Valley Adventures and Spring Meltdowns

A few weeks ago I enjoyed a great tromp through the woods with the pups in the early afternoon sunshine.

It was a beautiful Winter day and the pups relished in the early March sunshine and snow. The sun was just right and hitting their golden fur to make highlights that even Bliss couldn't achieve.

Chaos dreams of summer swimming while Mayhem eats a bit of snow.

And I enjoyed my new pink hat that I had knitted out of a fat ball of Rasta by Malabrigo.

It's true knitting has trumped blogging this year... by a lot. At some point I'll have to do a project rundown of the hats, sweaters, socks and other worsted goodies that have flown off my needles but today's all about meltdowns...
This weekend temps crept higher and the snow softened...

we enjoyed some time on the hill with this guy...

and this gal...

in the warm spring sunshine. Then a funny thing happened- temperatures didn't drop back to normal but kept creeping higher.  We pulled out a few pairs of shorts and sported them with our mud boots for an afternoon walk in the sunshine.

And realized that we could have worn chacos.

The pups didn't mind and went for a swim in the river.

Today I wore my chacos everywhere.... I walked in the woods and through a melting iceberg.

The water that skimmed the iceberg on the trail was almost warm and the air felt like an afternoon in June. At no point did I regret my shoe choice as I skimmed along the trail over dry ground, mud, ice and hardpack snow. I should have- this is March in New England. Water on top of melting ice should be COLD. The air temperature should have turned my toes bright red and shot pain through them. But it didn't. I was warm in my shorts, t-shirt and Chacos on a shady trail at 5:30pm in March. 

Another great day for playing ball and enjoying golden hues dancing in the sunshine. It's bittersweet, winter was short as was the snowfall and while we're enjoying this odd weather it's not ideal for a ski resort.

Anyone wanna go play in the river soon? I hear the boating is great and the bike trails are gonna be drying like spilled water in the Sahara.

Elvis goes to Mountain Magic at Sugarloaf

A few weeks ago my brother, Virg, came over to visit us along with his 5 year old daughter, Elvis. Virg hasn't skied in at least 6 years and was pumped to be back out on the slopes. They arrived to camp chaos on Friday night and we got Elvis suited up in a helmet and goggles for her day on Saturday.

Elvis jumped ski school for the day where she joined Coach Emily and other 5 year old never-ever skiers and mastered the art of slidding downhill and stopping. The program is called Mountain Magic and it certainly describes how the day went for Elvis. We skied by a few times during the day and it was obvious that she was having a blast with her Coach and teammates. After we picked her up at the end of the day we took a few laps on the Birches with her so she could show off her new skills. It was obvious from the look on her face as she clicked into her bindings that a skier had been made that day at Sugarloaf.

Elvis also got to watch me finish her pink sweater...

and enjoyed sledding around camp chaos with her furry cousins...

Elvis becomes a Sugarloafer

HEY HOT DOG!

It's the final weekend of lift serviced skiing here in Telluride for the season and we took advantage of the good weather to get out on the mountain today. Dave pulled out his prized hot dog for the occasion. 

He posed for photos with both big and small children.... the little ones like to beat him up. He enjoyed the attention of the day in true Hot Dog style. 

 These two Daves and Emory are definitely "Winning" today...

 Posers or future expert yoga instructors?

Hot Doggin' in the Misty Park, he's out there grooming it tonight.

loafer invasion

Camp Chaos was headquarters to a Sugarloaf invasion these last few weeks. Here's a few highlights from the trip. We spent some serious time skiing, tubbing and catching up. Chaos was excited to see his old friends again.

powder days in telluride

We awoke on Saturday to 13 fresh inches and the sky was still dumping. Chaos managed to score a short walk before Dave and I headed out for a day on the hill.

After taking some runs together, we found our friends waiting at the gate to Prospect Bowl... the rope dropped and it was a ski/board cross race to the lift. 95% of the crowd hit Gold Hill and Jess and I met up at Prospect Express. We had first tracks down Stella and captured the image in the low light..

We found some good stashes and hung out in prospect for a while...

Eventually we found Jared and Dave again and stopped for a snack at High Camp.

Seriously... this sounds narly but was actually really good and marked gluten free... a gourmet chocolate bar laced with bacon. While there was more snow this morning I ended up working all day and not making time for a ski break.... perhaps tomorrow if all goes well!

The bacon chocolate only made us realize how starving we all were and we descended on Big Dave's house at Melrose Place for some food and tubby time. We made Brinner (breakfast for dinner) and all the non-glutards piled it high on a bulky roll.  We made gluten free pancakes, hash browns, eggs, bacon and sausage and a few folks managed to get all these layered up into a sandwich.

winter woks and more

If you happen to read Think Outside the Breadbox you may already know that one of my favorite glutarded meals is Street Noodles. We made a huge batch the other night and thankfully I was greatly assisted by our favorite Chef Tomas.

Chef Tomas is a legend here in Telluride and when Justin found him at the Free Box one fine winter day in 2007 he was a bit down on his luck. He came to live with us and spends his time between Camp Chaos, Sno Dundah and Melrose Place. He's currently staying at Melrose since Big Dave had a heated pool and a hot tub which helps take the chill off a cold winter's day.

Tomas and I made street noodles for a crowd of seven starving skiers on Saturday. We had friends and friends of friends in town and had a good evening and meal at Melrose Place. Tomas was pretty proud of his wok skills...

I went for a full moon hike with some friends last month and got one whole photo as we departed thanks to dave... I hate taking off my gloves in cold weather. Here's me and our friend Jim as we ready to depart on the hour-long hike up.

Dave had to skip the hike as he went off for some night shift grooming... midnight to 9:30am, five nights a week... kinda takes the fun out of a Saturday night. He was to get some shots like this...

an early morning overlooking the Telluride Airport.

powdah days

Friday had 15" of fresh powder and somehow we both managed to have the day off. We were on the hill by 10am and didn't hit apres until after 3:30pm. Today was another 5" and a shorter day on the hill since Dave is working tonight and needed to rest and nap. I used his nap time to make some gluten free homemade granola bars and reload my ipod.  Right now I'm watching a lot of Grey's Anatomy and started loading episodes right onto the itouch. Gotta love the McMainer! We started watching this October starting from season one on Netflix and am now on season six- which happens to be the current season. I had to delete some music and movies to make room for upcoming episodes. There's worse addictions I could have.

Chaos has dealing well with getting ditched on powder days... we try to take him on a good walk most nights and last night he got to go to a party at Uncle Dave's house then a big walk home down the snowy trail. He still chases skiers and did pull his muscle last week and has been limping around a bit. He's fine when he's outside but limps when he gets off the couch. That's what he gets for sprinting after skiers again...

team glh

marc had a very busy trip to telluride. While at camp chaos he...
...visited Moab and took lots of photos...

...enjoyed a bacon shot at fat alley...

...went climbing at the rock gym...

...skied, hiked and skied the deck...

and had fun with everyone's favorite golden.

Marc even took some Chaos kisses home to Colby. It was really hard to transport but he managed to surpise his 3.5 year old with some sloppy Chaos kisses. He also was able to bring Beth home the famous Telluride Truffles which he picked out himself. We went to the factory and tried some of Patty's and Colleen's cheesecake and sampled some truffles.

18 inches... 'nuff said

Skiing August 3rd Telluride, Co

somebody call singer...

Because these guys ripped it up in Telluride!

Good times in Telluride~ Sara and Colleen made the trip out this winter and we had a great visit... they skied hard, hit all the telluride hotspots and had no turtle travels! Whoo-hoo!

Mohawks and monsters

if you ask pretty much any skier who used to hang posters in high school who was on their walls one famous mohawked skier usually is the answer. Glen Plake. He's been in many ski movies including the Blizzard of Aahhh's and has has a long carrer on RSN which airs at many ski resorts nationwide. Saturday they did some filming in Telluride for his Reel Thrills TV show.
There's a segment for "crash of the day" where folks gather in a ski shop/bar to vote on the crash of the day. We attended and Dave asked his high school hero for an autograph. Plake obliged but really lit up when he saw what dave wanted him to sign. A VHS of Blizzard of Aahhh's. After the fliming Plake sat down with a few folks and Dave even got to try on a prototype AT ski boot that's still in the design phase.

We're fighting the flu so I took the weekend off from skiing and took some monsters out to play. Chaos was very excited to run around with his friends and play in the woods.

welcome to 2008~ six feet of snow!

2008 has started off very well. We have gotten over 6 feet (yes-FEET) of natual snow in the span of a week and have had some pretty epic days. I'm also working a lot which leaves little time for posting... here's some images that may make you want to VisitTelluride! And yes I am on my alpine skis... you try making tele turns in 6 feet of snow! Chaos is also buried up to his neck.... and that was one of the early days of the snowfall! He's becoming quite the bounder in the deepness.

playtime