Copper's Catalyst terrain park is open!

With the help of some serious snowmaking, Copper has opened the Catalyst terrain park just in time for one of the busiest weeks of the season. The park features six jumps and 20 box and rail features.

Copper is reporting 9 inches of fresh snow in the past seven days, with a mid-mountain base of 32 inches and a summit base of 35 inches.

Season-to-date snowfall is 71 inches, with 30 inches in December. As of Christmas, Copper had 714 acres of terrain open.

View Copper’s mountain cams here.

The snow stake cam, showing 24-hour accumulations, is here.

A new ski resort app for Blackberries puts Copper's trail map on your phone and tracks your runs on the mountain.

By BOB BERWYN

SUMMIT COUNTY — If you’re a skier or snowboarder suffering from iPhone envy, your time has come — if you have a Blackberry.

Just in time for the best part of the ski season, Blackberry owners can buy a cool new ski resort app with nearly all the bells and whistles of the iPhone, including on-mountain GPS tracking and complete run-by-run details.

Once the resort maps have been downloaded, the app works even where there is no internet service. The software supports standard features like panning and zooming to help you get an overview of the ski area.

Live track animation shows you as a red dot cruising around the mountain, and you can even see your speed on the bottom left corner of the phone screen (although skiing while looking at your phone is not recommended).

Ski track analytics and stats shows the name of each lift taken, in order, as well as the names of trails. The program also keeps tabs on the total distance you’ve skied, your average speed and your maximum speed.

The new Blackberry app covers several local resorts, including Copper Mountain, Arapahoe Basin, Keystone, Breckenridge, Loveland and Beaver Creek.

European ski resorts will soon be added to the app.

See the full list of resorts covered here.

A one-year subscription to all North American resorts is $24.99. A five-pack costs $9.99 and if you’re loyal to just one ski area, you can buy the app for $4.99.

Go to  www.berryski.com for all the information.

The latest satellite image show Colorado in the doldrums between a blizzard heading east and a storm rolling into the Pacific Northwest. Cold air dropping down from Canada could keep a few showers in the forecast for the northern mountains.

Chilly temps, high probability of human-triggered avalanches on steep backcountry slopes

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — Snowfall totals varied widely around Summit County, with 6 inches reported at Keystone, but only 1 inch at Arapahoe Basin Thursday morning. Light snow showers could linger the next 24 hours, especially on north and northwest-facing slopes, with a few more inches of fluffy powder piling up.

Other local totals include 2 inches at Copper (6 in the past 48 hours), 1.5 inches at Loveland and 3 inches at Breckenridge (6 the past 24 hours), although reports from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center suggest that some of the backcountry areas around Breckenridge may have picked up a bit more.

Around the state, ski areas to the west and to the east of Summit County picked up a bit more snow, with 10 inches at Steamboat, 8.5 inches at Winter Park and 7 inches at Beaver Creek.

Echo Mountain picked up 7 inches and Eldora, west of Boulder, reported 4.5 inches, showing that, once again, upslope conditions developed as the storm passed to the east, with the flow up against the Front Range of the Rockies squeezing the moisture out of the cold air.

The big winner the past few days was Powderhorn, the little area perched on the Grand Mesa, near Grand Junction. According to the Colorado Ski Country USA snow report, Powderhorn picked up a total of 17 inches from the storm.

That should make for some great Nordic skiing atop the Grand Mesa, a little-known Mecca for skinny ski enthusiasts. A very active group of Nordic skiers maintains a fun blog about skiing on the flat-top mountain.

The National Weather Service in Grand Junction is calling for chances of snow in the northern mountains persisting through Friday.

Temperatures will remain chilly the next few days, with highs only in the single digits and lows dropping well below zero.

The backcountry avalanche danger in the Vail-Summit zone continues to be rated considerable by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, with a chance of human-triggered slides on steeper, wind-loaded slopes above treeline — especially on slopes with northeast to southeast aspects.

With the new snow from the last 48 hours and additional wind-loading, the forecasters said in their Dec. 24 bulletin that human-triggered slides are probable on steeper slopes.

Check in with center for a full report before heading into the backcountry.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

It’s Christmas. Build community and invite your guests to be part of it. That involves more than just trying to figure out ways to squeeze every last penny out their wallets. Hold on to your culture. Don’t be afraid to let your spiritual values shine through. Celebrate the mountains for the joy and comfort they give. Protect the forests and the streams. Nurture your children and give them hope.

By Bob Berwyn

Christmas and skiing have been inextricably linked for me ever since I was an “army brat” growing up in Frankfurt, Germany. The classroom Christmas party on the last day of school (yes, we called it that back on the pre-politically correct days) wasn’t nearly as exciting as the thought that we’d soon be on starting our annual two-week ski vacation to Austria.

Sometimes there was snow on the ground; slushy, dirty city snow that splattered as the cars passed by. But more often than not, it was just gray and dreary, and my heart always skipped a beat when that finned, white 1960 Chevy Impala rolled up. Everything fit in the trunk of that classic American car, even our two-meter-plus skis, so there was plenty of room for my brother and I to sprawl in the back seat. No fast food stops for us — there was no McDonalds or Burger King along the way, so we ate well; cold schnitzels that my mom had made earlier that day, or open-faced sausage sandwiches with tangy pickles, carrot sticks and wedges of green bell peppers.

Sometimes we dozed, but more often than not, we were still awake when we slowed to a stop at the border, where customs officials in long, thick wool coats decorated with epaulets scanned our green U.S. passports, then waved us through with a friendly smile and a “Merry Christmas.”

The mountainous frontier south of Munich was the gateway to snow country, and by the glow of our headlights, we gauged the depth of the berm alongside the road to get an idea of how the skiing would be. Here the road narrowed and twisted through a river-carved canyon, mysterious and new each time we made the trip. Our destination was Saalbach, then a small, up and coming ski village that has since succumbed to the same development pressures that have afflicted so many mountain communities during the past few decades.

Our car barely was able to pass through the narrow alleys that led to the courtyard of our lodge, the Pension Eder, a warren of pine-paneled guest rooms connected by steep, creaky stairs and narrow hallways, all tucked above a slaughterhouse and butcher shop.

We tumbled into bed exhausted, buried ourselves under the billowy eiderdown comforters and fell asleep to the sound of the Salzach River burbling past the window outside. Morning brought a rush to the window. Across the brook was the Bernkogel, the closest of several ski hills within walking distance of the lodge. With a quick glance, we knew if the slopes were icy, or if we were in for an early season powder treat. The hill was served by a creaky single-seater, chairs painted alternately in bright hues of green, red, yellow and blue, with a plastic-covered clip chain serving as a safety bar of sorts.

Just across from our window was an old hay barn; still in use, since the slopes served as a summer pasture for Alpine cattle. On warm days, when the snow was soft, we could faintly smell manure. Every now and then, we’d see local farmers moving a load of hay on big wooden sleds.

The story we were told was that the first lifts in Saalbach were built from U.S. forces “surplus” parts; scavenged steel and cables that remained behind as the occupying army left the alpine Republic to heal from the scars of National Socialism. My early favorite was the Kohlmais area, served by a T-Bar so long that my legs were tired when I got off the lift, before ever starting down the slope.

The springs on that T-Bar pulley were stiff. As long as I was riding up with a partner, we had enough weight to extend the cable to the snow. But on occasion, riding solo, or if my brother fell of before we reached the top, the bar would pull me off the surface. I can remember dangling a few feet in the air, twirling around and enjoying the 360-degree view, but determined to ride to the top.

Some days (but not on Christmas!) our innkeeper would let us watch as he unloaded a truckload of pigs, slaughtered them, and processed the meat in steaming vats, feeding us the fresh sausage for dinner a few hours later. For an eight-year-old it was fascinating, but I think the memory definitely helped push me toward vegetarianism later in my life.

On Christmas Eve, the lifts stopped running two hours early, at 2 p.m. The great bells in the onion-domed church steeple rang out, pealing for 30 minutes. Velvet blue shadows slipped down the slopes, and dozens of Christmas trees twinkled with bright white lights. The shops and restaurants closed as the villagers put on their Sunday best — lederhosen and dirndls, felt hats and loden coats, and headed for Mass.

At our inn, we gathered around a tree, decorated with small apples, straw stars, gold-painted walnuts and real candles, and celebrated the coming of the Christkindl. We had stayed there often enough and long enough so that the owners considered us family of sorts, along with the other guests. After the presents were passed out, the butcher and his family invited us all into their private quarters to sing carols.

My primary memory of this big-boned man is watching him cut meat in a white, blood-stained apron. But on this holy evening, he too seemed as gentle as a newborn babe, leading us through the verses of “Silent Night” in a quavering falsetto.

At the time, I took all this for granted. It was just the way it was — a real town with real people living real lives. But the memory grows more cherished each time this season rolls around. I’ve lived in mountain resort towns around the West for the past 25 years now, and watched, sometimes in despair, as an increasingly corporate,cynical, commercial and plasticized atmosphere seems to pervade into every corner of the world.

It’s Christmas. Build community and invite your guests to be part of it. That involves more than just trying to figure out ways to squeeze every last penny out their wallets. Hold on to your culture. Don’t be afraid to let your spiritual values shine through. Celebrate the mountains for the joy and comfort they give. Protect the forests and the streams. Nurture your children and give them hope.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

First published at New West

Covered in snow. In Colorado. Go figure (and other applicable Americanisms…)

Still in “big airport” mode from Heathrow and Kennedy, I arrived at LaGuardia spectacularly early, much to the bemusement of the check-in staff. I was expecting the endless conveyor belts and multi-terminal hell of LHR or JFK and instead got a gentle stroll around the corner to security and leisurely amble to my gate, not an escalator or belt in sight. The flipside, I suppose, is that there was no-one trying to sell me discount perfume, no caviar-and-champagne bar (no bar at all, come to think of it), in fact very little do to at all. Therefore, I spent the next two hours drinking orange juice and watching a car chase on CNN. The televised car chase is a little slice of Americana that you don’t really imagine finding, like lemonade stands on front lawns (something I really did see in Winnetka, IL in 2006, but that’s beside the point…); it’s something else you read about but don’t actually see. This one was complete with a stream of 20-odd patrol cars (what are the last 15 or so going to do that the first couple can’t manage?), overhead camera footage not from the police but from news networks (well, you’ve got to do something with all that advertising revenue I suppose) and scrolling text commentary. This sky blue Ford F-150 was carving through Dallas County at a little under 100mph for no apparent reason while, as the world looks on in high-definition widescreen, men with no discernable qualification to do so speculate wildly on things like how far such a pickup could get on a full tank at this speed and what the man inside could possibly have done to warrant such behaviour. This sort of thing is so fascinating to the British observer that we like to collate such footage and put it on shows with titles like America’s Most Violent Car Chases on those obscure channels you only find when operating under the mistaken impression that you’ll get back to BBC One quicker by continuing to press the up button until you get back to the start. Of course, everyone else went about their business like nothing out of the ordinary was happening (because, I suppose, it wasn’t), catching flights to Chicago or Atlanta, reading the New York Times or calling their families.

Having added a United Airlines napkin to my American one and thereby begun a collection of sorts (one that would go on to include US Airways as well as Amtrak and Acela trains) and been pleasantly surprised by The Brothers Bloom (which, among other things, features Rachel Weisz crashing Lamborghinis and making pinhole cameras out of hollowed-out vegetables to pass the time; what’s not to love?), I passed the remainder of my flight (window seat!) admiring the agricultural patchwork of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas. Passing over the south of Illinois I had chance to reflect on what took me on this leg of the journey. A remarkable set of coincidences when I considered them, and a story I have told countless times since (and ended up telling a couple of days later at a party). Like many good stories, it stars a beautiful girl and a chance meeting. Unlike most chance meetings, this one occurred on a school trip to Berlin. It also featured an exchange of emails about far-fetched dreams of a trip to America. Duly encouraged, these became not so-far-fetched after all, and led to a trip to Chicago in August 2006 and a few of the most impulsive, enjoyable and ultimately free days I have ever passed (and including a double-header Counting Crows/Goo Goo Dolls show at Tinley Park, IL that might as well have been made for us, so perfect was the musical match). Said beautiful girl was now studying at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and it was time to catch up. Flying within the US being so cheap and convenient, it was, to abuse another Americanism, a no-brainer.

Denver International Airport is the first one I have ever been to where I was required to take a train to baggage reclaim. A totally automated train, indeed, and one that announced your arrival on it with a few staccato piano chords. I’m sure it was really just announcing the fact that the doors had opened, but wherein lies the fun in such a quotidian explanation? It runs back and forth between the terminals and the central baggage hall/transport hub, underground. Well, it’s more interesting than another set of escalators and conveyor belt walkway things…

Wandering through the airport (looking for someone who knew which carousel our bags were really on, ie not the one we’d been told on the plane), I was struck by the number of US servicemen and women flying in uniform; America is proud of its armed forces and the people who serve with them. Not for the first time I found myself looking back at my small island and wondering why we had to be so critical, so cynical, and why we couldn’t have enough pride in our soldiers to allow them to travel in uniform. Countless times whilst catching trains south out of Leeds on a Friday I watched painfully new recruits trying to disguise the fact that a couple of hours ago they had left Catterick Garrison and were now going south for a weekend of home comforts. Hats, bandanas, hoodies, all attempts to conceal the buzz cut that was the ultimate giveaway, but there were other signs too, most often the issue kitbags. In America they would expect congratulation, little nods of deference and discounts; I feared that at home they would get suspicion from some, anger and rejection from others.

Baggage claim negotiated, I made for the exit. Stepping out of the airport was a shock. Early October in New York had been mild and I’d been out in shirtsleeves. The cold wasn’t vicious, just omnipresent. The air was different, crisp as I passed through the curtain of warmth in front of the automatic doors and into Colorado. The vista that presented itself was instantly different to everything I’d seen in New York, even before I looked up and saw the Flatirons looming. Wide open spaces, even in airport bus terminals, are the order of the day where the Midwest meets the Rockies.

The aggregation of humanity lingering around the bus stop spoke volumes about Boulder. Students, yes, but also assorted bohemian types, utterly at odds with the ultra-busy New Yorkers I’d spent the past few days rubbing shoulders with. The bus appeared, late but welcome. The sun was setting over the Rockies, and soon after that over the airport bus stops too. It got dark quickly, and soon after that began to snow. I was on edge; no real idea where I was, and whilst logic told me that Boulder was an hour’s drive from DIA and the final destination of the bus (and that I could therefore afford to relax a little), nevertheless a paranoid fear of missing my stop made me jumpy. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the student types who had said they were getting off at Euclid (a street, apparently; I was still expecting numbers, not Greek mathematicians) decided to get off early. Neither, I suppose, was I put at ease by the driver, who attempted to explain the notion of the request stop to the assembled travelers in a “comic” scary voice more suited to the festival of Halloween still nearly three weeks away. “Make sure you ring that bell, kids, or I’ll just….keep…on…driving…through the night!”

Eventually I put my earphones in and found something to fit the mood. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals live from Leeds Academy, an electric, blistering, brilliant set I’d seen nearly a year beforehand (and, thanks to the benevolence of said band and the wonders of modern technology, had a crystal-clear bootleg recording of). Pedal steel, songs of wide open spaces and loneliness, suddenly appropriate on this bus ride through the dark and the snow, further from home than I had ever been.

I stepped off a bus and into the life of someone I once knew briefly but deeply, filled with uncertainty.

Writing to a friend:

Erin and I spent 4 days catching up like the old friends we are. We ate good food, talked endlessly, carved pumpkins (another American ritual for the collection) and walked in the snow. And yes, the snow was awesome. On the night I arrived, having flown from NY LaGuardia to Denver International then caught a bus to Boulder (following Erin’s instructions), I stepped off said bus and was fairly jumped on by an excited Erin.

Greetings dispensed with, we made our way quickly into warmth and shelter, walking through the still-falling snow to The Sink.

11th October

Snow, unexpected and unseasonal even here, has cast a magical blanket over this place. Erin met me from the bus and we went for the best burger I’ve had in ages while we caught up on life.

For “in ages” read “ever”.

It had started snowing as I was on the bus, so we walked through it to this burger bar she wanted to show me. The Sink, as it’s known, has been there since 1930 and is something of a landmark. Robert Redford worked there when he was a student at the University of Colorado, which is pretty cool. We ate burgers and fries and drank coke and felt very American. This proved to me that there is such a thing as a good cheeseburger, because that’s what I had. Good beef, cooked how you like it (medium in my case, medium-rare in hers), SO tasty. Boulder is a college town, dominated by the bohemian presence of some 20,000 students and the associated hippy types who gather for the bars, the music and the marijuana. The looming Flatiron hills, the leading edge of the Rockies, are visible every time you look west.

From there we went back to her place, dropped my stuff, changed and went straight out to a party. A themed affair, “Professors and schoolgirls”, which mostly meant the girls trying to outdo each other in the sluttiness stakes, short plaid skirts and tight white blouses while the guys stood around wearing button-down shirts and jackets and looking awkward. Drinking games ensued, much like a student house party anywhere else. We did one other party during the weekend, a much more civilized affair involving good food, wine and coffee; they can, it seems do both crazy drunk and quite refined.

The first question everyone asks when you tell them you went to a keg party is, “Did they have those red cups?”

Maybe I didn’t watch enough bad American teen movies or something, but my first encounter with these 12 fl oz marvels was in Chicago. They’re another of those things that just don’t exist in Europe, for no good reason that I can see. There is a chicken-egg dilemma though; which came first, the red plastic cups or the drinking games that create the demand for them?!

The second party referred to was indeed a civilised one; good food, wine and conversation, and awesome Irish coffee. The secret, I was told in no uncertain terms, was freshly whipped cream, sugar and Bourbon. Far be it for me to suggest that Irish coffee should have had Jameson’s in it… Speaking of alcohol, before said party I was called upon to go shopping for wine, another American college experience to add to my growing collection. It’s difficult for an outsider to judge whether the fraternisation between year groups encourages underage drinking or whether the desire for illicit alcohol drives said fraternisation, but either way I’d answered the question of how it makes its way down to the under-21s as I knew it must; the duty is foisted on the older ones, clutching money pooled by the group. Until the point where I presented a UK drivers licence, it felt reasonably authentic; the document tends to cause much confusion/suspicion in a Midwest wine warehouse.

Writing to my father, evidently in reply to a show of concern about the weather:

There’s about two inches of snow in Boulder, started falling about an hour after I landed in Denver. This is apparently early for snow, even here at the foot of the Rockies. It’s very beautiful. I took my long tweed coat for a very good reason, and it proved invaluable. Scarf and gloves in the coat pockets, which was a good thing! That plus Timberland boots saw me through, although I did have to buy a hat. (In answer to his question as to what I meant by the term…) Flatirons are the first bit of the Rockies, as it were, and loom at the end of streets in Boulder, every time you look west.

Here was an experience of American life unlike any I’d seen before (not difficult really, seeing as my experience extended to Chicagoland(they actually use the word, apparently) suburbia and New York hotels); watching American students going about student-y things Subtly different to their British counterparts in all sorts of ways. For a start, almost everyone drives, and in Colorado it’s usually 4×4s like Jessi’s gorgeous, dilapidated ’78 Chevrolet Cheyenne, complete with doors cannibalised from another truck at some point in its long life.

Suddenly there was space. I had become, arriving in the mountains after four days in the city, “a man who gauges bucolic distances by New York City blocks” (Salinger, J.D., Seymour: An Introduction).   I had never felt so much an inhabitant of a city, never so inhabited by one, rarely so alienated by a change in landscape.

Another email:

Other than student parties, my time was mostly spent walking the Boulder Creek trail, trying not to freeze to death and fending off Max the kitten, who was rescued from a sewer and is the most excitable life form of any kind I have ever met. Like your average kitten on speed or something.

Max

wish hotels came with kittens for alarm clocks

Max was a part of the experience, no doubt, and after a short while developed a keen sense for when it was appropriate to climb on me (and another for which bits of the duvet he could paw at without risking a gentle nudge of dissuasion).

The weekend drew inevitably to a close, but Monday was Erin’s birthday. Buying Franny & Zooey for friends is hugely satisfying, no more so than in America, where Salinger books come with the original cover art. It took all my willpower not to buy a full set to take home! Here is not the place to go on at length about the genius of J.D. Salinger, but I can summarise most of what I’d like to say by simply compelling you to look beyond Catcher in the Rye, either with Franny and Zooey or Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters/Seymour: An Introduction. F&Z is a book I’ve bought for several friends. Filled with the best of Salinger’s observational work, the opening page is simply some of the most delicious description of humanity the 20th century American canon has to offer.

THOUGH brilliantly sunny, Saturday morning was overcoat weather again, not just topcoat weather, as it had been all week and as everyone had hoped it would stay for the big weekend– the weekend of the Yale game. Of the twenty-some young men who were waiting at the station for their dates to arrive on the ten-fifty-two, no more than six or seven were out on the cold, open platform. The rest were standing around in hatless, smoky little groups of twos and threes and fours inside the heated waiting room, talking in voices that, almost without exception, sounded collegiately dogmatic, as though each young man, in his strident, conversational turn, was clearing up, once and for all, some highly controversial issue, one that the outside, non-matriculating world had been bungling, provocatively or not, for centuries.

J.D. Salinger, Franny

Having raved about it to Erin the day before, and having known (and planned) that I would be with her on her birthday, I set about getting a copy. The bookshop in Boulder was a revelation in itself (and not just because I found myself reading C.S. Lewis’s lectures). Late night opening hours, vast stock and beautiful wooden staircases with brass rails. Lewis was my first conscious effort at engaging with one of the elephants in the room, the God question. How long can you travel in the US and not meet it? Regardless, the bookshop provided me with both a copy of F&Z and a card with the Goethe quote I refer to in the very first entry in the blog:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

(I should point out that, should you wish, there is a raft of discussions and articles about the veracity of this quote’s ascription to Goethe, but I’ll leave that up to you and Google…) It’s a delightful sentiment, and seemed to fit the morning.

12th October

Norlin Library, University of Colorado at Boulder

Sunshine! Mountains finally creeping into view. Bagels with Erin and Jessie, beat-up ’78 Chevy Cheyenne adds to the sense of Americanness.

If I was on a search for the essence of this nation, riding shotgun in a Chevy pickup to go and get bagels for breakfast gets close. I can’t handle the cream cheese on everything, but hot cinnamon and raisin bagels with butter and honey are pretty remarkable.

That night we dined at Antica Roma, the best Italian restaurant Boulder had to offer. I eat a lot of Italian food, in Italy when the chance arises but otherwise in both independents and various chains in the UK, to varying success. The combination of Italian food and American service, however, is utterly incongruous and faintly unnerving. Somehow it just feels wrong that there’s a waiter at your elbow just dying to rush around at your beck and call, ice water, bread and oil arriving without so much as a word (or a charge) and with such politeness as to be a little discomforting for the hapless Brit. Leaving aside the service for a moment, the food was good. Quite how one gets hold of mozzarella in the Rockies I’ve no idea, but the pizza was authentic and unpolluted by America’s idea of what pizza ought to look like. I’ve nothing against deep-pan Chicago-style; indeed, Erin introduced me to the magical place that is Gino’s East (and somewhere in there our names are scrawled on the walls!), but this was proper, wood-fired stone-baked thin, crispy and tasty Italian pizza, in the heart of Middle America. Just when you could have slipped away into a recollected reverie of Rome, our ultra-helpful waiter arrived to ask if I’d like a doggy-bag. Ah, America the gluttonous…

The following morning I was awakened by Max, whose uncanny sense of timing prevailed once more. A quick breakfast then Erin guided me back onto the airport bus. A sad farewell, but safe in the knowledge our paths will cross again, wanderers both. Back to Denver International and onto a United flight to Dallas/Fort Worth.

Windblown water of Lake Alma, Banff

If you’ve ever experienced the vivid blue waters of the lakes and rivers of the Canadian Rockies, you know how stunning they can be, particularly on bright sunny days.  It’s not the clear blue sky itself that creates the colour, nor is it the fanciful tale that it comes from the colourful tail of the Peacock.

So how does this colour form?  It occurs as a result of what’s called ‘rock flour’, a powdery substance created in the glaciers which feed the mountain lakes and streams.  Rocks trapped in the glaciers grind against each other, forming the flour.  Glacier meltwater washes it into the Lakes and streams resulting in the vivid blue and stunning turquoise colour.

Athabasca Falls/River, Jasper National Park

Moraine Lake and Valley of the Ten Peaks, Banff National Park

]]> http://coppercoloradocondos.com/2009/12/19/bluebird-but-avalanche-danger-lurks-in-backcountry/ Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:46:13 +0000 Bob Berwyn http://coppercoloradocondos.com/2009/12/19/bluebird-but-avalanche-danger-lurks-in-backcountry/

CLICK ON THE PHOTO FOR A LARGER IMAGE. The latest in a series of avalanches around Loveland Pass was small, but shows how terrain features can become potentially dangerous terrain traps. PHOTO BY BOB BERWYN.

Today’s weather extra, with a video link: CU researchers document startling pace of coastal erosion in Alaska

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — Blue skies and seasonable temperatures should make for a fine ski weekend, but backcountry skiers still need to be aware of potential avalanche hazards on slopes facing north to southeast, above treeline, where wind-loaded slabs are sitting on top of layers of unconsolidated sugar snow.

Natural avalanche activity has nearly ceased, but triggered slides are still possible to probable in parts of the zone, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. In the Saturday morning bulletin, forecaster Brad Sawtell said there was a report of a snowshoe hare triggering a small avalanche while running across a wind-loaded drift.

Small slabs and fractures are also visible on some of the steeper road cuts along high country passes and highways. another recent slide at Loveland Pass shows how small wind-loaded pockets can turn into dangerous terrain traps (see photo at right).

Temperatures for the next few days will range into the 20s for highs and drop into the low teens and single digits at night. The next major change in the weather pattern could come about Tuesday, when a colder trough of low pressure should dig into the area. Forecasts at this point are calling for a good chance of snow mid-week, perfect timing for skiers planning a holiday ski trip.

Far from the mountains of Summit County, researchers with the University of Colorado’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research have that portions of Alaska’s coastline are receding at a startling rate of 30 to 45 feet per year because of declining sea ice, warming waters and increased wave action.

The study area is about midway between Point Barrow and Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope. Bluffs of peat along the coastline are being undercut and melted by waves during the warm summer months. Although there are no towns in the vicinity, the rapid erosion could affect some abandoned military and oil industry infrastructure in the area.

The erosion was documented in part with time-lapse video photography that graphically demonstrates how quickly the sea is eating away at the shoreline. The University of Colorado news center posted a story on the research with video clips here.

A group tasked with easing I-70 congestion will look to social media tools to help keep driver up-to-date on traffic conditions along the corridor.

New director of I-70 coalition starts Jan. 1. Meanwhile, planners hope that smart phones and social media networks will help drivers avoid congestion along the corridor

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — Plans for widening and otherwise improving I-70 are moving about as fast as the traffic headed back to Denver on a Sunday afternoon, but the stakeholder group charged with addressing corridor transportation issues is grappling with highway congestion in a new way.

The latest efforts to speed the flow of traffic on busy days focus on the high-tech use of emerging mobile information technologies and social media, including blogs and Twitter, according to Dr. Flo Raitano, the outgoing director of the I-70 Coalition.

Travelers along the corridor will become part of the solution, as their GPS-enabled phones transmit real-time data to a new web site, www.goi70.com, where all the data will be crunched to give travelers realistic and timely information on traffic and weather conditions.

The web site is up and running in a beta version, with a full launch expected sometime this spring, perhaps in time for the busy spring break travel season.

“Information is power,” said Raitano, explaining that the so-called jackrabbits (I-70 travelers participating in the program) will be providing data for the web site just by having their phones turned on. Texting while driving won’t be necessary, she said.

Other tools provided by the Colorado Department of Transportation go hand-in-hand with the I-70 coalition’s mobile information network, including more highway cameras that will enable Colorado Department of Transportation officials to set appropriate speeds on the variable speed limit signs along the corridor, based on traffic density and conditions.

The social network at the heart of spreading critical I-70 travel news will be built on Twitter, the short-message networking service that has spread like wildfire in the past year, said Tad Kline, the transportation demand manager for the I-70 coalition.
Kline said the coalition is looking for more volunteer jackrabbits to participate in the information sharing network.

“We can use jackrabbits with any service, but the nature of what they can do varies with the service,” Kline said. The best information will come from GPS-enabled phones that automatically transmit data.

The idea is to create mobile application for phones that will connect travelers along the corridor with the most up-to-date information. The jackrabbits, preferably with smart phones like iPhones, recent Blackberries or Android-based phones, will need to load the mobile application on to their phones to participate.

“Because this is software in early development we are looking for volunteers with a healthy curiosity about new technology, a bit of free time and lots of patience,” Kline said in a blog post on the Go I-70 web site.

Anyone interested in participating should send an email to info@i70solutions.org including name, smart phone type and model, phone number, and an email address.
Along with smart technology and software, CDOT has also beefed up other areas in its efforts to keep traffic moving.

Raitano said there will be easier for truckers to get a tow when they need one, and commercial chain-up providers stationed at strategic spots will also help ensure that truckers have the gear they need to get over through the mountains safely.

I-70 transition
Raitano is leaving her I-70 coalition job at the end of December. She’ll be replaced by Rachel Oys, a Genesee resident who also understands the potential pitfalls of traveling the I-70 corridor.

“I’m going try and learn as much as I can over the next few weeks,” said Oys. “I’m looking forward to a new challenge.”
For the last 10 years, Oys has worked in the public health field, helping to raise more than $33 million in the fight against obesity in Colorado, according to a report in the Denver Business Journal.

Most recently, Oys oversaw the creation of LiveWell as a nonprofit entity, including the development of strategic plans, grant writing and fundraising.

The University of Denver graduate started DU’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Week, and interned with AIDS Infoshare, to put together events like World AIDS Day in Moscow.Group

A small herd of bighorn sheep tromp through the snow along Highway 6 in Summit County, just a few miles from Copper Mountain.

The snow is starting to pile up at Copper Mountain, with 8 inches from the last storm, 15 this month and a total snowfall for the season of 56 inches to-date.

As of Dec. 15, Copper was reporting a 29-inch base at mid-mountain and a 32-inch base at the summit. Seven lifts are running, serving 344 acres and snowmaking crews are laying down at the Union Creek area, which should open soon with a little help from Mother Nature.

Keep up with the snowfall at Copper with this link to the resort’s snow stake cam, showing 24-hour snowfall totals.

Other mountain cams at Copper show a great view of the superpipe at the base area, and even the inside of Woodward at Copper.

A trail report with grooming info is updated daily here. The Dec. 15 edition shows several popular runs, including Andy’s Encore and Rosi’s, off the Super Bee, as recently groomed.

And if visit this link, you’ll  be able to win bar bets and impress friends by learning all the cool facts about Copper Mountain ski area, including the total acreage (2,450), the vertical drop (2,601 feet) and  the average annual snowfall (282 inches).

Coming up at Copper Dec. 19 is a USASA Rocky Mountain Series snowboard contest.

Contact us so we can help you plan the best winter vacation to Copper Mountain, and enjoy a few more pictures below.

A serene early winter view of Peak One from the shore of Dillon Reservoir in Frisco.

A dried thistle, still showing a bit of purple from summer bloom, wears a new dusting of snow.

Copper's superpipe is ready for action.

A classic Colorado truck is dressed up with lights for the holidays in Summit County, Colorado. PHOTO BY BOB BERWYN.

Summit County is lighting up for the holidays, and Copper Colorado Condos wants to help you enjoy the season with a memorable vacation stay at one of our handpicked units at Copper Mountain or Frisco.

Our newest addition, the four-bedroom Peak One townhouse in Frisco, is the perfect spot for a holiday family gathering, or for a group of friends to enjoy the ambience of Frisco’s Main Street.

Our little town (yes, we live here too), is nestled at the base of Mt. Royal, a gateway peak to the magnificent Tenmile Range. The Peak One townhouse is just two blocks from Main Street. Go the other direction up Second Avenue, and you’ll be on the local bike path in just a few moments. In the winter, the path is a great place to try out a pair of snowshoes and enjoy the snow-covered forest. Look closely at the hillside and you might spot the remnants of an old ski jump, once used by local high school students.

After your ski day, enjoy a soak in the new brushed metal hot tub in the Peak One townhome.

Nowadays, the modern resort industry has focused winter activities at well-known world-class resorts like Breckenridge and Copper Mountain, but in the early 1900s, it was a hardy group of Scandinavian miners who first brought their 10-foot wooden skis to the area, continuing the snowsport traditions of their native lands. In 1910, Peter Prestrud built a jump at the mouth of Tenmile Canyon, where the miners held friendly contests.

A few years later, Prestrud and Eyvin Flood, a fellow Norwegian, built a big jumping hill at Dillon (the site is above the Dillon Dam Road), where Anders Haugen even set a world record in 1919.

Come enjoy today’s winter recreation in Summit County and get a taste of the area’s rich heritage at Frisco’s historic park, just a short stroll from our Peak One unit.

Learn more about the rich skiing heritage of Summit County here.

Enjoy the photos of Frisco’s holiday lights and come visit us soon.

Frisco’s event calendar is online here.

A statue of a bighorn sheep, Colorado's state animal, is decked out in holiday style at the corner of Frisco's Main Street and Summit Blvd.

Welcome to Frisco, Colorado!

A view down Frisco Main Street from in front of the town's museum.

Santa's sleigh is temporarily parked next to a Christmas tree in Frisco's downtown gazebo.

Fort Collins, Colo.: It’s one of those quaint little American towns that sets the tone for a fairy tale story. “Once upon a time…”

With it’s Colorado Rocky Mountain-bound and watery-blue western skyline; two-streets main drag dappered with Holiday light-enshrouded trees, laptop-strewn coffee shops and crisply decorated retail stores; hip music scene, pristine air quality laced with smells from baked goods and a plethora of restaurants; horse hooves clacking on the pavement as families safely ride, nestled in while chatting about the scenery, and exceptionally friendly people (eager to stop their cars, allowing you to cross the street), this Fort Collins, a former Civil War military camp, is a ‘nice’ place…

Today's weather picture shows stormy skies over Silverthorne and the Lower Blue. Scattered snow showers prevailed Saturday, with a better chance of decent snow in the area expected Sunday night.

Saturday highs:

17-22 degrees
Lows Saturday night:

10-15 degrees
Sunday highs:

23-28 degrees
Weekend winds:

15-25 MPH, gusting to 45 MPH

SUMMIT COUNTY — A westerly flow started delivering a series of weak weather disturbances to the north-central mountains Saturday morning, with Arapahoe Basin reporting snowfall along the Continental Divide. A handful of resorts have picked up an inch of new snow, with more on the way. The winner of this morning’s snowfall derby is Purgatory, reporting 5 inches in the past 24 hours.

The National Weather Service office in Boulder is calling for scattered snow showers to continue in Summit County, but the agency has issued a winter storm warning for areas to the west and south, including the Flattops and the San Juan Mountains, where more significant accumulations are expected.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/den/

In the larger weather picture, another typical El Niño storm is moving in off the coast of Southern California. Heavy snow is expected in parts of the Sierra Nevada, and parts of northern Arizona and northern New Mexico will once again see good amounts of snow. Wolf Creek, in the eastern San Juans, should also be favored by the storm coming in on southwest winds.

The bulk of the storm is expected to move into Colorado early Sunday morning. Forecasts with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, who make localized mountain forecasts, said in their Saturday morning update that snowfall with favor Colorado’s southern and south-central mountains. The best chance for significant snow in the northern part of the state will come Sunday night as the storm passes through and the flow shifts around to the north. If the storm holds together, it could drop as much as 3 to 6 inches in the local mountains.

http://avalanche.state.co.us

The avalanche center is also getting reports about a brittle snowpack in the backcountry, with buried surface hoar layers in some areas with deeper snow, especially in the western part of the zone around Vail. Those feathery crystals don’t bond well with layers above and below, and one of the center’s forecasters who was testing the snow found them to be “reactive,” which means they give way while conducting snow pack stability tests.

Other reports coming in to the center note easily triggered slabs and warning signs like propagating cracks and “whumpfing” in the snowpack, clear signs that there is tension in the wind-blown slabs of snow.

The center also reported the season’s first North American Avalanche fatality. Well-known Canadian ice climber Guy Lacelle, 54, was climbing at the Bozeman Ice Festival in Montana when he was hit by a slide triggered by climbers above, sweeping him to his death. Read a short report at PlanetSki. http://www.planetski.eu/news/1136

Holiday lights in Summit County Colorado.

Copper Colorado Condos joins the town of Frisco to invite everyone to a very special holiday celebration. As in past years, Frisco is celebrating Wassail Days, with carolers, a special breakfast with Santa, sleigh rides, free Nordic skiing, spiced cider and off course some great shopping along the Main Street to the Rockies.

 For more information and a full schedule please click here: Frisco Wassail Days.

 Wassail is the old English name for spiced cider brewed during the holiday season, and Frisco’s special holiday event also includes the Wasail Challenge, a search for the best Wassail recipe in town.

 Last year’s winning wassail came from Rivers Inc., a unique clothing shop on Main St., and the shop owner is up for the challenge again this year.

“As the reigning wassail champion, I challenge all Frisco business owners to try and come a close second to our award-winning recipe,” said  owner Campy.

 Rivers Inc. was awarded the winning Wassail Cup Trophy last year, which is on display in the store for people to admire. Find out all the stores and restaurants with Wassail at. The 2009 Wassail Competition runs between Dec. 5-13.

 To enjoy a Rocky Mountain Christmas, Frisco-style, visit the Copper Colorado Condos blog to get information about our newest rental, a four-bedroom townhome just a short stroll from Main Street. The Peak One townhome includes a hot tub, a fireplace, and plenty of room for large families or groups of friends to spread out and enjoy some holiday cheer.

631 // December 09, 2009

Today is the last continuation of my posts on the Denver Art Museum’s Western Art. I just want to share some final favorites.

This photograph was part of the Historic Western American Art section of DAM. Right now, we are looking at stereo photographs (double prints you see on the table) with a stereoscope viewer (far left). Combined, these two create a 3D effect when looking through the viewfinder, and it is taken with one camera. I’ve had a slight obsession lately with this camera (a David White Stereo Realist), and it was not only surprising, but fitting that I actually saw some historic photos taken with this type of camera.

Another painter that I really, really, couldn’t take my eyes off was Albert Bierstadt. DAM had a few paintings of his, one being “Long’s Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park”. Took up the entire wall, and his blues were bluer than blue.

I really recommend taking a trip over to the art museum if and when you get the chance. Every first Saturday is free, but a little more crowded; but otherwise, spend the few bucks to not only see this section, but the entire place. Wear gym shoes and expect to spend at least 4 hours for a good time…

So,  I think this year (or more accurately, next year which starts in about 3 weeks) I will finally have a clear schedule on the last weekend in June, and will finally be able to actually participate in an event I’ve been wanting to be a part of for a while now: the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in the Rocky Mountains.  

I’m excited about the training. In two days we are going to walk 39.3 miles, a marathon and a half. That’s not something your feet just do, and the process of getting my body used to walks of 20+ miles at a crack is something I am really looking forward to. And – just 5 days ago or so – I was really nervous about the steep fundraising goal, a whopping minimum requirement of $1800. I was seriously worried that this might be just too overwhelming of a challenge, but I was ready to face it, albeit with real trepidation. Then my fiance donated, and sent an email to his friends; and I emailed my sister and Facebooked my Avon Walk page. Today, on Day 7 out of 207 days till the walk, I have raised $375, almost 20% of my goal.

Wow, so that was easy. I haven’t even gotten my shit together to send an organized fundraising email to all my friends and I’m 20% of the way there? Looks like I need to revise my goal. And with the outdoor temperatures hovering between 10 degrees and minus 13, it looks like the really tough part of this Avon challenge may be the walking after all.

629 // December 07, 2009

I mentioned yesterday that I was able to visit the Denver Art Museum. I didn’t tell you that the Western Art section was my absolute favorite. Now, there are two sections: Western American Art and Historic Western American Art. Right now I will focus on telling you of the first mentioned – generally.

The quote you see in the photograph is part of a series of cards that the DAM lets you take in the Western exhibit – there are the following categories, related to the different artist quotes: inspred, proud, philisophical, happy, calm, forlorn and cynical.

Since these are all quotes related to the West, I have placed the cards in an extremely deep frame (ala thrift store, painted and refinished) above a huge map of Colorado that hangs in my office.

Thanks to DAM for providing these cards, as they are indeed, inspirational to the Rocky Mountain West no matter what the subject.

This post is already pretty long, so I will share a story with you tomorrow of a worker I met there, and some of my other favorite artists displayed.

Colorado Ski Country USA highlights some new air and ground travel options for Colorado ski resorts. PHOTO COURTESY CSCUSA.

There’s snow in the forecast and the peak season is just about here in the Rocky Mountains ofColorado, so it’s time to plan a great ski trip. To make it easier to reach all the ski resorts in the state, the experts at Colorado Ski Country USA recently compiled a list of travel tips with information on air and ground transportation to, and within, Colorado.

New flights to Southwest Colorado make it easier to get to Telluride, Steamboat has launched a new web site with flight information and the popular ski train from Denver to Winter Park is back, after a scare last spring, when the service was canceled. Copper has a new shuttle service connection and several resorts are offering discounts and close-in parking for car-poolers.

TELLURIDE
New flights into the Telluride/Montrose Regional Airport will give skiers more options for travel to Telluride Ski Resort this season. New this winter from United Airlines is a second Saturday flight from Chicago during peak winter travel periods and two-class service (first class and coach) from Los Angeles on Saturdays. United also adds Sunday service out of L.A. this season for Telluride travelers. This winter’s total number of air seats to Telluride/Montrose maintains pace with last year’s record number and boasts nine non-stop destinations: Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Dallas Ft. Worth, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, Newark, and Los Angeles.

POWDERHORN/GRAND JUNCTION
Another new daily direct flight, from Los Angeles to Grand Junction, will make getting to Powderhorn Resort simple for West Coast powderhounds this season too. Allegiant Air now offers direct flights between LAX and Grand Junction on Mondays and Fridays. The Friday flight from L.A. arrives in Grand Junction at 4:25pm, leaving just enough time to drive to the resort, try one of their famous Ribeye Sirloin Filet Burgers at the new Skiers’ Union Café and Bar, and get a good night’s sleep before hitting the slopes in the morning.

And don’t forget about crosscountry skiing atop Grand Mesa, the world’s largest flat-top mountain located just a few miles from Grand Junction and one of the best Nordic areas in the state. The Grand Mesa Nordic Blog has great information and links.

http://grandmesanordicnews.blogspot.com/

STEAMBOAT
Also new for this season, Steamboat Resort launched www.FlySteamboat.com http://www.FlySteamboat.com, a new website to help travelers chart the most affordable and efficient flights to Steamboat from major cities across the United States. Recent expansions and improvements at the Steamboat Springs/Hayden airport this season allow the facility to host nonstop direct flights from nine cities across the US, with daily arrivals and departures plus connecting flights providing access across the country and around the world.

Four major US carriers—American, Continental, Delta/Northwest and United Airlines—offer nonstop jet service from Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, Houston, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Newark, New York/LaGuardia and Salt Lake City. The plentiful flights are also a boon to Howelsen Hill, which welcomes Olympians form around the country to its ski jump training facilities.

To help families afford a winter vacation, Steamboat is also bringing back its popular Kids Fly Free program this season, offering a free airline ticket for kids 12 and under when their families book a two-night stay through Steamboat Central Reservations. Some restrictions apply.

ASPEN/SNOWMASS
Aspen/Snowmass also makes air travel easy for its guests this winter. Located just three miles from Aspen and six miles from Snowmass Village, the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport sees approximately 150 direct and connecting flights per week, including many connecting international flights. Delta, United Express, and Frontier airlines all offer direct service into Aspen/Pitkin Country Airport. Once there, guests wanting to move between town and the mountains can take a free shuttle. For visitors who want to sample the different mountains, Aspen/Snowmass provides a free shuttle between all four mountains regularly during the skiing day, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

CRESTED BUTTE THREE-FOR-TWOS
When traveling by air to Crested Butte Mountain Resort, visitors can take advantage of the resort’s Friends and Family Fly Free program. The offer is simple: buy two airline tickets and get the third free. The maximum number of tickets per reservation is nine and there is a four-night minimum stay required. Upon arrival, let someone else do the driving. Crested Butte’s transportation network makes for a hassle-free vacation. Alpine Express meets every flight and provides door-to-door shuttle service between the Gunnison/Crested Butte airport and Crested Butte; a short, scenic 30-minute transfer.

MONARCH
Monarch Mountain, another staple on the Colorado skiing diet, is also accessible from the Gunnison/Crested Butte Airport. Of course, Monarch is also the closest resort to Colorado Springs, Colorado, bringing in many visitors who fly into the Colorado Springs airport.

PURGATROY/DURANGO MOUNTAIN RESORT AND SILVERTON MOUNTIAN
The closest resort to the Durango/La Plata airport, Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort is a cinch to get to by air. Durango airport currently takes daily, direct service from Denver on United and Frontier Airlines and from Phoenix on US Airways. These airlines may consider adding more flights from these locations in the near future, due in part to the past success that the flights have seen carrying skiers and riders to the area. Once guests arrive at the airport, the resort works closely with the City of Durango to provide daily shuttle service from Durango to the mountain.

Skiers and riders wanting to experience the advanced, natural terrain that Silverton Mountain offers can fly to Durango/La Plata airport as well.

GROUND TRANSPORTATION: THE SKI TRAIN IS BACK; SHUTTLE SERVICE TO COPPER

The historic Ski Train from Denver to Winter Park is back this season, under new operation by the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad. Early bird tickets are on sale now for $34. The iconic train is slated to begin running from Denver’s Union Station to Winter Park Resort on a regular schedule starting December 27, 2009.

Copper Mountain makes it easy for guests to get to the resort by shuttle bus. Guests who fly into DIA can take a direct shuttle provided by Grayline, Copper’s Official Ground Transportation Provider. There are many benefits to utilizing this service: no need to worry about paying for gas or parking, or driving through snowy weather.

Sunlight Mountain Resort also offers a shuttle to the resort from select hotels in Glenwood Springs as part of its “Ski, Swim, Stay” package. The shuttle service is free with purchase of the vacation deal, which allows guests to combine a night’s lodging, admission to the Glenwood Hot Springs, and a day lift ticket at Sunlight for one low price.

As Denver’s “closest, cheapest, and freshest” resort, Echo Mountain also boasts easy access along with a fun attitude. The mountain, which specializes in terrain parks, lies only 35 miles away from downtown Denver on Highway 103. Just past the town of Evergreen and a stone’s throw away from other mountain towns, the resort’s location and affordability often entice skiers into an impromptu getaway to the ski and ride area.

PUBLIC TRANSIT TO ELDORA
Eldora Mountain Resort has one major advantage in the ground transportation game: it is the only resort accessible with the Denver/Boulder area’s public transportation system, RTD. Located only 21 miles from Boulder and 45 miles from Denver, Eldora Mountain Resort is uniquely situated near several of Colorado’s main metropolitan areas. With its new Boulder Ski Escape package, guests can spend a night in one of 19 participating Boulder hotels and a day skiing at Eldora for as low as $64.50 per person. This deal makes the short drive or bus ride all the more enticing.

Loveland Ski Area is the first ski area along the I-70 corridor coming from Denver, so skiers and riders can drive less and ski more at Loveland. Near to the highway, the resort resides within the wooded alpine reaches of the Arapahoe National Forest. To make a trip by car even easier, Loveland provides free, close-in parking to its guests at both of its parking areas and a free shuttle service to take guests between parking areas and to the lifts.

Also nearby to the Front Range, Ski Cooper sits atop Tennessee Pass just nine miles north of the historic mining town of Leadville. The ski area offers guests a family-friendly atmosphere in a location that’s easy to get to, drawing visitors from the surrounding areas, including out-of-state guests and locals from Denver and Colorado Springs.

Visitors can bag two resorts with one drive by visiting Winter Park Resort and SolVista Basin at Granby Ranch, which neighbor each other on Highway 40. SolVista’s night skiing operation allows guests who drive to the resort to avoid busier times on the road, enjoying snow-packed turns while others are in the car heading home.

TICKET DISCOUNTS FOR CAR-POOLING
Also for ground travelers, two Colorado resorts are at the forefront in encouraging carpooling: Wolf Creek offers a carpooling match-up service over the internet called “Share the Ride, Share the Fun.” The program is designed to connect drivers with people who need rides. Riders share the cost of fuel with drivers who are heading to the slopes. Arapahoe Basin also encourages travelers to carpool by offering a carpool incentive program this season. Guests who arrive at A-Basin with four or more passengers in their vehicle receive a lift ticket discount, even when other passengers in their vehicles have season passes.

Chilly temperatures at the end of November and early December have helped build a thick layer of ice on Meadow Creek Pond in Frisco. The town announced Dec. 2 that the pond is open for skating.

SUMMIT COUNTY — Winter has started for real in the High Country, with temperatures forecast to stay in the single digits and teens the next few days and some snow on the horizon this weekend, according to the mountain weather experts at the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

Look for slightly warmer weather Friday and Saturday as a northwest flow takes over. By Saturday night, a low pressure system with another slug of cold air should move in, bringing a chance of on-and-off snow through Tuesday.

Local weather observers in Summit County reported that November lived up to its historic record as one of the driest months of the year.

“Unfortunately, it seems as though November didn’t produce any better snowfall results than October did, said Dave Fernandez, a Dillon-based Denver Water official who helps track weather stats for the National Weather Service.

Historically, October produces approximately 7.6 inches of snowfall and November about 15.2 inches of snowfall. This year Mother Nature gave us 5.5 inches of snow in October and only 4.5 inches for November,” Fernandez said.

Looking back a few months, Fernandez said late winter and spring were also dry at the Dillon site. For January  through May, the station recorded 60.5 inches of snow, compared to the historic average spring snowfall of 85.5 inches, Fernandez said.

For the year-to-date, the historic average is about 110 inches, but the Dillon weather observatory has only tallied 70.5 inches through the end of November.

“That means just to be near average (127.5 inches) for the year ending Dec 2009, December needs to produce 57.5 inches of snow, when historically it produces 17.5 inches,” Fernandez said.

Specifically for November, 4.5 inches of snow fell at the Dillon Station, equalling only .28 inches of water. The average daily high temperature was 45.7 degrees and the average daily low was 11 degrees.

Similar figures came in from weather watcher Rick Bly, who records precipitation totals for the National Weather Service in his backyard in downtown Breckenridge.

Bly, who has records dating back to the late 1800s, said November 2009 was the 11th driest on record, with 9.9 inches of snow (47 percent of normal). The moisture content of the snow was only .5 inches, compared to the average of 1.5 inches for the month.

But thanks to a snowy October, the weather year to-date (Oct. 1 through Nov. 30) is close to average for snowfall and precipitation, with 33.3 inches of snow (32.8 average) and 2.77 inches of water equivalent (2.8 average).

Season-to-date snowfall at Copper Mountain: 42 inches
Copper Snow report

Season-to-date snowfall at Breckenridge: 50 inches
Breckenridge Snow report

Arapahoe Basin and Keystone don’t show season-to-date snow totals on their web sites.

Location: Banff National Park, Alberta

Elevation: 3,050m (3,055m also given)

Range: Continental Ranges of the Canadian Rockies

Crowfoot Mountain is a typically beautiful mountain of the Canadian Rockies, with cliffs of sedimentary rock and a large glacier. The mountain was given its official name in 1959, and was named after the glacier. The glacier itself once sported three lobes, giving it the shape of a crow’s foot. But the lowest toe has since receded due to the glacial melting phenomenon that has been occurring worldwide since the end of the Little Ice Age and has been sped up in recent years. There are now only two toes prominent. The mountain can be viewed from a pull out along Bow Lake and is one of the more frequently photographed mountains of the Rockies. The mountain was first climbed in 1950 by Mr. and Mrs. Cromwell.

Because of its famed glacier, easily viewed face, and some very impressive photographs I have seen, I though to consider Crowfoot Mountain for the list of Canada’s 100 Famous Mountains. In fact, the mountain may be more well-known nationally and even internationally than some of the candidates I have proposed. However, while researching Crowfoot Mountain I found little information of interest other than what I mentioned above. When it comes to the Canadian Rockies there are so many peaks vying for attention that it will be necessary to demote some candidates already to a list of 200 Famous Mountains. Crowfoot Mountain, beautiful though it is, might become one of those candidates.

Sources:

http://rmbooks.com/Peakfinder/showpeakbyid.asp?MtnId=302

http://www.bivouac.com/MtnPg.asp?MtnId=1685

http://www.peakware.com/peaks.html?pk=3373

Photos:

Flickr group: 100 Famous Mountains of Canada

Next: Mount Patterson

The Depot, one of Frisco's newest restaurants, has great deals on family style meals like this chicken-fried steak for $6.95.

If you’re in Summit County for some early season skiing or riding, don’t miss out on some of the great dining deals at local restaurants and pubs. Here’s a sampling of some of the special offers from early this week.

In Frisco, Kemosabe Sushi & Sake (605 Main Street Frisco, 970-668-2100) is offering two-for-one sushi rolls and 20 percent off sake beverages.

Right next door, Silverheels has a half-pound burger with fries for $5.99, 4-10 p.m., Monday nights in the bar only.

Over near Keystone, the Snake River Saloon has Monday night two-for-one, with a coupon from the Summit Daily News.

In Breckenridge, the Hearthstone (130 South Ridge Street, 970-453-1148) is advertising a three-course Autumn Harvest menu, with items like Colorado butternut squash soup, prairie-raised chicken and Colorado lamb.

Mi Casa (600, South Park Avenue, 970-453-2071), also has a $15 three-course south-of-the-border style special, with entrees like pork-mango burritos, fish tacos and Yucatan-style chicken enchiladas.

Downstairs at Erics (a great place to take the kids, because of the video arcade) is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and will be donating some of its proceeds to the local Community Care Clinic, a worthy cause, for sure! (111 Main Street, Breckenridge, 970-453-1401)

In Silverthorne, enjoy draught Guinness beer and two-for-ones at Murphy’s (501 Blue River Parkway, 970-468-2457).

In Dillon, it’s Mussel Monday ($9.95) at Pug Ryan’s (across from the Dillon Post Office, 970-468-2145), along with $3 margaritas and $2.50 happy hour pints from their in-house brewery.

In today’s Summit County News, read about a unique pilot program to keep prescription drugs out of local streams with new take-back boxes at City Market. Chemicals from drugs, as well as cosmetics, are turning up in water and could be harming fish.

And the Forest Service will reconsider a massive forest health logging project around Breckenridge after residents of the Peak 7 neighborhood showed up en masse at a meeting to raise concerns about the plan.

Let us help you book a fabulous condo for a memorable winter vacation at Copper Mountain.

Contact us here.

A pair of snowboarders zip down toward Copper's base area on opening day of the 2009-2010 season.

Slide into the heart of the season in Copper Mountain’s 22-foot superpipe, open as of this weekend. Pictures from the first day of action in the pipe are online at Copper Mountain’s Facebook page.

The pipe will get its first big test of the season Dec. 10 -13, when the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix drops in for an Olympic qualifying event. Top snowboarders from Summit County and around the country will be competing for just a handful of spots on the u.S. Olympic team.

Check with Copper Colorado Condos now to reserve lodging for the event.

While snowmaking crews will make sure Copper can open more terrain in the next few weeks, all eyes are on Mother Nature, hoping she’ll deliver. The outlook for the early part of the coming week is for dry skies and seasonable temperatures. Local mountain forecasters with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said Colorado is currently languishing in some weather doldrums in between a split flow in the Jet Stream — not unusual for early in the winter during an El Niño year. But there’s a chance of at least some light snow by Thursday.

Once you’ve worked off your Thanksgiving turkey in the halfpipe, consider sampling one of Frisco’s newest eateries, the Depot, on West Main. The family style eatery just opened a few weeks ago, with an eye toward feeding hungry skiers and snowboarders without busting the budget. Tasty breakfast burritos are just $3.95, and a family of four, with 2 smaller kids, can enjoy a full dinner for under $30 with menu items like chicken-fried steak for $6.95.

Get more information on the Depot with this Copper Colorado Condos blog post.

Not far from Copper Mountain, the Summit County Open Space department last week finalized a $900,000 deal to buy a 129-acre mining parcel in Mayflower Gulch, a popular snowshoe and crosscountry ski destination. Read an interesting Summit Daily News story by Bob Berwyn about the purchase here.

Another Summit Daily story by Berwyn outlines Denver Water’s quest to increase water diversions from the High Country to the Front Range. Plans to expand the Moffat Tunnel system could also have impacts on the Blue River Basin, in Summit County. Those effects will be discussed at an early December hearing in Keystone.

Finally, a little farther afield, read about local Colorado foods in a blog from Westword, Denver’s independent weekly.

Near Roche Miette on the Yellowhead Highway we get stopped by a “sheep-jam”, bighorn-induced traffic congestion [1] at about the same time that we interrupted a truly engaged activist, peace rider who was cycling to Alaska to raise awareness of climate change. Just after our second sheep-jam where a film crew member also caught in the same traffic jam, pulled over to catch some sleep behind the wheel of a powerful all-terrain vehicle(did he see that many bighorn already?), we stopped to film a pack of wolves. After we booked into a place to stay in Jasper, we drove up to the ski hill at Marmot. A huge raven guided us along the winding road to the lodge. This winter there is a record snow fall to the delight of snowboarders and skiiers. The tasks of downloading the day’s film clips and photos to Picasa, and reading Gadd to name peaks, etc, were again interrupted by Yellowhead wildlife. Wapitii surrounded the hotel attracting amateur photographers to the unbelievably fun shot of a wapiti posing in front of the Wapiti signage.

Later on the same day speechless hits reached 150, 000 perhaps at exactly the same time we were left speechless by the miyat.

Speechless began as the next step from “beached wail” a failed attempt to overcome serious creative blocks . . .

Speechless does not really require the author to write. Web 2.0 platforms are ideally designed for writers who cannot write. At least for writers who cannot write in a straight line. Rhizomic thinkers and learners can allow themselves to “get lost.” All we need to do is to mark the virtual trail with something more solid than breadcrumbs.

Speechless cannot imagine faces or stories of its visitors and would rather that for now at least, that the speechless face be faceless, ageless, genderless, not associated with any institution, or group, or ideology, or demographics . . .

Speechless shares resources using the Creative Commons,
for memory work,
for revisiting histories with an ethical dimension,
for virtual tourists,
travelers,
artists,
for the blogosphere,
for public policy,

Speechless has been a technological tool for mind-mapping . . .

Notes

1. See Ben Gadd 2008:408. Gadd explained that the bighorn sheep ovis canadensis, are plentiful in this area and female and young are often sighted here.

He claimed that the mountain named in the 1820s by voyageurs Roche Miette (Miette Rock) probably comes from the Cree word miyat (bighorn sheep). This tangible (very geological) link to the early (fur) trade routes is one way that the nonlinear learner can be pulled in so many directions that only web 2.0 platforms and applications could mind map it.

Gadd also notes a number of commonplace Canadian English misprononciations and/or mispellings of geological formations and place names in the Rocky Mountains with Spanish, French, Irish, Cree, Ojibwa etc origins.

Webliography and Bibliography

Gadd, Ben. 2008. Canadian Rockies: Geology Road Tours. Corax.

Have you ever looked at your neighbors yard and thought, “Oh, my god!”  This turn of phrase always brings me back to the nursery rhyme line, “When she was good, she was very, very good, and when she was bad, she was horrid.”

This blog is dedicated to the beautiful and the horrid yards near us all.

I feel the need to start with my last vacation destination, the Rocking Z Ranch, near Helena, Montana. Yep, they have one of the best backyards I’ve ever seen! We were able to ride horses for miles and miles. The scenery was beautiful! A creek in the front yard, hay fields near the lodge, and the pasture land, I mean back yard, lent itself to wonderful vistas of snow capped mountains, and strong beautiful horses and sheep enjoying life.

Here is the ranch’s YouTube video:

All the best,

Your Number One Neighbor

Again, it seems I am falling behind in writing new posts. I recently looked through Shiro Shirahata’s book of photographs of the Rocky Mountains and found several more stunning peaks that were not on my list. I don’t want to make this the 100 Famous Mountains of the Rockies or of Western Canada, but one can hardly deny the grandeur of these peaks.

I’ll try to get a few more posts up about mountains before the end of the year.