I’m up next for the Employee Gear Closet. I spend a lot of time in the mountains on a variety of skis and here is my quiver from right to left: First up are the G3 Reverends. I know the telemark turn died in 1924, but I still enjoy dropping the knee at the ski area. Plus, I’ve got the Lord on my side in the Extremes with these solid boards. Next to them are my skinny little G3 Aces–good for long tours and ski mountaineering around CB and the Cascades.

Up next are my go-to BC boards. The Dynafit Manaslu is the perfect mid-winter ski touring ski for the CB backcountry. It is light, decently wide and with a small rocker and early rise up front, they make skiing breakable crust fun. What’s left…I got some approach skis for accessing backcountry ice climbing areas, an old pair of BD Havocs mounted with the G3 Targa Ascent for the Al Johnson Uphill/Downhill Telemark Race and a beat up pair of Fischer Superlights that work great for the Grand Traverse.

AT Boots?  Check.  Tele Boots?  Check. Ice Boots? Check. New for me this year are the Black Diamond Push telemark boot. I like their even flex and 4 buckle support. My Scarpa Spirit 4s are my everyday work boot and I log over 100 days in them each season. For ice climbing and mountaineering I have been wearing La Sportiva Nepal Top Evos for the last 2 years. They are comfy right out of the box, and warm enough for me.

I am also operating a small backpack museum in my closet for old, tattered but still lovable rucksacks. Each pack has its own story to tell and I can’t bear to get rid of any of them! The two climbing packs up front were both hand-made in North Conway, NH by local alpinists and I have logged many miles in the mountains with them on my back. I purchased the red Wild Things Ice Sack my senior year in high school and it is still going strong. The oriental rug is one of the few domestic things I own and it is one of my prized possessions. I bought it in an alley in Katmandu with my Dad about 10 years ago. That’s my gear closet/bedroom. Enjoy!

Johnny

The end of October brought snow and winter like weather to a big part of the west including Moab, UT where American Mountain Guides from around the country and overseas gathered for our annual meeting and gathering of our professional tribe.

While Moab, UT even received a few inches of wet snow one morning, it was a fun-filled week of catching up with old friends, making new ones, getting to brush up on new techniques and guiding skills with daily skills clinics, some climbing and mountain biking in the desert sun, and of course lots of beer and good times.

This year’s AMGA Annual Meeting was also a memorial and tribute to our fallen comrade, Craig Luebben, an incredible and irreplaceable guide, teacher, climber, inventor, father, and husband whom our small community will dearly miss.

As well as enjoying the festivities and a great main event slideshow on alpine climbing in Alaska from veteran Jack Tackle…..CBMG’s own Mike Bromberg, was awarded his Rock Guide Certification. He is now only one exam away from full IFMGA/UIAGM status…way to go Mike !

Well, it’s been a fast and furious summer around these parts. We started off with a cold and rainy June (we had June in January and January in June this year), and in a blink our leaves are already falling off the trees and you have to wear gloves in the morning when you’re biking to work. We’ve had a great season here at Crested Butte Mountain Guides, expanding and trying to grow the business while dealing with some tough economic times.

It’s been a record year for the Guide’s Ridge! It seems like every week we had a trip up to the top of Mt Crested Butte. From young teens to experienced climbers, this route has become a favorite and a ‘must-do’ in Crested Butte.

Also, we had not one, but two guides get their car windows smashed by bears while parked at trailheads. Johnny came back from a 5 day backpack trip to find his passenger side window in pieces and his head rest a little chewed up,  but the beers were safe! Jayson got back from Aspen to find his cab window gone with some muddy pawprints (I guess the bear couldn’t fit through that small window). Our office manager had a bear camped out in a tree across the street from her house for two days! CBMG did some benchtime brainstorming and came up with the possibility of doing ‘Bear Tours’ in the wee hours of the morning in Crested Butte in a open back jeep, Ian (the Aussie) narrating about bear behavior and feeding habits with a bear claw necklace hanging on his chest (ala ‘crocodile dundee’) and maybe a paintball gun . . . but that idea never really got off the ground (or off the bench, I should say. . .)

Peak of the Week did well in it’s inaugural year. Six weeks of peaks in the area including Baldy, Treasury, Augusta, Teocalli, Gothic, and Red Lady; look for this program again next year with more of the local mountains.  Philip Pixley from Canada joined us for a peak, as well as a trip up Guide’s Ridge and almost made it a triple header with a mountain bike ride!  He was incredibly impressed with Crested Butte’s plethora of trails and is already planning for next summer.

With our summer arriving late this year, lots of clients got some snow mountaineering practice.  From the S couliour to the back side of Treasury, guides were exploring snow routes throughout the valley.  Harry and Iris Lyall had a full week of climbing and mountaineering with Johnny MacKinnon and left with a new appreciation for the Crested Butte area as well as increasing their own outdoor skills.  In fact, we had quite a few clients this year that were looking to expand their own on-snow techniques and we were able to cater directly to the specific needs and skills of those people and help build their experience as well as confidence.

One pleasant summer day, Jayson broke his thumb on an approach to a climb, went and got it set, and then managed to meet back up with Johnny and the clients in the afternoon.  Ian has come back strong from hip surgery in the spring venturing often with Tom Scoville, on of our longtime clients.  Hard to slow these guides down–they are pretty tough. . .

One of these things is not like the other. . . Actually what I like about this photo is Ian and the dummy having an eerily similar expression.  The dummy spent a few months on the Guide Shack bench with some people taking pictures with him, small children wondering if he was real, but most people being generally a little freaked out by him.  Our tongue in cheek promotion of sunscreen, he was inherited from CB Search and Rescue team and was found one morning in a compromising position on one of the benches in front of the Guide Shack (the shack is behind a popular CB bar. . .a lonely patron on their way home wanted a little company?). He was hence forth placed in the loft in the office, legs jutting out (still freaking people out).

And we ended our season with the ‘When’s it Going to Snow Promo?’ with the blessed happening on September 20th.  Now we are all waiting for it to snow in earnest, but we’ll be perfectly happy with a warm dry fall into November (at least I will be happy).  Thanks to everyone who joined us for an adventure this season! We appreciate your continued support of our home grown operation and we look forward to more trips, adventures, excursions. . .whatever you may have in mind, in both Crested Butte and places beyond.

 Almost 5 years ago to the day I had spine surgery following a long and nagging back injury that resulted in my collapsing and falling down from losing much muscle coordination in my right leg. The doctors at the Denver Spine Center removed pieces of 2 severely herniated discs in my low back, routed out the nerve holes to make room for the inflammed and swollen nerves to breathe, and clipped off some pieces of the bone on my spine to allow for them to get to the offending discs.

 For the next 7 months I was regulated to basically walking only….on flat ground….while I healed. Not easy mentally or emotionally for some one used to running around in the mountains for work and play. After seeing 4 surgeons along this road, I was told post-op that my ‘mountain career’ and essentially guiding should be reconsidered and that it was unlikely I would be able to climb or run around in the mountains at a continued high level after my recovery. I was also told, that the 5-year mark post surgery was a very good indicator of how the remainder of my life would go with the repair and healing of my back.

So…..Sunday morning, on a big mission I’d been dreaming about for a long time, I decided to attempt a mega Colorado 14er link-up and prove to myself and my docs that I indeed have kept up my ‘mountain guiding’ career and am not hampered in the least by this injury or recovery anymore. So at 3:30 am on Sunday I left the Maroon Bells parking lot to attempt to climb both South & North Maroon Peaks (14,156′ & 14,014′  respectfully) via their technical connecting ridge and then continue onto Pyramid Peak (14,018′) for a 9,000′+ vertical day and countless rugged mountain miles and technical scrambling on these notoriously loose and challenging Elk 14ers.

 With the ‘Bell Chord Couloir’ still full of snow I set off to climb this steep but direct line that intersects the ridge between the two ‘Bells” as the quickest and easiest way to access both summits and do their traverse. I hit the rock fall prone ‘Bell Chord’ at dawn’s first light and was able to make good time up it in great snow climbing conditions, and after a quick 4th class scramble, was on the summit of South Maroon Peak (14,156′) at 7 am…

 A brief time for a drink and some summit photos and I was off, back to the notch at the top of the ‘Bell Chord” to grab my ice axe and crampons and along the decieving and exposed 1/2 mile traverse to North Maroon Peak (14,014′), where I arrived 45 min later, fresh and feeling good, but under early threatening skies.

After a quick stop on the summit of North Maroon and some more summit photos, I pounded some ShotBloks and Red Bull and prepared for the big and steep 4,000′+ descent down to the valley floor and the base of Pyramid trail, where I had stashed some more food, water, Red Bull, running shoes, and some shorts for a fast and light mission on Pyramid that I was hoping would allow me to have the stamina to pull off the 14er trifecta.

 6 hours after starting from the trailhead, and already having both Maroon Bells under my belt, I started up the grueling and direct Pyramid Peak trail, while clouds continued to darken and build just across the valley earlier then normal. At this point, I was running on arenalin on the possibility of pulling this off….as well as an iPod full of punk rock music in my ears and Red Bull in my veins…

 I continued to move quickly and felt good until I hit the mellow snowfields in the amphitheatre below the North Face of Pyramid Peak. Here I began to bonk hard in the heat of the day and my pace started to slow drastically. The loose and frustrating climb up the loose scree and dirt of “The Filter” that leads to the 13,100′ saddle on Pyramid’s Northeast Rideg Route, was hard…as it felt like it took all my energy not to vomit on the spot from all the exertion.

 At the saddle, I took my longest break of the day…pausing to drink some more water and try and get down some real food….a turkey and cheese bagel. At this point the clouds seemed to be confining their convective build-up to localized area and were producing more wind and virga then any real threats, so I went on for the last 1,000′ to Pyramid’s summit.

 30 min later, and 8:45 after starting out, I was on my third 14er summit of the day, and was blessed with also having this summit all to myself as well, except for one lone mountain goat. Here I had 20 min to reflect on the 9,000′ of vertical I had travelled, that I still felt fairly good, and how far I had come in these past 5 years of my life. The mountain goat, however, was obviously much less impressed….as I’m sure that would be a normal routine day for them.

I was able to descend the upper technical part of Pyramid fueled by excitement and enthusiasm….but by far the hardest part of the day was the long, steep, and painful pounding back down the trail from teh ampithetare to the Maroon Lake trail and the 2 mile rocky walk back to the parking lot. This was one of the the most challenging mental activities I’ve endured in a long time….as the last hour, with almost everything done and gone behind me, it took everything I had to not just curl up in a ball and ’sleep it off’ on the side of the trail for a few days. 11 hours and 20 min later I was back in the parking lot, pounding Gatorade, and soaking my tired and sore feet in the ice cold river after a solid day of 9,032′ of vertical…

I realize my endeavor was nothing more then an entirely selfish and incredibly personal goal and achievement….made ultimately clear to me by the humbling and un-enthused mountain goat on the summit of Pyramid Peak….but I hope it has helped settled some important internal battles and questions in my own mind and body, and hopefully will maybe inspire someone else out there that has been given a less then promising outlook form the medical community to take some of their healing into their own hands and achive a goal….and hopefully one more meaningful and important then just climbing some mountains in Colorado really fast.

—Jayson Simons-Jones (CBMG Owner / Guide)