..and then snow rolled in. Had to alter my travel plans and what should have been a 5 hour drive turned into 6 1/2 hours. No matter, this is beautiful country and even more beautiful covered in white. Let the pics commence:
Slope Drive-By #1: Ski Hesperus. This is about 15-20mins west of Durango. There's not much more to it than what can be seen here...this was mostly brown 2 weekends ago:
Those are some seriously freakin happy little Bob Ross trees right there...love the visual contrast of the red rocks, evergreens, and snow.
Lizard Head Pass area, about 10mi south of slope drive-by #2 - Telluride:
Looking back up at McClure Pass (between Delta & Carbondale):
Snowmass - about 3mi back off the main road going into Aspen:
Buttermilk was slope drive-by #3...later pic of it...then Aspen Highlands was #4 right next door to Buttermilk.
Landed in downtown Aspen at my hotel, right next door to the concert venue and this close to Aspen Mountain (#5):
Checked my email right after that photo (30 mins in town) and found out the concert had been cancelled due to "travel issues"...thought no way, since they were in Englewood the night before and only about 3- 3 1/2 hours away. Went to talk to the venue and they didn't have any other information. Found out 2 days later their tour bus had broken down & it didn't have anything to do with weather. Still feeling a little BS there since it was a DJ set instead of the full live band, and they were due to be at Coachella on Friday. Meh. Spent the rest of the evening getting my drink on (with some amazing food)....if you're ever in Aspen, go to The Red Onion.
Woke up to more snow the next morning:
Welcome to Aspen, SkiSE!
Heading back out of town to home, passed Aspen Highlands:
On Wednesday afternoon, the cat was grooming the superpipe at Buttermilk...which struck me odd since they were done for the season. On the hunch that something might be going on (and just to see the dang thing in person), I decided to stop for some pics. Lucky me....Red Bull was filming.
I walked up closer on the left of those cats lined up, and watched for a few minutes. You can see the tracks of the snowmobiles used to shuttle the riders back up. One took off with a snowboarder, and I happened to notice a jacket that was very recognizable...but the rider was sitting with their back to me so I didn't see their board very well, and couldn't see the pants. I had a sneaky suspicion, but thought no way, that couldn't be. My suspicions were confirmed by that rider later that night on FB...it was indeed Mark McMorris, in his signature blue jacket and camo pants. I chose not to be all stupid touristy (at least not more than what I already had been) and didn't go crazy with the pics then...knowing I needed to be on the road hammering down to get home.
