Hiking

Chihuahua Trail

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October 29th, 2017

Went back to the Chihuahua Trail. No moose this time but much better weather. Went all the way to the Chihuahua Lake. Really nice place and not a soul around…
Cooking, Food, Pastries

Chouquettes

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Trying out Christophe Adam’s recipe for Choux Pastry.  Cooked at 350F for 30 minutes.

Milk – 320ml
Water – 320ml
Salt – 8g
Sugar – 24g
Butter – 320g
Vanilla – 8g
Flour – 320g
Eggs – 560g (10)

I’ll try a slightly softer dough next time (either more milk or more eggs) – Also need to crack the oven door open after maybe 20 minutes to remove the steam and see how it goes…

Cooking, Food, Pastries

Wahoo Crudo with Popcorn Crema and Serrano Vinaigrette

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Some cooking from last week…

Upping my game a notch (date night) – The original recipe is from Food & Wine under “Striped Bass Crudo with Popcorn Crema and Shishito Vinaigrette”.

I found some Wahoo fish instead and thought I’d spice things up (literally) by swapping the Shishito pepper with Serrano…

Also made some Lentil Purée with Cilantro (Bon Appétit mag) and Flatbread and a nice Salted Caramel / Chocolate tart for desert.

The wine pairing was Maipe Torrontes from Mendoza, Argentina. Pretty happy about my selection on that note.

Note: The food was the highlight of the evening really 😉

Also, more Cannelés. This time I added some raisins & rum.

Cooking, Food, Pastries

Cannelés bordelais

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Baking a lot of Cannelés these days. Trying to perfect this specialty from Bordeaux, France.
Bought both copper and aluminum molds and used melted beeswax instead of butter to coat the molds.
So far my recipe looks like this but I’m modifying it at every try.
Next step? Buy more molds 🙂

1L Milk
300g Flour
400g Confectioner Sugar
100g Sugar (mixed with the milk)
100g Butter (browned and filtered gives 80g really)
80g Rum
8g Vanilla Extract
(for about 20 Cannelés)

 

Colorado 14er, Hiking

Chicago Basin – San Juan Mountains

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08-27-2017

This group of +14000ft mountains required a little bit more work than usual. After driving for seven hours we took the train (narrow gauge) for a little while until a drop off at Needleton. Then we hiked…

These mountains (mostly Sunlight & Windom) are more technical and have more exposure than your regular 14er but are so much fun 🙂

  • Climbed North Eolus and Mt Eolus on Saturday 26th
  • Climbed Sumlight Peak and Windom Mnt on Sunday 27th before hiking the 13 miles back to the Purgatory trailhead. We failed 1.5 miles  before the TH and setup camp for one more night in the wild…

There was a fox near North Eolus playing / fighting with a marmot. The marmot ended up scaring the hell out of that fox 🙂
I also have quite a few shots of a mountain goat at the very summit of Mount Eolus.

Overall a great & long weekend of backpacking / climbing to bring my total number of 14ers to 54. Four to go…
Colorado 14er, Hiking

Mt Sneffels, Colorado

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08-19-2017

Since I was in the neighborhood after climbing El Diente Peak and Mt Wilson I thought I’d try Mt Sneffels…

Soon after the start at the Yankee Boy Basin…

Passed the saddle. First view of the gully…

Getting crowded here. Only Class 3 pitch of this 14er…

Summit view:

Summit view:

Parking lot on the way back. Mostly Jeeps 🙂

Road on the way back. Carved into the mountain.

Colorado 14er, Hiking

El Diente Peak, Wilson Mountain

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August has been crazy busy. Trying to finish all the Colorado 14ers I have left.

So far this summer; Wilson Peak, North Maroon Bell, El Diente Peak, Wilson Mountain, Mt Sneffels, N Eolus, Eolus Mountain, Sunlight Peak and Windom Mountain.

I’ve climbed / hiked 54 Colorado 14ers out of 58. Getting there…

Late afternoon arrival following the Dolores River. View of El Diente in the distance:

Class 3 only. Final approach through a gully:

Summit view of El Diente:

Traverse from El Diente to Mt Wilson. A few Class 4 along the way. It was a long long way…

From a gully about 200ft below Mt Wilson:

Mt Wilson summit view:

 

Colorado 14er, Hiking

North Maroon Peak

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Hiked / climbed North Maroon Peak last Sunday. A bit foggy but great climb.

Photo selection with comments. My shoes are awful for technical climbing I must say so I need to fix that problem before the next one.


Above: View of Pyramid Peak


Above: Maroon Lake / Crater Lake at sunrise


Climbing up the second gully…


Rest of the climb; big mess…


Summit view


View of Maroon Peak


On my way back. View of the trail up the first green gully.


View back at Maroon Lake. North Maroon Peak is the one in front / center.

Colorado 14er, Hiking

Wilson Peak Climb

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Climb of Wilson Peak from Navajo Basin Trailhead.

16 miles total and 5,000 feet elevation gain.
Here’s a visit of our beautiful Colorado. It‘s been an exceptional year in terms of snow pack and summer hiking still feels like Springs. The West Dolores river up to Navajo Lake is roaring. The weather was not particularly friendly but I managed to climb one 14000+ feet peak out of three. I guess I’ll have to come back…
Hiking

Colorado Trail – Completed

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Finally decided to go back to the Colorado Trail where I’d left off last time and complete it. I only had 116 miles to go so I took an extended weekend. First day was a bit slow but I made up for it after that (I traveled light; base backpack is 8.4 pounds now.)

Details:
Friday evening: 3.2 miles
Saturday: 27.1 miles
Sunday: 35.2 miles
Monday: 35.1 miles
Tuesday: 16.3 miles
Max elevation: 12489 ft
Ascent: 17292 ft
Descent: 21588 ft

I didn’t feel like eating most of the time. Ate an average of 3.5 Clif bars per day. Had plenty of left over.