Leap Day

Spring is coming quickly with temps in the 40's and the snow getting slushier. Things I've learned this week: you need warm wax for slush, it is harder to break through the snow in spring, it doesn't get much below twenty overnight. All these factors actually make for a pretty good time.

We are now in 7-day-a-week night skiing at Keystone for the entire month of March. This means I now switch days off and the slopes will be getting more crowded.

This past week has brought lots of nordic action, skinning up the mountain on the teles, and a trip to Beaver Creek to ski with Julie from Zanzibar's in Des Moines and her dad. Charlotte (Julie's mom) was nice enough to feed me with some homemade chili before I had to drive back to Keystone. It seems that when Iowans come to Colorado they always bring fresh snow, as was the case this time with a total of 21" (over 3 days) this past Monday. Life was good!

The legs were worn from skiing today so I decided for a snowshoe adventure on the Ten-Mile Trail outside Frisco. Upon arriving the trail looked to be packed in pretty well and quite soft so I left the shoes in the car. And now a photo tour...

Kept hearing a knocking and looked up to see this guy.

I remember seeing this same view about 5 years ago when I was hiking with the Bailey brothers in August. Looks somewhat different with snow, and man does that bowl look nice.

A nicely beaten trail going through the lodgepoles.

A perfect imprint of a ski pole basket.

Trail junction of Ten-Mile and the Gore Range, that sign is about 3 feet tall and only about 8" are showing.

Simply beautiful.

A sunset over Dillon Reservoir.

Not a photo trick, just smoke and mirrors.