Barb

Insane 80mph winds here today. Blew over a big tree across the street and one of my fence gates is hanging on by a thread. Several fires burning around town from downed power lines.

Glad for you! When are you going?

Got out for a little ski tour in Nederland today. Half way there I realized I forgot my skins, D’oh! Had to turn around and grab them. Nice seeing some snow finally. The last 1/2 mile to the parking lot wasn’t plowed so we had to skin a bit up the road. only saw a handful of people, no wind (amazing) and temps about 18 degrees. Did about 3.75 miles round trip which means my dog probably did double that. He was pooped. i need to find some new low angle areas. This place is kind of a pain because the last mile or so out you have to put your skins back on. It was all work with the powder so we earned our lunch at Khatmandu on the way out of town.

We got take out Chinese and when we opened it up it was the wrong order. Nothing looked appealing and it was too far to drive back. I grabbed a full size snickers from the mini bar where we are staying and called it good.

Crested Butte got 20” in 24 hours. Whoever is renting my place is gonna have a good day.

Yeah if I have to stop I usually do it on the downhill side of a slow sign, to have a bit of protection.

Went to Eldora today. They are now only allowing close in parking for 3 plus occupants in the car. So we had to walk a bit. Beautiful warm sunny day. Crowds were low but since such limited terrain opened it felt a bit busy. The whole backside of the mountain is still closed. Since they had a recent death of someone going too fast and slamming into another person, they had ski patrol perched mid run on each run. I actually appreciated this because I have heard it has been nuts everywhere this season. That being said, my 6th run, I was skiing on the side of the trail making small turns; I hear a snowboarder that sounded close but I thought, “they always sound loud.” With that I see him in my periphery and he came in hot, his board slammed against my ski edge, then he pushed off of me with his elbow. I honestly don’t know how I stayed upright. I stopped, a bit freaked, and yelled “you motherfucker!” As loud as I could. He didn’t stop, didn’t apologize. When I got to the bottom Shannon happened to be there and the line was getting longer so I told her that was a sign for me to be done for the day. Weather was beautiful but conditions were meh, we really need some fresh snow.

My first real ski day of the season. I forgot my phone and felt so weird not having it. So only a couple pics my friends took. Went to Copper, 10 degrees pretty much all day. The Dew Tour was there so things were kinda crowded at the base, but not they runs. The lift kept stopping which was annoying so one run it took about 30 min between the line and the 3 stops while we were on it. Copper has a lot of terrain opened and the coverage was good the snow quality was not great we have had a lot of wind here so that is part of the reason very scraped off. Still a super fun first day

Aspen is one hour 10 min. But if I ever get better at BC stuff this whole area is like a playground. https://www.marbleski.org/ In the summer when Kebler pass is open, CB is only about an hour plus and yeah construction costs have been nuts. This will probably be my last project.

My guys got the roof dried in just in time for this latest storm. Gonna head down early January once all the windows are in. Can’t wait to lay eyes on it. My builder said there was a bald Eagle hanging around all day. Property goes uphill and eventually reaches forest land. Although that lot belongs to someone else I have heard they live out of state and only come every few years. There is enough space to ski it on a makeshift 4 x 4 road. Only a few hundred feet of very but the steepness of a black resort run.

I have plans to go next Friday somewhere. Hopefully this snow will have opened some additional terrain, so I may get out before then. I have been enjoying climbing in the interim.

Place is opened for the next few days but this time around it’s just not gonna work out.

the past few years I have gone to Crested Butte mid December for a few days and always had fantastic conditions and empty runs. This year due to the dry start I was uninspired. I will never doubt the CB snow gods again.

They extended the mask mandate here to most of the surrounding counties. It was nice climbing at the gym in Golden with no mask while it lasted.

Went out for a tour today at Moffatt Tunnel. Had to carry our skis for about 1/2 mile before there was enough snow to put them on. At first it wasn’t so bad, but then it was just an asteroid field of rocks to dodge. We went about 1.7 miles in and it was not improving at all so we turned around. skied down part of the way w skins on to protect bases but it was no good. After 1/2 mile took off skis and put them back on our packs. Still counting it as my first day. All pics of my friend Ilise. this is a good one to show all they rocks

I am itching to ski but every place that is opened looks like this. Abasin has the most opened but their lift lines are long too. Trying to scope out something to skin, but even that is proving a challenge.

Bummer about the windshield. That truck camper really looks amazing!

Been so dry here I just hand watered the trees in my yard. Yikes.

Very medieval architecture!

Probably just polished concrete but we are still discussing.

Yes! My architect talked me into the in floor heating and concrete floors. Never had either.

After sooo many delays my final slab was poured yesterday. Framing to begin next week. Feel like things will start to take shape now.

Just walking around the streets in Europe is so cool. I love the architecture. Enjoy!

Yesterday we started the morning climbing Looking Glass Arch. I have been to this area before but opted out of the climbing due to the 120’ free rappel. I decided it was time to suck it up and try. It’s a 3 pitch 350’ climb on fairly easy rock. The crux is the first 6’ getting off the ground. I lost my footing here tried to catch myself and put some nice holes in my puffy, womp womp. this is the 3rd pitch where it gets much less vertical. I had a full on meltdown at the top waiting to rappel and cried my eyes out then we drove to another area and started working on climbing cracks. Really fucking hard! I was not able to get more than 10’ off the ground with much effort Shannon killed it and made the top the technique in the chimney was a bit easier. Gonna do all cracks today and hopefully get done a bit earlier so we can go to the rec center and take a shower.