A first hand adventure from Research Team member Tanner Crow
Guest Research by Mike Meru
Photography: Michael Aasheim
On my Endless Search for winter and to shred every month of the calendar year, my travels took me to Aspen, Colorado to hike and ride the Conundrum Couloir.
The adventure began Friday night, Mike Meru, Michael Aasheim, and I left Salt Lake City at 7 p.m and arrived in aspen by 2 a.m. We camped at the trail head and used Mikes razor to cut off a few miles on the old mining road. The hike began with a 1,000ft loose rock scramble up to a circular beep blue frozen lake, where we got the first view of our line! Preparing our selfs for the climb we strapped on the crampons, took out an ice, and started our way up the steep couloir. After another thousand feet of climbing we topped out on our line at 14,060ft! It's a pretty incredible high climbing to 14k amazing view and great sense of accomplishment!
After cautiously making our way down the gnarly steep icy spine runnels, Mike and I decided to hike back up for another run while Michael headed to the opposing ridge to set up photos for another angle.
The maroon bells are visible from the top of conundrum peak so we decided to take a quick stop to see the bells a little closer and scope some new lines to to add to next seasons hit list!
With our main objective accomplished and another free day on our hands, we decided to do some canyoneering! Around 9 p.m., we left Aspen and and ended up in the desert of Hanksville, Utah at 3am. The Milky Way was fully stretched across the sky so we decided to play with the cameras for a bit. I'm always in awe of how small we are in this so called Universe...
After the 4 hour nap, we started our trek to the top of the canyon before the Southern Utah heat set in. We made our way through Hogwarts Canyon, which is an awesome route if you find your way there. Including 4 rappels, one of the rappels is through an arch, and the final one is a 90ft over hanging rappel!
It's pretty amazing what you can jam into 48 hrs! From the top of a 14er to rapping down into a slot canyon this weekend was from one extreme to the next! For now, It's on to the next search....here's to an epic 2017/2018 Winter.
Live Life & Research,
Tanner Crow - Yeti Research Team