.





(yellow arrows pointing to the people on the path, going the other way, despite chains to hang on to, one slip/fall here has serious consequences)

Naturally there are easier hikes between huts and not every hike is extreme ... it’s not always possible to know exactly how a hike will be though. Still one has to plan carefully ... failing to prepare is preparing to fail, as the cliche goes.



How every glacier I have seen in Switzerland has disappeared : the yellow lines represent where the glacier was about 30+ years ago. The smooth bare-rocks without top-soil are where the melting glacier wash away any loose soil, and moving glaciers carve away the rocks to leave smooth bedrock. In some places one can see strange 'mounds' (or hills, I fail to recall the name, but in relation to the mountains they look small, but are huge) far below the current level of glacier...characterized by unnaturally straight or curved edges ... these are the deposits from where the glacier used to be.

Anyhow, thats all folks. Can't wait for the next trip Always happy to field questions via pm should anyone have any.

 

Beautiful pictures and great post @eugeneandresson. So many awesome places in the world.

 

@larryganz - the fact that you continue to adventure and enjoy the world we have, despite your health issues is inspiring. It takes true fortitude and joie de vivre to push through the health issues and not let it get you down.

 

Thanks - for the first several years (starting 20 years ago) I really did let my health issues get me down, mostly my lung disease and fibromyalgia. I didn't participate in outdoor activities anymore, and found excuses to stay home on the couch. I gained 45 lbs due to this. Back then my doctors gave me 5 years to live. I fooled them all.

After my car accident Dec 2014 I found that through PT and OT that my fibromyalgia was doing better, I got more exercise while trying to meet my goals of recovery, and I lost 25 lbs to make breathing and moving easier. I regained my love of adventure, and instead of lying around listlessly I remained goal-oriented and pushed myself harder through the fatigue or pain, despite often having to go where I must bring my oxygen.

 

Visited a small town in Romania last week and went for a short hike in the surrounding mountain. It was nice to get some cool air. We took the cable car up which provided some nice views. In the winter it is a popular ski resort. Going to Transylvania next week to an old medieval town.

 

Wow, Eugene! Breathtaking photos and a great description. My only experience with manned huts like you describe was in Patagonia, and it was a very pleasant way to "trek" (that was the word they used).

Here in Colorado, there is a group of 34 primitive huts (https://www.huts.org), but they are mainly used for hut-to-hut skiing trips in the winter. They are called the "10th Mountain Division" Huts, named after a division of the US Army that trained in Colorado for alpine warfare in 1943-44.

 

Just returned from four days in the southern part of the Mt. Zirkel Wilderness, which straddles the Continental Divide from Steamboat Springs Colorado to the Wyoming border. Great weather with the exception of a couple of hours of violent thunderstorms last night. If you are familiar with the Big Agnes brand of outdoors gear, all of their products are named after places in this wilderness, including Big Agnes itself.

We entered on the southern edge of the wilderness headed north on the Continental Divide Trail (aka the Wyoming Trail in this section), and covered a small piece of the 3,000 mile trail with some side trips. We met only one through-hiker on this trip, a young man from the UK who was (strangely) traveling north-to-south.

As shown in this photo, the trail often rolls through alpine tundra near timberline.


A campsite near Lake Elbert.


Looking down from the divide on Luna Lake to the west.


It's always remarkable to experience these massive tundra "meadows" above 11,000'.


Still a fair amount of snow in spots, especially for August.


Above timberline in harsh windy terrain, vegetation sometimes survives by growing in these stunted Krummholz formations, where the leading edge dies off, but shelters the living part of the growth. In Colorado, it's mainly Engelmann Spruce or Bristlecone Pine. A few hundred feet lower, the same species will be growing as normal trees. This photo is on the north slope of Lost Ranger Peak ... there must be a story behind the name of the peak, but I don't know it.


Can you find the ptarmigan in this photo?


Columbine grow in the most unexpected spots.


Zelda at Porcupine Lake. No porcupines fortunately, but plenty of trout.


There are some craggy peaks in the northern part of the wilderness. To be explored in another trip ...

 

A group trip this weekend with Mrs. S and a friend. Along with Zelda, we also brought our Ridgeback Opus, and our friend brought her Black Lab, Moki.

 

Pretty impressive Dan S. Looks like you manage to get out almost every weekend in the summer. I wish that was my situation too, but currently I just get out occasionally on longer trips. Your images of frequent CO trips make me jealous. Fortunately I'll be heading out again soon to the AK backcountry so that will help.

 

I look forward to hearing about your upcoming trip.

My schedule is flexible in the summer, so I try to get out as much as I can. Unfortunately, we had a lot of snow this winter, including some large storms into May, and the mountains weren't accessible until much later this year, so the season has been very compressed. I will be leaving Thursday for a 5-day trip in the San Juan mountains in SW Colorado, which is the most substantial trip I'll do this summer.