Alley Loop 2015
It’s early February, which means we headed down to Crested Butte for the Alley Loop cross-country race. Last year there was so much snow the pass was closed and we had a hard time getting there. This year, they didn’t have enough snow to fill the alleys, and they had to significantly modify the course.
The start:
Kyle on the one alley they did fill with snow:
Despite the lack of snow, it was a beautiful day and a fun race.
Now, on to the important part of this post. The food highlights.
We stayed at the Purple Mountain Lodge. It was a nice bed and breakfast in downtown Crested Butte. The upside to a B&B? Yummy breakfast made by someone else. Saturday morning we had stuffed french toast:
and Sunday morning Italian sausage frittata and biscuits.
The downside to a B&B? Eating breakfast with strangers. Having to explain why I was photographing my food was a little bit uncomfortable! Such is so.
After the race we tried to maximize our exposure to Crested Butte’s delicious restaurants. We stopped at Montanya’s for drinks
and appetizers. We had ‘seared scallops with horseradish sauce atop homemade potato latkes’
and ‘devils on horseback - gorgonzola stuffed dates wrapped in bacon’.
After that it was on to Ryce for drunken noodles.
All in all it was a delicious trip and the skiing wasn’t bad either! Totally unrelated, but incredibly cute, the fox who sat on the cabin porch watching us the other night.
Memorial Day 2014
It’s Memorial Day weekend, the beaches are officially open....and so are the slopes. We skied Horseshoe Mountain on Saturday. It’s about 30 minutes from the cabin. The road to the trailhead was closed, so we had to walk a ways carrying our skis. We eventually hit snow and were able to skin up almost to the top, but it required some hiking to reach the top. The summit of this 72nd highest peak in Colorado is at 13898 ft.
Kyle hiking up.
Looking down.
The view from the top.
Taking some turns.
Sunday it snowed at the cabin. While it was great to get a day of skiing in, we’ve had our fill of snow, so we headed back to Manitou and fixed up the garden. The pictures don’t quite do it justice.
Columbine is the state flower.
An iris just because.
We thought some before and after shots might be fun. Here is the garden in 2008 (the summer we moved in).
And today.
2008 side view.
And now.
And to wrap things up...the official start of summer is when the garden frog appears.
Horseshoe Bowl
This weekend we went skiing. Yes, I know it is Memorial Day. We climbed and skied Horseshoe Bowl Saturday morning.
On the way up:
At the top:
On the way down:
We had great run down perfect corn snow.
Alley Loop 2013
We headed to Crested Butte this past weekend for the Alley Loop. It's a nordic race that starts downtown, moves out on to their beautiful nordic trails, and then comes back into town where it winds through the alleys. Here is Kyle coming down one of the alleys:
No trip to Crested Butte is complete without a stop at the Secret Stash for pizza.
We discovered another place that we will be going to every time we are in CB. The Dogwood Cafe. We had a vanilla martini, Pyrenees punch, and salted carmel ice cream sandwiches. Amazing!
The next day we went backcountry skiing.
On the way home we drove through Big Sheep Canyon. The eponymous creatures:
Ski Visits
Posted by: Becca
In the past couple of months we have had several opportunities to ski with family and friends. Kerri, Jamie, & Casey came to visit in February. We hit the nordic trails with Kerri and Jamie, and Mooseman and Casey got to spend some quality time after a too long separation.
Next came a trip to Pagosa Springs to visit with Martin, Diane, Java Joe, & Baxter. Good thing Kyle has two hands. We had a beautiful day at Wolf Creek.
During spring break Dad came out to ski Summit County. We had a few powder days and a few bluebird days.
Happy New Year
Been a while since we last posted anything, so here are some pictures and things from the past month or so. Christmas was good. We cut down a nice tree just down the road.
Christmas dinner was an assortment of Costco goodness: goat cheese, smoked salmon, steamed dumplings, crab cakes, shrimp cocktail, and margaritas.
We celebrated New Year's Eve in the traditional Mexitalian way with posole, margaritas, and...
ugly, but delicious, tiramisu
New Year's weekend was cold,
but the snow and the skiing have been good
Our snowblower broke a couple of weeks ago. It's in the shop waiting for parts to arrive, so we've been doing a lot of shoveling. Here's the spot we dug out for the car:
We just got some new skate skis, and have been beating ourselves up at the nordic center lately.
Skiing with Ptarmigans
We've had a few really good days of skiing this spring, and on a couple of days had the chance to get acquainted with some of the local alpine bird population. On two separate occasions, once up behind the cabin, then again about a week later over in Buckskin Gulch, skiing on the lower part of Mt. Democrat, I had a close encounter with a ptarmigan. The ptarmigan is the smallest member of the grouse family. They live mostly above tree line, and don't migrate in the winter, though they do change from their spotted grey color to completely white in the winter. They also like to burrow just below the surface of the snow to stay warm. Apparently, good burrowing snow for the ptarmigan is also good skiing snow for us, because I almost ran over two different birds on two different days.
They burrow in the snow with their beaks pointing up just below the surface, and if you almost ski over them they come shooting out of the snow like a missile launching from a silo. Apparently they can fly, but prefer to run (according to Wikipedia, anyway). After their initial flight out of their burrows, they mostly just shuffled around, no doubt wishing we'd get off their mountain.
. 
This guy lives over in Buckskin Gulch, near Kite Lake. He came flying out of the snow on our first lap, then seemed to disappear. A couple of laps later I was skiing directly toward a small disturbed spot in the snow. Thinking it might be the ptarmigan, I skied around it. Sure enough he came flying out again. I stopped and got a couple of pictures. He seemed really curious and came right up to me. I thought he was going to start pecking my skis.
A few more pictures from a great day of skiing:
Skiing in the Backyard
We've been pretty busy on the weekends this winter, so lately we've been doing a lot more skiing right out the door, up on Pennsylvania Mountain. We can put our skis on in the driveway and be up to almost 13,000 feet in about an hour. There's a nice bowl up there that we can take laps on. It's nice not to have to get in the car to drive anywhere to ski, and it saves a lot of time. We just put our skis on in the driveway, head through the yard
and up the road
We can be at the end of the road in about fifteen minutes, and to treeline in about fifteen more. In less than an hour from the house, we're at the top of the mountain in the photo below, where we can start skiing.
The skiing can be really good some days, and crowds aren't usually a problem.
It can get pretty windy up there, so the snow doesn't stick around for too long after a storm. Here's Becca enjoying a nice breezy spring day.
It's hard up there for a tree.
After a few good laps it's back down the road, through the yard, and home in time for lunch.
