My old roommate, Petro, flew in on 2/4 from New York to spend some time out here snowboarding. After picking him up from the airport we went to REI and Wilderness Exchange in Denver to do some shopping. I ended up getting a warm puffy down jacket to take with me to the yurt. Petro ended up getting nothing but an upset stomach. I don't know if it was altitude sickness, but when we stopped at the grocery store in Fort Collins he opened the car door and left a spot on the pavement. All was well after that, and we got together later in the evening with Nathan and Julie (our other two yurt companions) to finalize our plans.
Petro trying not to puke
Sunday morning we drove up to the Colorado State Forest and were greeted by lots of nice new fluffy snow. It was beautiful. The ski into the yurt was easy, but a little lengthy. We stopped at the yurt long enough to drop off extraneous gear and then headed out to make some turns before the sun went away. Petro had a tough time because he was on snowshoes, which is inherently slower and more work. We didn't get a lot of skiing in, but we had some fun coming down through the deep powder in the trees before heading back for dinner.
Petro getting stuck in the snow
The evening consisted of fire building, drinking, eating, and playing Uno. I was pretty glad to have my new down jacket on Monday morning when I woke up and the temperature in the yurt was 20 degrees. I spent the morning getting the wood burning stove going and making some water for breakfast. It was a slow moving morning while we all thawed out, but eventually we got out in the snow to make tracks. We found a nice run through some trees. Petro had some difficulty again, because his board wasn't designed tostay above the powder when the rider is carrying a backpack full of stuff. Bummer for him, because he kept sinking in and it's super tough to get back upright in a situation like that. Nathan and I had some fun though. We both found some ledges to jump off of (and subsequently tumble in the snow upon landing).
Christine trying to stay warm
Nathan taking a leap
After a tiring trek back to the trailhead we jumped in our cars and headed home to watch the Superbowl. Since we were in the yurt on Superbowl Sunday, I Tivo'd the Superbowl so we could hold what Petro dubbed "Superbowl Monday". It was good fun, and we managed to avoid having anyone tell us who had won. It was great being able to fast forward through the repeated commercials and that awful site at halftime. And, of course, the best part was that the Steelers won.
My first thought was "a sleeping bag with armholes?? that rocks!".
ReplyDeleteNathan made a special request for her to model the sleeping bag for us because it makes her look like Grimace. Apparently it's some special bag for climbing. She got it when she was thinking about doing climbing trips where she would be sleeping on the wall. You can also open up the bottom and stick your feet out.
ReplyDelete