El matrimonio de mi hermano en Troncones, México

 My brother and Mary (M-nuggz) have been dating for awhile and decided to finally tie the knot with a destination wedding in Troncones, Mexico. There was a danger, do not travel alert by the US State Department, which caused a few people to not come, but overall I think they had about 50 people. And as is often the case, the most dangerous thing there was not what one would expect, but seasickness on the boat ride.

10/16-17

Trying to pack for 2 trips (Asia and Mexico) and finish up last minute things for the Oceanic Society. Oh, and work on some edits for some publications I'm working on. Drove to Estes on the 17th I believe.

10/18

Very early flight to Houston from Denver, then on to Mexico City. We had a long layover,so we took the subway into the city. We got tacos (Elisha's favorite) and ice cream and explored a few areas like Zocalo (the main square), Mariachi Square, and the palace. Because the airport has weird terminals that are very far apart and we were storing our luggage in the opposite terminal, we nearly missed our flight going to Zihuatanejo. We got off at one subway stop too early for the terminal where our luggage was stored, but since we still had tons of time, we decided to walk. But then the path we were taking dead-ended. The rest is a bit confusing in my brain as to what exactly happened. But we finally got to a terminal, but it wasn't the one with our luggage. So we took a bus to the other terminal and collected our luggage. Since we had flown in to that terminal, we figured it was the international terminal, so we took the sky train back to the other terminal, which we assumed was domestic. It mostly was, but apparently most the AeroMexico flights leave from the terminal we were just at. So we rushed to take the train back. When we got there, check-in was closed, but we split up to look for a manager, and I managed to convince someone to give us a late check-in bording pass. But she said we'd have to run. We rushed through security and then sprinted through the airport to arrive in time to catch the flight. And in fact, we had to wait a bit as the flight was a bit delayed. We met up with some wedding goers at the gate, and then once we arrived to Zihuatanejo, we took a shuttle together to the small coastal village of Troncones where all the wedding folks were staying and the ceremony was to be held.

10/19

We were sharing a villa with my parents. It was a beautiful beachside resort with a nice pool. You could hear the waves and catch a glimpse of them from our villa's seating area. The villa was an open air style where the kitchen, dining room, and sitting area were all open air, while the bedrooms were enclosed with air conditioning (thank goodness!).

We lounged around the villas in the morning, and I worked on my best man speech. We then went out to lunch with Stu and explored the town a bit. In the evening was a cocktail party, then a costume dance party. The catch was that someone else chose the costume you'd be wearing and you had to parade down in your costume, runway style. Mom had the costume of a Swifty (which I think Allison selected). Elisha was an attractive Arabian woman (my mom selected it), and I was a blue M&M with cool light up glasses that Scott K selected. I dressed up Alex Banas as a funny cowboy with apron chaps. Not surprisingly, given the heat, the party ended up in the pool

10/20

We did a catamaran sail booze cruise out of Zihuatanejo. We did some snorkeling (really bad---murky and no corals, but a few fish) and swimming in the incredibly warm water. The highlight would have been the open bar and food, but both Elisha and I got seasick, so we could not enjoy it. Several others were also seasick, including Mary, who was very sick and actually got boated off the main boat later. 

Afternoon cocktails, and then it was the rehearsal dinner where Kelsey (best friend of Mary's), Gerry (Mary's Dad), Emma (Mary's best friend in CB and interestingly my second cousin twice removed or something like that), Steve Dole (Zach's best bud from college), Dave Pfeifer (Colorado friend of bro's), and myself (brother! ha) gave speeches. Supposedly mine brought a lot of tears to the crowd. I'll paste in the outline of my speech at the end of this. After dinner there was a Mariachi band and dancing

10/21 Wedding Day

We (mom, dad, Elisha, myself, and Dave Yogg) hosted cocktail hour. It was a nice ceremony on the beach, presided over by Gaelen, one of Mary's Whitefish friends. Mom read a poem at the ceremony that I had found for her. Dinner and then a good dance party, that of course ended up in the pool

10/22

Relax day. We hug out at the pool and did some walking around. We hiked up to a nice viewpoint above the resort with good views of the coast and town. We went as a family (bro, mom, dad, Elisha, and me) out to dinner outside of town at a seaside place with a nice sunset. Had a delicious red snapper!

10/23

Drove out to Saludito for some longboard surfing with several people. It was fun, but tiring, but I caught some waves. Back in Troncones, I led mom and Elisha to a place where they were going to be releasing a bunch of sea turtle hatchlings. They were so cute, and it was really picturesque as the sun was setting as we released them. The guy drew a line in the sand, and then we dropped our hatchlings behind the line to make it a sort of race. But it was really cool to watch, and a really cool experience! Afterwards we threw the frisbee around a bit.

Some people had gone out deep-sea fishing that day and caught quite a lot, so we had a group dinner of fresh fish, steak, and fish tacos

10/24

Lazy morning. Then got a seaside massage for ~$30/hr. Took a taxi to Zihuatanejo. Flight to LAX, then a flight to Denver. Arrived to Estes about 3am.

Here's the speech and an intro about it:

It's sort of 3 parts. The part in pink, I memorized and is from one of my favorite Jerry Seinfeld skits. The part in yellow is derived from Chat GPT, which I read directly off of a phone. I actually asked ChatGPT 4 or 5 times to write a best man speech and then I combined the best parts. I can't quite remember, but I think the prompt I gave chatGPT was something akin to this "Dear ChatGPT, please write a best man speech for my brother, Zach and his fiancee Mary in the style of Vince Vaughan's character from Wedding Crashers. They live in the ski town of Crested Butte, Colorado now and Mary is from Montana"  Wedding Crashers is one of Zach's favorite movies and is of course wedding themed. The part in blue was just some notes for what I wanted to speak of more off the cuff, in a real manner. I think I probably followed fairly close to the prompt, but I did vary some. I know because Emma had mentioned in her speech something about how friends are so important b/c they are the people you really choose, and I referenced her and said something about how we don't get to choose family but I was lucky with who I ended up with. But other than that, I'm not entirely sure what I said. It's hard for me to remember though b/c when I am public speaking, I'm so nervous that it's really a blur to me. But Elisha might remember better.

I heard about, a study, that speaking in front of a crowd is the number 1 fear of the average person. Number two is…death. Death is #2. As Jerry Seinfeld commented,  this means that for the average person, if you have to be at a funeral,  you’d rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.

So to take some pressure off me, I decided to ask my good friend chatgpt out…

[Imagine a confident and charming delivery, Deliver with comedic timing and a touch of sarcasm]

Ladies and gentlemen, grab your champagne flutes and your laughter hats because we're about to get this shindig rolling! I stand before you today, honored to give a toast for my little brother, Zach, and the stunning Mary. And, boy, let me tell you, being Zach's big bro is like having a front-row seat to the world's craziest rollercoaster.

Now, these two lovebirds met in good ol' Montana, and let me tell you, their love story is like a trip through the terrain park. They found each other in the wild, and now they're living it up in the ski and party paradise of Crested Butte. You know, Montana…. Colorado - that's like Love at First Powder!

Now, before I dive into this, let me just say, Mary, you look absolutely stunning today. Zach, you clean up pretty well too, buddy. I guess someone had to finally convince him that cargo shorts and flip-flops aren't suitable for a wedding.

Now, I've got to say, when Zach told me he was getting hitched, I thought he was pulling one of his classic pranks. You know, like the time he convinced us he could breakdance (and trust me, folks, he can't). But then I met Mary, and I realized he wasn't joking. And thank goodness for that!

You see, Mary is the real deal. She's got this way of taming Zach, and believe me, that's no small feat. I mean, he's like a wild stallion, and Mary, you've managed to saddle him up and ride off into the sunset together

I've known Zach my whole life, and I gotta say, he's a character. Remember when he thought the microwave was just for popcorn and he nearly blew up the kitchen? Classic Zach. But when he introduced me to Mary, I knew something was different. He looked at her the way a kid looks at candy.

Zach, my little bro, you've always known how to make life one epic adventure. You've found your partner in crime in Mary, someone who's equally ready to tackle the slopes and hit the dance floor like there's no tomorrow.

Mary, you're an absolute saint! You've managed to snag my wild child of a brother, and for that, you deserve a medal or at least a lifetime supply of patience. Jokes aside, Mary, you're the peanut butter to Zach's jelly, the cheese to his macaroni, and the yin to his yang. You've added a spark to Zach's life like no one else could. You've got the same zest for life, and together, you're a force to be reckoned with. Your love is like a double black diamond run - thrilling, exhilarating, and sometimes a bit of a wild ride, but you always come out on top.

Now, I've had the pleasure (and sometimes, the pain) of knowing Zach for a while. He's a unique character, let me tell you. He's got a charm that can melt glaciers, humor that can make a grizzly bear chuckle, and loyalty that would put a bloodhound to shame. And Mary, you must be quite the catch to snare this elusive bachelor!

And speaking of Zach, well, he's always been a bit of an oddball. You could say he's like a fine wine – he gets weirder with age. But he's also got a heart the size of Texas. He's the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back, even if it's covered in pizza 

So let's raise our glasses to these two lovebirds who are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. May your marriage be filled with more laughter than rom-coms, more love than Disney, and a love that’s as wild and untamed as the Rockies themselves!

Here’s the deal, I have to hide behind this cover of comedy and technology b/c there aren’t really words, at least none that I’ve mastered, that can come close to conveying how much you mean to me as a brother and to describe all the life adventures we’ve been on. Just know that the feeling is there bro. I’m so proud of you. Mary, obviously he’s a great catch, but I know that he’s a very lucky guy to have found you. I’m lucky and honored to call you a sister and i’ve loved our heart to heart hikes we’ve had.  I’m definitely looking forward to hanging out more, and of course looking forward to sharing laughs as we watch zach shake it on the dance floor.

Cheers you guys!

 

Bula Fiji!

 Wayne from the Oceanic Society asked me to lead two snorkeling trips this fall, one to Fiji and one to Raja Ampat in Indonesia. Unfortunately, I could only do 1 because of bro's wedding, but I was definitely excited to go to Fiji as I had never been before. I would be leading a group of 10 people and taking the group to 2 main areas. The 10 people were James, Donna, and Connie (from CA); Winnie and Warren (biologists from British Columbia); Roland and Debbie (from Washington); Sergei (from Boston...originally Russia); and Mark and Paula (Apple engineer from SFO)

Bula is a Fijian greeting that you hear ALL the time

9/30/23

I drove to Grand Junction over gorgeous Kebler Pass at sunrise. The fall colors were in full bloom, the mountains were pink with the sunrise and a bit of snow, and a full moon was setting. Absolutely stunning. I made record time to Grand Jct at that hour in the morning all while reporting a small fire to dispatch that I witnessed high up a valley. I met Dan Sturgeon at his house (where I'd be parking my car) and he treated me to a burrito before taking me to Safeway to get a COVID booster. Then I flew to Phoenix and on to San Francisco

10/1

Overnight flight from SFO to Nadi (pronounced nandi), Fiji. In the SFO airport I dined on some Philippine food. Pancit Bihon! and Chicken adobo.

10/2

I arrived to Fiji very early in the morning. I got picked up by the guesthouse host (Uma) and driven to my airbnb accommodation. I walked around town to get some snacks and visit a market where I got some coconuts, bananas, and sour sop. I took a taxi to Wahiloulou beach. I walked the beach and got breakfast and a smoothie at a beachside place. I then walked all the way back to my nice little homestay. It has some nice views mountains and tropical agricultural fields. I worked on my lectures the rest of the afternoon and then went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant.

10/3

I met the guests at the airport. When we all gathered we took a twin otter flight to Taveuni Island. It was a commercial flight, but we were the only ones on it, so it was like a private flight. We got picked up and driven to Taveuni Paradise Resort. Along the way we stopped for organic ice cream. Everyone else was in a van, and I was in a pickup truck with everyone's luggage. I told the driver that I liked his shirt (they are called 'bula' shirts here), and he offered to give it to me. This would be the first instance of so many where I witnessed just how amazingly friendly, nice, and generous the Fijian people are. At the resort, we were greeted with a foot massage and welcome drink. We then had a lunch of yummy fish. 

The resort is just beautiful! It's overlooking the water and is very lush. The rooms are spectacular with lots of flowers and a sweet outdoor shower. My room is so fancy and you can even see a bit of the ocean from it. There is even a bakery at the resort. The people here are so incredibly nice. They had all of our names memorized by the 1st day! My favorite was Kimali, who was just so sweet. 

In the afternoon, we did 2 snorkels by boat at Vuna reef. The water was pretty chilly, so I was thankful to have just purchased my first snorkeling wetsuit. Steak for dinner

10/4

Early wake up for a nice breakfast, then a boat ride to snorkel at Rainbow Reef. On the way there, we saw an actual rainbow! The reef was super beautiful! Very colorful with lots of good corals. Lunch of fish Afternoon snorkel to Vuna reef where we were lucky to see a sea snake. 

That night at the resort was "Fiji Night" with a Kava ceremony (not the tastiest thing ever, tasted like wood), singing and dancing, and a lova feast (food cooked over fire covered by leaves). Really delicious!

10/5

Again an early wake-up with a yummy breakfast. Snorkel at Rainbow Reef. Delicious lunch (again)--grilled fish. In the afternoon, a snorkel to Vuan reef. In between the two snorkel trips, we visited the local Vuna village to see how the villagers live. We were given a tour and met the Chief's spokesman. Also visited a blowhole, that wasn't super impressive with the current tide and waves. This area was supposedly the first surfing spot in the world, but I am sure this is debatable. I gave a presentation in the evening.

10/6

Early morning snorkel to Vuna reef. Really great coral! We were supposed to to an island hopping tour to an island settled by Tuvalu people who have been displaced from their own country by sea-level rise, but the weather was too bad and the sea too rough, so we did an island tour instead. 

Our first stop was in town for organic ice cream. The ice cream is made with local fruits or cocoa (if you got the chocolate variety). We then stopped at a shell jewelry "factory" where a few women take shells and turn them into jewelry with the help of some grinding machines and such donated by a European country (maybe Switzerland?).  We then hiked to 2 jungle waterfalls that were very beautiful. I swam in both and did some cliff jumping. Next we visited a natural waterslide, which was wild and a ton of fun! It was getting dark, but otherwise I would have loved to do it over and over again. Only 1 other guest (Mark), tried it. We had a lot of fun with the 2 locals guides, Dan and Lucia. Lots of laughter. Dinner was an Indian themed night (there is a large Indian influence in Fiji), and it was of course delicious

10/7

Travel day. We left Taveuni Paradise Resort with songs and farewells from the staff. We drove to the airport and then boarded the twin otter to Nadi. From there we took a bus to Pacific Harbor where we took a catamaran boat to Beqa (pronounced Benga) Island where we landed on the beach to singing from the staff of Beqa Lagoon Resort. I'm in this large beach house divided up into rooms. Sergey and I share one section of the house. We each have our own rooms, but then share a huge sitting area/ living room and a deck, all with ocean views. Delicious fish for dinner. 

10/8

A snorkeling day with 3 snorkels. We saw several reef sharks. We had a delicious lunch of fish. I gave a presentation after the snorkels. Watched an amazing sunset with palm trees in the foreground and a Fiji Gold beer in hand. A Fijian church choir sang to us during sunset, and I cashed in on my free foot massage.

10/9

Got up early to watch Fiji in the rugby worldcup. Full day snorkeling. We saw more sharks and a turtle. On the way out to the reef, dolphins swam in the wake of the boat. We had a roasted chicken lunch on a tiny island before snorkeling some more. It was rainy in the evening, but they still did a firewalking show, which is a special thing that the people of this island can do. However, there are a few provisions that must be met so that the firewalker doesn't burn his feet. One is that there can be no pregnant women present. Another is that the firewalker cannot have had sex in the past 3 days. And I think there was 1 more, but I am forgetting it now.

10/10 Happy Fiji Day!!  (Fiji Independence)

We had a morning snorkel, and then a Fiji Day celebration complete with songs and dances. We then joined in games: coconut husking, hanging apple eating contest, tug of war, egg relay, gunny sack relay, and kayak relay. Dinner was a delicious steak. At sunset there was a tiki torch lighting ceremony, which was gorgeous against the backdrop of the sunset. Then there were some cool warrior and cannibal dances. In the evening I also gave a talk.

10/11 

In the morning we did a couple of snorkels. In the afternoon we took a village tour and had another Kava ceremony. At night there was a really cool fire dancing and polynesian dancing show!

10/12

Full day of snorkeling. Saw some turtles and a juvenile semi-circle angelfish! which is a super beautiful fish and rare to see. We had lunch at Secret Island, which is a sand island that disappears at the high tides. It was incredibly beautiful with the white sands, turquoise water, and jungle clad island backdrop. We had a bbq lunch on the island. It was just crazy how gorgeous the location of the island was. I gave a talk in the afternoon

10/13  Friday the 13th

Last day of snorkeling. In the afternoon we didn't snorkel so that our wetsuits would have time to dry, so I kayaked to another village on the island. We had a traditional lovo oven buffet feast at night after another stunning sunset. The sunsets here have been amazing!

10/14

Boat ride (a bit rough) back to Pacific Harbor on the mainland. Then a bus to Nadi. Sergei and I took a taxi to tour the area to kill some time and see some sites before the night flights. First we went and got some fish and chips, then we went to the Sleeping Giant Orchid garden, which besides lots of beautiful orchids, had a nice jungle walk and a short viewpoint hike. We then went to the main market where I bought a bula shirt (to wear at bro's wedding), and then went to the beach to watch the sunset. 

After checking into the airport, I was able to go into the fancy lounge thanks to Sergei's buddy pass. Flight to SFO. The flight to Phoenix was delayed so, I arrived late to Phoenix and missed my connection to Grand Junction. They put me up in a fancy suite at a Holiday Inn and Suites by the airport.

10/15 Flight to Grand Junction from Phoenix. Nice drive over Kebler Pass with a touch of snow on the road in the shadows

Fall in Crested Butte and Boise

 9/12

Drove to Denver to stay with and hang out with Nate Dub ahead of my flight to Boise.

9/13

Flew to Boise and hung out with Emily and Sherman and Abe and Ida and of course Gary and Donna. Went out to trivia night at one of the local breweries with Sherman, Lael, and Katie Pond.

9/14-15

Rented a car and drove to Pocatello to see Lucas and his family. Did some really good bike rides with Lucas and had some great talks

9/16-17

More hanging out with Sherman and his family. We also went out to Oktoberfest to hang out with Professor Steve Maughan. And I also went out to tea with Dr. Walser. Yosh did not make an appearance. 

9/17

On the drive home over Cottonwood pass, the light was just stunning, so I took a little hike and walked in my first snow of the season

9/20-21

Our friend Mel (from Antarctica) and her partner visited and we did some fun mtn bike trips including the 401.

9/22-24

Jake and Elya came out to celebrate their anniversary and enjoy the fall colors. Unfortunately, it was a bit early for the fall colors, but it was still beautiful, and they had a great time. We biked the 401 and some of the CBMR trails

9/25-29

The fall colors are really starting to pop. Got to get out for some nice fall color rides

Working at the Los Alamos National Lab

The SAIL project that I worked on at RMBL in Crested Butte will be moving on to Tasmania. I was not selected to go (a huge surprise and sore subject that hurts too much to really write about), but in short. They needed to take 2 people to Tasmania out of the 4 of us. I was the site lead, had turned the project around to being successful when I arrived and according to the top guy from our client (the DOE), the SAIL campaign had been the most successful campaign in a remote place after I took over. I was given an award. I of course was the most senior (in my opinion worked the hardest), etc, etc. So it was a huge surprise when I wasn't selected. Michael, my boss, told me the reason I wasn't selected was because he thought I would have a hard time leaving Crested Butte (I had to remind him I've done fine away from the CO mountains having lived 4 years in Gainesville, 5 seasons in McMurdo, a season in Greenland, and a year in Phoenix). And he was worried b/c Elisha and I took a while to make a decision...which in my opinion means that when we do make our decision (which we did say yes to Tasmania) that b/c we carefully thought about it and went over the pros and cons, that our decision would be solid and final.

Anyways, all the instruments and containers were shipped to the Los Alamos National Lab to be recalibrated and prepped for Tasmania, so I 'moved' to Los Alamos for 6 weeks to help with that. The Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) is pretty interesting. For those that don't know, that's where the atomic bomb was developed and where nuclear research and development still occurs. So it is very high security and we had to have special badges and all this other stuff, even though our work is not of national security concern nor classified. It was also interesting b/c the movie Oppenheimer had just come out.

The work at LANL was mostly outdoors. It's at relatively high elevation, but still quite hot when the sun is out. 

For most of my time there, I actually stayed down in Nambe a Native American Pueblo at a really cool casita on a small ranch. After work I mountain biked pretty much every day until dark (there are lots of trails in the Los Alamos areas).  For my last couple weeks I stayed at a modern duplex place in White Rock, which was much closer to LANL. It had 2 rooms that could be rented, but I was the only one there the whole time, which was nice as the commute was pretty long from Nambe. 

The Nambe casita was so great! It was located on a Pueblo (I can't remember what kind of Native American tribe). It was run by Bonnie and her husband Ramos (Bonnie is white, but her husband is Native American). The casita was a small adobe style building with a nice bed and small kitchen with a table. It didn't have air conditioning, which was fine b/c the adobe does a good job of keeping it cool until you open the windows at night. On the little ranch they had several goats, a couple of horses, some dogs, and lots of chickens. They also had a large garden and small orchard. Bonnie was constantly supplying me with fresh goat cheese and goat milk from her goats as well as honey, jam, and other produce from her garden. There were lots of grapes growing around my place that they would make wine out of, but the grapes also tasted great. And Bonnie of course gave me fresh eggs almost daily. Bonnie had built a little greenhouse in the animal yard that is kept warm by adobe and water that flows through (which she has fish in it). They also had another round style building that they gave me access to that had a hammock, a sweat lodge sauna Bonnie had made and is also Bonnie's art studio.

Bonnie was very interesting. Her dad was a ranger at the Grand Canyon and another national monument in the Southwest. She was an emergency first responder in an ambulance for many years and was Santa Fe's first female fire chief. After a while, the emergencies became too stressful, but she remembered, the emergencies she most liked was delivering babies, so she eventually became a midwife. But even there the stress was a lot and the tragedy of occasional babies dying caused her to focus full-time on her artwork. She paints, and her paintings are really good! She's a definite hippy and is just incredibly sweet

The drive from Los Alamos to Crested Butte is surprisingly not that long (5 hours) and goes through beautiful and empty landscapes, so it's fairly enjoyable. During my time there, I did try to go home a couple times to see Elisha (and Sue) and Elisha came out as well.

Here's sort of a quick journal of my time in Los Alamos:

8/3

Checked into the lab and went through all the security stuff. That evening I biked some cool trails around hoodoo like features near Nambe

8/4

After work, I biked one of the famous loop trails around Los Alamos, Guaje Ridge. It was pretty awesome, though it did have a lot of the New Mexican Locust (which is a very scratchy plant). After the ride, I enjoyed the concert free outdoor concert series that they have.

8/5

I biked a sweet trail, Winsor Trail, that goes from near Nambe (Pojoaque) all the way up to Ski Santa Fe. I gets up into really nice forest and had lots and lots of stream crossings.

8/6

I drove to Red River to bike the East Fork Lost Lake loop trail, which was really amazing, and felt more like Colorado (there were wildflowers and even some Columbines). In the middle of the loop I hiked up to another lake, Horseshoe Lake, and from there, I hiked up to Wheeler Peak at 13,167 feet, New Mexico's highest peak. I did this all in my bike cleats, haha. On the way, I saw lots of bighorn sheep with their lambs, and got really close to them. While on the summit, I watched the smoke plume of a wildfire just starting to get big. After the peak climb, I biked by Lost Lake before heading back down to Red River. At Red River, I got a burger and shake. Red River is an interesting town. In a beautiful location, with a tiny ski hill and with a very small-town Texas-style feel complete with saloons and bbq places.

8/11-13

I came back to Colorado as Sue was visiting. We did some fun things, including rafting down the Gunnison river by Gunnison, which was more wild than we had expected. I also did a couple big bike rides amongst the flowers over in the Cement Creek area.

8/16

Linnah, a really good friend from McMurdo who lives near Taos, took me out to a famous New Mexican restaurant near my place. It was really good to see her!

8/17

Did some nice bike riding up at Pajarito Ski Resort above Los Alamos. I would do several bike rides on the trails up there during my time in Los Alamos.

8/18-8/20

I visited my parents in Pagosa Springs (Colo) as they were staying at Aunt Hope's timeshare. We ate some good food, and went on a hike. I also did some mountain biking in the area, including at a really fun area where I did a 39 miler. Oh, and the Colorado sweet corn and Palisade peaches are getting really good and tasty!

8/20-25 ish

My parents visited. They came checked out the casita. And we also went to the Los Alamos museum. I was working so they did some other things in the area such as Bandalier NM and visited Santa Fe. We also went to the really nice New Mexican restaurant that Linnah had taken me to.

8/24-8/27

Elisha came down to visit. The first night that she got in, we went and visited my parents briefly. On her first full day we went to Bandalier National Monument where we visited the Native American cliff houses and ruins and took a hike. We went to lunch at a yummy dumpling place. We had hoped to go to the summer concert series, but it was lightninged out, so we went to the bar that is in the supermarket that is known for its really cheap tap beers. It's kind of a fun thing to do.

The next day we went to Santa Fe where we went to the famous farmer's market. We then did a fun mountain bike trail before going to a fancy Japanese restaurant for a small dish meal type thing up in the mountains outside of Santa Fe. It's really cool b/c it is set-up just like a place in Japan with fountains and pools and pagodas. Almost feels like your in Japan, including when you go to the bathroom and they toilets they have are the fancy electronic Japanese toilets with all the sprays and such. In the evening we went to a rooftop bar in Santa Fe before going home and we also explored around Santa Fe's old downtown a bit.

On Sunday, Elisha explored around Santa Fe while I did a fun mtn bike ride in the area. We then met up for lunch and then we rode the Winsor trail together, though just the downhill way (we did a car shuttle) so that Elisha would like it more (haha). We went out to eat at a Ramen place in Santa Fe and got some ice cream.

8/29

Did a really cool mountain bike ride outside of Los Alamos in a wild rivers scenic area near to Valles Caldera. The river and canyon was beautiful as was the trail alongside the river. Got a little lost on the way back, had to hide from some lightning, saw lots of elk, and finished in the dark. With the days getting shorter, a common theme for afterwork rides was finishing in the dark.

8/31

Got really close to a bear (maybe even chased it a bit on my bike) on the trails within Los Alamos

9/1-9/4

Drove back to Crested Butte for Labor Day. I did a long (51.07) mile mtn bike ride that leaves from our apartment door that I'd been wanting to do.

9/5

Visited the Los Alamos and Manhattan Project museum.

9/7

Got trained and passed the test to drive the large forklifts

9/8

My time at LANL came to an end.

Summer 2023 in Crested Butte (and trips: Mancos, Mesa Verde, Pagosa Spgs, Lake City, Telluride, San Juans, Vail, Denver, Eagle)

 5/31

First mountain bike ride of the season. Still a fair amount of snow, but aspens are starting to get a light tinge of green. Saw several deer, a ptarmigan, and the first garter snake of the year

6/1

Elisha and I took a mtn bike trail to get to town and then had brunch at Paradise cafe

6/2

Did an early morning mountain bike ride, but then on my bike commute to Gothic is started snowing. I was not dressed warm enough! Snowed pretty hard throughout the day at Gothic, but not a lot of accumulation 

6/3

I had the early (5am) balloon launch, and as always it's nice to watch the mountains slowly wake up. Misty and foggy morning with a family of deer sitting in front of the cabin. Gothic mountain has fresh snow on its slopes.

6/4

Saw the fox kits for the first time this year. So cute!

6/6

After work drove over Lizard Head pass in a driving rainstorm and arrived to Dolores where we had Mexican food at a local joint. Then drove to Mancos (pronounced main-kiss), where I had rented a bus for Elisha's birthday to stay since she likes unique living situations. But we had to keep delaying it, so it ended up being a month later. It's a 1957 old school bus all set up for sleeping on a hill overlooking Mancos and with view of Mesa Verde in the distance. It was cold that night so we utilized the heated blankets

6/7

We started the day by visiting the bakery in downtown Mancos. We then had 2 guided tours of Mesa Verde National Park: Balcony House and Cliff Palace. Was cool to get to see the cliff dwellings up close and even climb up around them a bit using ladders and tiny passageways. Besides the tours, we did a short walk to a viewpoint and then did a couple of car loops to stop at viewpoints highlighting various cliff dwelling or pit dwellings. Between our tours a big storm rolled in with lots of lightning and hail bigger than marbles!

After our time at Mesa Verde we went to a cidery in Mancos and tried the flight samplers. It was a cool little place along the river. We then went to a Mexican restaurant. Mancos is a really cool, hip tiny town. We really got a good vibe about it, and really liked it. After dinner we went up to the bus and watched the sunset with beers from the viewpoint by the bus

6/8

After a chill morning in the bus, we went down to Mancos for breakfast at the bakery. We then drove towards Cortez to bike 30+ miles at the famous Phil's World mtn bike trail system. Super awesome! Really fun, rolling trails, especially ribcage and vertebrae trails. Also the wildflowers were really blooming and the contrast between the red trails and spring green plants was cool. Had a great time! 

We then drove to Pagosa Springs via Durango. We walked around town for a bit and then soaked in some hot springs right along the San Juan river as rafts went by. It was a really nice, undeveloped (thus free) hot springs. After soaking we went to dinner at a Bayou place. 

We then drove over Wolf Creek Pass on our way home. We stopped just short of Cochetopa Pass to camp before getting up early the next day to drive to CB for work

6/11

The birds nesting under our porch have hatched

6/12

Nuggets win the NBA championships!!! Watch it at Nick and cousin Emma's house

6/14

Did a really long mountain bike ride at Hartman's in Gunnison. Super awesome!

6/16

First day of SAIL pack up. A lot of the LANL and Hamelmann folks arrived to help out with it.

6/17

Pack-up continues. We got quite a lot of heavy snow! Including a couple of inches of accumulation in Gothic

6/18

A group of us floated down the slate river on paddleboards and inflatable kayaks

6/19

First alpenglow concert of the summer, and a great mtn bike ride up Baxter gulch amongst the lupines afterwards in the golden hour glow

6/21

Biked up Schofield pass to Emerald lake to check it out before they open up the mid-section of the road. Emerald lake still had a considerable amount of ice in it, but the rest was a glowing emerald color. There's a large snow plug that will probably keep the upper section of Schofield pass closed for quite a while. First day of music on the mountains up at Mt CB.

6/22

Last day of pack-up. LANL hosted a big bbq for us in town in the evening.

6/23

First day off! Hiked up Gothic mountain for incredible views. So green all around. And really fun glissading back down as there is still quite a lot of snow.

In the evening was the chainless race. A very fun "race" where everyone cruises down the 7 miles from the top of Kebler Pass to Elk Street downtown. Frank, Tom, Elisha, and I all dressed up in fun costumes. It's a fun event because of all the costumes and unique bikes that are purposely built for the race. There is always a few bikes with large speakers that you follow down the pass. They pull off the road here and there and a dance party ensues. A fun and special event.

6/24

Took Bruno (a visiting colleague from the Azores DOE ARM site) on a mtn bike ride. In the evening when on a bike ride with Lisa Foster who is visiting from Estes. The lupines were insane! Just mountainsides of purple!

6/25

Hiked up Gothic Mtn. with Elisha. Fun glissading down the snowfields on the way down

6/26

The containers and radar from the AOS were removed today using a crane and truck

6/30

Drove to Salida and did some sweet bike riding in the area there. Stayed the night at the little hut Nate has built up in Turett. Turett is an old mining town about 30 minutes up forest service roads out of Salida. He has great views from his place of the Collegiate Peaks. Turett is totally off the grid with no electricity or running water.

7/1

Did some more biking in Salida before hanging out with Nate and Treasure in Turett.

7/2

Did another awesome ride out of Salida, then drove home before the Jake Hess and family arrived to CB

7/3

Took Jake and Elya on a bike ride on the mtn before taking the whole family on Teddy's trail where the flowers are really popping. Then Jake and I did a ride down to Slate River where everyone else was attempting to play in the cold water. At night we took them to the Alpenglow concert series where we played some spikeball with my bro as well

7/4

Jake and I went for a morning bike ride before we all headed to the parade. Zach and I were in the KBUT disco inferno float, which was lots of fun! After the parade was the town waterfight. After downtown festivities we drove up Schofield pass as far as we could until we ran into snow and then hiked the rest of the way up to Emerald Lake. We then attended the RMBL 4th of July BBQ which was just as tasty as last year (pulled pork, brisket, bbq chicken, and more). After the BBQ we played some basketball at RMBL before heading back to MT CB to listen to the band on the mountain and then watch the fireworks

7/5

We did a short hike with the Hesses before they headed out, but then Elisha and I biked the Walrod cutoff loop to enjoy the huge bloom of sunflowers!

It was a great visit with the Hesses. They were so happy and excited to be here and really thought we lived in a Paradise. They truly couldn't believe the beauty.

7/6

Elisha got her new e-bike as part of the town's e-bike rebate program. Really amazing program to promote the use of biking instead of driving, so Elisha will be bike commuting to work (in the summer at least)

7/7

Mtn biked a big loop with Tom today, starting with Deadman's up Cement Mtn pass and trail, down Roaring Judy, and finishing with Eccher Gulch

7/8

Biked the beautiful Teocalli ridge loop with stunning wildflowers

7/9

Bro and I biked a huge loop (~50 miles) including Upper Loop, Strand, and Deer Creek. Flowers were just stunning. I accidentally left my phone at a rest spot early in the ride, and went back and found it after the ride.

7/10

I biked the same loop again, but also added Snodgrass trail as the flowers had been so amazing, and I had forgotten my phone and wanted to take photos of the amazing flowers.

7/11

Biked Strand loop as well as some trails on MT CB.

Our anniversary! Went to the alpenglow concert. We went out for dinner to Elk Prime as a treat from my parents. In our opinion not that amazing and WAY too expensive

7/12

Started off really early in the morning with a ski on Cinnamon Mountain with bro. Some nice late season turns!

Biked deer creek loop with Elisha b/c, again, the flowers were so amazing, and I wanted to show Elisha. Went to dinner at Teo Burrito for our anniversary as well, and then drove up Paradise Divide to camp for our Anniversary. We were able to camp at a super beautiful spot, looking across the gorge and towards snowy mountains.

7/13

I got up early and skied Treasury mountain, which still had great snow. Then Elisha and I hiked up Cinnamon mountain and glissaded back down due to all the snow.

7/14-7/16

Zach's bachelor party. The first day we went to water world. The rest of the guys went out to Meow Wolf. Since I'd already been and b/c it's rather expensive, I stayed back and went toured around Regis Jesuit University. The 2nd day we played paintball, which I didn't like at all. Then we did grand prix racing with go-karts, in which I managed to win! We went out to really yummy ramen for dinner in Denver and then scootered around a lot before going clubbing in LoDo. On the 3rd day we went out to brunch and then I headed towards Vail, but stopped in Boulder along the way to work on putting an offer on a house with Elisha and our McCall realtor. We ended up not putting the offer down

7/16

Drove up to Vail and mountain biked a trail up on the mountain, which was really awesome. I camped out near Minturn in my car

7/17

Did a huge loop (50.4 miles) on Vail mountain that included the 2 elk trail and the back bowls. The loop dipped down to Minturn before climbing back up Vail mountain and descending to Vail.

7/18

Big biking day. Biked a cool loop in Minturn, then biked some awesome trails in Eagle, and then finished it off by biking a sweet trail in Glenwood

7/19

Elisha and I hiked up Scarp Ridge to see the flowers. It was Bro and Mary's engagement party at an outdoor venue in MT CB with plenty of dancing.

7/20

Had the Halbach family over to Gothic for a family picnic

7/21

Found out late at night that I wasn't selected to go to Tasmania. This was an incredibly huge shocker. Did not see that coming at all!

7/22

Drove bags over to Aspen for some of Elisha's guests to make $400. On the way back I biked at Red Hill in Carbondale, but super depressed b/c of the news, and yea very shocked. I called up Michael and let him have it

7/24

Hiked up Mount Owen, a 13er near Lake Irwin. It had some incredible views! I accessed the mountain via Scarp Ridge due to a landowner dispute with the National Forest on the normal trail. Along the way, I visited beautiful green lake (which is actually a beautiful blue), which still had some icebergs in it.

7/25-27  San Juan trip. 

We drove to Montrose where we stayed with our old neighbors Carleen and Glenn. It's always great to catch up with them. We hiked up to the Blue Lakes (3 stunning lakes) above Ridgeway and below Mt Sneffels (which was the 1st 14er Elisha ever climbed), and we continued up to Blue Lakes pass from whence you can look down at Yankee Boy Basin. The flowers along the hike were just incredible, especially as we got higher up, and the lakes were stunning. We met Nate Dub for dinner at a Thai place in Montrose as he was in the area for some work (he does mining clean up now)

Our plan for the 2nd day was to bike a sweet loop in Telluride and take advantage of the free gondola to not have so much vertical climbing. On the way there Elisha's bike was put the wrong way on the bike rack and her tube popped ad tire shredded from the heat of my exhaust. So we had to start the day getting a new tire for her. But then we took the gondola up and road some of the super sweet trails including Prospect, Magic Meadows, and Sunshine. We also stopped by a ghost town and a pretty subalpine lake where there were so, so many dragonflies, and the fish were going crazy. We had dinner at Elisha's favorite, Gnar Tacos in Ridgeway.

7/30-31 Another San Juan Trip   

We drove to Lake City in Gunther our van. We had dinner at a cute little place in Lake City, and then we drove Gunther up in the dark in the rain up to American Basin, which is a pretty rough road. But Gunther did great! We camped in the van in the storm up above tree-line.

We got up early to climb Handies Peak, a 14er (14,058). The weather cooperated and we were able to summit with good views. On the way down we enjoyed the beautiful lake up there, but especially had fun looking at the flowers and taking beautiful photos of the flowers and mountain in American Basin. So beautiful!

8/1

Bro and I biked up Pearl Pass and did some other trails in the area. Again beautiful flowers!

8/2

Our friend from Antarctica (Clair) and her friend were visiting for a couple days and stayed with us. We went on an early morning hike to West Maroon Pass with them. Elisha and I did a beautiful flower hike in the North Pole Basin and then I biked the 401 trail.

Guatemala: In search of nature's fireworks

 10/31 Halloween

We didn't do too much. Got the tail end of the town trick or treating

11/1 Dia de los muertos

Went to work really early to work on rounds, then drove to Denver. Halfway up Cottonwood Pass, I realized I'd forgotten my passport! So sped back in the CB direction and Tom grabbed it and drove towards us, meeting up a bit past CB South. Ended up making it to DIA no problem.

We had an Aeromexico flight to Mexico CIty. Took the air train to the other terminal and then it was a short walk to our hostal. Then took the subway downtown to meet up with Chris Fahrenholz (and acquaintance from Antarctica, year 1). We met a the famous Mariachi square for tacos. As you would expect, there were mariachis playing. As it was Dia de los Muertos (Day of the dead), there were so many costumed people. They have more of a death theme to their costumes than us though. The traditional face painting costumes were really cool. There were lots of kids out like U.S. trick or treating. 

After dinner we went to Zocalo, the main square, where the presidential palace, main (giant) cathedral, and other colonial buildings reside. Also in the area is templo mayor, an old Aztec temple (ruin). On this day, even late a night, there were crowds of people for the holiday. In the square, there were offerings and fancily decorated stations for each Mexican state arranged in a circle. And also, most stunningly, were these giant women skeletons dressed up in traditional clothing looking over the square. We took an uber back to the hostal as the subway closed at midnight. There were "bomb" noises going off all night...fireworks.

11/2

Morning flight to Guatemala City. Then from there we took a small plain to Flores. The plane was decorated for Dia de los Muertos and then had a special skeleton cake for the airplane snack. After we arrived, we got in a shuttle for the drive to our lodge in Tikal; however, 10 minutes into the drive, the driver got a call that the national park was closing due to hurricane Lisa's approach. So we were driven to its sister lodge in the small town of Flores. We spent a bunch of time on the internet trying to figure things out and what to do so that we could still see Tikal. We also moved to a nice hospedaje on the 4th floor of a building with a nice terrace. We went for a traditional lunch and cocktails before the storm was to hit. It started raining hard now. 

We spent a lot of time doing business, trying to figure out what to do and trying to cancel and change flights. Not much luck cancelling and not sure when the park would open up again. We had tacos for dinner and cocktails on a rooftop terrace restaurant overlooking the lake. While here we booked 2 sets of flights (24 hours to cancel). We then found out the great news that the park would be opening on Friday. We celebrated with more tacos and ice cream. Rain and wind picked up overnight. 

11/3

The storm had passed. We had a nice and big lakeside breakfast, then we explored Flores. It's a tiny little island on a fairly large lake. (It was cool flying in over it the previous day). It has colonial style architecture and narrow, cobbled streets. We walked up to a viewpoint at the center of the island, where we saw a student using a typewriter! We then took the bridge off the island to the shopping center off the island to buy our national park tickets. Back in Flores we had smoothies on a rooftop terrace. Then we caught our shuttle to Tikal. 

After we arrived to our cool jungle lodge, we took a walk in the jungle where we saw some gators, turtles, lizards, frogs, and tropical birds. We're staying at a cool lodge in the jungle on the site of the ancient city of Tikal. We went to the pool and then had cocktails before watching a Mayan documentary video in the theater and having dinner.

11/4

Before dawn we woke up for the sunrise tour of the Tikal ruins. It was eerie to see the ruins in the mist by flashlight while the howler monkeys cried and woke the jungle up. We climbed up Templo IV (?) in the dark to watch the dawn arrive and the sunrise. From the top, above the trees, we could hear the jungle animals wake up. We could see various temple pyramids in the distance that were often shrouded in the morning mist as the sun rose. We finished the morning tour with the guide by going to the main acropolis. We had the whole place to ourselves, especially when we stayed there after the tour left. We walked around the whole place by ourselves. We were pretty much alone at each complex. This was one of the benefits of staying at the lodge is you had the whole morning in Tikal to yourself before the tourists groups from Flores arrived in the later morning. 

We saw coati (sorta similar to racoon I guess), spider monkeys, and 2 species of toucans. When the other tour group arrived, we headed back to the lodge for a packed lunch and a dip in the pool to cool off. After lunch we explored some of the more distant complexes. During our time there we climbed lots of the structures including Templo # ??. Templo V was really cool!

We had a quick swim before our shuttle back to Flores and then flight to Guatemala City. Had a bit of trouble getting an uber to Antigua, so we ended up taking a taxi. Traffic was just terrible in Guatemala City and the short distance to Antigua took forever. We had dinner upon arrival at a local taco spot near our airbnb.

11/5

Our airbnb is on the outskirts of the old central town of Antigua. It has a little deck with views of Agua volcano. It's a cute little apartment. In the morning we walked around the city, but first stopped on our way for pastries and a drink at a nice cafe. It's an old colonial city (maybe capital at some point)with cobbled streets and colorful buildings. We strolled down to the plaza central, the market (got some fruits that were new to me as well as lychee and baby bananas). We of course got smoothies and ice cream and had a local lunch. We visited the famous archway over a street near the main plaza which frames the Agua volcano. Nuns used the arch to move from one building to building without having to be on the street where they would be seen by other people. One other thing worth noting is that even the fast food chain places are really fancy, like taco bell. But the one that stood out the most was starbucks. It was by far the fanciest starbucks we've ever seen. In fact locals were there getting their bridal pictures there. Because of how fancy it was, we did stop in so Elisha could get a drink and tell her applehill girls about it via video. During the day we were also walking around checking out various volcano tours because one of the main reasons for going to Guatemala was to climb Volcan Acatenango and watch Volcan Fuego erupt. 

At night we watched a dia de los muertos/semana santa (holy week) procession around the main square. It was pretty impressive, and everyone was given candles. We had some street food, but then went to dinner at a taco place.

11/6

We started our Acatenango volcano tour with Ox Adventures. We had breakfast as a group at a boutique restaurant, which had a view of Agua volcano through one of its windows (from Antigua Agua volcano is the big dominating volcano, but you can also see Fuego and Acatenango). We then drove to the trailhead where we were given walking sticks and started the hike up.

It was a steep and straight up hike. We went through different ecotypes such as cloud forest, pine, and alpine. It was beautiful and there were flowers everywhere (where are we, in Crested Butte!?). We hiked through the clouds and then the clouds rose above us and we were hiking a bit in the rain. We arrived to camp where we would all would be nestled into cool little huts that were clinging to the side of the mountain. Each hut had 5 sleeping mats laid shoulder to shoulder and had a big window to view Volcan Fuego. It started to clear a bit so that we could see Fuego and its ash eruptions and of course hear the BOOMS. 

After a bit of a rest, we hiked down to the saddle between Acatenango and Fuego, and then up the Fuego ridge on the other side to watch the sunset and Fuego erupt. AMAZING!! We could see the eruption up close, and as it got darker, we started to see the glowing lava in the eruption. It was also lightning all around from distant thunderheads. And we even had the amazing luck of seeing a meteor fly over the volcano as it was erupting that lasted a really long time, so that everyone saw it. It was all so cool and powerful. Fog rolled in and out as we were up there. While watching the "show", the guides passed out wine that we had all carried up..well, I had certainly been tasked with carrying 2 of the bottles b/c they figured I was one of the more fit mtn climbers. As part of the tour everyone had been assigned to carry some sorts of food items up for the group. We stayed past dark and then headed on the hike back to camp.

At camp we sat by the fire and watched the lava eruptions from Fuego (fuego = fire in Spanish) and drank hot cocoa (chilly at that elevation of roughly 11,000 feet). Most folks went to bed, but Elisha and I stayed by the fire watching the volcano and shared in some local tacos with the guides.

When we retired to the hut, I stayed up the entire night watching the eruptions, save for about an hour while it rained. Sometimes there would be really huge eruptions that came with a corresponding very loud boom that would wake people. I remember during the hour that I slept, one such boom occurred and it caused me to wake up and sit up in a start. 

11/7

We got up at 3:30 a.m. to begin the climb up to the summit of Acatenango volcano. As we hiked up the slopes, there were many HUGE eruptions. We reached the summit (13,045 ft) to watch the sunrise and look down at Volcan Fuego erupting. On top there were great 360 degree views of many volcanoes, the enormous Lago (Lake) Atitlan, and even Antigua and Guatemala City. It's hard to describe how cool it was to look down on Fuego as it erupted and seeing the lava come shooting upwards and in a sense towards us.

There was a wide trail around the crater rim that went up and down as it circumnavigated the crater and was maybe 1/3 of a mile in circumference. As is tradition they do a race around the crater. If you're able to run the entire way without walking or stopping, you are given a free t-shirt. This can be challenging due to the elevation, terrain, and ups and downs. At the start of the "gun" people took off really fast, but I have a knowledge of how altitude works and started off at a more gradual pace. Eventually I passed everyone on the rather steep middle climb portion and won the race. In fact, I was only 20 seconds off the record, which I think I might have been able to do if I had really pushed it. 

After the race we took one last look and then descended down to camp by "skiing" straight down through the black lava sand. At camp we were treated to a big and delicious breakfast as the fog started to rise up to camp level. Then it was the long slog back to the trailhead and shuttle ride to Antigua. We had lunch at a tipico Guatemala restaurant and walked around a bit. We picked up our rental car for the next day and then had drinks on a rooftop bar looking down on the streets of Antigua and out at the 3 volcanoes. Then of course a taco dinner.

11/8

Drove the little rental car to Lago Atitlan. The roads were pretty crazy with all their up and down and winding around. And driving through a few of the towns was pretty challenging due to one-way roads and such. At one point a sign said "puente destruido" (bridge destroyed), so we had to ford a small river in the little car. 

The lake is a giant old caldera. We stopped at the rim to take photos and take in the vista. We then drove down to Panajachel town where we parked and had breakfast. We then caught a ferry boat to San Pablo village. From there we took a public truck shuttle to Santa Clara village. From here we started the Indian Nose trek. The trail climbed steeply up Indian Nose mountain (looks like an Indian head from a distance) arriving at fantastic views of the lake and surrounding volcanoes. It was then a very steep and long downhill hik to San Juan Village located on the lake shore. Along the way we stopped at a much lower viewpoint where there were quite a few local tourists and some nice painted murals on the ground. From here there was a good view of the Indian Nose. We then took a tuk-tuk to San Pedro village. We had lunch here and then walked around the village before hopping back on a dusk boat to Panajachel. On the lake we had beautiful views of Acatenango and erupting Fuego as well as other volcanoes. 

Drove in the night back to Antigua where I went out and got street tacos.

11/9

I took an early morning walk through Antigua. It was super clear this morning. I texted Elisha to come out and we met up on a rooftop cafe to enjoy breakfast and views of Agua, Acatenango and erupting Fuego volcanoes. After breakfast we did more walking around Antigua. We stopped in a shop for chocolate tasting and then went to the market for shopping for gifts. We had a tipico guatemala meal in the market for lunch. 

In the evening we hiked up to Cerro Cruz (mountain cross) for views looking down at Antigua and up at Agua Volcano. We treated ourselves that night to a yummy Indian dinner.

11/10

3:30am shuttle to Guatemala city to avoid the traffic. We used our Star Alliance lounge pass from a credit card bonus to hang out in the nice airport lounge. Plenty of food as well as cocktails (Mimosas and White Russians) all for free. And then, as is the them of Guatemala, out the window you could watch the planes and then Agua, Acatenango, and steaming Fuego in the background. 

Flight to LA in which we had some nice views of the volcanoes as we flew past them (as well as a big Mexican volcano). Then from LA we flew to Denver where we stayed the night at Nate Dub's place.

Spring in Crested Butte and Gothic (and trips: Page, AZ, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak, Manitou Springs, A-basin)

 In the spring, the road to Gothic is still closed. And it becomes a guessing game and something on everyone's mind: When will the road open? We got some crazy dust events that brought in thick red dust from the Yuma, AZ area that helps met the snow much quicker as it lower the albedo of snow. The resort may be closed, but the skiing is still really good! And with safer avalanche conditions, steeper runs can be had, so I skied down from the top of several peaks. And of course there was still lots of powder to come. So while in Gothic, I was still backcountry skiing nearly ever day. And at the AOS, to get to the site, I'd still have to skin up. Through most of the spring I could skin up from our condo, but later in the spring I'd have to skin up from the Prospect parking area. Everyday after work, I'd then skin up paradise bowl or the headwall to for a few laps.

As the snow starts to melt around Gothic, water flows everywhere. We have a couple little streams going by the cabin, including one that is like a cascade out the window. Beautiful and nice to hear the rushing water.

5/24

The road to Gothic opened!

5/25

Elisha and I hosted a road opening party at our place where everyone got to drive to our place (instead of ski). It was a totcho bar and was a big success.

4/18

Skied up to Schofield pass. The Schofield pass sign was of course buried under snow     

4/20

Finished my lego snowcat that Elisha had given me

4/21

Found that our resident Pine Marten had managed sneak into the Gothic dumpster

4/25

Really good powder day where I got laps in before and after work

4/26

Another really big powder day. I was off so I got to ski a couple laps on the peak behind Gothic

4/27

Powder day again, and I ended up doing laps up on closed CBMR (paradise bowl and headwall)

4/29

Brunch at the marmoteers' (marmot researchers who had just arrived) cabin. 

4/30

Hiked up Copper Canyon a bit. Saw a couple beavers in the ponds that are starting to melt out

5/5

Skinned up and skied down a peak to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and Cinco de KK (Elisha's birthday)

Trip to Page, Arizona

5/9

Drove to Page, AZ over Lizardhead Pass and past the 4 corners. We're camping in a campsite inside the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, near the shores of Lake Powell. Our campsite has nice views of Lake Powell and the surrounding rock formations.

5/10

Drove into Utah and hiked the Wire Pass and Buckskin slot canyons (in the location near to the famous Wave...we tried for permits but couldn't get them). The slot canyons were really beautiful and quite narrow in places. We saw some desert superblooms from all the moisture of the winter. On our way home we stopped at this area called the Toadstools, which was really cool with these unique rock formations that looked like Toadstools

5/11

Hiked out to the exhilarating views of Horseshoe Bend created by the blue Colorado River thousands of feet below.

Took a tour of the infamous Upper Antelope Canyon. It's on Navajo Land, so you have to take a tour. It's tough to get a tour b/c it's so popular, we had booked very far in advance. But when I looked at the weather I panicked b/c the day we had picked was the one day it was supposed to be cloudy, and for this particular canyon you want it to be sunny (and between the months of April and September and between 11 and 1pm). This is because one of the remarkable things about this canyon is how the light rays come shining through in an ethereal lightbeam. Like a God-ray. But luckily I was able to finagle a way to get a tour at the right time for this day

 And it was definitely worth it! The slot canyon was super amazing and stunning with the light rays coming down. Also there are sand-dunes above the slot canyon and in some places the sand is consantly sort of falling down, which causes the beams to light up extra. Our guide said that sometimes snakes fall from the "sky" (from the dunes) and onto people. The slot canyon didn't have the remote and empty feel that the slot canyons we had done just yesterday, but especially around Utah with my brother had, but the specific depth and type of sandstone, just makes this such a stunning canyon even without the light rays. Then add those light rays and it's so magical!

 After the tour we drove to Lee's Ferry. This is the place that Mr. Lee set up a ferry system which allowed for the settlement of Northern Arizona--He was a Mormon, and it was mostly mormons that came through to settle Northern Arizona at that time. Now there is a fancy bridge to walk across and look at the canyon and Colorado River. We did a short hike along the muddy Paria River before coming back to the Colorado for a very chilly and quick dip. It was cool to tour the Lee's Ferry area as he had a little ranch and to this day, if you're there at the right time, you can pick fruit for free from his orchard.

Back at camp we had a nice sunset dinner over the lake from our campsite

5/12

We went to Antelope Point Marina to rent kayaks. Because the lake level is so low, they've constructed a steep path to get down to the floating marina and you must ride in an ATV to get down there. Once outfitted with our kayaks we paddled along the lake until we got to the mouth of Antelope Canyon (yep the same one we had visited the day before, but many miles lower. We paddled as far up the canyon as we could until we ran out of water. We then hiked 4 or so miles up the slot canyon until we reached a "dead end", a place where you would need ropes and rock climbing to scale a 30 or so foot cliff. 

On the paddle back, we stopped at a place so that I could do a big cliff jump. Lake Powell is awesome for cliff jumping! We spent the evening at our campsite

5/13

In the morning we hiked through a small an very narrow slot canyon with a little water flowing through it (called Wahweap slot canyon I believe). It was right near our campsite and we had to walk along lake powell to get to it.

Before heading home we snuck into the nearby resorts pool (it was empty) for a quick dip and hot tub. On our way out we visited the massive Glen Canyon Dam and visitor center.

 Then it was driving back home to Crested Butte. Once we hit Colorado (Cortez), it started raining pretty hard and was even snowing up Lizard Head. On the way we made it in time to stop in Ridgeway at Elisha's favorite taco join, Gnar Tacos

5/17

Big day!

I have been looking up at the beautiful East Face of Gothic for over a year now. It's a beautiful, cliffy face full of spires and colouirs. I've always wanted to ski it, but it's hard to find the right conditions: conditions where there is enough snow, but not avalanche danger. It's so steep, that it's definitely in major avalanche terrain during the winter. But spring is safer for avalanches. But often avalanches that have gone in early spring during the first warm-up take all the snow down with them.

Got up really early and skinned, hiked, crampon-ed up Gothic Mountain from the Washington Gulch side. The day before we had looked at photos and cameras that my project has to determine if there was a good route to ski down Gothic. Being late in the year and having had avalanches move snow off the mountain, not all routes were skiable down to the bottom. We had picked a route that we thought would be good, but we also brought ropes and harnesses in case there were any parts where we had to repel down a cliff.

The view from the top is of course gorgeous. I had climbed to the top in the summer before, but now all the peaks were white as far as you could see, and then of course you can look down at the Gothic town site. Once at the top, when we still had options to ski the milder west-face or a route to the north, we decided to give the East face a try. The top skiing was really great! Midway down we hit the choke where we had expected there might not be snow. And it was true. So we had about a 30 foot length of no snow with a couple cliff bands to repel. So we set up webbing and a rope and repelled down until the colouir had snow again. Then it was a long, steep, and narrow coulouir (complete with runnels) to ski down until reaching the base where the pitch becomes more moderate. Then it's an easy ski to Gothic road.

Interestingly as we were arriving to the road, a couple of graders were plowing Gothic road. This turned out to be a real boon for us as it they had plowed down to leave about 2 inches of icy snow at the bottom. This made it really easy to skate back out without having to put skins on.

As soon as we got back to the car, I dropped bro off and then I headed straight to Breckenridge to ski a couple of hours there on the lifts. After Breck closed, I drove to Beaver Creek to meet up with mom and dad and Wayne and Linda. Wayne and Linda had rented a nice place in Avon at the Sheraton and were celebrating their anniversary. It was lots of fun to see me and as per usual they poked lots of fun...of my beard, of my old car, of me being a gator, etc. We went out for a nice meal and then enjoyed champagne to celebrate at night.

5/18

I got up and headed back to Breck for some more skiing. It was good skiing with even a bit of fresh snow. But there were 2 lift holds during the day due to lightning, which was pretty interesting. After skiing, I headed back to Avon for hors d'oeuvres and some hot-tubbing before driving back to CB that night

5/24

The road to Gothic opens

5/25

Elisha and I hosted a road opening party at our place where people got to drive (instead of ski) to the party. It was a totcho bar (nacho bar except with tater tots)

5/26

Drove to Colorado Springs to celebrate Jake Hess' 40th birthday. Jake is one of my best friends from high school who now lives in Colorado Springs. He used to be a minister in Indiana, but now he teaches Spanish and Theology at a small private school. His wife Elya is a nurse for an organization that helps the refugees that come into Colorado Springs (mostly from Central America, Afghanistan, and Ukraine right now).

Jakey happens to have a birthday one day before me (we're the old guys in our class). To celebrate we first went to this old high school that has been converted into a food court. For example they have a cocktail bar in the old principals' office. We went on got empanadas in one room and then moved to the brewery area.

After dinner there we went to the Boot Barn where they just so luckily (and happily) had a dueling piano show going on (the only one of the month). I LOVE dueling piano shows. Elisha's friend Sarah also came along. It was a fun show, playing a lot of my favorites. We went home and had oreos to say goodbye to Jake's birthday and welcome my birthday

5/27 (my 40th birthday)

We got up early to climb Pike's Peak via the Barr route. It was cloudy in Colorado/Manitou springs as we started the hike, but we quickly climbed above the clouds. I was carrying my skis with plans to ski Pikes Peak, a 14er. We reached Barr Camp (about the halfway point in distance) in relatively good time. And during this part of the hike we had lots of time to talk and catch up. Shortly after Barr camp we ran into snow. At treeline the snow was pretty deep and it was going to be postholing the rest of the way. My plan was to hike to the top and then ski down and then have to hike back up. As Elya was feeling a bit tired and going slower, I split up with the group so that I could get everything I wanted done before the afternoon storms. 

I put on my skins at the about tree-line and was able to skin on a direct route up to the summit. Because of the deep snow, the rest of the crew (they had gaiters and yak trax) weren't able to follow the real trail (it was buried and impossible to follow...I eventually found one of the mile markers further up the trail, but it was impossible for them to have gone that way as the snow was so deep. Instead they stuck to a more wind blown ridge where the snow wasn't so deep. 

The last pitch of the bowl to the summit is steep so you don't see the visitor center (yes! there is a huge visitor center on the top of pike's peak as well as a road and a cogwheel train) until right as you crest the summit. Right as I reached the summit, a train went by and I think I was quite a surprise to the people on the train. Also the people on the visitor center observation deck were pretty surprised. I transitioned out of my skins and prepared to ski down. It was fun skiing! The top 500 feet was actually powder from the last storm, and I was able to ski 2000+ feet down. This meant of course that I had to skin back up those 2000 feet. I was sure they'd all beat me to the top, but I ended up getting up to the top before the 3 of them. Elisha actually arrived to the summit about 5 minutes after I did. She had broken off from Jake and Elya as they were worried that Elya might not make the train (Elya's dad had driven up so if they didn't make the 3:20pm train that we had booked they could ride down with him.

Elisha and I hustled into the visitor center to get in the long line to get fresh donuts. The donuts up there are famous b/c supposedly the high altitude and thin air makes them extra delicious. Might be true! Or was it the fact that I had just climbed over 9000 vertical feet up? (For reference, the hike up Long's Peak is about 5500 feet...Longs is much more technically challenging, but then again, this one had lots of post-holing snow and a fun night out dancing the night before). Anyways we each got 2 donuts as well as 2 for Jake and Elya. Jake showed up about 10 minutes before the train was to depart to see if he could convince the conductor to let us take the next train...it was possible, but no guarantee that there would be room. But then Elya made it to the top about 5 minutes before departure. So we all made it! And just as the snow started to fly. We enjoyed the train ride back down to Manitou Springs, very thankful we didn't have to hike the 13 miles back down

For dinner, Jake and Elya treated us to dinner at a yummy Himalayan place. A great way to celebrate a birthday and mountain climb. Afterwards everyone was pretty exhausted and we ate ice cream and then watched the new Peter Pan movie with Jake's kids Asa and Asher. They're both extremely smart. Little 6 year old Asher has every 14er memorized by look and climb difficulty and location and all that. Very impressive. Asher can solve a rubix cube in under a minute. 

5/28

Started out 40 with a ski day at Arapahoe Basin. Another high school buddy, Phil, had some extra passes to A-basin, so he met us and gave us the tickets and we skied together. A-basin in the spring has a natural pond for pond skimming, so Phil and I tried it. It was the first time I've ever pond skimmed! I was successful, so I did it a 2nd time. Phil was not so lucky and crashed into the water, but luckily didn't go fully submerged like some others did.

Winter in Crested Butte and Gothic (and trips: Avalanche Ranch-Redstone, Ken's Cabin-Como, Eiseman Hut-Vail, Arizona-Havasupai, Leadville, Vail, Beaver Creek)

 My winter was a tale of two disparate places. We continued our schedule of 2 weeks at the AOS (on the ski hill) and 4 weeks in Gothic. Though things got turned upside down for a bit. Tom, an old friend from college, had been hired to add some flexibility to our schedule, so Frank was sent to work in the Azores for 6 weeks. During that time, Wess was fired, so we dropped down to just 2 techs. Michael and Paul came in to help, which meant that I stayed longer at the AOS than would be normal until Frank came back. During this time I was also given a promotion to site lead.

Anyways, during my time at CBMR, I would ride the lift up to work and ski home at the end of the day. Our place was more or less ski in, ski out. It was about a 5 minute walk to the nearest lift and 10 minute walk to the main big lift. Then we could ski more or less to within 100 yards of our place. The job allowed for some good flexibility, so I often got to ski several runs during the day, and if I got up early and did work from home, I could spend the first hour to hour and a half skiing if it was a powder day. And we got lots of powder days this year! It was a great year for snow! I wish I had kept track of how many powder days I skied, but it was the 2nd biggest snow year in the past 20 years. CBMR is a very steep resort with lots of extreme terrain, and it filled in really nicely, so that I could ski basically anything on it. Lots of fun! The way the schedule worked when I was at the AOS was that I would work 4 days at the AOS, cover one day in Gothic (which meant skiing in and out to Gothic) and then have my 2 days off.

Then there was life in Gothic. Oh beautiful winter Gothic! When the road closed in November, the only way to reach Gothic was via a 4 mile ski. There was a once a week (conditions allowing) snowmobile resupply, but I refused to use it. So at Gothic, I'd basically ski in on my equivalent of Monday morning, stay the week and then ski out Friday afternoon. On my ski in, I'd take in fresh clothes and all my food (milk, vegetables, fruit, lunch and dinner fixings) for the week, and when I'd ski out, I'd take my laundry. I'd carry all this on a pulk sled. On the days when I was just skiing in for the day, I'd often get up early to do a backcountry run for the ski in from the top of Snodgrass (down like 2nd bowl) and also do a lap on the way out on 3rd or 4th bowl of Abby's Lane. Of course we couldn't travel the Road to Gothic if the avalanche danger was high or extreme, which occurred on occasion. I loved skiing the road b/c I hardly ever saw anyone and when I did it was often one of my neighbors, so we'd sit and chat.

So living in Gothic over the winter was the biggest crew they've ever had b/c of all the winter science going on. There was of course the famous billy barr (check this video out if you want to know about him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L72G8TLtTCk ) who has lived in Gothic for some 40 some odd years and been collecting snow data all that time. Then there were the winter caretakers. Sophia and Jack (or Jack the Snow Dragon as I called him, b/c believe it or not is last name is Snow!). They are dating and lived together in Gates Cabin. Sophia is an ecologist just recently graduated from UC Berkley. Jack is a chemist who recently got his master's at Denver University. The 3rd care taker was Mairead who lived in Galena cabin. I can't remember where she went to undergrad but she was recently excepted to a hydrology master's degree at Univ. of N. Arizona. All 3 of them are very young (Mairead and Sophia being about 22 or 23). Frank and I lived in Calder cabin. All 3 of these cabins are up the slope on the east side of Gothic (upper east side). Then the head winter facilities guy (Benn) lived down in the main townsite. He's also young (late 20's I think) and is a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines. Collectively we were all known as the winter-overs. Because Tom had a dog, he didn't stay out in Gothic as dogs aren't allowed, so he skied in and out of Gothic daily when it was his turn to be there.

Because of the difficulty of getting to Gothic, hardly anyone visited, so it was just us few out here. I loved it! So quiet and peaceful with the big mtns and the snow and the foxes and pine martens. I loved when Frank was at the AOS (meaning he stayed in Gunnison) and it would just be me at the cabin for 2 weeks. So amazing. I just loved it. It was a dream come true for me.

Daily life in Gothic revolved around being on skis. You couldn't go anywhere without skis (or at least snowshoes, though they are less effective in the deep snow). I sort of describe it as if we (each cabin, building, lab) were islands on an ocean. If you were to step out of any of these without your skis, you'd instantly sink past your waist. So like being on islands in an ocean, you'd have to put on your skis (take a boat) to move from one place to the other, even when going a short distance. For example, when Mairead hosted the super bowl party, even though Galena cabin is only 150 m from my cabin, the only way to get there would be to put on skis. This also adds a certain isolation. As Jack said when his family was going to come visit: "I told them not to bring shoes"

I of course cross-country skied every day to our main site, or to take out the trash, but I also back country skied every day I was in Gothic, sometimes twice a day (before work and after work). On days when the snow was really good, I'd get up before dark to put in some laps before work. And after work I basically always skied until dark and often found my way home by the light of my headlamp (and my Christmas lights that I kept up all winter on my cabin). We had runs for days with higher avy danger that aren't in avalanche terrain (like Abby Lane and Aspen Alley), then we had my go-to runs 2nd, 3rd, and 4th bowl) and then some other unnamed runs off of the Snodgrass-Gothic ridge and one called the Kraken's arm off of the side of Gothic. These all required a bit of a skin to and from the slope. Behind the cabin were runs like the sluice (Avery glades), Zachary's, Wolf's Lair, Elk Basin, Virginia Basin, and others that I could ski right back onto my porch from! And b/c of all the runs around CB and the ski to get out here, these runs all stayed untracked between storms all winter. I just loved it! Overall we got over 30 feet of snow.

 Here are my winter totals

# of days downhill skiing = 81

# of days backcountry skiing = 85

# of days cross country skiing (cross country skiing often overlapped with the other types of skiing, and I didn't include it as a day of xc skiing if I was just using xc skis to move around Gothic on my daily work activities tehre) = 49

11/16

First day of backcountry skiing. Up above Emerald lake with Tom

11/17

Mountain biking in Gunnison with bro with just a touch of snow here and there in Gunnison.

11/20

A really good day of backcountry skiing with Tom up on Purple mtn

11/23

Opening day at Mt Crested Butte. Of course skiing in costumes. Then also some really, really fun ice skating on the giant Blue Mesa reservoir with Tom and Frank. Wearing life jackets of course in case we came upon thin ice!

11/24

Skied at the resort, ice skated at peanut lake, and then ice skated at Long Lake

11/25

Solo ice skating on Blue Mesa Reservoir

    11/24-11/26 or thereabouts. Cat sitting!

11/29

Road to Gothic closes!

11/30

Powder day and first of many first chairs

12/2

Fancy Irwin holiday party at the center for the arts complete with a life 80's cover band. Elisha wins the cookie competition

12/14-12/15

We journey to the Crystal River (the Aspen side of things) to stay at Avalanche Hot springs where we stay the night in a covered wagon. Elisha wears her prairie dress. The hot springs are really cool and the wagon is cute. We also do some some xc skiing by Redstone

12/16-12/18

I take an avalanche course that also allows for some fun backcountry skiing during the course

12/19

We cut down our Christmas tree for the condo up in Washington Gulch

12/21

I cut down my Christmas tree for the cabin up above Gothic. She's a beaut! And I decorate my cabin for Christmas with lots of lights!

12/24 - 12/28

Mom and dad visit for Christmas. We go out to slogars and do other fun things. We enjoy the hot tub at the guest house where they are staying as well as some of the breakfast treats. Mom skis out for a night at the cabin in Gothic.

12/31

Torchlight parade down the ski hill and fireworks

1/6

Elisha gets a free snowcat ski day with her company on a great powder day

1/17- 1/19

A 2 night ski hut trip to Ken's Cabin on Boreas Pass. We skied in from the town of Como. Because we had to work we ended up skiing a lot of it in the dark in a snowstorm. During our time there it was super windy, which made it nice to be in the hut. We were all alone up there as the cabin is only for one small group. So that was really cool! We did some backcountry skiing, but it wasn't the best with the low angle, the wind, and how much snow there was in the wind-sheltered areas.We did some Montucky skiing on the road (car pulling skier) when we got back to the car    

 

2/4  

Alley Loop nordic ski race. I did the 5K. It was so much fun! It goes through the streets of town and people are cheering you on and offering you bacon and beer and other things. And of course everyone is in costume. We ran into a friend, Eric from Antarctica, who was skiing the race (his cousin lives in CB)

2/8

Skied at Cranor Hill, Gunnison's little ski hill with just one poma lift.

2/9

Took Elisha on a backcountry ski tour of Coneys

2/12

Superbowl party at Mairead's in Gothic. Ski-to party

2/16

Some car-served backcountry skiing with bro where one of us shuttled the rest using the car while the rest skied

2/19

Free really fancy dinner at Taylor River Lodge that Elisha won from winning the cookie competition at Eleven's holiday party

2/22-2/24

2 night ski trip to Eiseman Hut outside of Vail in the Gore Range. Skied into the hut in a big snowstorm, and made it just before dark. About 14 other people staying in these really nice hut. Some Germans and a lot of Durango. The skiing at the hut was fabulous, and I did LOTS of laps there as did Elisha     

3/2

Ran into Bill Jirsa (from Antarctica) on the mountain     

3/8 

Finished my Liberty jigsaw puzze of Gothic Mountain and RMBL that is the EXACT view from my cabin

3/9

Skied at Keystone and then met Chris Sherman and Michael Coenen at the ski in ski out condo that Michael's mom had rented. Went out to Thai dinner with Sherman

3/10

Skied at Breckenridge with Sherman and MC. Mexican dinner with the Coenens.

3/18

Yotes basketball wins the National Championship! 

3/23

On our way to Havasupai, we spent the night just outside of Cortez. It was rather snowy. 

3/24

Drove to Seligman, AZ via the 4 corners monument and also visited monument valley. Had dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant in Flagstaff before continuing on to stay in a cute little cabin thing at an RV park in Seligman AZ.

3/25

Seligman is famous for being one of the main stops on Route 66. We had breakfast in Seligman at the "roadkill cafe". Drove to the canyon rim of the Havasupai Reservation to begin our journey to Havasu falls. We hiked down until we reached Supai. Such an interesting little town. Almost felt like we were in a different country. Then 2 miles below that we got our first look at Havasu falls. Unfortunately, b/c of all the recent snow, there had been flash flooding and the water was a chocolate brown instead of the normal emerald blue/green. We walked the entire length of the long campground before pitching our tent on the cliff overlooking Mooney falls. So breathtaking! In our tent, we could hear the water thundering below us, and from our tent we could see the falls

3/26

Spent the day exploring the upper falls of the area (Havaus, Mooney, Navajo, 50-foot). Also got some Indian fry bread from a little stand and grabbed lunch at the cafe in Supai Village. We explored Supai village a bit and also took a hike up a side canyon. The hike to the base of Mooney falls is really cool b/c it goes through lime-stone tunnels and then requires going down steeply on somewhat sketchy ladders. We had a fire right on the rim of the cliff by the waterfall (fires are normally not allowed but b/c of all the rain and the desire to get rid of all the flood debris that had come down, they were being allowed)

3/27

 Hiked down to beaver falls which is several miles below Mooney falls and required several somewhat deep river crossings. Then hiked into the Grand Canyon NP.

3/28

As the rains had ceased and the flood waters lowered, we noticed a marked change in the water color--to a more greyish green. Still a far cry from what it can be, but cool nonetheless. Hiked out of the canyon and drove to Flagstaff where we stayed the night

3/29

Made it back to CB, still in time for me to do a skate ski and then join Elisha at a party her company was hosting with a live (and good!) bluegrass band

3/31

Went to a disco party, but we couldn't get tickets for the adult disco so went to the "family" one and it was just kids and was kind of awkward

4/2

Closing day in CBMR. We skied in costumes and hiked up to the peak. CBMR closes on a set date that has nothing to do with the amount of snow as Vail Resorts determines they don't make money after this date. Sad to see it close as there is still so much snow!

4/4

Drove to Leadville to stay at a hostel there (Inn the Clouds Hostel). A really cool hostel.

4/5

Drove to Beaver Creek to ski a nice (but cold!) powder day. Then back to Leadville

4/6 

Went to Vail to ski. Grilled bratwurst at the free grill's that Vail provides in Blue Sky Basin (like the only good deal at all of Vail resorts)