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It was a dark and stormy morning as Jesse and I sat eating the quintessential big day breakfast while trying to decide how the weather would be up high.

We parked at Ashcroft and began the climb up Express Creek at 8 a.m.  "The wind was howling and the snows were outrageous."  Well, actually I just wanted to quote Dylan but the winds were strong and they were blowing a lot of snow.

 

By the time we turned off the Express Creek Road and onto the trail toward the Goodwin-Green Hut, the clouds had burned off and the wind and blue skies were all that was left.
 
The ridge between Gold Hill and McArthur Mountain gave us delightful views of the Elk Range when we could look west between 30 m.p.h. wind gusts.
 
 
 
 
We made the Barnard Hut by noon and enjoyed our sandwiches on the deck with the sun and wind, too bad we didn't have the key.
 
 
Several snow drift face plants later we climbed onto the South end of Richmond Ridge and reeled in those last few miles.  When we caught the first glimpse of the gondola building, I asked Jesse for the time.  "It doesn't matter; we make it or we don't," was the answer.  Neither of us were excited by the thought of skiing down Aspen Mountain on the skinny Morgedals after our 13 mile tour.  Luck was with us as we arrived at the gondola building at 4:27 p.m. and caught the last ride down of the day.

The next morning we sat once again eating the not-so-big-day breakfast, and all we could talk about was where the next tour would be...
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