Perfect Storm???

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The theme of the last entry was definately weather, sorry if it sounded a bit negative. Unfortunately things haven't changed much, and I hate to say it, but we haven't been doing nearly enough skiing!

So I guess the last time I wrote I was in Flagstaff, which is actually a very nice place, and I highly recommend the hostel, but Dave and I couldn't really get too excited about the place, it just was a rest stop durring a delay. We were able to make it to Taos the next day, the storm cleared out and made for fairly easy driving. And we were FINALLY able to ski the following day, the 6th?? Taos is a place that seldom gets a lot of early season snow, but this year has been special for them. A local told us it was the first year the mountain opened at Thanksgiving with natural snow ever (seems like a bit of a stretch, but I'll believe him). We still hit our fair share of rocks, but the terrain and snow more than made up for the "obstacles". Taos has a lot of hike-to terrain, the top of the highest lift is something like 1000 ft below the true summit (Kachina Peak), they make you work for the good turns. And all the hike to stuff is really amazing, steep chutes and glades. We stopped a local the morning of our first day out to ask where the "candy" was, and found out that a portion of the mountain had not been open for days, and had 2 1/2 feet of untacked snow just waiting to be devoured. And this was true Rocky Mountain fluff (no Sierra Cement), my first run from the ridge that day was perhaps the best of the year to date.

We skied at Toas for 2 days, both of which were wonderful. A good chunk of the mountain never opened (including the hike to the summit of Kachina), so this place goes on the list of "must visit again", but our days there were great. We didn't stay longer because we wanted to beat the next storm on our way to Colorado. The next stop was Pagosa Springs down in the south west portion of the state, with the intention of skiing at Wolf Creek. We did indeed beat the storm, but them were basically stranded in Pagosa because the road to Wolf Creek was closed for 2 days. Of course the locals all told us "the road never closes", but while Wolf Creek got dumped on, Dave and I watched football in a cheap hotel room. Pagosa Springs is an interesting place but small and a bit dull, for example, when we asked a bar tended what to do if we got stuch for another day he basically just chuckled and said "not much". I was excited to see Wolf Creek, especially this year because it is slated for serious development in the near future. But what is interesting is that everyone we talked to is very much against the development, and from what we heard, even the owners of Wolf Creek are trying to block turning the mountain into the next big CO resort. Unfortunately the developers ignored the people of the surrounding towns, the owners of the mountain, and all the water and land use reports and instead went straight to the Federal Gov to get permission to build (which was granted). A sad story, but as we see more of this area, it seems like the norm. For example, Durango Mountain Resort used to be Purgatory, but the name was changed to attract religious leaning people who previously were too offended to ski there.

So now we are in Durango, will probably do a day at Purgatory, although the weather has not been kind. It actually rained on us much of today, and cities in this area are reporting temps 30 degrees above the norm. Good 'ol pinapple express. I've been spouting off about Silverton, which is coming up soon, our next stop in fact. We have two big passes to get over (both above 10k ft) on the drive between Durango and Silverton, so everyone please pray for some better weather in this area. Road closures have been the bain of my existence for almost a week, and Dave is probably getting tired of my complaining and moodiness.

I do have some pictures, I'll work on getting these posted. Just check back in a few days.

Eamon

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Photos

Kachina Peak from below
Oh, Kachina Peak, how I want to ski you!

Taos hiking
This is after ~10 min of hiking, the peak of Kachina is the summit.

Some fun chutes
This stuff was open and very skiable. Good for many smiles!