January Hike of the Jud Wiebe Trail

At the start of the Jud (from the Aspen Street side) there was a bit of snow, as you can tell by the trash cans that are normally a couple feet off the ground.







Close to the top of the Jud Wiebe trail, the sky was an amazing blue and the long shadows of the aspens made strong impression on the mind.








Ballard Mountain can be seen across the valley.












Sunset on top of the Jud.












Snowy Bridge (I actually almost slipped off the side while taking this picture)


















Sunset as backdrop for snowy Evergreens



This hike can also be seen on my Smug Mug gallery.

Lots of Pow-Pow this past weekend

Oh yeah, what a wonderful weekend of powder it was. It was quite a bit more than it was forecasted and it was great. I did ski around 52,000 feet this weekend, so I am not too bad of shape, especially since I will be in Denver this week.

If the Telluride Ski Season is Half Over (Is it half empty?, or is it half full?)

Not sure how I feel about the season being half over. Today marked the middle. My current ski total is 407,907 feet. So, I need to make up (or down) some ground. Hopefully, I can reclaim some feet this weekend.

Think Snow ****
(we need it)

Bedroom Window

I bit frosty in my Bedroom.

Bad Fido

I did not know I had a "Watchdog" on my phone. But I guess Fido (dog.c) "goofed".

Best day on the mountain, so far?

This was the buzz on the slopes (and off) was that today Jan 20, 2006 was the best day on the mountain so far.

Well, it was only a half day for me, but one looks at 14" in the last 24 hours, 18" in 48 hours as nothing less than bliss. :)

Tomorrow, I might start the process of finding new skis. YES!!!!

Think Snow!

Sunny Side Brown: Bad - Sunny Side White: Good

A good indicator if Telluride has gotten snow lately is if the Sunny Side (or north side) is covered in snow or not. Even in the winter it will melt off.

If the Sunny Side is White, means it has snow recently.
If the Sunny Side is Brown, means we need another dump.

We've got a store near you:

So I get a Crate&Barrel catalog in the mail today. On the back, by the postal address says:

"We've got a store near you: Cherry Creek North At Clayton Lane , Denver"

Not sure what their definition of near is? But I think 7 hours to drive to this store is NOT near. :)

One more day of rest

I just can not seem to get rid of my hack(cough). So, I am postponing my ski lunch hour until tomorrow. (hopefully!)

Divisional Playoffs (all of my teams that I wanted to win, won)

Yep, all of my NFL football teams that I wanted to win in the Divisional Playoffs won, however, but it is NOT how I expected.

To start with I was very excited to see Denver take care of New England. This one was not a big stretch for me.

However, Pittsburgh up setting Indy and to some degree Panthers beating Bears, was a pleasant surprise.

So, here is my Superbowl prediction
Broncos: 27
Seahawks: 24

On a different note, this weekend did NOT do wonders for my other broncs. All the cold air, and activities have brought back my cough. UGH!

My Lungs are Burning!, but it was a surprising fun day out on the slopes.

Ok, I really should put one more day of rest before I started skiing. My first run down Mammoth and my lungs were SCREAMING!

But, I continue on and went back up 9 and dropped down into Gold Hill. After a run down Little Rose which at the top had amazing snow.

Wow, after 3 weeks of no snow, how could this be. At the middle it was a little sketch with bare areas, so I traversed over into Andy's Gold to see if it was any better. Yes, a little bit.




I then went back up and down Electra. The picture shown is crossing over into bottom of Dynamo and has to be one of the most interesting routes I have ever skied.







I then thought I was going to call it a day. So I skied to the bottom of 4 and was about ready to go to Poachers to watch some football. Well, I thought, it is too early to quit, so up 4, 5, and down into Prospect Basin I go.


I then decide to do the short hike to Genevieve. Genevieve is reported to have the steepest pitch on the mountain at 34'. An interesting website that list all the different ski areas in the world and their stats. That is were I got the 34 degrees number. Palmyara Peak (13,320 feet) is a stunning backdrop for Genevieve.




Here is a picture looking back up Genevieve. Pictures never really capture how steep it really is. But for me it is always an rush to go down "jenny".







Ok, so enough for now, tomorrow, I will try and take a Tele-Clinic lesson. I just need to cross a few To-Do's before I start watch the Broncos game.

Acute Bronchitis (My body is the battlefield, and it is war)

Ugh, the last couple of days have been hell. My suspicion of Acute Bronchitis (or some type of lung infection) was correct.

The following was taken from http://familydoctor.org/677.xml
What is acute bronchitis?
Acute bronchitis is an infection of the bronchial tree. The bronchial (say: “brawn-kee-ull”) tree is made up of the tubes that carry air into your lungs. When these tubes get infected, they swell and mucus (thick fluid) forms. This makes it hard for you to breathe. You may cough up mucus and you may wheeze (make a whistling sound when you breathe).

Wednesday night I had to prepare for another demo and stay up all night. Thursday morning is when the violent coughing began. By Thursday afternoon, I was feverish and I felt my body attack the infection, with full force.

I was hoping that Friday, I was going to feel better, but I ended up sleeping 85% of the day. I found out if I laid perfectly still, I would not wake the coughing up. But in the end, I knew the body was winning the battle because of all the "stuff" I was hacking up. Yuck.

Now it is Saturday noon. I "have" to get a few vertical feet in today. But I don't want to push it too much, because I am still "healing". My stomach muscles still ache from all the coughing/hacking.

Ok, enough complaining, off to the slopes I go.

GO BRONCOS!!!

Demo That Hit The Spot, Tele Light Bulb, No Urinal (and yes, I did put the toilet seat back down), I Cant Breathe, 300,000 feet

Wednesday Jan 11, 2006:

I started off the day preparing for a demo for work. The demo went very well. So well, I am now giving a bigger demo tomorrow.

I made a few runs over lunch on the Telemarks ski. Only at the very end, of the last run, did the light bulb turn on. Up until that point, I was sloppy, and felt like I was going backwards. But for some reason on that cat track, I was all of a sudden was rounding out my turns. *Click* Oh yeah baby....

Minutes later at the bottom of Chair 8, I needed to use the restroom. Hmmm, that is funny, there is no urinal in here. I do my business, and leave. *Click* Upon exiting, I noticed I was in the Woman's bathroom. Oops. Oh well. And yes, I did put the toilet seat back down.

All day today, it feels like a 500lb gorilla is on my chest. I think a bout of bronchitis. Ugh.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I crossed 300,000 feet boundary line today. I am still behind quite a bit, but we will see....

Waterhole Tour Weekend and Penguins

Over the weekend, I think I hit (and spent at) every waterhole in Telluride/Mountain Village.

In Telluride, one does not call up friends to go out, they just show up, and go from there. In any case, I did just that and had a great time.

However, one needs to have a night in every once in a while. So last night, I rented March of The Penguins and highly recommend it for an inspiring story in an amazing place.

Command Central with a View

I had brought my Server (bottom right) into the "office" for a bit of work (hard drive crashed), when it occured to me my room like Command Central with a View.

Seeing-Stars

A friend of mine, currently located in England wrote in his blog that he saw 5 stars.

Hmmmm...

On this crisp cool cloud-less night, in the fresh Telluride Mountain Air, well, let me see, ummmm, I think I see 5+ stars.

Yes, I love Colorado!!!

Live Nude Geeks

Ok, this is really stupid, but I found myself watching all the episodes so far at Live Nude Geeks.

In case you are wondering:
a) I am NOT in it.
b) I would rate it PG (Crude Geek Humor)

SLog (and Server) back up!

Over the holidays I replaced a harddrive that crashed on my server.
So my Slog at www.photofetch.com/skilog/skilog.html is back online.

I was also constantly trying to figure out how far behind I was in my goal. So, I came up with a new benchmark.

As of 1/2/2006:
% of 1 Million Feet: 24% vs
% of Season Used: 32%









So, I am a little behind, but that also takes in account of early season skiing.

Anyway, think snow....

Black Eye

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that 2006 brought in a new black eye. Any guesses on how it happened?



The real story is really not all that exciting.

Oh, Monday is a Holiday!!!

So last night (Sunday), it totaly dawned on me that today (Monday) was a paid holiday! (New Years Day was on a Sunday)

Alright!!!!

So, I deciced to go sking. My unlimitted lesson pass was now valid, so I thought I would also take a lesson. After warming up on a few runs, I went down into Mountain Village to sign up for a Alpine lesson.

I have had good luck with both my Tele and Alpine lessons, and was looking forward to it. Even though I am a "good" Alpine skier, I also feel that one can pick up a tip here or there.

Now here is the funny part, my group was made up of 5 60+ ladies and the instructor. They all were good skiers, and a lot of fun, but I might not have gotten as much out of this lesson.


The shot shown is at the highest point on the area. At the top of Chair 14 (Gold Hill) it 12,225 Feet and was a bit windy and chilly this morning. Click here of the area.

Happy New Year Snow

Holy, snow... There was a lot of snow up there today! I just looked and they reported 7 inches on the Telluride snowreport website.

Good stuff, but very tiring. Not a banner ski day for me, not sure why, but here are some possible explanations:
1) New Years Day comes after New Years Eve and all that comes with it.
2) Tweaked my knee, and was a little bit on the cautious side.
3) Just an off day.

That is a beautiful thing about living here, if you have an off day, then there is always tommorow. I got in 11,383 feet on some good runs, but I will have to notch up, if I am going to get my million feet.

The 'g' was my designated driver last night

Happy New Year!!!!

Not to many people can say they were 'driven' back from New Year festivities by a Gondola.

I went to go see Sam Bush for New Years, what fun!

I look out onto the deck and there is 4-5inches of new SNOW!!! Now, I wish I had just few less "beverages".