Up to 24.3.10

The Boss’s Husband plus nephew turned up eventually after a problem on the Interstate between Vail and Denver with an overturned truck necessitated a ninety-mile detour. It is when things like this happen that you understand how important building the Interstate Highway was. They seem pleasant and are here to do a whole lot of remodelling of kitchens in both Chalets, replacing carpet with wooden flooring etc so will be here for a couple of weeks before going over to Breckenridge to look after the guests who are booked in there for the Easter week, the hosts from there having gone home early as we will be doing.
After cleaning all day, we went out for a meal at the Blue Plate Bistro and had an excellent meal, paid for by the Management, making it even sweeter.
Packing to go home was strange as we have been doing things ‘for the last time’ for some days now eg feeding guests, cleaning bathrooms, filling up the birdfeeder (fortunately the nephew will take over this duty), and the time had really come.
All week it has been beautifully clear with blue skies and on Thursday night it started to snow. It snowed and snowed and by Friday morning at 7.00 when we set off for the airport, it was about 10” deep and still snowing. The slopes will be beautiful but as far as we were concerned it could be a nuisance if the flights were screwed up. We got to the Airport at Eagle which is a tiny, very cosy local one and were relieved to find that we were being boarded as per normal. Then we sat, waiting for the tarmac to be hoovered or whatever they do, continued to sit as the visibility didn’t improve, taxied over to the de-icing plant to be sprayed with orange and green liquid, sat some more, waited for the visibility to improve, taxied back to the terminal and disembarked. Four hours later the cycle was repeated taxiing hither and thither, being de-iced, then allelujah took off for New York and JFK airport. We were scheduled to catch the 7.20pm flight to Heathrow after a four hour wait so we weren’t too fazed at being held up, but as it turned out we missed that one so now pinned our hopes on getting across the terminal to check in on the last flight out at 10.30 pm. Of course my concern was that, although we could walk across and get on the plane OK, would our luggage be as swift? I had visions of turning up at Heathrow with our luggage still somewhere in JFK, but I’m impressed to say that it was with us on the plane. Thank you American Airlines. Much relief at the Heathrow luggage carousel as you can imagine. We had been in touch with a friend who was going to meet us and we started looking for him just as he started looking for us which was great as the alternative involved taxi to Paddington, train to Worcester, and a taxi home. As it was we stopped for a mega-breakfast at a Little Chef (perhaps surprisingly I would thoroughly recommend this), and were delivered to our door. Thanks Andrew – you’re a star!
Then it was the usual wading through a two foot pile of mail principally comprising begging letters from the bank, invitations to install double-glazing, to take up an American Express card etc etc, but with one bright spot with a letter from the Inland Revenue and a tax refund cheque for £175!
We had had a couple of hours sleep on the plane so were trying to stay awake until the evening to readjust to UK time and it seemed to work. After a lie-in on Sunday we were about sorted re jet-lag which was a relief.
The cats were pleased to see us after the statutory period of ignoring us for leaving them, and then wouldn’t let us out of their sight. It’s nice to be loved!
One of the first jobs was to start the Aga which had foiled the heating engineer in December so dramatically when the kids were trying to cook a Christmas meal. It turned out that the reason the oil wasn’t flowing was that a rather hard-to-see valve had tripped so all was well and we had a warm house again.
Next job was to take down all the Christmas decorations. It is a good job we have an eco-friendly plastic tree or the floor would have been knee deep in needles. As it was the holly sprigs started the fire and gave a jolly crackling start to proceedings.
We then had a succession of catching-up-with-friends-and-relations outings and meals, meeting George (Sue’s new nephew), meeting our new Grandperson (AKA - the bump), shopping to restock the larder and getting the car to start.
One of our neighbours had kindly been starting it every so often so all it needed was a battery charge, tyre pumping and it was ready to go – not! We set off and it stopped half a mile later on the main road. I lifted the bonnet and fiddled with everything that looked fiddly and it started. Great – not. Then it stopped and wouldn’t start no matter how much fiddling I did. So it was a job for super mechanic Nigel and it was picked up and taken for professional fiddling while we took a bus to Worcester to sort out a glitch in the Mortgage payments which has stopped when we transferred the accounts to the Co-op before we left.
Sue went to the Doctor’s hoping to get a fast-track MRI scan on her shoulder and was told that it would be 6 – 8 weeks unless we paid the nice man £300 for a private one. We are looking at exercising patient choice and going to Swindon where the wait is only 2 weeks. All a bit frustrating and not what we hoped for at all.
Having just about got things sorted it is time to reflect on the last few months.
America in general and Colorado in particular was big, very big. The mountains were wonderful and everything you expect from mountains with snow, wonderful sunsets, deep blue sky (owing a lot to the altitude), breathtaking (literally) high passes, stunningly deep canyons, marvelous views and simply the best snow any of us had experienced anywhere.
The people we met were unfailingly courteous and polite, with smiles and cheerful greetings from all the pisteurs looking after the chairlifts, and ‘thank you for coming to our mountain’ being a typical closing comment. Such a difference from the French who regarded all skiers as a necessary evil placed between them and their pay cheque. The system of queuing was typical with the American model forming up into groups of four in readiness for the chair and where a single skier, noticing a three-group and giving a polite ‘excuse me, are you a three – can I join you’ was always greeted with ‘sure, where are you from?’ Again so different from the French queuing ethos, which was every man (and woman) for him(or her)self, elbows out and to hell with anyone else.
The houses and towns were strange as they were inevitably wood-clad with felt strips for roofing as opposed to tiles or slates, and brick buildings were revered as curiosities. It was difficult not to be patronizing with regard to the age of the towns when we are used to having buildings reflecting hundreds of years of development and local history, but the feeling was that history had happened very quickly with lots and lots of events having taken place in a very short period of time. We were fascinated by the towns that had started as tents during the gold rushes of the 18th century, grown, crashed when the gold ran out, boomed again when silver was discovered, crashed again when that ran out, and usually bloomed to a lesser degree with other industries such as skiing or tourism or when other minerals such as gypsum or molybdomen were discovered. It was interesting that with the current rise in gold prices, some of the old workings are once again being sifted through, especially the tailings, and the tourist mines are now going back to commercial production.
We were disappointed not to find evidence of the Native Americans anywhere in the mainstream of American culture, it was as though they had been airbrushed out and sidelined to such an extent that it was all but invisible. Perhaps this is from a sense of guilt at their earlier treatment, but it did seem a missed opportunity to embrace a readymade, and incredibly rich, cultural heritage extending for thousands of years, which is what the Americans (white) generally seem to realize they lack. We could also see a developing underclass of Hispanic speakers who did the menial tasks that enabled the rich white condo owners to continue in the style to which they were accustomed.
The guests we looked after yielded the usual mix of delightful and tedious, with those we will definitely keep in touch with and those we won’t, while the Boss was a pleasure to work for, having given us the measure of autonomy and respect with which we felt comfortable.
Will we go back to Colorado? – definitely, there was so much to see that we were unable to get to and as far as skiing was concerned - it was sublime. And that was in a year (El Niño), when the locals were bemoaning the lack of snow!
It’s back to the humdrum of life, with a wet spring in the offing and the need to find gainful employment to support the revamping of bathroom and kitchen that WILL happen this year!
I leave you, gentle reader, with three of my favourite pictures of the trip; a view from the top of the mountain, a shot of the Hanging Lake and a wonderful walk we did on the mountain opposite Vail.
Adieu!

Up to 17.3.10

A snowy day with poor visibility but perfect skiing with foot-deep powder on untracked slopes was Hannah & Guy’s introduction to the Back Bowls of Vail. We took them around a lovely route and waited at Belle’s Cabin while they shot off and did several runs while we cooked the home-made burgers we (I) had carried in the rucksack. Belle’s is at the top of the mountain and has two large barbeques for skiers to cook whatever they like. There were several major meals going on and the group of lads just next to us included Guy and Hannah with beers and general bonhomie which typified the generosity shown to strangers here. The sun broke through for just a few minutes to give a hint of the views available but proper vistas, of the gob-smacking variety, were withheld for another day. Both said that the snow was the best ever which was no surprise.
We delivered them over to Vail again the next day and we went for a lovely walk into the hills opposite the ski slopes, where we met a nice selection of people with dogs, bikes etc. including a passing caterpillar-tracked two-man vehicle clanking its way steadfastly to the top, presumably to service the radio mast there. Lovely views were our gift as it was a blue sky day to dream of.
Hannah and Guy had the best day’s skiing ever with more fresh powder snow and perfect cloudless skies.
In the evening we sampled the delights of Australian cooking with an American twist. The onion in the photograph was prepared with longitudinal cuts then soaked in water to allow the flesh to swell into a chrysanthemum shape. This was then battered and deep fried and served with a spicy dip. Delicious. Excellent food, lovely salads and tasty margaritas made for a most enjoyable evening.
We had almost resigned ourselves to missing out on the Glenwood Springs trip because of the problems with the road as previously described, when we heard that one lane had been opened after the engineers had decided to blow up the hanging rock and clear it all up together.
We also heard that as there are no further bookings, we will definitely be going home early and the Boss has changed the flights to Friday 19th March, leaving from Eagle Airport at 8.50am, (not such a bad time) to arrive back in UK at 6.30 on Saturday morning.
The long hard boring two weeks finally came to an end and we waved goodbye (and good riddance), to our last lot of guests. It’s odd how with some people there is an instant bond, you feel that you will certainly want to keep in touch, and with others you wouldn’t really lose any sleep if you never met them again. What is really odd is that you can tell which it will be within ten minutes of meeting them!
Anyway, as soon as they had gone we jumped into Old Faithful and headed off to Breckenridge to go Skiddooing. We met the hosts from the Breckenridge Lodge Hazel and Pam, and after getting kitted out with big soft warm boots and optional one-piece suits, we set off with in a pack of 10 in brand-new skidoos worth $5000 each. It wasn’t too expensive at $100 per driver and $50 per passenger for a two hour guided thrash through the forests and along some old gold-mining trails and up to the top of a saddle which was on the Continental Divide. I have been meaning to explain what this was but have forgotten so far so this is a good opportunity. The Continental Divide is the place at which the water and snow-melt from one side drains to the Atlantic and the water and snowmelt from the other side drains to the Pacific. It forms a ragged line from Canada in the North, passing down through Colorado, to Mexico in the South
It was great fun dashing along the tracks as we were necessarily following the guide and he was going at around 30 mph all the time. Guy managed to tip his up on the first corner with Sue on board as passenger, but was the only tipper and with no-one hurt, all was well (although he was reminded of the incident throughout the day and evening).
As we were intending to ski the next day at Breckenridge with Hazel and Pam, we came prepared to stay the night so were able to have a meal at the famous Bubba Gump’s Eatery. Formulated as a homage to the Forrest Gump film, the building is filled with memorabilia from the film with several genuine costumes, calipers, and lots of the famous sayings that came from the film, etc to add atmosphere. It was packed and so it was a good job we had pre-booked. For those who have forgotten the Bubba connection, he was a shrimp fisherman prior to the draft, who could recite hundreds of ways of cooking and preparing shrimps for eating, and frequently did, with only Forrest patient (or slow-witted enough) to not interrupt him. After Bubba was killed and Forrest survived Vietnam as a hero, he bought a shrimping boat and together with his old Captain (ex-legs), started shrimp fishing and the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company and made his first fortune. To say that Shrimp was a principle item on the menu is to misunderstand: it was the only item on the menu, but served in hundreds of different ways. Boiled shrimp, coconut shrimp, cheese shrimp, chili shrimp, shrimp on a stick, shrimp inna sauce, shrimp inna bun, shrimp inna salad, little shrimps, big shrimps, huge shrimps ….. you get the picture. I had a Shrimp Heaven which comprised shrimp (surprisingly) prepared in four different ways with three different dipping sauces and was absolutely delicious although rather filling. They must get through tons of Shrimps every night and there was definitely a shrimpy atmosphere when you walked into the place while outside was the bench from the film where Forrest had sat and recounted his tale. A real experience although not one for non-shrimpists.
I can see this developing as an in-car game. Some one starts off with Chili shrimp and each subsequent player has to name another shrimp dish without repeating an earlier one. Hours of fun!
Earlier in the evening we had been treated to the lovely spectacle of Pam’s ‘almost pet’ fox. She has been putting chicken scraps out for a while now, for a visiting fox that turns up each night at 6 o’clock as part of his rounds. Tonight it was chicken hearts (a special treat) and sure enough he was there. We watched him from about 10 feet as he came onto the porch and picked up a mouthful, then retired to eat it, then returned for another mouthful. He wasn’t fazed by flashes from cameras and as you can see, he is a really handsome and fit specimen.
The next morning we were a bit disappointed to see that it was snowing hard and windy with it, meaning the visibility would be dreadful up the mountain. We decided to fall back on plan B, so after a luxurious breakfast with Pam and Hazel we bid farewell and zoomed off down towards The Hanging Lake and Glenwood Springs.
Having called into Avon for the right gear, we made our way to the Lake walk which had gone slushy since we were last there but was still pretty tricky towards the top and required a team effort to negotiate safely. The lake was as lovely as before although the huge icicle beneath the spouting rock, that had been about 12 feet high, had melted back and now only showed a ring of ice a couple of feet high rather like a volcanic caldera. Guy and Hannah managed to fool around in the snow on the way down and we all had a good time with no serious injuries. As an aside, I felt, probably for the first time ever, like an old man trying to do something I shouldn’t be doing. This came as a bit of a shock as I have always rather prided myself on being able to cope with most physical challenges and yet here I was, placing each foot as carefully as you do knowing that if you slip, once, you could be in plaster for 6 months, or at the least unable to walk more than a mile without painkillers. And all the time Guy and Hannah were gambolling down the path like a pair of idiots, jumping blindly into the deep drifts of snow on the path sides with me dreading them accidentally falling into me and causing me to slip. Hey ho …. tempus fugit but as T.E.Lawrence said ‘my citadel of invincibility was irrevocably destroyed’.
We got down and after admiring the holes in the road made by the rock fall, went past a group of large mammals called Big Horn Sheep whose defining characteristics were: they were sheep and they had big horns. We arrived at Glenwood Springs where we luxuriated in the hot pools for a muscle-loosening hour or so. Then it was over the footbridge and into Juicy Lucy’s where we had had a snack before on a previous visit but on recommending it to some guests, been told that the steak was simply the best that they had ever had.
A variety of steaks later, each perfectly prepared, and not overly expensive and we set off for the drive back after a full and active day, including the loss of an hour as America went into Spring mode time-wise.
There were also lots of oohs and aahs as Sue was given Mother’s Day cards brought out by Hannah and Guy (these not forgotten). They each reflected the child and their relationship with Sue and were individually and collectively very touching and managed to be thankful for past efforts while reflecting the humour of the giver, while not being sickly sentimental. Excellent, all and very proud-making.
It would seem that our sensible and fair suggestions (well we thought so), have been well-received by the Boss so far, so wages and bonuses may yet meet our expectations.
On our penultimate day with the kids we went off to Georgetown for the day to see the sights, explore one of the most revered towns, and to chat to a gold miner who is currently running the Steam Railway that loops up the valley to Silver Plume, a few miles up the valley. This was the cunning answer to the problem of a 6% gradient that the railway couldn’t go up. By making a loop and crossing back over on itself, the distance was doubled and the gradient reduced to a manageable 3%. This was to be the link with the newly opened silver mines of Leadville but unfortunately, by the time they had worked this out and built the Railway Loop and necessary bridges, another company had
arrived at Leadville from a different direction so the route from Georgetown was never completed. It languished until 1939 when it was all pulled down then in 1973 the bridges were rebuilt and the track relayed and a glorious sample of steam railwayhood is now available during the summer months and attracts steam nuts from across the globe.
The town was famous for its gold, discovered on the one side of the valley when the miners had to contend with loads of black muck blocking up their filters. The discovery, after the gold had run out, and on the other side of the valley, that the black muck contained Silver led to a new boom. The Phoenix Silver Mine is still operational and gold is still found in them thar hills.
We took Hannah and Guy to Denver for their flights and waved them goodbye. It has been lovely seeing them, Skype is no substitute for the real thing.
We called in to The Rocky Mountain Quilting Museum in Golden on the way back and were astounded at the intricacies, imagination, and craftsmanship found in the several dozen quilts on exhibition. In this instance all were created by male quilters but the stock of quilts is the largest in the State and well worth a visit.
Back home now and awaiting the arrival of the Boss’s Husband with a final day’s cleaning and packing ahead tomorrow before an early start home on Friday. Final thoughts on the trip next week I think.

The big news this week came by way of Sue’s birthday on 7th. Hannah and Guy flew out and we went to Denver to pick them up. It’s a bit of a trip with Denver 120 miles away and the airport a further 22 miles out of town and I was a little concerned that Old Faithful (a 1991 Ford Explorer) might get cold feet half-way there – or back. But all was well and we got back at 12.00 midnight.
It’s a shame that it was dark because they missed a lovely drive through some beautiful countryside that includes two mountain passes at over 10,500 feet, deep canyons, a mile long tunnel and a view over the mid-west plains that goes all the way to New York I should think. Imagine Norfolk times a thousand. Never mind, they will see it when they get their return flight which leaves during the day.
Denver is proud of being known as the mile high city and it boasts some fine modern buildings in the downtown bit as well as an enormous urban sprawl and a historic old town bit. It was from here that the pioneers first saw the mountains they were going to take three months to cross, or to go to the Gold-or-Silver-rush towns.
En route we went through, or at least over, Georgetown that apart from being a historical Gold-rush town, also has a 50 mile loop of working narrow-gauge steam railway that is part of the network of railways that laced through the mountains connecting the smaller towns and carried people, supplies and gold / silver. It also has the first bank to be robbed by Butch Cassidy who had his Hole in the Wall hideout in a box canyon not far away.
It was lovely to see them both and we spent our first day out on Sunday giving them the guided tour of the area ending up in a Thrift Shop in Minturn. Unlike the one in Edwards, the clothes here are dated on the price ticket and if they have been in for more than 30 days there is a 30% reduction and if for more than 60 days, a 50% reduction. The sale price is split between the previous owner and the shop rather than being donated as with the Edwards one. Hannah and Guy were amazed at the quality of the clothes, with designer labels abounding. Tempting though the fur bodywarmers, cowboy boots and one-piece ski suits were, they managed to buy only a pair of ski / boarder trouser each.
Back to the big news.
Guy had been given a birthday card and a Mother’s Day card for Sue from Natasha to bring out with him and he forgot one so when Natasha Skyped Sue on her birthday to see if she had received it, she hadn’t. Natasha was quite annoyed and it turned out that it was because enclosed in the card was a copy of a fourteen week scan showing Pace-Bardon junior! This is great news and we were all very excited at becoming Grandparents, Aunties and Uncles. It (specific variety as yet unknown) is due in September so it seems that the honeymoon Caribbean Cruise was a success. All very exciting and we look forward to seeing the original in due course.
It snowed overnight on Sunday for the new arrivals so we all went out skiing on Monday and although the visibility wasn’t terribly good as it was continuing to snow, it was wonderful skiing with about 6” of powder on top of the snow base pack. Today (Tuesday), they all went out again and I was left home alone to clean the hot tub, make bread, take the rubbish to the recycling site etc.etc. Actually I find that skiing on consecutive days is a bit too much for my poor knees at the moment and we are aiming to go to Vail on Thursday to explore the Back Bowls and I want to be as fit as possible for that.
One of the trips we were hoping to take with them was to go down to Glenwood Springs via the Hanging Lake and have a soak in the lido again. As I have mentioned before there is a wonderful 13 mile, very deep, sheer-sided canyon before Glenwood and is seems that last Sunday some rocks fell onto the Interstate carriageway. When I say rocks, I mean that one was the size of a car and punched its way straight through the top, Eastbound, carriageway and landed on the lower Westbound carriageway! Fortunately it happened at night and no-one was underneath but it may take a week to repair the hole and clear off the rocks. There is also another similar-sized rock poised to come down and the highway men are considering dropping that one in a controlled explosion rather than wait for a spring thaw to fire it down. The diversion is about 180 miles which gives some idea of the importance of this road. We might still go and just take the diversion because the scenery where it goes is supposed to be magnificent as well and the Police lady who I talked to, to get an update on the situation, said to make sure we travel in the daylight because it goes through some very wild areas with lots of wildlife to be spotted including bald-headed eagles.
With the last lot of guests leaving last Saturday, we now have four guests as well as Hannah and Guy, and when they leave on Saturday 13th and 17th respectively, the order book is empty with no more guests scheduled in at all. This means that we may well be coming back much earlier than planned which will be a very good job as far as Sue’s shoulder is concerned because it means that any operation that may be needed on her shoulder, will be carried out within the time-span required. Sadly it also means we won’t get to go touring for a month but Sue’s shoulder is clearly more important and we will have an excuse to return to Colorado. Negotiations regarding wages for the non-worked, contracted month are beginning.
The weather has been really quite mild down at the bottom of the mountain even though it has been snowing well and sticking at the top. We have seen more and more grass appearing and in places it’s starting to turn green although the man in the Bank assured us that there is still a real possibility of serious snowfalls in March and April. I am half expecting crocuses to show up although I don’t know if they are here or not.
One effect has been that our feathered friends have stopped coming to our feeding station which is a shame because they provided lots of interest while washing up. I suppose they can find other more natural sources of food as the snow melts, but it does turn on its head a well-known saying as in this case they are definitely foul-weather friends.
A strange tale now, which is typical of both the place and the time. In 1891 a man who had been elected Sheriff of Red Cliff called Arthur Fulford, set off 11.30 pm on 31st December into a snowstorm up a mountain called Slate Mountain. His brother was unable to go with him but became worried when he didn’t return the next morning and went to find him. Unfortunately his tracks led to a sheer edge and he was unable to find his brother until the spring when his body was found at the bottom of a snow and rock fall. As a fine upstanding citizen, he was buried at Red Cliff and was much missed.
The reason he was out at night in a snow-storm was based in a story that started off 30 years earlier.
Then, a group of friends set out from Denver towards California when they discovered ‘coloured’ rock ie rock that indicated the presence of gold. Eight of the group decided to stay and explore while the rest carried on to California. The eight discovered the gold vein and eventually accumulated a large quantity of gold nuggets that they hid in the mine shaft. As they were running out of provisions coming up to winter, they sent Buck Rogers off to get some more, which was a 7 day trip away. Unfortunately while he was away, it snowed and he was unable to get back to them. Never mind, he went to the bar and waited. Unfortunately it snowed for a long time and by the time it cleared up he had spent the gold he had brought with him for provisions. He returned to the mine but found that there had been a rock-slide and the mine was obliterated as were his compatriots, of which there was no sign. Overcome with remorse, he drifted around and eventually died in Denver in 1881 after telling a Doctor all his problems (and where the mine was). In 1891, Arthur and his brother was running a “Halfway House’ Hotel between Eagle and Nolan Creek (a gold rush mine area), and frequently rented horses to prospective prospectors. He became friendly with one old prospector who said he had a map to a gold mine where he had found bones, tools, and gold nuggets. They formed a partnership whereby they would go and clear the gold nuggets from the mine in the summer. Unfortunately, two weeks later, the prospector was killed in a fight in the Saloon at Red Cliff, and after going through his Hotel room, Arthur came across the map of where the mine entrance was. He eventually found the site after searching for several years, and was going to hammer in the corner site pegs as required by law which stated that if a mine was not worked for a year, it could be re-assigned, to a new owner, by registering it on a first come first served basis, on 1st January of each year.
This then, was why it was so important that he was going off, late at night, with pegs in his backpack and into a snow-storm.
What a story – and it’s true!
Incidentally the mine-shaft has never been discovered although a detailed description written down by the Doctor in 1881 and generally made known in a pamphlet called Timberline to Goldmine is freely available.

Up to 3.3.10

We spotted this seat on a visit to Minturn where we had had a lovely breakfast on our way to Vail. It's nice to see that old boards are still useful.
With the melt / freeze following the snow we have had recently, a curious and rather beautiful effect has materialised on the fir trees. As the snow melts, it drip from the branches then as the temperature drops again in the afternoon, it freezes, forming long delicate icicles. It is obviously what the designers of plastic icicles for Christmas trees were basing their design on, but I had no idea that the origianl were so lovely.
On our day off, we went over to Breckenridge which is about 40 miles away and is where The Boss has a second Chalet. The hostesses, we met a while ago when they came over for a day’s skiing in Vail, and we were going over to see them and to go skiing with a friend of ours from Whitbourne that I was at School with. The town of Breckenridge is a really old place having been established in 1859 (I have seen British Rail sandwiches that old), and is full of charming Victorian Houses making up the High Street. All lit up at night it adds a mystical quality, and it is known as a historical gem of a Town. We met up with our co-hostesses and the friends, and set off skiing. It was snowing all day and we were guided around the slopes in a fairly cautious manner because the visibility was pretty bad. At one point we split up into a hardcore downthelumpybits party and a idontwanttofalloversoletstakeitsteady group. Going down, we lost Sue and for a longish while (about half an hour), I was waiting half way down a run and wondering if she was going to walk down ( it was a flat joining / poling bit that was hard with her hurting shoulder) or if she had fallen and was injured so she couldn’t walk down. Eventually a text! That she was in one piece and down at the bottom of a run having been helped out of a soft snow pile by the second group whom we thought were in front of us. All’s well that ends well but for a moment I really wished we had had these short wave radio thingies to communicate with.
The skiing was difficult to assess because we stayed low and the visibility was so bad we didn’t really anything very testing, but it did seem ideal for the beginner with a steep bit at the top of the run with a flattening out down towards the bottom and a rather tame last bit to the lift.
A meal at Fatty’s in the evening was ace, with the coach for the USA Men’s Freestyle Board Team turning up in the middle of the evening to a round of applause and cheering. Slightly ironic because he was on crutches as he had broken his leg the previous evening in a run down the course after the competition.
All the waitresses wore Gold-coloured medals in honour of the USA team and our hostesses begged two as souvenirs. Plenty of patriotism here.
All in all an eventful day and we wended our way home and it started to snow as we climbed up to the Vail Pass.
It has snowed off and on most of last week and added about 20 inches on the mountain which makes for lovely skiing. On our next day off we opted for a free guided tour starting from a yurt at the top of Vail, and were joined by two of our guests. I managed to get down one particular run that has been the location of my last two crashes, one self-managed and the other a blind T-bone, so hopefully laying a ghost and the skiing was lovely as we dipped and dived between the trees. The guide gave us some local history including the fact that the Two Elk Lodge ( a huge mountain-top restaurant), had been burned to the ground by an arsonist eco-warrior who didn’t want the back bowls to be opened up for skiing. She also knew her birds and identified my mysterious red-throated and capped finch as a Rose Finch who was a laggard who should have gone south for the winter but had stayed behind as they sometimes did, for our benefit. The local bird at the top of the mountain is the Canadian Jay, also know as the Camprobber because of it’s habit of stealing food from the hands of the customers. It is a pretty drab sort of bird colourwise, but you can’t have everything and the views it had were glorious.
We had another lost companion situation and eventually linked back up an hour later after we had circled back round the route we had taken to check down tree holes. During the meeting up, we hung back so we wouldn’t get caught in any flare-up as the two stories were exchanged and blame was apportioned (differently in each case - surprisingly!). She didn’t carry her phone because there was no need as her partner carried his (!) and the ever-so-useful pair of two-way radios were in no danger of getting lost as they were sitting on the bedside table in their bedroom because it was hard to remember how to use them because they were never taken out.
Anyway the rest of the day, while a little tense, went off OK so that’s all right.
Our new set of guests has arrived and they could be our last as we have a blank book after the 12th March. This has all sorts of permutations as our employment could be curtailed early, which in turn has implications for when we fly back because we can’t afford to travel for two months and of course we will be a month’s wages short. We will discuss with the boss but who knows, we might be back by the end of March.
It would seem that the new guests were expecting to be located actually in the village of Beaver Creek instead of in Avon and were chuntering a bit about the inconvenience. In fact they had booked through an agent who hadn’t given them the full information. Mind you they were also chuntering about the lack of power in the hot tub jets, the fact that it was icy outside and they were concerned for their health, and worst of all, that the beds squeaked! This could be a long two weeks!
On one of our shopping trips, I was trying to top up my stock of painkillers and was told by the Pharmacist that I couldn’t get Paracemamol as it wasn’t licensed in America but that Tylenol (active ingredient Acetaminophen) would do the trick. With a little research, because I didn’t understand, I discovered that the full scientific name of Acetaminophen was Para-acetylyaminophenol and the scientific name for Paracetamol was – Para-acetylyaminophenol and the only difference lies in the selection of the letters from the scientific name for the generic name ie. Para-acetylyaminophenol or Para-acetylyaminophenol - amazing!
Our quilting guest went for a second meeting of the 7th Day Pencecostal Quilters and was narrowly saved from being saved but once again resisted although had to endure a second wave of persuasion via an Evangelizing Rant on the radio in the car on her way home.
The ex-RAF guest has a rich store of bon mots and one evening offered the following – She was only the telegraphist’s daughter, but she certainly knew how her Da-Da Didit. Ho ho!
We will be sorry to see our current lot of guests go, they have been appreciative of our efforts to make their stay a memorable one and are good company, but all good things come to an end, whether guests or ski hosting.

Up to 24.2.10

I have long been fascinated by the signs found on the slopes and elsewhere and I have included some that we see all the time. I love both the directness and the fanciful nature of them, even if they have a serious reason to be there and the consequences of ignoring them can be the instant, on the spot, removal of your ski pass by the Piste Marshalls.
These will pursue you down the mountain in order to enforce a fine or pass removal and woe betide you if you are caught a second time as they can ban you from the mountain altogether!
We have just lost a six and a seven grouping of guests, and received in two pairs so we are down to four which is a very nice number to be catering for after 13’s and 12’s. For the first time we had a group in the other half of the Lodge and it was a shame because we hardly saw them except at mealtimes and there was no interaction with the other guests. We seem to have had a lot of Scots and I find that it works out at 16 out of a total of 38 or 42% with another 4 Stewarts due next week.
One of our current guests is a keen quilter and has brought her work along with her for those long flights times. It is exquisitely done and represents hundred of hours of patient sewing. She went to a meeting of like-minded quilters in nearby Edwards, but was a bit apprehensive as they are fervent believers and she was worried in case they tried to convert her to their 7th day Pentecostal Quilters beliefs. Luckily she is made of stern stuff and returned unturned. She doesn’t ski and her husband informed us, when we enquired if we could curry favour with a curry flavour, that HP sauce was a bit on the hot side for her. She was a teacher, now retired, and had taught the two adult guests from the week before, in Callander. How small a world is that?
This is perhaps to time to outline an example of ‘My Most Embarrassing Moments – number 34’. The other day it had snowed and the guests had gone out to their car to brush off the snow. Sue had also gone out of the front door at the same time, wearing her customary black trousers and black coat. I opened the front door with a broom in hand with the intention of sweeping the snow from the path between the two halves of the Lodge. I was presented with a person in black bending over tying a shoe-lace with their backside towards me. I was unable to resist the opportunity and brushed the presented bum vigorously with my broom. The guest (male) stood up and turned round with a certain amount of surprise as I gulped and apologized profusely saying I had mistaken one backside for another (Sue’s). He took it in good part and laughed – fortunately ( I could see an assault charge gently fading into the background), and showed his many years training of identifying aircraft whilst in the RAF as he observed drily, ‘I expect the silhouette was the same from this angle’.
After the RAF he worked on commercial airlines and related a tale of a colleague called Geoff Gay who was flying free of charge as an employee and boarded the plane looking for his seat. It was occupied but there was another seat free (probably this guy’s proper seat) and he sat down in it. A little known fact is that whereas employees can travel free, they have to be prepared to be bounced if a paying passenger needs their seat and this was the case here. The steward approached the good-looking person in Geoff’s designated seat and said ‘Are you Gay, because if so you will have to leave the plane?’. Geoff saw what was happening and as the guy blushed red and said ’Well actually I am gay but I don’t see why I should leave the plane’, he stood up and said ‘ I am Gay so I‘ll leave the plane’. At which point there was a Spartacus moment when another, completely unconnected person stood up at the back of the plane and shouted ‘Well, I’m gay as well but they can’t throw all of us off!’
The bird table is now a local avicultural landmark and is flush with sparrows and pigeons adding to the numbers. They seem to queue up in the tree nearby then swoop down one at a time to pick up their titbit then fly off to eat it. I wonder if French birds would wait then all swoop at the same time? One of the guests from a few weeks ago told a tale of rude French lift-queue etiquette in which having been trodden on he had extracted revenge by leaning over and releasing the back binding from the ski of the offender! Excellent.
The snow has been snowing off and on for the last week and there is a covering of about a foot of fresh dry snow up on the mountains. With the sun shining, the guests have been coming back with glowing reports and noses. We have had a couple of days of absolutely beautiful skiing with the bits in between the trees refreshed and topped up.
We have had good news from home with my niece and Sue’s niece both giving birth to fine babies with all concerned recovering well. They are the first of the new generation on both sides of the family so there is much cooing and gooing over the airwaves and on facebook, with newly promoted grannies and granddads making lots of fuss - and why not?
We are heading over to Breckenridge tomorrow on our day off, to meet up with a neighbour and ex-schoolmate of mine from Whitbourne. He is there with a party of four so we will be able to be guided around the hills, which is always nice, with a meal in the evening, possibly with the hosts of that Chalet. They visited us a few weeks ago and there is a possibility that we will take over from them if they fly home before the end of the season. It would be a nice change as the Chalet is an enormous thing built in the style of Adams Family meets Walt Disney, with massive beams everywhere and set in woods of large pine trees. The kitchen does have two dish washing machines and two cookers which would make a nice change as we struggle here to find cooking space without using the next-door ovens when catering for over ten people.
The Owner of the two Chalets is cutting the cost of a holiday by throwing in a six-day ski pass which makes quite a difference as they go for $410 when on special offer from the Ski Pass Office. It would be good if it works and tempts people out here because it really is a wonderful ski area and worthy of its reputation.
Sue’s shoulder has been brought of the attention of a specialist who thinks it likely that the ligament has become detached from the muscle. Repairable if operated on within three months of the tear ie before the end of March, and an MRI scan is needed to establish what the exact situation is. As a side line, Sue had to have an X-ray of her head to establish whether a weld flash from many years ago had left a splinter of metal in the eye. The danger is that when under the enormous magnet of the MRI, any metal will be pulled straight out with potentially horrendous consequences as you can imagine. We are now in contact with the Medical Insurers to confirm that they will cough up, and hopefully up front, with the $1500 needed for the MRI Scan and any subsequent operation that can be done at Vail which apparently has a world-wide reputation for orthopaedic procedures of this nature.
Who knows what they will decide, it might be that Sue has to fly back to UK and have it done on NHS leaving me to supply a diet of bread and beans to the guests for the duration. I’ll call it the historic, authentic pioneer diet and save the budget a fortune.
We’re told that we’ve bought a lovely board bag to hold Guy’s new snowboard. That’s nice and we didn’t even have the pain of going shopping for it.

Up to 17.2.10

Our CP guest and his friend have been absolutely charming and we were sorry to see them go, we will certainly have to look them up when we get back. He was going back to a retirement party to be held in his honour after working at Corus for 47 years. His friend who had driven them around and arranged the trip, lessons etc., works in the laboratory testing new steel formulations. He said that it took 20 years to get a new steel fabricated, proved and tested which seems pretty long but there you go! He also said that Tony had saved Corus hundreds of thousands of pounds over the years by turning off the lights whenever he found them on after hours. He had been taken on on a trial basis for a month and was leaving after 47 years. After we had been talking of places to go in Colorado, he turned up with a guide to the National Monuments and Parks which had maps, walks, history and everything else about loads of interesting places to go to. How kind is that?
We are almost decided not to go touring to San Fransisco as there seems little point in traveling thousands of miles to see natural phenomena and cultural gems when there are loads on the doorstep. We will see if we can base ourselves here and tour out on three day loops.
They had just visited the water / road tunnel and it is about 12 feet tall and roughly circular and 7 ½ miles long! It carries water from a reservoir through the mountains to Leadville valley. Once the road from Aspen to the Reservoir has been blocked by snow in November, the maintenance guy’s only way out until it cleared in the spring, was to enter the tunnel and drive out to Leadville. Can you imagine entering the tunnel at one end and wondering if anyone has entered from the other end?
Our other visitors are building up numbers by the day and I estimate we are now feeding well over twenty visitors a day. That’s right; our bird feeder has really taken off and is established on the local bird population’s radar. We now have regular diners of Mountain Chickadees, Black-Capped Chickadees, a pair of Pine Grosbeak, a Nuthatch, two Common Red Poll, at least three Magpies, a Steller’s Jay, a Crow and a flurry of the ubiquitous House Sparrows. It is situated right outside the kitchen window so we can see them as they fly in and eat and they will now stay and eat as we are standing there watching. The nuthatch jams the seeds into a crack in the wooden platform before pecking it open, the Grosbeak uses its crossed bill to crush and open larger seeds, and the magpie just carries off the broken pieces of cold toast and other items to admire them later. As you walk up the road, there is generally no noise other than from traffic, until you get to our house where there is a constant chatter, twitter and call from the birds – great. Although the birdseed will have to go through the budget as Muesli.


Off to the slopes so, to be continued.

Some time later - A super day out on the slopes. We made our way over to Vail via the Café we spotted in Minturn last week and had the wonderful breakfast we were hoping for. Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and a bread that had dark rolls of rye through it rather like a Swiss roll. Together with a wonderful view, coffee and a hot cinnamon and pecan roll that was like a Danish Pastry. Delicious!
We also found out the route to Minturn from the back of the piste at Vail. This is interesting because it is an about 5 miles of off-piste trail that ends in Minturn from where a taxi could take you back to Avon.
We went on over to Vail and parked in the main car park which is a rare treat as it costs $25 a day. However it did mean minimum stumping in ski boots to the slopes which was the pay-off. We set off up the mountain with it snowing pretty hard which is double-edged as the snow is very welcome but while it is falling, the visibility is very poor and that means the possibility of going into moguls at speed is increased and as we have both had nasty experiences doing just that, we are naturally a little hesitant. Up to the top and thence to the top of the Back Bowls where we went a couple of weeks ago with some guests.
We set off down a light blue and paused as the visibility was really bad. Having decided to cut and run when we could, we carried on to the bottom when the snow lifted a bit and we decided to try another couple of runs.
We were glad we did as they were absolutely great with about a foot of fresh snow and as we dodged in and out of the trees it was clear why this is such a world-renowned ski area. Weaving between trees has its problems if you cut it too close and I managed to fall into a tree hole as I tried to go in front of a tree. It was about two feet deep and I fell into it without my skis breaking away. The irony is that I have been looking for a real tree hole, to examine the problem as described a couple of weeks ago in this blog when a lady instructor died in one. All I had to do was roll around so that my feet were downhill and then slide downhill and out. It took me about ten minutes and Sue had plenty of time to come over and start videoing the last few minutes of the floundering. I thought of the lady instructor and realized that if the hole had been only a couple of feet deeper, I would have had serious difficulty in getting out on my own.
We ventured into another of the bowls and the area in front of us and available to ski was enormous. We decided to go off down a ridge because we could see all the way to the valley and because we could always track out either left or right if it became intimidating. The scale of the slopes is just fantastic and really we could have gone in any direction we wanted. Down through fresh powder snow up to our knees and loving it and it didn’t even hurt when the inevitable slow falls happened (to me).
This was the longest day’s skiing we have attempted for ages, and a vital intake of Chocolate / Coffee was the next requirement before a gentle tree-dodging ski back down the mountain from the very top and back to the car and home. What a great day out!
We have been enjoying watching the American Olympics.
Just because it is set in Vancouver and there are one or two competitors from other minor countries doesn’t mean that there should be any air-time wasted on them. We have been thrilled by Shaun White (USA) snowboarder, Lindsay Vonn (USA) skier, Shani something (USA) speed-skater, and a whole lot of other American competitors, some of whom have medal potential, but far more importantly, perfect teeth and glossy hair. Vonn had a serious make-up malfunction during her tearful post gold-medal winning performance interview. Her mascara was spread evenly down her face along with her tears of joy and I’m sure she will be signed up by now by a make-up company who offer waterproof mascara so she can feature as the ‘before’ photo. Let no marketing opportunity go unexploited.
Sue has made an appointment to see a muscle specialist in Edwards and this evening we had a telephone call from the surgery to request a confirmation (that she would attend), and to remind her that she would need to arrive twenty minutes early to take a history, and to bring the all-important medical insurance card. Another example of superb customer relations and a fine example to us all.
Finally, I thought you might like to see the fruits of my labours breadwise. I call it Father's Pride.

Up to 10.2.10

When we were walking up to the hanging lake we saw several of the most striking birds I’ve ever seen. Bright blue, the size of a magpie, and wearing a cute little black crest on the top of their heads, and they were pretty well oblivious to our presence. Having Googled them (what did we do BG?), I find they are called Steller’s Jays and I present one for your delight.
While on the bird theme, I had a moment of inspiration. We have been putting out various crusts, dead pies, bread rolls etc for the birds, and we now have a resident magpie and two little birds that look like blue tits that have been in a too-hot wash and had all their colours rinsed out. The inspiration took the form of a 3 litre milk container, an empty tonic bottle, a sharp knife and half an hour’s careful carving of both, and the end of my forefinger. Once the blood stopped I was able to load the tonic bottle with a variety of bird–seed (or more accurately seed for birds), and we now have a weatherproof automatic seed dispenser. The word has gradually got around and we now have five of these tit look-alikes which I believe are actually called chickadees, a fellow that is the size of a robin but has a thrush’s flecked breast and an orange bib and cap, a couple of extra magpies and two crows. Job done!
Update on injuries: Sue’s shoulder is no better but is usable, my shoulder is slowly getting better but still hurts when I least expect it, and my leg muscle damage has reduced to a lump in the middle of the calf muscle with yellow bruising from ankle to knee. One curious effect has been that it seems that the released blood has dropped through the muscles and is sitting around my foot which is now purple. Very strange!
We have had two more lots of guests, two couples, so we are now feeding 14 including ourselves and feeling like we are definitely earning our crust.
One of them has been coming to Colorado for the last fifteen years so is a rich source of good places to visit when go touring. Apparently there are ancient Indian-built cliff dwellings, the box canyon where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid holed out, aqua tunnels that carry water through them from a reservoir that double as a roadway when the pass is closed in winter, the atomic retreat for the US Government which is a monster hole in the mountain and features in many a film. As well as stunning red canyons, oil shale deposits, Molybdemon, Gold, Silver and Lead mines, one of the most famous waterfall / ice climbs in the world at Bridal Veil Falls, and lots more natural phenomena that need to be seen - we will be spoilt for choice.
I suppose all these curiosities are the result of the way the Rockies have been formed. First the limestones were formed on the seafloor, then they were carved by the rivers as the Pacific Tectonic plate that subducted the North American Continental Plate and heaved it into the air, then they were injected with volcanic intrusions as the plates slipped and slid some more, then more alluvial rocks were added from river estuaries, then they were glaciated, then continued to be lifted to the current heights which are increasing each year as North America slides Westwards by 3 cm each year. Add enormous quantities of snow, subzero temperatures for four months of the year, spring snowmelt floods and it’s no wonder they look well-wrinkled and exhausted!
While we were walking up the trail to the Hanging Lake, we heard a deep wailing noise which turned out to be the Glenwood Springs to Denver Passenger train that goes once a day in each direction. It was blowing its horn and it was echoing all around the cliffs so it was very difficult to decide where it was coming from. It was enormously long and had the Amtrack silver double-decker passenger cars some of which had the viewing glass roof. When we had finished the walk we went to the Amtrack office to see if we could ride it to the coast. It seems we can and as an aside, the section between Glenwood and Denver is reputedly the most beautiful in the country so definitely worth trying. On our way back to Avon we drove alongside one of the goods trains that also use the line and seemed to go every couple of hours. It was running up the Glenwood Canyon at about 35 mph and had three engines pulling at the front, two in the middle and three more pushing from behind! It was about one mile long and we couldn’t count the trucks being lugged along.
Despite dire warnings, two of the guests had to report a blocked toilet. Out with ‘THE SNAKE’ which is a contraption that is wound down the toilet and rotated vigorously. After letting the guests have the first go I went up to see what was going on. We tried in pairs to wrestle the snake down the loo and failed time after time. After a while, we had to admit defeat so called in the blocked drain guy who turned up with a variety of tools similar in style to our snake and set to - and failed. Next phase was to lift up the toilet from off its exit pipe and tackle it from below. I had decided that this was all way above my pay-scale and was very glad to leave it to the expert who managed to finally clear the blockage although he didn’t endear himself to Sue by walking through the house in the same boots that he was standing in, in a flooded toilet floor, but the job was done.
We also had a team of Roof Icicle Boys come around and start to clear all the build-up of snow from the roof and knock off the icicles that have been growing during this warm spell. This meant the end of our ‘pet’ waterfall outside our bedroom window and I took a farewell photo before they hacked it all down. I was a bit worried by the apparent lack of Health and Safety as they stood their ladders in the deep snow on sloping roofs to get at the ice and snow on the higher roofs, and without any measures that I could see to stop them slipping away down the roof. Still, they all had the right number of arms and legs so I guess it was OK.
We had a day off and we were invited to join the guests for a meal at a franchise chain called ‘Outback’. It has lots of kangaroo burgers, Alice Spring rolls (actually I made that up but you get the picture). The food was superb and we all had a jolly time with the only fly in the ointment being that Sue arrived home minus one amber earring that I had given her about 30 years ago. Perhaps if I had given her the pair she would have taken more care of it!
The upshot was that the following morning we retraced our steps back to the restaurant and then home again and Hawkeye spotted it at the edge of the pavement. Much relief all round.
We had stopped off at Denny’s, which is one of a fast-food restaurant chain, on the advice of Bill the Builder who had called by to measure up a job. Apparently they have two advertising slots during the Superbowl that was last Sunday (which costs them over $2.2m), advertising the fact that they provide free breakfasts on the following Tuesday. It was packed as you might imagine and I was told that last year they served over 2 million free breakfasts Nationwide. There is the inevitable data-capture-competition-entry-form and also some coupons for reduced meals through the rest of the year but it must still be worthwhile for them to do it. The meal was OK, bacon, sausages, egg and pancakes with limitless coffee, but I don’t think we will try it again (it might be breakfast Jim, but not as we know it). The waiters had neat t-shirts on though.
Our Policeforce guests left us, although we weren’t sure if they would be back as Chicago airport was reputedly snowed out, so we are down to four guests temporarily, which makes a nice change.
One of the new guests has cerebral palsy and has been having skiing lessons which look wonderful on the video. The instructor leads, holding what looks like a hoolah hoop behind him, and our intrepid guest holds the other side with both hands and follows him down with his skis between those of the instructor. The instructor can alter this arrangement by going backwards (clever chap), so he is face to face with his charge, and give instructions while looking over his shoulder for hazards. It is typical that there is a very special rate for those with handicaps such as being blind or having other physical challenges, that includes the Instructor, skis, helmet and boot hire, ski pass for three days and all for about $270 which is a fraction of the cost for the normal skier, which can be $645 per day for a one on one lesson.

Up to 3.2.10

Well, the four lads left us and went back to Ipswich, and we had two days on our own before a couple and a five arrived on Saturday. The five are all policemen or ex-policemen with one fireman, so all public servants. They are really interesting to talk to and eliciting stories of worst banditry / murders is easy and rather prurient pleasure as it always reveals the worst aspects of public activities. One guy is a CSI officer (Crime Scene Inspector). His job is to examine the murder or crime scene and, working with the Detectives, advise them if he thinks there is anything to investigate with regards to third party involvement or if the death is an accident or a suicide. One story was of him attending a death in a flat and finding a body sitting in an armchair with a pet dog in attendance. The front of the body’s face was missing and had been licked down to the skull by the dog, in an attempt to awaken his owner, over a period of weeks. Very strange and moving. They are good fun and we went out skiing with them on one day to the bowls that are located at the back of the Main Vail slopes. When talking to Guy about these back bowls he informed me that they were considered the most awesome in the world by friends of his.
It has just occurred to me as I typed that, that with the slightest of typo slips we would be talking about awesome bowels, which would be a completely different topic although no less interesting.
They really are just like a pair of cupped hands or bowls with a chair lift up from the bottom but almost no clearly defined runs as the sides of the bowl are all a similar degree of slope, and running down through clumps of trees. Apparently the trees at the edge of the pistes are always less than 200 metres apart because that is the distance that the elk are happiest with, they don’t like wide open spaces.
We happened to see a bunch of perhaps 20 elk as we were traveling on the bus from the car park where we had parked to the bottom of the slopes about 1 mile away. They are about the size of a cow but rather more slender with a lugubrious air about them as the hang their heavy heads. There are probably comic elk(s?) but I don’t think they were present in this bunch.
It was a delight to be guided around the Back Bowls by our guests who had been to Vail for many years, and we whizzed about with 6 inches of fresh snow over the pack snow, an absolute delight. I managed to take a tumble and hurt the calf muscle in my right leg so I am limping about a bit, but managed to continue and we had a wonderful couple of hours before we needed to return to cook.
For those of my readers who are uninterested in some curious male physiological oddities, I suggest you skip the next paragraph.
The new guests are full of beans and one discussion centred around the effects of jetlag and the time difference between UK and Colorado, which is 7 hours. Rather like the effect of the change to British Summer time although less dramatic, one of the guys pointed out that one of the problems of the time difference is that he gets his morning stiffy at 2pm in the afternoon instead of 7.00am. Very droll!
The hot tub is now operational and greatly appreciated by all. We have a good soak during the day and it is great at easing tight muscles. Because the water has only been put in recently, it is pretty clean apart from the high chlorine count in the tap water. So long as people shower before getting in and don’t top it up while in it, we can hold off putting in the bromide / water clearer / chlorine etc etc . It was pointed out by one of our guests however, that with our current ratio of 2 women to 8 men perhaps the addition of bromine in the water would be a good idea!
We have had to start using the bigger pans as we have a fuller house, so the monster frying pan has had an airing. Only problem – no lid, so this is clearly a job for Super Fryingpan Lid Construction Boy (aka Peter). The result is shown above.
It turns out that several of our policemen guests are entirely self-taught with regard to skiing. This is pretty impressive because they get around the mountain in grand style. I think that you can tell when a self-taught skier is getting better, it’s when you need less alcohol at night to suppress the pain to go to sleep. Bob’s Bar is the recipient of their undivided attention après ski with the result that the cakes are not getting eaten when expected. We have taken to packing them up in a lunchbox for consumption during the day. I need to find a Fireman Sam transfer for the box. Sue was invited for a drink but declined on the strength of her helmet hair.
We had our day off today and after a lazy breakfast we set off to Edwards and the Thrifty Shop. I was looking for TV controls as we are short of three, and Sue has been looking for a pair of boots since we arrived, as her £80 running shoes are just not the right job. No TV controls but Sue managed a pair of green Rocket Dog boots for $15 – bargain of the century. It was just the job because we were headed for a walk which starts just off the Glenwood Canyon, and goes up to a Hanging Lake. I wasn’t sure if we were talking gibbets or a geographical feature. The canyon was just as stunning as we remembered it and the trail head was duly found and parked in and we set off up the creek to the Lake. The track wound up through trees in a valley called Dead Horse Gully. The track was formed of packed snow set at about 2 foot below the natural snow level, and while it was OK on the rare level bits, it became very tricky as we got higher and the track got steeper. Towards the top the track there was a very welcome rail on the precipice edge side without which it would have been nearly impossible to get up.
However up we got and the Hanging Lake turned out to be a magical spot formed by the valley floor collapsing behind a rim of harder rock. The water was absolutely crystal clear with fish swimming about and several strange blue birds with head crests sitting about it in trees. There were lots of beautiful icicles in a horseshoe shape where the water came over the lip and we spent some time admiring the situation. Just a little way up the valley and delivering the water that fell over the lip into the Lake via the icicles, was a place called Spouting Rock. You have to give it to the Americans when it comes to naming things as they see them, and this was no exception as it does exactly what it says on the tin, ie a rock face with a hole in from which spouted the water from the underground river that fed the system. As this fell it formed an enormous icicle pile with exquisite shapes and wavey bits that we could walk behind and admire from all angles. Lovely.
We started back down the track, using sticks I found to help with the slippery slope, and we got back to the car, motored on down the valley to Glenwood Springs and had a lightish meal in a steak bar, then turned to the Spa pool. This is fed from natural springs containing enough minerals to give you a damp nose and a bushy tail and arrives into the Olympic sized open-air urinal (that should read - pool), at 104 degrees F, which coincidentally is the ideal temperature for a hot tub.
We slipped into the water and just wallowed. The muscles were warmed through and we were able to move stiff shoulders and stiff calf muscles in ways that seemed luxurious and certainly eased them off.
It was getting dark being about 5.00pm, and the scene took on a surreal quality. Rather like a scene from a Victorian melodrama, there were orange sodium lights casting an eerie glow over the water, with a thick pea-souper fog because of the hot water rolling across what could have been old father Thanes, and there were even bodies floating by – wonderful. As it got darker they put on green underwater lights, which meant that any surface ripples or splashes were imbued with a quasi-phosphorescent green glow. We stayed until we started to wrinkle then left and drove home to a gin and tonic and a micro-waved curry. What a grand day out!

To 27.Jan 2010

Our drought of guests is over and we had four young men arrive on Thursday evening. We had been preparing for them, checking the rooms were straight and the bathrooms were clean and all was in order. They were in two rooms with twin beds in the one and a double in the other. The rooms were assigned by the Boss when they made the booking, so we just followed orders and set those rooms up. There was a bit of a moment as Sue and I realized that two of them were going to be sharing the double and we had therefore to politely figure out which two were the ‘couple’. We were kept guessing for about a minute then it became clear that there had been a hiccup and they were, in fact, all just good friends. Fortunately the double is actually two single beds zipped together so it was the work of a minute to separate them and fetch two single duvets, and note that a potentially embarrassing moment had passed.
At last the hot tub is hot but not boiling! I had been checking the temperature of the water during the time it was turned off, and it had formed a skin of ice, so when I turned it on with four days to warm up before the guests arrived, I anticipated it going up to 113 degrees F as before. Next day the ice was till there so I called out the engineer who arrived and put in a heater and a pump to circulate the water and bring it up to temp. I checked it the next day and found that there was no water in it at all but a lot of ice around it! The engineer arrived and diagnosed a broken fitting, returned with a replacement and re-filled the tub from the garden tap. He said that the heater control was broken but that he could manually set the temperature limit to 104 which he did and finally, we can use it. It is really rather relaxing, especially as I haven’t put the Bromine / Chorine tablets in. These aren’t really necessary so long as people shower before getting in and don’t add to the water level while they are in it!
The guests like it and are featured in our rogues gallery photo book posing in it with steam and snow all around. All we want now are the 19 minerals and we have a rival for the Yampah Spring at Glenwood.
While out skiing today we came across the string of piste bashing machines just about to form up and go down one of the runs. This time I took a photo and you can see how orderly they look. The run was immaculate of course and we really enjoyed it. Sue has now managed two skiing sessions without being knocked over or falling over by herself and the confidence is slowly returning so we may yet have a go at the World Championship 1995 downhill course which runs from the top of the mountain at Beaver Creek to the bottom of the valley. From the ascending chair lift it looks so inviting as it is without any moguls and it’s easy to get to from the lift end. It is called the Birds of Prey and it certainly swoops down the hill. It is one of those hills that are convex-shaped. As you reach the edge it drops away so sharply that you can’t see down it. The appropriate Birds of Prey type screeches are provided by the participants who find out just how steep it is and realize that there is no way off to the side so the only way is - down. The top section was pretty icy when I tried it but after this recent snow I think it will be more forgiving but it is still incredible to me that anyone would just point their skis down the face and go flat out. I adopted defensive (sliding sideways) skiing tactics for a good way down and probably took over 10 -15 minutes as opposed to the 1 ½ minutes the racers take.
The other photo is of a stubby garden I saw in Edwards. Clearly it has been planted out for some time and with some care, and the little shoots of the new stubbies can be seen pushing their way up through the sand. A delight to behold!
A nice story now about gratitude. Each year, a man from Minneapolis returns to Vail and meets and greets the First-Aider Ski Crew. It turns out that ten years ago he had a heart attack on the mountainside and was cared for first by the First-Aid Crew, then by the helicopter crew who whisked him away to Hospital. So for each of the last ten years he has come back and thanked the guys that saved his life and bought them a drink and lunch at the restaurant on the top of the mountain at Vail. They have now met his grandchildren who both he and they would otherwise never have seen. How nice is that?
There was a nice line on a TV programme the other night, an old guy (rather like an American Victor Meldrew) was in a restaurant where he was intending to buy a meal for a girl-friend. When asked by the snooty waiter if he wanted ‘water - Mineral or Tap?’, he replies ‘Tap – I have a chlorine deficiency’. I really must remember that and try it myself.
It is a fact that the tap water here is heavily chlorinated, in fact I fill three carafes with water in the morning and let them stand until the evening meal to let the chlorine subside a little, otherwise they are really quite undrinkable.
Tea can be a disappointment as well, better to stick to the Gin I say! We are giving New Amsterdam Gin a thorough testing at the moment. I’m sure that the clever ones will already know that New Amsterdam was the original name for New York unlike New Holland which was the name of Australia for a while.
When the snow falls, it is a bit of a double – edged sword. It looks lovely and is just what is needed on the slopes BUT – I have to clear the drive. So when a nice man turns up driving a four-wheel drive Rambo-wagon with a snow plough on the front and says he’s Super-Drive-Clearing-Boy, I am well-pleased. It turns out he could probably peel a onion with this plough and in less than five minutes the drive is cleared with the snow piled up at the edges in 4 foot banks. Great!
One of the interesting items regarding the four boys is the prodigious amounts of beer they managed to consume in addition to the unlimited wine they get at mealtimes. We run an honesty bar wherein the guests can buy beer at $2, Water at 50c, Tonic large $2 or small $1 and Coke / Sprite at $1. The first few nights went well but there was a hiatus when we ran out of beer and before I could get to the liquor store, they went themselves and bought bulk beer, so bang went our bar for the rest of the week! Rats! Still, as the photo shows, they got through the beer but also water and coke so the honesty bar still made a bit.
When I set the table in the evening, I put out a carafe each of red and white wine. One of the guests drinks a lot of apple juice at breakfast, so I had put a carafe of apple juice into the fridge for use next day. So of course we were all set for the evening when I topped up the carafes with red and white wine as appropriate and stuck them on the table. You guessed it – it was Sue that mentioned it when she said ‘is the carafe of apple juice still in the fridge?’ err – no it isn’t. Rats! Still, I can take it, but I can tell you that the jibes about white wine apple- juice mixers grow thin after a while. ‘A while’ may well last for quite a while ie well into next week.
Good news is that we are going to be visited by Hannah and Guy in March, we are really looking forward to that, especially as we will be suffering from PSF (Post Solid-Feb Syndrome) and it is both Sue’s and mine (that sounds odd, I wonder if some clever student of English language can tell me if that is correct), birthday while they are out here. I’m looking forward to showing them around the pistes.

Up to 20.1.10

Unfortunately I will be starting with a sad tale. It concerns a lad called Jasper 'Jaz' McGrath, aged 19, who came to Vail in the hope of getting a job waiting on tables as last year to fund his first love, snowboarding. He stayed with his 21 year old brother and slept on the sofa and, because he didn’t find a job, couldn’t afford a ski pass so had to hike up the mountain on foot each day to get above the lifts where there are piste staff checking passes. Once there he could move freely around the mountains and loved to go off-piste among the trees and in the powder snow fields. He waved goodbye to his brother (who was working that day), on Wednesday and set off for the hills. On Sunday his brother reported him missing and on the following Thursday he was found, a mile off-piste, at the bottom of an avalanche he had probably set off himself. Apparently Colorado is famous for hollow snowfields which can’t take the weight of either added snow or a person, and so is prone to avalanching. Jasper managed to break just about every rule of skiing or boarding and paid the price. No-one knew where he was going or when he was due back, he was way off-piste in ‘wild snow’. He had no avalanche equipment, no radio transponder, no helmet and he was on his own. Sad to say, but an accident waiting to happen. His brother said that ’at least he died doing what he loved’. I would say that I doubt it, I’m sure he died choking, scared and frustrated at the final realization that he was going to die, and I doubt he loved it.
In an unrelated incident and showing that accidents can happen to even the more experienced skier, an instructor met her death in a tree well. A tree well is created where the overhanging branches of a pine tree stop the snow building up against the trunk while the snow continues to fall around the tree. A hollow well forms that can be 5 or 6 ft deep with walls of solid snow, and a roof of the lower branches that may be covered in snow. The hollow may be full of branch bits, twigs and needles. In trials by Colorado University, 90% of volunteers dropped into one failed to get themselves out and this lady Instructor was no different.
Two sad tales to bear in mind when out and about.
We have come across what must be Channel Dave (or more likely Channel Bud) and it features wall to wall fast cars, World Rally Series, 1001 ways to die (bizarre accidents retold in graphic detail using actors and a Doctor explaining exactly how the dismemberment or disemboweling or whatever happened), cage fighting, and just about anything requiring large doses of testosterone to participate in or to watch. There is little difference to the UK program, apart from the size of the participants. I’m hoping that the lateral distortion is a trick of the large screen rather than the actual shape of the people but I’m not sure.
Sue has recovered to a certain extent from her injuries and went out skiing and was taken out by a boarder who started off from the centre of the piste without looking, right into Sue’s path. No real harm done but shaken not stirred. When we got down, we had a turkey sausage sandwich at a bakery which had a bad effect on Sue causing her to vomit and feel nauseous for 4 days. When eventually she went to the Doctor, he thought it was a reaction to the Ibuprofen she had been taking for the damaged shoulder, and gave her some anti-nauseous pills which then made her so drowsy she felt wiped out all day. A real downward spiral but happily all is well now and she is fully recovered from the fall and the drugs that fixed it, and from the drugs that fixed that.
As Sue has been not skiing, I have been going out solo and suffered my first major fall on a day when it was snowing heavily. Unfortunately the visibility was poor and as I joined a black run from the side, I crossed too far and went onto a mogul field on the far side, and at some speed. I just had time to realize what was happening, tried to turn to come back out of the bumps, when I took to the air. When I opened my eyes several seconds and 30 yards later and looked back up the slope, my one ski was sticking up vertically in the snow and the other was several yards to one side. Two kind Samaritans retrieved my skis and brought them down to me and waited while I recovered myself and got my breath back. The gent said that that was a real ‘18 year old crashout’. I asked what he meant and he explained it was the sort of crash you don’t want to have if you’re over 18! Being old and brittle I understood exactly what was meant. Apart from a bang to the head (thanks helmet ), I wrenched my shoulder and am having difficulty in raising my arm. Ah well, Ibuprofen and Arnica here I come.
The hot tub isn’t and I am getting frustrated with the wretched thing. The hot tub man came out again and is due back soon after putting in a pump and heater to remove the ice forming in it.
We have been writing up all the recipes we use so that in theory, I could take over from Sue if she was incapacitated and she could take over from me doing the bits that I do in the way of cakes. I am now the official bread-maker and take great pleasure in producing seed bread or rolls.
The recipes are not available at a good bookshop near you yet - but who knows?
Sue managed the spot of the month with a sighting of two Weasels bouncing over the surface of the snow in front of her, just after she had put the camera away – ain’t that a pity!
Our guestless sojourn is nearly over and on Thursday we have 4 in followed in short order by several other groups and throughout February we go up to 11 and 13 so a bit of a turnaround and we will be earning our crust. During this time we have been writing letters (how quaint, you say), to the relatives who are not teched up blogwise. The Post Office provided the stamps – eventually, after the good lady behind the desk grilled me on where I was living, did I like the food, weather, the snow, people etc and finally relinquished the stamps at a speed that makes sloths look as if they are on speed. Still, the queue that formed behind me seemed good-natured enough, so all was well.
As I mentioned before it has started to snow. Hallelujah brothers and sisters! The locals have been shaking their collective heads and predicting a snow disaster but as there was 8 foot (that’s right, 8 foot!) in Eastern California over the last two days, we are looking forward to the storm coming this way. We have had about 6 inches so far and it makes such a difference to the skiing. Instead of scraping down skinned, or icy slopes, everything goes quiet apart from a swisshhing sound, the trees slip on snowy overcoats and the piste-bashers spring forth and start grooming real snow instead of the artificial powder of recent times. On one run, as I approached the edge of the slope to spec out what was what, I looked down and saw a string of eleven grooming machines in a staggered line across the piste, growling their way downwards in perfect symmetry, with lights flashing and sirens whooping. It looked rather like a picture I have seen of multiple (17 if memory serves) combine harvesters working a huge open area of corn. Same technological approach, different product, same result (ie gold in coffers). These machines are quite extraordinary with a snowplough on the front and a dibbler on the back that acts just like a cultivator with the resultant snow crumble being smoothed, compacted and ridged. After waiting for the machines to track out the bottom of the run and starting off up the other side of the valley (they will go up a 45 degree slope), we were presented with the most perfect run on the mountain. It just doesn’t get any more freshly groomed than this and I zoomed down it twice to take advantage of it.
We went to the cinema in Edwards to see The Lovely Bones by Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame. It is an atmospheric movie with a stunning performance by the young lead Saoirse Ronan after her debut in Atonement. But while the photographic qualities are outstanding as Jackson explores the mid-world of semi-heaven where the heroine is stuck, and the tension-building skills as the murderer is closed in on were well in evidence, I felt it just lacked sufficient cohesion to bridge the two worlds of before and after death. With one or two plot slips / hiccups, it is probably the case that this is one of those films that should have stayed as a book.
We have finally been adopted as a staging post by the local magpie population. The choice of birds is pretty limited with Eagles, Ravens, Magpies and a small Tit being the only ones we've seen apart from one mystery bird that we saw but were unable to identify. It looked pretty imperious, like a hawk, but the camera was down-stairs so I missed photoing it.
Finally, I love the directness of some of the signs we see. On the piste we get 'Whoa there Cowboy' and 'Haul on them Brakes' at piste junctions and this one I saw in a parking space in Eagle. Perhaps the enforcers just can't spell 'a good kicking'!