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 = 87

# 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

Total events on ski = 217

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)

  

Fall in Crested Butte (and trips: Durango, Silverton, Telluride, Aspen, Snowmass)

 Day to day life is quite similar in the fall as it is in the summer. The days are of course shorter and it can be quite chilly. The big excitement is that the fall colors come and the world turns a shimmering gold with deep blue skies and often white, snow-capped peaks. 

During the fall we found out where the AMF2 site was going to move. It was down to 3 final candidates: Peruvian Amazon, Dolomites of Italy, and Tasmania in Australia. They ended up picking Tasmania in a place called Cape Grim (aptly named) near to Smithton. So this started what has been a prolonged stress of deciding whether we'd go to Tasmania or stay in CB or go to Antarctica or do something different. It's still very much up in the air as of this writing (5/31). It's too much for me to want to write about here, but anyone interested is welcome to contact me and I'm happy to tell you all about it, and we'd love to hear your thoughts. We have a long pros and cons list going for each place and each decision. But details of Tasmania keep changing, and we don't have the contract yet.

There's a beautiful mtn bike ride, Deer Creek, that connects Brush Creek area with Gothic, so I started getting up real early to commute from there from time to time (about 2-3 hours commute)

9/20-29

Leaves are starting to change to brilliant yellow! Lots of mountain biking. Attended the vinatook festival in CB where they burn the grump. It's an interesting passion style production and has to do with fall harvest and renewal. Wayne from the Oceanic Society visited.

9/30

First significant snow. So beautiful with the white mtns and yellow leaves!

10/2-10/6

Sue came out to visit (as were my parents briefly). We showed her a bit around Crested Butte. Then we did a road trip going over Ohio Pass to see the aspens, then through Montrose and Ouray up and over Red Mountain, Coal Bank, and Molas Passes to check out the aspens eventually arriving in Durango where we stayed at a budget hotel. We then road the Durango-Silverton steam train up to Silverton and back to enjoy the colors. In the evening Elisha and I had dinner with Amy Donahue and her husband (old EPHS and RMNP friend) Early the next morning I did a mtn bike ride in Durango before we headed out to Telluride via Lizard Head Pass. We road the gondolas and Elisha and Sue toured Telluride while I rode my mtn bike. We then managed to take the subie up and over Last Dollar pass and road and fairly rough dirt road between Telluride and Dallas Divide (near Ridgeway.

10/7-10/11

Fall continued with more biking and fall color adventures and a positive covid test

10/12

Frank took me flying in his little 2 person airplane thing! We flew from Gunnison towards CB, but didn't make it to Gothic b/c of some weird winds.

10/12-10/13

Drove over Kebler pass and it's amazing Aspen forests in Gunther. I did a mtn bike ride while Elisha took a walk in the aspens. We then camped over by the Crystal River. The next morning we soaked in Penny Hot Springs (a primitive hot springs) and then drove to Snowmass where I mtn biked. We finished the trip by taking Gunther over Independence Pass

10/18-10/20

We hiked to Conundrum hot springs, a primitive hot springs that is about an 11 mile hike from Gothic over 13,500 foot Triangle Pass. It was a tough hike with some snow over the pass. But totally worth it! We were basically the only ones at the hot springs area and always had the hot springs to ourselves! It's a beautiful setting with high mountains (and a 14er) as the backdrop to an alpine valley in this hot springs pool. Because the weather was rather chilly, we spent a lot of time in the hot springs. So amazing!

10/23

Pretty big snow in Gothic and I hiked up to Copper Lake

10/24-10/28

Some more big snow and we were starting to to xc ski!

Summer in Crested Butte (and trips: Buena Vista, Joyful Journey Hot Springs, Moffat, Del Norte, Telluride, Aspen, Silverton, Alma, Estes Park, Denver)

 The "journal" below is very basic day to day highlights; however, a day to day description of what goes on may be of interest.

I'm still working for the DOE's AMF2 (ARM (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement) Mobile Facility) that is located in Gothic, CO at RMBL (Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. The summer is beautiful in Gothic. It's green with flowers everywhere, clear creeks rushing by and wildlife out everywhere, including the resident deer, moose, marmots, and foxes. We even had some small birds build a nest with little chicks on our covered entrance. In the spring, we even have a couple creeks that rush right by the cabin, one that is a cascade we can see out the window. RMBL is fairly busy in the summer with lots of researchers (professors, post-docs, and grad students) as well as undergrads and even some high schoolers taking courses. During the summer I mostly stay at our condo in Mt CB when I'm working in Gothic since the road is open. It's about a 6 mile commute from home to Gothic, and I commute via bicycle. It's a beautiful ride full of views, rushing creeks, and wildlife encounters. I do the morning work at our site, but often do the paperwork from my cabin, which has the wonderful view of Gothic mountain. Gothic is always a quiet and beautiful paradise to chill at if I don't go home.

After work I commute home by bike, and then almost always go for a mtn bike ride somewhere in the valley, though occasionally I go for a hike. We have lots of trails that are reached right away from near our Condo. And then others that are a few minutes drive away. Then there is a really classic one--the 401--that I can hit right from Gothic. It's a great loop to do after work or even for a longer lunch. Anyways, there is a seemingly endless amount of mtn biking in the area if you include MT CB, CB, and CB South. Then of course there is Gunnison and over Kebler Pass.

We also have the site up on the ski resort (Crested Butte Mountain Resort aka CBMR). The schedule is that I work 4 weeks in Gothic and then 2 up at CBMR. But because I cover weekends, I'll visit bot the CBMR and Gothic sites on weekends. To reach the CBMR site I take a steep single track from nearly out of our condo up to it. Then coming home I have my choice of 8 or so single track trails that come back down to the base. And I usually do this routine at lunch as well. Ride a singletrack down to grab a quick lunch at home and then head back up. 

We also were on a softball team that we had a game weekly. Then Monday nights is Alpenglow, a free concert series down in CB and on Wednesdays is Music on the Mtn up at Mount Crested Butte.

 

May 31-June 2: Birthday Trip!

We drove over cottonwood pass to Cottonwood hotsprings, where we enjoyed the beautiful hot springs in the evening. We then camped in my car up by a lake in the area.

The next day we stopped by the hot springs again and then went and did quite a lot of mtn biking in Buena Vista. We also enjoyed the river and some ice cream around town. We then drove to Moffat to Joyful Journey Hot Springs where we soaked and stayed in a really cool Teepee with a backdrop of the Sangre De Cristo mountains.

The next day we mtn biked the really awesome Penitente Canyon near Del Norte! Super cool with lots of granite rock riding (like moab style over the rocks). Really fun. On the way home we stopped for Mexican at one of the small towns

June 3-June 4

More mountain biking and more fox pup viewing. Watched Avalanche Stanley Cup game at pitas in paradise with the free jello shots. 

6/5

Climbed Mt Crested Butte

6/8

Climbed Mt Crested Butte with Elisha before my mom came and she took me out to a birthday dinner at an Italian place in town

6/9

Mtn biking by myself before mtn biking with mom and Elisha. Showed mom the fox pups and toured her around Gothic. Campfire with mom at the Gothic Campground for a weenie roast and cookie dough

6/11

Camped out at the Gothic campground with Elisha

6/11-6/14

Many mtn bike rides and the flowers are just starting to really pop!

6/15-16

I got a stomach bug (the runs) so we didn't start on our trip to Telluride too early. But eventually felt a bit better so drove to Ridgeway and had gnar tacos and then camped at the foot of mt sneffels. Long night with the runs! 

Next day did some mtn biking in Telluride and then went to the Telluride bluegrass festival. Went to some of the free shows but then accidentally snuck into the festival via a bike trail

6/17-6/20

Chilling around Crested Butte with lots of mtn biking and flowers of course. Very beautiful out in Gothic.

6/21-6/23

Drove to Estes via beautiful Trail Ridge Road.  Went to water world with mom! A bit chilly but lots of fun. Then went to an Avalanche stanley cup watch party in downtown denver with Mom

6/24

CB Kebler Pass Chainless Race! I dressed as an avalanche player and Elisha as an Avalanche Forecaster. The race is fun. No chain and you just glide down. Everyone is costumed and there are people with big speakers. When they pull over it just starts a dance party on the road. Very fun. Avalanche game party afterwards

6/26

Avalanche win the cup! I watch at the eldo with some new friends and fellow Avs fans

6/27-7/3

Lots and lots of mtn biking. Flowers are really popping. Deer fawns are out. I help out with a night survey of bumble bees. Free music festivals (Wednesday night at Mt CB and Monday night at CB) are going on.  Some hiking as well as biking. Cool sidewalk chalk art competition. Paul from LANL is helping out.

 7/4

Independence day parade and town water fight. Evening "fireworks" show at Mt CB. Not really fireworks but lasers.

7/5-7/7

Mom and dad are visiting. Do some hikes including up to Scarp Ridge with all the flowers and hikes around Mt CB. Some nice dinners as well

7/8-7/12

More flower hikes and mtn biking, including climbing up in to Virginia basin. Campfires by the cabin. I climb up Avery peak. Lunch at a thai place in town to celebrate our Anniversary.  Sunset drinks and appetizers sitting in a chairlift up on the ski hill.

7/13

Climbed White Rock mountain with M-nugget. Big and cool climb!

7/14

Hike up West Maroon pass and 2 other passes. Such AMAZING wildflowers! So great. Also house sitting some cats

7/16

Gunnison county rodeo

    7/17-7/19

More mtn biking and flowers

7/20-7/21 

Hiked over West Maroon pass to Maroon lake with the gorgeous views of the Maroon Bells. Took a bus down to Aspen to walk around town and get a pizza and ice cream. Then bussed up to Snowmass to meet our old ice rink boss, Sara. She treated us to a nice dinner and drinks and then we watched a comedy show there. Spent the night at Sara's and then the next day hiked up over East Maroon pass to Copper Lake and into Gothic where we had dinner at RMBL's cafeteria. 

7/22-24

More biking and also a drive paradise divide for a sunset picnic

7/25 

Climbed Gothic mountain. 

7/26

Biked 401 with Elisha. (Have already biked in many times)

7/27

Hiked Treasury mountain before our softball game

7/27-8/1

Lots more mountain biking amongst the beautiful flowers!

Last softball game with our Irwin Mother Tuckers softball team. 

8/2-8/4

Drove to Silverton and camped in the car up on Red Mtn Pass. Next day we got up early and hiked to Columbine Lake. It was super beautiful! The blue color was just amazing! We also hiked up a peak nearby (T11) with views of other lakes including one that looked like a heart. After our hike we soaked in a non-developed (and secret) hot springs before heading down to Silverton and setting up a tent at a nice campsite along the river (had to cross a little stream to get to it, so on a little island). The next day we hiked to Ice Lake in a beautiful basin. The wildflowers were amazing but better yet was the amazing reflection of the red San Juan mountains in the blue water. We then hiked up over a pass (not the standard way, no trail) to get to a gorgeous overlook of emerald Island lake before descending down to Island lake. As the name suggests, it has an island in the middle of the glacier green colored waters, surrounded by wildflowers of course. We then hiked up another pass and I climbed up to the top of a peak (Vermilion 2). Made it back down in some hail and thunder.

8/5-8/9

Plenty more fun mtn bike rides in the area and life around Gothic

8/10-8/11

Drove over Cottonwood Pass to Mt. Princeton hot springs for a soak. Then drove up to Alma where we camped in our car and got up really early in the morning for the DeCaLiBron loop hike. It covers four 14ers (Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross).  We were able to successfully summit all 4.

 8/12-8/24

Many more mountain bike rides and hikes amongst the flowers. 80's cover band at the I-bar ranch

 8/25

We hiked Schofield pass down to the ghost town of Crystal and the famous Crystal Mill, which is very picturesque

8/26-8/29

More biking around Crested Butte

8/30-9/1

Made a trip to the Front Range to climb Longs Peak. We got up super early on the 31st and arrived to Chasm lake before sunrise. Super beautiful up there. We then hiked up the Loft route to the top of Mt Meeker (13,911), before continuing on to summit Longs Peak (14,259, meeting the trail at the Homestretch). Great views from the top, including Lake Haiyaha, which had recently changed color to a glacial green after a major rockslide in the basin above it (Chaos Canyon). Unusually, it was an empty summit, and for a while we were the only ones up there. We hiked down through the standard homestretch, narrows, ledges, keyhole, boulderfield route. That night we had ice cream with Lisa Foster and her daughter to celebrate. Lisa is famous for being the woman with the most ascents (197 and counting) and for being the person with the most consecutive months climbing it (36 and running).

 The next day I hiked up to see Lake Haiyaha and it's changed colors up close. Super cool! We also bought Elisha a van for camping (Gunther). We drove down to Denver and went to Meow Wolf, which was cool. Their dancing room where the lights and such would follow you around was one of my favorite experiences of the entire summer! I could have danced and chased lights in there for a long, long time. But then before it got too late we headed out to spend the night with my old boss Nate Dub.  The next day Elisha drove Gunther over Cottonwood pass to CB

9/2-9/6

More fun mtn biking. And Lisa stopped by Gothic for a visit

9/7

I hiked up famous Teocalli mountain. I first biked the Teocalli ridge loop to get up close to it, then hiked the last 2000 or so feet. Then of course when I was reunited with my bike I had the fun descent back to the car. That evening we went to Teocalli burritos to celebrate and then drove up the Slate River to camp in Gunther for the first time.

9/8-9/13

More biking, including a bike trip that took us to a lake where we paddled around

9/14-9/15

We were given a free night to stay at Elisha's Taylor River Lodge. Super fancy! They served us fancy hor's devours and cocktails. We biked the tandem bike around a little bit and walked along the river. We had a fancy (several course) dinner and then got to hang out at the hot tubs, pool, an steam rooms, before retiring to the nice riverside cabin.

9/16-9/18

More mtn biking

 

Life in Gothic and Mount Crested Butte 4/1/22-5/30/22

 4/1/22

We left Phoenix, not as early as we'd hoped. We drove from Phoenix up through Payson and then on to Petrified Forest National Park, where we spent a couple hours doing the touristy viewpoints and short walks to see the really cool rock trees! We then continued on and spent the night in Cortez, CO.

4/2/22

We drove up and over Lizard Head Pass and eventually made it to Crested Butte in time to enjoy apres ski cocktails with my mom, bro, and Mary. We had dinner over at Zach and Mary's house

4/3/22

Spent the day getting ready for my job (packing and getting food to last me potentially 4 weeks) and quite a bit of time stressing about the new job.

4/4/22

I met my boss in the morning--he had driven over from his office in Pagosa Springs--and we snowshoed into Gothic where I met Wess, the lead site technician. My boss said farewell and then it was just Wess and I. Wess is a really good cook, and he enjoys cooking, so he made me a yummy dinner of pork loin. Beautiful blue bird day.

4/5/22

Began my training on how to monitor and take care of the various instruments. Snow storm today

4/6/22

I met Red Lady, a red fox that comes around quite often for the first time. She is very curious and fearless. I named her after the Red Lady Mountain. She'll seit on the deck railings and look at us. In the morning, we sometimes see her running through the Aspens towards our cabin. 

Here's a very interesting short piece about Red Lady Mountain: 

https://www.patagonia.com/stories/keep-red-lady-free/story-74996.html

The rest of my gear and food came in on the snowmobile, courtesy of Nick the snowmobile driver (who happens to be dating my cousin)

4//7/22

Elisha hiked in for lunch and to see the place. It also happened that Zach and a few of his friends skied down Gothic mountain and also showed up. Wess served them all elk stew. There are 2 moose that we often see around the station: a mom and her yearling calf. Today was the first day I saw them as they strolled through town. Also played around a bit on the E-fat tire bike

4/8/22

I skied to town towing the sled and my laundry and a few things for my first "weekend"

4/9/22

Went for a ski up Washington Gulch with Elisha and then watched a movie at Zach and Mary's house

4/10

Biked back to Gothic in the early morning with Elisha. When I got done with work we skied up to Judd Falls and to the area where a giant avalanche came down and buried a large bathroom structure. Elisha stayed over the night and Wess made a fancy dinner of steak, asparagus, potatoes, and grilled pineapple.

4/11

I towed Elisha back to town, me biking and her on skis.

4/12

Big snowstorm came in

4/13

I went exploring around on snowshoes as the storm continued

4/14

Went for a ski in the fresh snow higher up into the valley. The river is starting to melt so it makes a cool contrast between the white snow

4/15

It snowed a lot overnight. After my rounds, I skied back to town pulling the sled through the powder. I helped Elisha unload some things and then we drove to Estes Park to drop off my parents car

4/16

Did some shopping in Boulder, looking for xc ski (unsuccessful). On the way back to Crested Butte, we stopped in Salida to see my former boss Nate and his girlfriend Treasure. We arranged to meet that at the Biker and the Baker, and we were surprised to also find his brother K-Dub (who I worked with in Greenland besides Antarctica) and Gavin and Robyn (from Antarctica). 

4/17

Chill Sunday. We had the house to ourselves as our roommate Hillary was doing a triathlon (ski then bike then whitewater kayak), so we enjoyed staying at the house, with the fire on, and watching a musical

4/18

Skied back to Gothic. Elisha joined me for a bit of it before turning back. After work I fat-tire biked back to CB to hang out with Elisha. We made dinner and watched a movie at Zach's since Elisha is house sitting for them (watering their plants). Also found out the 3rd person, James, on our team had been hospitalized (perhaps from a ruptured spleen)

4/19

Wess skied out to town so that we could cover James' Crested Butte portion, and we went out to breakfast in downtown CB. Being mud season, town is dead and most places are closed. We then skied back to Gothic

4/20

Packed up my stuff and took the weekly snowmobile back to town as I am going to be starting my CB sting. Started training with Juarez from the Los Alamos National Lab at the CBMR (Crested Butte Mountain Resort) portion of the SAIL project, called the AOS (Aerosol Observing System). He's originally from Brazil. Elisha flew from Montrose to LA today to hang out with friends, which is a bummer since it's my 2 weeks in Crested Butte. Hillary and I hung out and chatted, getting to know each other.

4/21

More training up at the AOS site. Street party at Pitchfork (neighborhood where my brother lives) for a birthday (actually of the girl who told my brother Hillary was looking for a roommate). 

4/22

It started snowing hard in the afternoon. I took the e-fat tire bike and biked in the heavy snowfall down to Crested Butte and then up Kebler Pass road to the point it is closed to cars due to snow, then I continued for a couple more miles up the road. Fun to play in the snow

4/23

It snowed 12+ inches overnight. I pedaled the fat tire bike up to our parking lot where Juarez picked me up. We tried to get up the road in his vehicle, but he got stuck. So we had to go back down to get my car. The good ole PBR was able to get up the road to get to the trailhead to walk to the AOS site.

Because of all the snow, I wanted to do some backcountry touring, but my skis were in Gothic. I also needed to return the bike to Wess. So I tried biking out to Gothic. The snow was just too deep! It was impossible to bike even with the pedal assist. I tried to push the bike, but I was post-holing through deep snow. It felt like I was going to have to just abandon the plan and abandon the bike BUT, I was carrying cross country skis on my back so that I could ski back to CB with my touring skis and boots on my back. So I had the brilliant idea of putting my skis on and pushing my bike. It worked really well, and it left a really funny 3 lined track in the fresh powder. It was definitely beautiful ou there in Gothic with all the fresh snow

4/24

My day off, so I did several touring laps on the ski resort mountain (they close Crested Butte Resort very early despite having plenty of snow because they just don't have the help to keep it running). In the evening I drove to Gunnison to pick up mail for work (We have a mobile home in Gunnison). I got to meet James who is the guy quitting, but who had to end the job early b/c of a ruptured spleen.

4/25

Did a sunset ski up on the mountain after work

4/26

Today we switched out trainers and John from Los Alamos National Laboratory drove up to start training me. Another sunset ski up on the mountain. Had a meeting with the RMBL bigwigs down in Crested Butte

4/27

Another sunset ski, this time to the top of Crested Butte mountain.

 4/28

Another ski up Paradise bowl, then bought a 6 pack of beers at the local Mt CB liquor store and drank them with John at the base area

 4/29

Skied up CBMR

4/30

After work I skied from the Snodgrass parking lot to Gothic to Emerald Lake (which was frozen), and up to Schofield Pass and a little bit beyond. The total round trip was just over 20 miles. Very beautiful through the snowy mountains during this warm bluebird day. The river is starting to melt out and starting to rush. Fun to ski back down from Schofield

Elisha arrived around 7pm after her time in California. So happy to see her!

5/1
May Day

Elisha and I skied up Paradise bowl and enjoyed a beer while sitting in one of the closed chairlifts. In the afternoon we biked down to Crested Butte and explored it a bit on our bikes (it's so empty in town right now! how it should be!) before we headed to Pitas in Paradise for a really good and cheap happy hour. In the evening we went on a date to the always yummy Secret Stash.

5/2

Snowed 5 or 6 inches, so I skied a powder lap at Paradise bowl before starting work

5/3-5/17

Skied most days after work

5/19

Birthday party for Ace Hardware's cat, Mr. Jingles. Free tacos, free beer, and a mariachi metal band. Quite the party

5/21

Snowed about 6" overnight, but not as much as the front range which got about 18"

5/23/22

Had my brother over for dinner to watch the Avs and to CELEBRATE he and M-nuggs getting engaged while they were in France and Greece

5/24

Bro and I went for a really beautiful bike ride and at the end a huge snowstorm rolled in

5/25

Bike and picnic with Elisha

5/26

Skied some laps up at Cottonwood pass after our softball game

5/27

Had Zach over for White Russians for my birthday and did some mtn biking in Gunnison

5/28

Really yummy bbq provided by Wess and fire out at the cabin for Memorial Day

5/29

Finally got to see the new fox pups. So cute!!

5/30

Pretty big snowstorm, up to 6" at the AOS. Roasted hot dogs on the fire out by the cabin in the snow

Twas the Night Before Christmas RMBL (Rocky Mountain Biological Station) Style

 12/24/22

As you might know, I write a version 'A Visit from St. Nicholas' every year based on where I live, so this year I wrote it based on the SAIL project in Gothic at the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab.

‘Twas the night before Christmas when all through RMBL (rumble)

Instruments were whirring; a rather delightful ensemble.

Radiometers all pointed straight to the air

Recently cleaned by a tech with great care

The cimel was placed in park for the night

While lidars lit the snow with a vivid green light

And Frank in his puffy and I on my skis

Had once again seen the MWR freeze.  

When down at the site there arose such a clatter

I logged onto bomgar to see what was the matter

Through the VMs I scrolled with great terror

Checking the data, looking for error.

The stars silhouetting the mountains aroun’

Were the only lights in the slumbering town.  

When what to my frosty eyes should appear

But a figure on skis and 8 operators full o’ cheer. 

With a quick little shuffle that could take him quite far,

I knew in an instant that it must be billy barr.

Toting tools and kimwipes; the technicians they came

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

“Now Thomas! Now Michael! Now Juarez and Wessley!

“On Anna! On Heath! On Bilberry and Maggie!

Down to Kettle Ponds! Up to the AOS

Get your jobs done with the greatest finesse!”

As persistent slabs that after a heavy snow do slide

Or fully waxed skis in an effortless glide

So down to the site the technicians they flew

Armed with ethanol, wrenches, and a smidgen of glue

Over my shoulder a weather balloon took flight

And it soon disappeared into the black of night

Snowcams were flashing as the flakes fell faster

The generator was primed to avoid a disaster

And then in a twinkling I saw from the tower

Each skyrad dome shaded, even at this hour

As I cycled the MET and was turning around

Down through the trees came billy, like a young powderhound

He was dressed in old goretex from his boots to his hood

And I saw specks of bark from chopping up wood

Tins full of chocolate were buried deep in his bag

Just below his shovel and an old oily rag

His eyes were hidden behind an old pair of sunglasses

His cheeks showed no sign of frostbite, they were smooth as molasses

His warm greeting came came as clear as a bell

And the beard on his face indicated he had stories to tell

A field notebook he grasped tight in his hand

For denoting the species who lived on this land

He had a thin face and no hint of a belly

Despite watching movies produced way out in Delhi.

He was wiry and tough, a true weathered mountain man

And I whistled to myself from atop a buried sedan.

A friendly mittened wave and a cheerful greeting 

Soon gave me to know his stove was still heating

He grabbed a few tools and went straight to his work

Measuring the snow he then turned with a jerk

And clipping into his bindings, he turned for the trail

His long-term records quite complimentary to SAIL

Covered in snow he could be mistaken for a wizard

As he quickly disappeared into the oncoming blizzard

But I heard him exclaim, ere he skied out of sight

These data are important, let’s get this done right!

New Job at Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, CO

 So I got a random email one day from my friend and former colleague Carolyn, who had received an email from Jamee (Palmer Station science manager) about a job in Crested Butte. I assumed it was a seasonal job, and I didn't even know if I was qualified, but I had reached out anyways. Turns out it was an 18 month contract with pretty decent pay and living in a cool place. But there were a lot of unusual things about the job (schedule, living situation), so it was a very tough decision whether to take it or not. Elisha and I definitely struggled with decision, kept going back and forth. Plus it would mean the super difficult action of telling my boss Ryan and colleagues (Sky and Brianna) at Arizona Game and Fish that I was quitting after only 1 year. In the end, after much back and forth, many yes's and no's, while in Mexico we decided to take the job and leave Phoenix and Arizona Game and Fish.

The new job is a contract job working for Hamelmann communications. They are contracted out by the Los Alamos National Laboratory's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) group, which is part of the US Department of Energy.  The ARM group has several permanent research facilities set up across the globe (Alaska and the Azores for example) and then several mobile facilities (known as AMF--ARM Mobile Facilities). These sites contain a whole myriad of instruments that measure various properties of the atmosphere and climate. You have your standard MET (meteorological) instruments (temperature, humidity, windspeed, direction, precipitation), your gas monitoring instruments (for CO2, water vapor, Ozone, and CFS-Chlorofluorocarbons), your particle and aerosol measuring instruments (measuring dust, carbon (like soot), and other particulate), and then a whole suite of radiometers, which measure the radiation from both the sun (direct and scattered) and from the ground: this radiation can be solar or thermal. Also, they have instruments studying the upper atmospheric winds, the clouds, and the various water derived particles and gasses (like ice crystals, water vapor, water droplets). All of these things are important for the earth's energy (heat) budget. 

And scientists are using these measurements to improve on their earth system models, including climate change. We know, for example, that CO2 causes a warming of the planet due to its greenhouse gas effect, but in order to make as perfect as a model as possible, you need to include EVERYTHING that affects the earth's energy budget. So things like water vapor are important b/c water vapor can act as a greenhouse gas and can also disperse and reflect solar radiation, so it plays an important role. The earth's own, upwelling radiation plays a role as does the solar radiation reflected from ground. Of course the albedo effect of snow in this area plays a big role.

Long story short, we have good climate models, but they can be better, so the purpose of all of these instruments is to narrow down and improve on these climate models by using some of these less studied atmospheric measurements. We know really well how things like CO2 affects climate, but we know less about other less studied factors. 

The cool thing is that all the data we collect is totally open sourced. Any scientist (and ANY person) can access the data and can thus analyze it for themselves. This not only creates total transparency but allows a huge range of researchers around the globe to be able to use this great data to work on climate models and other research. For the mobile facilities, which are usually at a site for 1-2 years, researchers write proposals describing why they would like the mobile facility in area X. If that researcher's proposal is accepted, the mobile facility is moved there. But the data collected in the spot doesn't just help that researcher, other researchers have total access to the data. So it's really cool.

The mobile facility (SAIL: Surface Atmospheric Integrated Laboratory) here in Crested Butte is being used by the proposing scientist to study the hydrology of the area and how it relates to the changing climate. A really good and short description of the campaign can be read here:  https://sail.lbl.gov/about/

And here is a really good article by the Crested Butte News that probably explains it all better than I can

https://crestedbuttenews.com/2021/03/major-atmospheric-study-to-be-conducted-in-valley/

The SAIL project has two locations. The main site is in Gothic: a ghost town turned research station (RMBL: Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory). Gothic is 8 miles from the town of Crested Butte and 5.5 miles from Mount Crested Butte. During the winter, it is 3.8 miles from the end of the paved road. The other location is up on Crested Butte Mountain Resort and can be accessed by taking a couple of ski lifts and skiing to it.

There are 3 of us: the head technician (Wess from Alaska), James (from the east coast somewhere), and me. Though James just got accepted to grad school at Dartmouth so is leaving soon. We work a rotating schedule where we spend 4 weeks up at Gothic and 2 weeks in Crested Butte. They provide us with a nice cabin in Gothic, which has 2 rooms. So 2 techs are up there. Then they have a trailer house for us in Gunnison for when we're doing the Crested Butte portion. Since Elisha and I are renting a place in Mount Crested Butte, I'll just stay there. 

In the winter, the road to Gothic is for non-motorized traffic only, but we have a special permit to get one snowmobile resupply per week. Otherwise, what I have been doing is just skiing in and out and pulling a sled behind me. The 3.8 miles takes me about 1 hour, plus or minus 15 minutes depending on how heavy my load is and how deep the snow is. Also, when conditions are right, they have given us a pedal assist fat tire bike, which is faster.

Due to the lack of resupply and also the chance that we could get snowed in without resupply or travel to and from Crested Butte due to high avalanche danger, we try to have about 4 weeks of food supply with us in the cabin.

There are 3 other people that live in Gothic over the winter: 2 winter caretakers for RMBL (Ben and Frank), and the famous billy barr (though he hasn't been there this spring because he's getting a total hip replacement. You can watch a video to learn about billy barr here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0JHpGst84U&t=16s    (Denver 9 news)

and here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L72G8TLtTCk&t=74s  (National Geographic)

In the summer, Gothic will be bustling with researchers from undergrads to grad student to professors. Gothic is a collection of old and cool looking mountain cabins from a bygone era. There are also a couple high tech lab buildings that they have designed in a way to match the ghost town/mining town architecture. 2 little creeks converge in the town and if you were to continue on the road up and out of Gothic you would go over the 4WD schofield pass to Marble (and the Aspen area). Although it's at least a 5 hour drive, we are only about 18 miles as the crows flies to where we lived in Snowmass a couple of years ago.

Besides Frank and Ben, we have a couple of neighbors. A mama moose and her yearling calf are seen almost every day in the area.  There are also 2 foxes: Red Lady:...named after the Red Lady bowl) and Red Flyer (named after the sled). that we also see almost daily. And with spring coming, we've seen a couple marmots coming out of their hibernation under the cabins.

We have an incredible view of Gothic Mountain from our dining table out a big window. The cabin is a two story cabin with 2 bedrooms upstairs reached by a spiraling staircase and modest kitchen, dining table, and small loveseat downstairs. We have a nice deck and a covered back porch. This year they added a flush toilet and shower so we don't have to use the outhouse. The whole Gothic area is a wintry wonderland right now and is surrounded by high peaks. The Gothic area itself has a mix of wildflower meadows, Aspen forests, and conifer forests. If you follow one of the streams up you reach a waterfall and much further up an alpine lake. Gothic sits at 9,525 above sea level.

Elisha will be living in Mount Crested Butte. We are renting a room in a nice ski condo with a gal named Hillary. She's been in the CB area for a while, but she recently broke up with her long-time boyfriend so she had to move out. She also has an old dog named Driggs. She's originally from Florida, but has been in the Colorado Rockies for quite awhile, including Aspen. The condo is very nice, decorated like a ski chalet, and it has very nice views of the snow-capped peaks. It's within easy walking distance of the ski resort and it's an easy walk to my brother and Mary's place as well. And we can see their house from our deck. The condo is 3 floors. The basement has a garage and storage and laundry. The middle floor has a nice living room, small kitchen, our room, and a bathroom. The upstairs is where Hillary's room is, as well as a guestroom and bathroom.

During the summer I plan to live with Elisha in Crested Butte, but during the winters, one thing that was going to be tough would be being away from her for such long periods. But I think I've worked out that I can ski into town after work and then back the next night, or even early in the morning the next day if I don't have the early balloon launch

Red Lady

Heading up to some instruments

Snowmobile resupply

Research Center

Our Cabin

the SAIL sight

Me checking on some instruments

Wess fixing an power supply

fat tire bike and precip monitors

Moose

Hopelessly stuck

biking in supplies

Red Lady

Pulling Elisha on the Bike

Frank's Cabin

buried outhouse and other building

Gothic

View from our window

Gothic town and Gothic Mountain

Radiometers

shoveing off the radar

our cabin

skiing in supplies