Powder Days

Alright, I'll admit it, we have been slacking on this blog. Reason being....Powder Days! After a long dry January we are back in the snow cycle. Don't get me wrong sunshine and 40 degrees every day for two weeks was pretty nice, but the skiing was getting a bit old. I even dug out the mountain bike and did a ride because the skiing was getting mundane.

But now we're back in action. We had our normal Monday and Tuesday off, and by Sunday afternoon the snow was falling very fast. We were going to visit friends in Steamboat Springs, but decided that traveling in a blizzard was not the best idea. So, Monday morning we got up and headed up to Monarch. There was 10 fresh inches waiting for us. The skiing was decent but we could still feel the crust below the surface. I decided that hiking up to Mirkwood would be a good idea. Mirkwood is Monarch's hike-to, backcountry area. Because you have to hike for 15 minutes, there is far less skier traffic, making softer snow easier to find. The wind was brutal on Monday, probably blowing well over 50 mph. Hiking up, the wind would blow you off your track and it was really hard to hang onto your skis. I did three laps, the skiing was great, but the wind was enough to limit me to three runs. That night I noticed a dark spot on my cheek, frostbite. My skis must have been touching my skin causing a deep freeze. The spot is still there, getting worse, I hope my face doesn't fall off.

Here is a shot of Mirkwood Bowl, you can kind of see people standing on the ridgeline. Also you can see the dark spots of where they dropped bombs trying to mitigate avalanche danger.



Tuesday we awoke to another 8 inches of the fresh stuff. I got up early to ensure first lift, there were a few lines that I knew I wanted to hit before anyone else got there. Mica stayed home to wait for our friend Kelly who was driving down from Summit County to enjoy our sweet Monarch Powder. My plan was a success, first tracks for an hour and a half, then hit Mirkwood when they open that around 10:30. I could hear blasting so I knew that the wind had left a good deal of snow in the bowls. I got to the gate a few minutes after they pulled the rope, there were already a dozen people hiking up the ridgeline to the top of Mirkwood. I really wanted first tracks so I put on a charge and left the dozen people behind as I hiked up the ridgeline at 11,500ft. It was worth it, first tracks, deep snow.

Here is a shot of Mirkwood Trees on the right, those are some real good lines through steep trees. On the left you can see Monarch ski area, with the notable "gunbarrel" on the left side.



It's funny when you pass the spots where they dropped bombs, the snow is all black and you get the smell of blasting powder in your nose for the entire run. I have learned to love that smell. Probably the way a surfer feels when they smell the ocean. I continued to put first tracks over Mirkwood for four laps, I was beat after that. I found Mica and Kelly just as they were going in for lunch, perfect timing. They had been enjoying the endless soft snow as well. After lunch we all went for another run. It had started to snow real hard again and I stil had a plan for more fresh tracks.

By afternoon it is pretty hard to find fresh tracks at any ski area, so the next logical thing to do is to ski out of the area. I had been spying this slope from the top of my chairlift all season. Dropping off the west side of the Continental Divide would give me about 1000ft. of untouched snow before I hit the Old Monarch Pass road. After checking in quickly with ski patrol, I was off. It was great, I really enjoy not skiing over anyone elses tracks, guess I'm spoiled. I hit the road like I planned, fortunately a snowmobile had already drivin the road providing a real easy 20 minute skin back to the ski area. That was a great way to end the day. I met up with Mica and Kelly immediately after getting back to the area, good timing. They did a few more runs, I decied to go home and get dinner going. Here is a picture of the road back down during a snow storm. A great couple of days.

Finally A Backcountry Adventure

So here it is January 20th. This is a historic day for sure, a optimistic outlook for our country is before us, which is good. It feels good to be optimistic about the future of our country, there is hope that our generation and generations after us will have the chance to enjoy the things that our parents and grandparents worked so hard for us to be able to enjoy. After watching the inauguration we decided to commemorate the occasion by going skiing!


The Colorado backcountry ( and that of most of the rockies) has been very unstable and downright scary this winter, reports of avalanche accidents were very high early in the year. Fortunately things have begun to mellow out here in the Sawatch Range. Mica and I had not spent any time in the backcountry yet this year, until today. We chose to head up a trail to the Waterdog Lakes. It was about two miles of climbing, maybe 1500ft of elevation gain to about 11,300ft. These lakes are high alpine lakes 500ft below treeline.


The trail was well used by snowshoers mainly and was a pretty easy skin up. When we finally arrived at the first lake, we were taken back by the vista in front of us. The ridge line you see is the Continental Divide. Of particular interest to us skiers was the cornice that formed on top of the ridge. It was almost a mile long and looked to be 10-20' high! That is a perfect recipe for some serious avalanche activity. Needless to say, we didn't ski below it.


Instead, we opted to keep our tracks below treeline. There is something about skiing in the trees that makes you feel safer and less prone to avalanche potential, even though with the right conditions there can be avalanches well below tree line. I skied off one the other week 400' below treeline. Anyway, the sun was shining hot and the conditions were like spring, kind of like skiing on frosting. As long as we got our skiing in before the temps started to drop, we'd be fine.


Hati and Soli were loving the adventure. Hati slides down the snow like an otter and Soli runs so fast she almost knocks us over as she comes down the trail. This adventure is just as much for them as it is for us! As we ski further away from the lake, there are no other tracks to follow, so the dogs sometimes like to follow us and tend to walk on the backs of our skis. I used to do the same thing to my Dad when we were out skiing when I was a kid.


It was getting later in the day, remember the whole inauguration, and although the ridge line in the background had a skin track set up it, we decided to leave it for another day. We descended through the trees, having some great turns in the sunny spots and some crunchy turns in the shade. It is amazing how fast the snow will freeze after the sun fades away.


This was a great spot less than 10 minutes from home, I know we'll be back up there soon, as we didn't even begin to see all of the terrain around the Waterdog Lakes.

Dogs like snow too.

All of our skiing so far has been at the ski area. This has been good for us to get our legs back into the groove, but that has meant hours at home for our furry friends. Here are a few shots of some exploring we've done with them this week.

Hati lives for snowbaths.

Soli lives for attention.

Every time we are out, Hati's primative instinct comes out and she scavenges for food.

This time Soli decided to get in on some tasty Mule Deer as well.

Why we like Salida!

I'll be the first to admit it, we've been a bit hermitlike since we've been in Salida. Not that that's a problem at all, just a bit out of character for me. This past week I feel like things are starting to change out here. For example, on Thursday night Monarch Mountain put on a season kick-off for employees and community members. There was a history presentation by a professor from Western State University. He gave a cool history of skiing and ski area development in Colorado, including a fun slide show. The thing that impressed us was that people in this valley take pride in the fact that they have the oldest ski mountain in Colorado. Monarch's slogan is "Unspoiled since 1939".

To back up a bit. We spent a few days down in Albuquerque for Thanksgiving. We celebrated Thanksgiving day over at Cousin Rob's house. There were aunts and uncles and cousins and spouses. It was really fun, it felt just like the family holidays I remember growing up. The following day we had another Thanksgiving dinner with our immediate family at Tom and Angie's house. That was also really fun, I think we all ate ourselves into a serious food coma. Here's a fun picture of Jacob at his new house with a New Mexico snowman! Not a bad view of the Sandia Mountains.

On Tuesday of this week I started training for my 'second' job. Some of you might think I'm nuts, and I probably am, that I took a job as a snowmobile guide. Yes that's right, maybe I just miss coming home smelling like exhaust after a long night of grooming ski trails. So Tuesday and Wednesday were spent riding around on snowmobiles, learning the local trails, and having some fun along the way. It might be fun to work some at this job, but I have a feeling that once the skiing gets good, I will not want to spend my off time burning through more than my fair share of fossil fuels.

On Thursday I started my 'real' job. Monarch Mountain was scheduled to open on Friday, so I spent the day with a small crew getting the two lifts that were going to open ready to go. It was fun to get to know a few folks who also do these jobs so they have the privilege of skiing, a lot.

Friday was the big opening day! It started out in a bit of a frenzy, working out all of the bugs as any ski area has to do. It was mostly season pass holders out skiing that day, and I realized one thing about this group of people. They love Monarch and the lifties too! Skiers would talk to me like I had known them for years, some people even handed out goodies to the lift operators. It is fun to be a part of that energy. The day went well, I didn't crush any skiers trying to get on the lift. I was looking forward to skiing a bunch on Saturday, then my boss called and asked me to work on Saturday. Hey, it will be a long ski season, and money is money, I went to work.

Saturday we were scheduled to open Panorama Lift. Panorama might still be the only lift in the country that ends on the Continental Divide. I took a couple of pics from the top of the lift, I think on a clear day you might be able to see Utah. The day was another success and even better, no one called me to work on Sunday, sounds like a ski day.

Saturday evening we headed to the Salida Cafe to see our friend from Superior play some music. James Moors plays at Lutsen Resort quite a bit, but I had never really heard any of his songs from start to finish, so it was nice to see some live music, especially someone we know. The Salida Cafe puts a lot of effort into the arts, I'm sure we'll spend quite a few nights there during the winter.

Why we like Salida....On Sunday we headed up to the Mountain to get some turns in. It was what we call blue bird. We skied for a couple of hours, got familiar with the mountain, got a sun tan, and most importantly ended the day with a strong cup of coffee on the deck of the chalet. Some would think that was a good way to spend a day, which it is, but the day was only 1/2 over and it was in the 50's down in Salida. I loaded up my mountain bike and did a couple hour ride. It was more than I was expecting, the first 5 miles were uphill, taking an hour. I had anticipated an easy ride back down the mountain, but was surprised to find a trail that was quite rough, steep, loose and almost scary. I played it pretty conservative since Mica was out running and would have no idea where to start looking for me if I didn't show up by dark. Turns out she had a good run and I had a good ride. That's why we like Salida!

Mt. Shavano

Well, we decided to put our flatlander lungs to a test today. We figured that since we wake up every day looking at Mt. Shavano, we should climb it. We didn't get the classic 'Alpine Start', but we knew we had nothing but blue bird all day long. Leaving the trail head at 8:15, hopefully not a flatlander mistake as there were already two parties ahead of us. The first 1/2 mile or so is on the Colorado Trail, meandering through subsidized ranchland, thank you U.S. Forest Circus. When we hit the spur heading up Mt. Shavano the trail became very rough, like hiking on softballs and footballs. After about 1/2 mile of that, the trail became much better, maintaining a steady ascent. The trail is about 3.5 miles to the top, gaining 4,349ft. from the Blank Gulch trailhead at 9,880ft. As far as Colorado Peaks go, that is a fair ammount of verticle gain, many of the peaks have 4 wheel drive roads that go well over 10,000ft.

After about 1.75 hours we emerged at the end of the treeline. This offered up some panoramic views of the valley below as well as the "Angel Snowfield". The snowfield, which is now just a small ribbon of snow, takes the shape of an angel in the spring as the snow begins to melt. As we continued up the trail we saw the two groups that had started before us ascending the snowfield. We were definately traveling faster, passing one group and catching up to the other. As we passed the snowfield on our way towards the saddle near the summit, the wind began to howl. We were expecting wind, but this was 30-40mph gusting to 55+. I was worried that Mica might blow away, luckily she was attached to Soli who provided good upward momentum. We reached the Summit in three hours and 20 minutes, that made us flatlanders pretty happy. We had the other group of hikers snap our picture at the top.

A bit of coffee and tea and we were ready to descend out of the wind. On our way down we hopped, skipped and jumped down the loose scree, reaching the Saddle in 20 minutes, at least twice as fast as it took us to get up.

Hati and Soli are great trail dogs, they generally stay pretty close to us and seem to appreciate getting to the summit as much as we do. The only trouble is that Hati blends into the geology quite well, can you spot her in this next picture?

Once we reached the treeline we stopped for a longer lunch, out of the wind. The dogs were mellow for at least 5 minutes. Their metabolism is such that they can recover way quicker than us humans are able to.

After lunch Hati and Soli were ready to go. But before we were done, we had to take a picture of Stanley. Stanley is our sweet new thermos that keeps tea incredibly hot, even in below zero windchills. Stanley came to us from our friend Eric, who gets all kinds of Stanley products as part of his sponsorship in his quest to make it to the North and South Poles and Mount Everest in one year! Good luck Eric, check out his website www.savethepoles.com We made our way down the trail we came up, stopping periodically to give our knees a rest. When we got back to the trailhead the temperature was close to 50 degrees and there was hardly any wind, it felt like summer.

Up A Trail Without A Shovel

We woke up today socked in with fog, or maybe it was clouds, we are at 8,000ft. Either way, there was a light dusting of hoar frost on all of the vegetation which gave everything a winter wonderland feel. We decided it would be a good day for exploring. A couple of properties had sparked our interest, so we headed out armed with a topo map and a full tank of gas. This also served as an excellent opportunity to test out the off-road prowess of our Red Rover.

Forest Road 230 looked pretty good on the map. Heading north out of Garfield we had about three miles before we were to encounter a property that 'may or may not have a sign on it'. The road started out really rough, putting the traction control system to a test. Red Rover, with horrible tires, handled the loose and steep road very well. Along the way we encountered a couple of cabins and a beautiful stream full of beaver dams.

Not long after we took the picture above, we encounterd a small 'glacier'. We had driven through a couple of small streams and a fair bit of snow at this point, so I was feeling pretty confident with Red Rover. With the forementioned tires the ice prooved to be a bigger challenge than I anticipated. It is not like a man and his truck to back down from a challenge without giving it a fair shot (much to Mica's chagrin). We spun and slid our way about 20 yards up this frozen road and were not able to make any more forward progress. Now, if this was dirt, no problem, just stop and back up. Well, as soon as we stopped, I could feel us slipping. Some backwards and some sideways. We were off camber and the glacier wanted to push us sideways into a water bar. Bad news for us, if we slipped sideways we would probably high center Red Rover. Like I said before, we had a full tank of gas and that was it, no shovel, no chains, no salt or sand, no winch - all things we should probably have with us at all times - I'm sure Mica won't let me forget I said that.

With a good deal of dirt and rocks and debris (you can see the dirt patches we made on the ice), we were able to inch our way down without slipping sideways. Doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but have you ever tried to collect dirt and rock off of frozen ground? The ordeal took about an hour, we still had an hour of sunlight left and a half mile of walking to find this parcel of land. As we hiked up the road, there was a good bit of snow making it so much fun for Hati and Soli. We eventually found the piece of land that is for sale, which is the picture below. Pretty cool spot for a ski in cabin or summer retreat, no vehicle access during the winter.

We ended up driving down the road in the dark. We had smooth sailing, we were still talking to each other and Red Rover did not let us down. We will reward Red Rover with some new tires next week, but what should Mica's reward be?

Land Of Enchantment

This past week we spent in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We visited family which we had not seen since last December. The weather was super nice, sunny every day. We spent a good deal of time relaxing, did some exploring, and helped to break in Ann and Daniels new home. Tom and Angie took us up the tram to Sandia Peak, which is about 5,000ft. above the city. I was amazed at how rugged the Sandia Mountains are. Comprised mostly of granite, there are thousands of rock climbing routes all over these mountains. The tram is the longest in the world if I am not mistaken. At one point you are traveling 1,000ft. above the jagged rocks below. It was cold and windy up top, but the view made you forget about the wind all together. This is a definite must see if you are in central New Mexico!

Another cool thing right in Albuquerque is the Petroglyph National Monument. We read about some mountain biking there in one of our guide books. Although most of the biking was pretty sandy, the views and cultural history were worth the ride. This picture is of Mica, with the Sandia Mountains in the background. The city is in between the mountains and the escarpment we were riding on.

One of the best things about the Southwest is the food! We found our new favorite restaurant in Albuquerque. It is called El Pinto and it is amazing. It has been frequented by celebrities and politicians. There was a recent picture of President Elect Obama on the wall, too bad we missed him. El Pinto has great atmosphere and a wide variety of Southwest Cuisine.

We're looking forward to heading back to the Land of Enchantment for Thanksgiving!