Ridgway, with no E

 The San Juan Mountains on the way to Ridgway

A couple Saturdays ago Kelly and I went to Ridgway State Park, about 90 minutes south of here, and spent the night in a yurt for our 3 year anniversery. 

 The Yurt

We went and had dinner in Ouray (You-ray) about ten minutes down the road.  Its an awsome little town with hot springs and ice climbing.  As we were leaving it started snowing, hard.

 You can barely see the massive rock wall just around the corner, but its there, and its big.

We made it back to the yurt and got comfy and made jiffy pop.

We got a total of about 3ish inches of snow in just over an hour but the yurt stayed a solid 70 degrees making for a nice night sleep.

The view going home...

Skiing

For Christmas, Kellys parents got us season lift tickets to Powderhorn Ski Resort (THANKS!).  It is a short 45 minute drive away, and though it is a "dinky" resort supposedly for here, it is A) Super close and, B) got 240 inches of snow last year.  So, yeah.

This is the only picture I currently have of us skiing (its in the parking lot , someone left there point-n-shoot camera at home (me)) so live with it.

I had never skied before we went there the first time, Kelly on the other hand, is apparently a skiing ninja and made me look AWFUL despite the fact that I had never ever seen her on skis before then.  Everyone has a past...

But she did teach me to ski over the course of 2 days and 50 falls all while being passed by 3 year olds who it seems started skiing in the womb. Stupid outdoorsy folk.  However, I have since moved up to the Blue/Intermediate slopes and am currently sitting on 6 days of skiing.  Having responsibilities similar to a hobo has its advantages, if you were curious the best day to ski is Tuesday, I highly recommend it.

Keep your tips up! (and dont fall in front of the ski patrol)

We're Back!!!

Exciting, no?  After a month hiatus due to Christmas and multiple computer issues it looks like were back to blogging.

Get stamped people.

You know I am.

No Thoroughfare Canyon

Sunday morning we went for a hike in the Monument at No Thoroughfare Canyon.

About 2 miles in you come to this 100' waterfall.

Prickly Pear

Heading back.

The clouds came rolling in on our way out.

More Snowshoeing the Mesa

Our skiing plans for the weekend were thwarted by "warm" temperatures and low snowfall delayed the opening of our local slopes so we loaded up the snowshoes and hit the Mesa. We stopped about 5 miles past said resort and got out on our way.

Low snowfall is a relative term. There was about 2 feet of soft powder on the ground and some coming down as well. This week we got an add-on to our snowshoes to add some surface area and making it easier to walk on powder

Lunch! Does this picture look familiar?

The last picture we got before the camera died. This is actually a campground but is closed and not maintained in the winter. The best thing about shoeing is you can really go just about anywhere and just walk. Big fans.

Snowshoe Sunday - Wicked Pro

Sunday we went snowshoeing again up on the Mesa, and it was rad! We packed a lunch and a bottle of champagne and headed on up where it was 30 and extremely sunny.

Kelly making fresh tracks in the snow.
Hiking along. It was much easier going since the snow had melted just a little and so our snowshoes actually did what they were supposed to do and stayed on the snow, not in it.

Thats me! Its not really as far as it looks. Scale and depth are really hard to judge when everything is coated in snow. So 'we're gonna hike over there' turns into 'oh thats not very far at all' or 'Lets just stop here'.

Lunch. Ramen mixed with beef and veggy soup and washed down with cheap champagne. Delicious!!!

We set up the MSR Hubba Hubba with just the footprint and the rainfly, and it was more wonderful than a unicorn under a rainbow, or close anyway.

Im a reindeer!! Merry almost Christmas.

The sun started going down so we started to head on back.

I make this picture...

Heading back down to town. (That totally looks like the CRV but isnt, thanks random person driving down at the same time we were)

Snowshoe Saturday - Amateur

Saturday we rented some snowshoes from Mesa State's Outdoor Program and headed up onto the mesa. The sunny 50 degree temps in GJ didnt really prepare us for the snowy 15 degrees up there, fortunately we packed warm. Since this was our first time snowshoeing, ever, we decided to take it easy... nope. It turns out its really hard to snowshoe at 10k+ feet in 2 feet of fresh powder. Despite sinking in with about every step we managed to hike around for a couple hours. For future reference, tray and make someone else make the fresh tracks and follow them, its way easier.

Along the way we saw these guys out ice fishing, seemed like a pretty good party. And you dont need to bring a cooler.

Big snowflake.

Heading back to the car on some packed snow where you can walk like a normal person.

Snowshoeing=awesome