Winter Wonders Around Summit 16Jan24-30Jan24

Winter is always a blast at the Nest ~ Skiing, Hiking, Guests & More. I headed up for some ski-days and to meet up with the Minnesota Mafia. Of course as part of it we hit Outer Range for Jan 4 pack pickup and some trials of the French Alps imports ~ it was around their 7th anniversary of opening; what a great add to Summit Co. And yes, this was all during the double dumper over MLK weekend when Silverthorne became snarled and I had to dig out of 20" snowfalls TWICE on the driveway and deck. Phew.

The boys returned to Den, the "O," and MN and left me to fend with the weather and such. But soon after I was able to get out again with Yoho and Dave. It was surprisingly sunny on day 1 with Jim; I even got a decent pan of the 10 Mile range. We were fine skiing the Key again on day 2 with Dave as the opening of Bergman lift gets us some keen new terrain. Shallow Bergman Bowl was better with the added snow but we also dropped into Ericson Bowl on our way to Outback ~ that was minimally tracked, steeper, and excellent. As part of it all Jim & I had some good vittles at Bistro North and a good couple days of visiting... we hit Locals for a beer run and were pleased to find a nice Mex Lager from ORB and a DDH from another fav, Cerebral Brewing.

Then fortunately Kala took a break from work and joined me and our special guests Matt & Eline for some fun in the snow and such. M&E got a full introduction to the Nest Music Theater with surround sound as well as my salad bowl DIY audio project. Eline proved well up to the dueling YouTube video queuing so we even heard some Dutch musicians and throwbacks. We dined at the Nest on my tasty Korean meatballs and had some nice totties and beers. They brought Kees (Case) with them and he is a great dog ~ a musher for E when she ski-jors, fat bikes, or dog sleds but also a well behaved friend even in new environs at the Nest. After a breakfast at Matt's fav Mtn Lion we headed out around the tarn along Salt Lick for a solid 4.5mi hike. At times we were dubious on the choice to not bring snow shoes but all considered we chose wisely as we had fairly good pack on the trail and the new snow was only several inches. We clearly observed Kees readiness to mush any time the word "go" was uttered... fast doggie.

After resting and allowing M&E to hit the spa for a refreshing soak we headed out to grab a beer and food. We were fortunate to hit the 6th anniversary celebration @ Angry James (though crowded) where we enjoyed some more tasty hazies, though E quickly thought less of the bitterness, and (though loud) a keen string band from Summit named Moonstone Quill. We dined at the excellent Cove & Craft on Last Chance 'za and wished our great guests off as they headed back to the Front Range. Just really fun.

Next @ the Nest were our gr8 friends the Brantleys. We had a hoot of days, though more brief than initially hoped. Kala's mad skills were immediately recognized and consumed on Sun night's fine dining on habenero short ribs and accoutrement, enjoyed with Brantley's fine 13 yr old cabs ~ you can't match this. We caught Dead Reckoning Pt 1 on the NestMT before retiring, and then popped up in the morning for some Dave's mcmuffins. We ventured to Breck for the Intl Ice Sculpture Championships; Mexico's entry was awesome, as was 2nd place finisher of native American stuff. We did think the descriptions of the carvings were a bit over-the-top... they are very cool ice carvings, not Nobel Prizes.

We hit ORB for some tasty hazies on the way back (and escaped with a 4 pk) and then hiked the Dillon Rez lake loops in stellar weather (sorry for the chin chop on the team selfie my love); those are Buffalo and Red mtns in the distance... so cool.

Back at the Nest we laid domino tiles where the normal game denier Scott thumped us. We killed some shrimp in Dave's devil dish and had some more 13 yr old spectacular vino from the master's cellar... so good. We capped the night with a Dave fav dark-bending Coen Bros film, Burn After Reading, only after Dave's offered tunes were sampled. Another day rose and we hiked the Blue River before sampling AJ's brews and Last Chance Pizza. We kicked them back to the Front Range.

On with life in the mtns; K&D enjoyed a soak in the shadow of Buffalo Mtn and then I scored happy hour with DD.