Friday, October 23, 2009

Oh Craigslist, How I Love You

2 Reasons that I love Craigslist:

1. Phillies vs. Rockies Game III Division Series.

Game 3 was supposed to played on Saturday, October 10th, but because of a harsh cold that came through the game was postponed until Sunday night. This was great news for us- we found someone who had planned on being in town for Saturday night but couldn't stay so late on Sunday. He sold us tickets via Craigslist and we got to go on Sunday night! The game started in the mid 30's but dipped to 23 degrees by the time the game ended at midnight.  It was quite an experience being fans of the away team- we would stand up and scream and yell only to realize that everyone was staring/yelling at us. Of course the Phillies ended up winning the game with a run in the top of the ninth inning. They also went on to cinch the division and conference titles. So it's BACK to the World Series for the second year in a row!!! And I am definitely banking on a repeat victory.






2. Avalanche Transceivers


The very same day we scoped out the Phillies tix, Sean did a search on Craigslist for Avalanche Transceivers.  This helpful piece of backcountry insurance is notriously expensive and was the last missing piece of our winter exploration set. We each have shovels and probes, but we haven't been able to splurge on buying two transceivers. Amazingly, we found a man in Colorado Springs selling TWO transceivers for way less than the standard cost of one.  This simple addition has revolutionized our options for getting out into the mountains. Ideally we will never have to use them, but now we have them just in case.  In the mean time we are driving our neighbors absolutely bonkers by testing them out at home.


Think there are enough warnings on these things?



This picture is unrelated, but cute.



ditto!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

escape the city in the Rocky Mountain way...

Colorado has a beautiful autumn- but if you blink you will miss it. We were lucky to see the golden aspens while they were here...and are just as lucky to see snow back on the Front Range peaks visible again from Denver.

We went to Snowmass last weekend-a four hour drive from Denver that stops about 10 miles north of Aspen. The long drive was absolutely worth it on many levels. First- the drive itself is gorgeous, traveling through Glenwoos Canyon and Independence Pass.  Second- this part of Colorado has massive mountains and long stretches of trail that let you get truly deep into the wilderness. On Saturday we had a wonderful walk through the yellow aspens. Overnight, not two full weeks after fall officially arrived according to the calendar, winter announced her impending arrival.






Snowmass Creek






Bear Bag

The winter storm that kept us up on Saturday night covered the ground with a light snow (no big deal) but the wind knocked down a ton of trees along the trail (including a very scary close call with a tree bending over our tent!) The storm also made our plan of attempting a summit of Snowmass Mountain out of the question. It can be frustrating to drive such a far way with summit plans only to have the weather ‘ruin’ them- but our trip was an amazingly good time just as it was.


Tent in the morning (notice the leaning tree)



Scray Tree! The brown patch is where our tent was.





Log jam we used to cross Snowmass Creek- slippery with snow!



much easier on the way back...





Big Pines that fell during the night



Dragonfly on the trail


Sean at Snowmass Lake (Snowmass Peak in background)



awww :)



Wrench 1, Sean 0


Hike on the way back


I can still smell the leaves...




We were in the Elk Range- which is where Sean spent his Colorado Outward Bound trip and where we had planned on going when we came out to Colorado on vacation last June (a plan that was again thwarted by weather…but in June!) It has a totally different feel to it then a lot of the areas we have been in – it definitely felt like we were back out east with the rain and forest based hike. In all we hiked about 16 miles through both Aspen and Pine forest ending at Snowmass Lake. The massive peak set behind the lake is Snowmass Peak, not Snowmass Mountain. With the weather as it was we were never even able to see the Peak we had planned on climbing. Looks like it will be a whlie before we have another chance as the snow conditions will have too high of a risk for avalanche danger pretty soon.


Why we turned back...