Grand Junction

Laurel had a two-day conference in Grand Junction so I tagged along and worked from the hotel during the days. It was a snowy drive out on the 28th but we made it. So nice to be back at Colorado National Monument -- definitely one of my favorite places.

I worked from the hotel room on Wednesday while Laurel was at her conference. In the afternoon we hiked part of the Liberty Cap trail at Colorado National Monument. We ran out of daylight to make it to the top, but still got to see some amazing landscapes. Hiked 3.5 miles in about an hour and a half.

Thursday morning we got up early for some trail running. We ran the Ute Canyon trail (also at Colorado Nat'l Monument). There was a bit of snow on the trail and more coming down. We made it to our turnaround point from last year when we hiked Ute Canyon from the other side. Ran 6 miles in about an hour and a half.

After finishing our work Thursday we headed back out to the Monument. We hiked a ways up Gold Star Canyon until it got too slippery to continue -- a bit more than 2 miles round trip, in about an hour. The trail gained over 500' in the first half mile!

Friday we both had off. We started by hiking Monument Canyon and looping around through Wedding Canyon. It was a beautiful morning -- about an inch of snow on the trail and some sunshine poking through the clouds.

Our turnaround point was a large monolith:

Following the Wedding Cyn trail on the way back was a challenge! It hadn't seen any foot traffic in a while and was covered in snow. 4.7 miles in 3h20m.

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Friday afternoon we drove to Fruita and checked out some mountain bike trails at the Book cliffs. We were just hiking, but it looks like an awesome place to bike! We hiked about 4 miles in just under 2 hours.

On the way home on Saturday we stopped at Copper for a day of skiing. It was windy on the open slopes, surface was mostly packed powder, but we found some fresh powder in the trees and skied some bumps too.

February stuff

Wow we are behind on the blog! We're still climbing in the gym three days a week, sometimes with our friend Tim. I ran about 40-50 miles this month, not too bad for Winter.

On the 4th we snowshoed from Chautauqua up and over the First Flatiron to the Saddle Rock trail, then back to Chautauqua.

On the 11th we skied at Copper with our neighbor Rachel -- fun day!

January stuff

Haven't posted much lately... we have been climbing a lot at the gym. Lots of 5.10's and sometimes we can struggle up a 5.11a or 5.11b. Some biking here and there when the weather is nice. Some running, whether or not the weather is nice.

Laurel got out to Brainard Lake a couple times to cross country ski.

Jan 14th -- we went on an hour+ long bike ride around town, including a bunch of tough hills. Something like 17-20 miles. It was almost warm enough that we could have climbed outside!

Jan 15th -- we hiked around Mt. Galbraith park (and summited the mountain itself). Just a short 4.5 mile hike down by Golden.

Jan 21st and 22nd -- Donna and JJ invited us to stay at their awesome SkiHaus for the weekend. We had 2 great days skiing Winter Park and Mary Jane. There was 5" of fresh snow overnight Saturday, so we had even moar powder to ski on Sunday.

Laurel's down in Colorado Springs for a few days this week at a music teachers' conference.

Chautauqua Skiing

The skiing was awesome at Chautauqua this morning. I skied Baseline to Bluebell-Baird to Mesa as far as Skunk Canyon, and then back on Kohler Mesa and Enchanted Mesa. Beautiful!

Christmas Snowstorm

We got over 16 inches of snow overnight. When I got up this morning, I put on my cross-country skis and skied the Cottonwood Trail. It was a lot of work to break trail for 2 miles. The way back was a lot easier!

Then, I went snowshoeing with Tanya and her mother who was visiting from Pennsylvania. We hiked some of the Mesa Trail and then looped back around to Kohler Mesa and Enchanted Mesa. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Winter Park

On the way to Winter Park we stopped and saw the buffalo eat breakfast. It was very cool seeing them run to the hay. It was another beautiful, sunny day that was just perfect for skiing. We skied some great runs and even got on to the Mary Jane side of the mountain. As we headed home, we stopped at Beau Jo's for some delicious pizza.

Skiing, Climbing and Green Mountain

Saturday it snowed a lot, so I skied out the garage onto the Cottonwood Trail. It was beautiful. Dan ran the trail in the snow. That afternoon we decided to go climbing and get a winter membership to the gym. Climbing was a lot of fun, but hard work! It's been way too long since we've done any difficult routes.

Sunday we hiked up Green Mountain in all the new snow. The trails were broken and mostly beaten down so we didn't need snowshoes. My new Asolo boots were awesome and kept my feet toasty warm. Just past the summit of Green we ran into Fred Ecks on his Sunday Church Run. It's always fun to run into people we know out on the trail! It's too bad Dan forgot the camera, because it was unbelievably beautiful with all the new snow.

Thanksgiving Vacation Week

On Monday Dan ran up around the Boulder Reservoir and I swam at the pool.

On Tuesday we rode our bikes to Flagstaff and ran up the mountain.

On Wednesday I rode my bike to Boulder Valley Ranch and ran the Lefthand trail. Donna cooked a yummy Thanksgiving dinner and then we drove up to Winter Park to stay at Donna and JJ's skihaus.

On Thursday we skied at Winter Park. There were a handful of runs open that were a lot of fun.

On Friday all four of us hiked up at the Roaring Fork Trail near Lake Granby. It was cool to hike on the "other" side of the Divide. There wasn't enough snow to warrant snowshoes, but it was very pretty. Dan and I drove home Friday night.

The roaring fork

Lake Granby

Niwot Ridge Ski

I drove up to the CU Research Center to try my first cross-country skiing of the year. The Niwot Ridge Road had enough snow down low for me to ski right from the parking lot.

As I climbed higher and higher up the trail, the snow got deeper and deeper. I didn't see anyone or anything until a ptarmigan caught my eye above the tree line.

I skied down a nice, deep bowl just south of the trail and then retraced my tracks down to the car. On the way down, I did see a few other skiers who thanked me for breaking trail and I ran into another teacher from my school. Pretty cool!

The snow on the road closer to the car was getting melty and slippery with the warm sun. Unfortunately, I took a turn too fast and fell on some small exposed rocks. I fell so hard that the rocks ripped through two pairs of pants and managed to skin my knee and give me a pretty good bruise (it took three weeks before I could kneel again). But, overall it was a gorgeous day of skiing!

Winter Park

Sunday afternoon, once we had recovered (somewhat) from the race, we headed to Winter Park. We had a hotel room reserved for two nights. It's a good thing we decided to go up when we did, because Monday morning and most of the day Monday, Berthoud Pass was closed due to inclement weather and avalanche blasting.

We were woken up by snow plows at 6am Monday and saw that almost 10 inches had fallen over night. We started the day with a delicious breakfast at Rise and Shine Bakery and then were some of the first skiers on the slopes. We were laying fresh tracks for most of the day. It continued to snow all day and we had a blast in all the new powder.







Tuesday morning the plows woke us up again, but this time at 4am. Oh well. Another 13.5 inches had fallen since Monday morning, so the slopes were again full of fresh powder. Fortunately, the skies had cleared and we enjoyed a slightly warmer and mostly blue-sky day. There was so much powder, it was actually hard to ski. We ventured to a new side of the mountain, though. A side for "experts only" (woo hoo!). It was so fun skiing through lots of trees and 22 inches of powder (the Vasquez side wasn't open yesterday).

Winter Park

On Friday we both took off work and headed up over Berthoud Pass. It was a fun day of skiing on both mountains--Mary Jane and Winter Park. Boy, are those bumps getting big! We finally got to stop at Beau Jo's on the way home to celebrate Dan's new job and my National Board Certification. Yay!

Cross Country Skiing at Brainard

Today Ann and I went skiing up at Brainard Lake. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day with barely any wind. Most of the day we didn't need a fleece or jacket it was so warm. We skied up the South CMC Ski Trail around the west side of Brainard Lake to the CMC Cabin. Ann had never been there before, so it was fun to show her and have hot chocolate. We skied back on Waldrop, took the connector the road, and then skied the road back. On the way out we barely saw anyone. The road on the way back was a different story. Nick W. would have had a fit with all the people in jeans and sneakers! We even saw three guys who rode their mountain bikes on the snow-covered road. It was a very fun day! (Click on the pic for more pics!)

Powder day at Eldora

Eldora got lots of snow yesterday, last night, and today. Fun skiing today!

Winter Park powder

We made it to Winter Park today -- skiing was awesome. Lots of fresh snow, blue skies half the day, not a lot of wind, and great tree skiing!

Ski Crested Butte

Christmas morning we got up, made yummy waffles at the hotel, and then drove north to Crested Butte.

We skied all day on groomed trails. We tried hard to find bumps and powder, with some success, but we learned quickly why this was the "Corduroy Capital of Colorado."

It was another fun, sunny day, but we both preferred skiing at Monarch. We drove back to Gunnison for another night.

Ski Monarch

Friday morning we left Boulder headed for Gunnison and Crested Butte. However, on the way we realized that we would pass the Monarch Ski Area. We skied Monarch back in February 2007 on our way back from ice climbing in Ouray.

Anyway, we skied Monarch all day Friday. It was awesome! I spent most of the time on black diamonds! Woohoo! Then we drove to Gunnison and had a nice dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

Eldora

Today we skied at Eldora. The original plan was to go to Winter Park, but the mountains have gotten so much snow in the last two days that the avalanche danger was high. So high, in fact, that they were closing route 40 to Winter Park intermittently for avalanche mitigation. We decided we didn't want to get caught in an avalanche, or mitigation traffic, so we opted for Eldora.

There was five fresh inches of heavy powder and it snowed the whole time we were there. The day was much warmer than we expected. The temps hovered around freezing and the snow got wetter as the day went on. Still, it was a great day and we had a lot of fun. Plus, we got home before it was dark!

Cross Country Skiing

I went skiing up at Brainard Lake today. I skied the South CMC Ski Trail to Brainard Lake. I picked up another trail south of the lake at the junction with the Little Raven Trail. At the Niwot Mountain picnic area I found the Niwot Cutoff Trail. I took it up to Long Lake where the wind really started to blow.

I got back in the trees and took the Pawnee Pass Trail back to the parking lot/trailhead. I skied on the road for a bit and then made my way up to the cabin. Unfortunately, no one was up there, so no hot chocolate for me. I skied back on the Waldrop Trail for a 4-hour approximately 6 mile trip.

St. Mary's Glacier

Today we hiked up to St. Mary's Glacier. With skis.

Call us crazy but we weren't the only ones getting a head start on the season. What we intended to ski was a lot like the trail: dirt and rocks. But there was enough snow, ice, and water to make it feel a little like east-coast skiing -- just kidding :) :)

First though we hiked to the top of the "glacier" to a point where we could check out James Peak. Beautiful day, as you can see.

I nearly did a cartwheel on my first run down, when one of my ski tips caught under a flake of ice. Somehow I caught myself and made it to the bottom without falling. Laurel had a good a run down the slope, then I did a few more runs.



It's not quite backcountry skiing but we're getting there.

Spring in Colorado

Happy Spring! It has been a great week in Colorado despite the mixture of spring and winter weather. Last Saturday it was sunny and 50, so we were able to ride our bikes to the car dealerships in town. We got into many cars and test drove some. No decision yet, but we got a lot of research done! Saturday evening Tim and Jill came over, then we went to Ann and Sean's St. Patrick's Day party.

Sunday the weather was more winter-like. We had planned to head up to Estes Park to hike up Estes Cone (11,000), but we got a late start and 2/3 of the way there, Dan realized he forgot his boots. The day was not a total waste, as we stopped at the Foothill Trailhead and did some trailing running in the light snow.

The rest of the week was absolutely beautiful. On Tuesday, we went for a 2-hour mountain bike ride on the Eagle trail after work. Thursday we rode to Sanitas and did some bouldering.

Then, in true Colorado form, we got a foot of snow Friday. School wasn't canceled because the roads weren't too bad -- they were so warm from the rest of the week, it was just slushy. The powder accumulated everywhere else -- including the slopes at Eldora. The little Echo couldn't make it up the icy canyon road, so we took the bus and skied the awesome conditions all afternoon. I love spring skiing! It's so much warmer!

Today and tomorrow it's supposed to be in the fifties and sixties again. Now, if we could only get one more snow storm, since we both have one punch left on our ski passes!