Colorado Update 2: "Umm... where's your restroom?"

Greetings from snowy Leadville, Colorado! As I type this, the snow is falling outside, just in time to cover the roads and trails we're going to follow tomorrow morning as we hike into Uncle Bud's Hut. We just had an excellent meal at a local cafe in Leadville, and we're finishing the last-minute packing of the cars before we leave at 7am tomorrow. But, let me back up and recap the last couple of days.

Our motley crew, after running assorted errands in Denver, departed for the ski resort Arapahoe Basin late Friday afternoon. We arrived in good time and began some avalanche search drills on a flat area outside the base lodge. Unfortunately, some passer-by actually stole one of our beacons while Colin and Mark were practicing with it! (Pretty impressive, considering that 10 people were standing around, but also rather frustrating and upsetting). After a couple minutes of frantic searching and a visit to the lost and found, we gave up. Next we set off to skin up one side of the mountain in order to reach a rather interesting feature -- an avalanche practice field with tranceivers that can be turned on and off by remote, to simulate anywhere from 1-4 buried victims. Our industrious group set right off, with Tyler and Max in the lead, and we arrived in good time, especially considering that everyone was feeling to effects of altitude (more on this later). Once there, we split into groups to simulate a rescue. The first group recovered all victims in less than 6 minutes (pretty good). The second group did it in two minutes (wow!). After a few more practice rounds, we skied down the resort, which was now closed and packed up the cars to head to Vail.

We arrived at the Vail Interfaith Chapel, where we were supposed to spend the night (at the cost of $25 for the whole group for down-town Vail, who can argue?) Oddly, though, we arrived to find the building open with lights on, but no humans in sight. After a few minutes searching for any kind of staff or manager, we finally just moved our gear into a large open basement area. Finally, an hour later, someone arrived to tell us we were in the wrong building (turns out there are TWO chapel buildings, who'd have guessed?) So, we again moved all our stuff and settled down for the night.

Next morning, we set off to a local restaurant for breakfast and then to the ski hill. Our group still seems to be getting the hang of planning things out in advance, since it turned out that the restaurant on the directions was actually a coffee shop the size of a shoebox.  A brief exploration turned up a local cafe with really awesome crepes.  This finding-awesome-food-by-chance thing is going to be a recurring theme.  Processing the food and drink is also a recurring theme.   The guys are staying well hydrated, and between that and the many great meals the visits to the restroom are ... constant.  

The day at Vail started out drop-dead gorgeous.  Blue skies, and western warm, with bright sun.  Of course, the Vulture warned everyone the night before about sunscreen, right?   Now let's count the intelligent Venturers who actually put some sunscreen on... let's see, what's less than one?   Steven's face now matches his hair, which makes him easier to spot.    The boys launched immediately for the "back bowls" of Vail, which were filled with about a foot of tracked-up powder that generally goes by the name of "mank".  It beat them up pretty well, but they also were showing their stuff.    The group met up for outdoor lunch at one of the summits, then skied together down some long cruising intermediate runs (Ryan just had to do "Simba").   2500 feet of steep intermediate slope is still quite a workout, and I have to say that the guys were looking better on their tele skis than most of the freeheelers skiing Vail that afternoon.   They kept skiing off into the woods, though... to relieve themselves.    After trucking back up to the top via several lifts, they headed off to a run called "Ouzo" that the adults had checked out in the morning.   We're trying to get them used to what slopes of different grades look like so that they're avalanche-aware, and Ouzo is a nice, steep black diamond run of about 32 degrees.   So they skied it hard, stopping only in mid-slope to whip out clinometers and take measurements.  The group then finished up with a long run to the base, tired but happy.

8000 feet done, we're off to 10,000 feet!   Just a short run to Leadville and the Leadville hostel.   On arrival, we discover that those reservations Mark made back in October... well, not so much.   The owner seems to work on a month to month basis, and really can't keep track of anything longer than that.  So we made use of the restroom, then off we went to the Super (Crew) 8 motel.  Hey, not so bad.   An order to Sky High Pie for some Extra Large pizzas rounded out the day.

Leadville Sunday is a rest and acclimatize day.  Continental breakfast at the Super 8 is followed by mass at St. Joseph's parish.   We were actually on time, but they moved the mass to a different church.  Ah well.   The morning's hymns were full of odd references to "tomorrow for good or ill" and "persevering through misery".  Even something about God kicking you off the mountain but joining you in the plain.   An odd omen.   The boys toured Leadville, an old cowboy mining town, with many restrooms.  Ryan of course found the only Chinese restaurant in town, while the rest ate buffalo burgers.    We handled our logistics issues buying food and spare batteries at the local supermarket, and had yet another dinner that couldn't be beat at a local cafe, featuring an amazing white chocolate mousse and a very clean restroom.

Which brings us back to where this update started.  The cars are packed, we've scouted the trailhead, the TCP's are being written, we're settled into the hostel (a really marvelous spot), and it's snowing like mad to give us a fresh foot of powder to ski in tomorrow.   The boys will love the "blank slate" route finding, I'm sure.  

Don't know if we'll have any ability to blog from the field, but we're off for a load of fun!