16 Nov 2010 - Snow & Wind Storm

This morning Helen and I went skiing at Copper. They reported 8" of new powder and 14" in the past 48 hours. This was Helen's first day and my 2nd. We took the American Eagle lift up and then the E-lift to the top. Very windy at the top. We first skied CDL 20 which had lots of powder. Then we moved to Mine Dump. More powder and less people. Helen's first runs were powder and bumps. Only groomer was Main Vain on our way back down.

Around 4PM today, we had a major wind and snow storm blowing through from the north. This photo was shot through our downstairs window. You can barely make out the willows which are only about 25' from the house.

We are in for the night.

23 Apr 2010 - Skiing at the Basin

we are under a "winter storm watch" since yesterday afternoon thru Sat. Today, I went skiing at A-Basin. They had 5" yesterday and another 5" inches last night. Snowed while I was there. Snow was good but the visibility was pretty bad. Fell three times immediately after getting off lift because I could not tell which way I was skiing. Finally after I got further down the mountain and closer to the trees I could get some definition. Decided to ski the bottom portion of the mountain. I left around noon and the parking lots were full. Lots of locals skiing today.

24 Mar 2010 - Spring Snow Storm Denver

Yesterday, Helen was flying back from Tennessee after helping her mom move to Knoxville. She was due to arrive at 5:17PM. A massive spring snow storm was predicted for the front range including Denver to start around 3-6PM. At noon it was clear at our house in the mtns and looking at www.cotrig.org it appeared to still be pretty nice in the Denver area. I had originally scheduled service for our Prius but elected to cancel it and drive our 4WD Explorer down. Good decision.

On the way down, it appeared that my telephone was not working and the battery was low. Knowing that Hele would call me when she landed, I stopped by a Verizon store to have them check out my phone. The told me that it would not charge. Being short on time, I used one of their phones to leave Helen a message that my phone wasn't working and I would wait at our usual spot for her. As I was waiting the phone rang and Helen informed me that her flight had been deverted to Colorado Springs. I quickly told her that my phone battery was about to go and that I would drive to our friends (Mike and Susan Rudd) and she should call Mike to let him know her status.

After about 1 hr of driving through the snow storm (normally takes about 15 minutes), I arrived at Mike's house. Helen just called and said the plane was scheduled to fly back to Denver airport. I turned around and headed back out to the airport. The snow storm which was really getting bad and winter driving conditions. As I was about 3 miles from the airport, Helen called (I had Mikes cell phone), to let me know that the were returning to the gate and would probably have to spend the night in Colorado Springs.

I then headed back to Mike and Susan's house. Another hour of driving in a massive snow storm.

Roads to the mountains were closed and Mike and Susan let me stay at their house.

This morning Helen was able to catch an early morning flight back to Denver. I headed out to the airport again. Roads were much better shape and I70 was open again. We did have a lot of wet slush on the road but made it home safely around noon. At our house, we only had about 3-4 inches but in the front range some areas reported 23" and many areas had over 10".

That's Colorado in the spring time. Within a couple days, all the snow will be gone in the Denver area and spring will continue until the next snow storm.

This is a photo of our Explorer this morning parked outside Mike's garage. Click HERE to view other photos taken this morning of the snow storm.

14 Dec 2008 - Major Snow Storm

We had a major snow storm last night and early this morning dumping over 12" at our house. Helen and I just spent 2 hrs outside moving snow. I now have an electric snow shovel that I use on the deck. It works really well and throws the snow awaythe side of the deck.

Each morning our cat, Vino, goes to the window to see if the bunny rabbit is there. I think each morning the bunny rabbit comes to the outside of our deck to see if the cat is looking at him. Today, the rabbit made a path through the snow and came out from under the deck to check on the cat. When I opened the blinds to let Vino look outside, the bunny was there looking at us. While I got my camera he moved away but I was still able to get this shot.

16 Aug 2008 - August Snow

During the night we had a winter storm roll through Summit County. At about 4:30AM it was thunder and lighting and raining really hard at our place. When we got up this morning it cleared and I was able to take a couple photos before the clouds covered the mountains. Thought that this was a great photo showing the green mountain side with a dusting of snow. Click on the photo to see a larger view.

Yesterday around 11:30AM, the I-70 west bound lanes were closed at the Tunnel due to heavy snow and a 11 car accident.

Hopefully winter is not here to stay.

This is a photo of Mt. Royal and Peak 1 just behind Frisco near I-70. We hiked almost to the top of Peak 1 on Thursday.








Sun came out so I took a couple more photos before the snow melts.

08 Feb 2008 - Winter Storm

For the past month and half, we have had snow almost everyday. Last night, it snowed really hard with heavy winds resulting in 2'+ drifts in our driveway this morning. I have had problems with our snowblower recently where the auger would not move. Yesterday, I decided to store the blower in our garage because I thought that maybe the auger was freezing over night.
Well that apparently was the problem because this morning I needed to plow before Helen could go skiing and the snow blower word well. I first plowed a narrow path to get the Explorer out so I could take Helen to meet our neighbor Frank to go skiing. Later I spent about 2.5hrs clearing snow which was over the top of the snow blower (22"high). I then dug a path from our stairs to our patio. Yesterday this path was clear. Today, there was over 20" of snow in it. We have shoveled some much snow from the patio deck this year, that it is hard to find a place to put it. In recent years, we could just push the snow off the deck but this year you have to throw it and try to get it as far away from the deck as possible. More snow is due tonight.

To view more photos of the snow, click on the slide show below.