Powder & Puppies

Its been a while since I've posted anything, but I have quite a bit to share. We've had a mildly warm, above average in snowfall winter around here, its been quite nice. I'll rewind back to the past fall first...

 We took a trip to Missouri in October to visit Miranda's family and go on a fall float trip. This was at a state park somewhere along the way.

 Doesn't really look like all that much, but its easily lasted us this winter....about 4 cords of ponderosa. For a while I thought getting my own wood would be fun, and although it would, it saves a lot of time and hassle to just buy it.

 I went out to Blue Mesa, collected some driftwood, and rigged up this coat rack. Its pretty cool. Very practical.

 Nothing like some fall Moab mountain biking...

 This is during one of the first snows, at one of our favorite places, Mill Creek.

 On a flight, overlooking the cool flowing clouds through the Black Canyon.

 Winter hike at Hartmans before the majority of the snow came.

 Winter hut trip to the Eisman Hut near Vail.

 Starting in early February, it snowed nearly continuously for 2 weeks. We picked up a couple feet at our house, Crested Butte, ~6', and the mountains surrounding Crested Butte 10-12'.

 Taking advantage of the abundant snow, and getting Miranda out on her AT setup.

 We have a several hundred foot long driveway, and only snow shovels so we spent a lot of time digging out, trying to keep the way open for M's Corolla.

 Another backcountry outing to Mount Axtell.

 Paul enjoying his lunch.

 Beautiful day for some skate skiing out at Hartmans.

 In December, I was lucky enough to get a spot in this year's upcoming Elk Mountain Grand Traverse. The race covers a rugged backcountry route traveling 35 miles from Crested Butte and finishing in downtown Aspen. The race requires a partner, mainly due to the length and potential conditions encountered. There's a lot of additional gear required, including an emergency shelter, stove, spot satellite beacon, etc etc. Paul is my partner this year, so we've been training/skiing plenty on the weekends to prepare.

 This outing had some fun scrambling involved.

 Miranda enjoying a day at the resort.

 Then........we found this guy, Reese. We've only had him a couple of weeks, but he's proven to be a very smart, loveable, typical handful of a puppy. I think he's grown 20 or 30% in these last two weeks, pretty amazing.

 Some years down in Gunnison, I could be riding my bike, but this year, we still have over a foot of snow in our yard, but its beginning to melt.

 Reese with his cuddle buddy, tucked under my chair.

 We recently took him to a Big Air contest in CB (wintertime festival where streets are closed, ski jumps in the road, bands, big crowd, loud...)....and he was cold/small enough that I fit him into my jacket, and he fell right asleep.

 The cat and the dog's relationship is evolving....slowly building some trust, but still Nacho at best is tolerant of him, but I don't he likes the dog. However, lately, I've caught them sniffing noses, and playing a "chase" game that almost looks like something they're both into.

 Another outing, we skied Carbon Peak. Long day, but a lot of awesome views and terrain.

 Me coming down the gut with Paul still on top of the ridge.

 Looking back on our extended run.

 Psyched!

So excited to take him on all the adventures to come. He's got a lot to look forward to. 

This past weekend, my friend convinced me that we should do a trial run of the Grand Traverse course, 1 for training, and 2 because it would help us understand what to expect, and deal with any problems we encounter before the actual race. So we started at 3:15am, and 14 hours later popped out in Aspen, ate some food, rented a car from the airport, and I got back home at 1am....long day!

 We reached treeline around sunrise, and spent the next 8 hours at or above it.

 I didn't capture any photos of the blizzard we were in, but for roughly four hours, we encountered whiteout conditions with visibility under 30 feet. Our only way of navigating was to scrounge from small groupings of trees, get the phone out, and check out location/direction. The phone absolutely saved us, but eventually the weather let up. We ended up bundled with most every piece of clothing we brought. The facemasks were critical.

 Notice Paul's fat belly - haha actually underneath his jacket is 100oz camelbak. This way, we can keep the water from freezing keeping it right next to the chest. It was kind of fun making a custom shirt sleeve to fit the camelbak into.

 This guy is notorious for falling asleep in our clothing, shoes, you name it. This is truly awesome though, haha.

 Don't suffocate yourself, or get nose-tipped gangrene.

 I like pants and belts.

 This dog also loves snow way more than bare ground. I'm glad!

 Trying to capture some of the cat-dog interactions.

 Taking a nap on a shady cold day. Mmmm mmmm, why don't you just go inside buddy?

 I apologize for the grueling
 density of puppy pictures!

 haha....

Talk to you soon! We're planning to take a trip to the Sonoran desert to visit my sister and some other friends, and camp in early April. This guy's gonna love the desert, if we can teach him to avoid cactus, snakes, and scorpions.