Springtime In The Rockies ~ The Movie Mar19

Here's a little movie with skiing and fishing the Rockies in near springtime. Plus a pic of "the pile" at the Nest.

Happy St Pat's Day ~ Oro Grande Views & Brews 17Mar19

Kala & I set out from Tenderfoot TH off #151 and enjoyed awesome views across the reservoir ot our homestake at the base of Buffalo Mtn/Gore Range/Eagles Nest Wild. Wow what a great day.

After recovering from the outing  we hit Baker's and shared an afternoon with excellent corn beef and cabbage (2nd to last plate) and many of Cory's fine brews... hosted by the brewer himself at our station - GR8 outing.

Breckenridge Chill Day 15Mar19

I was fortunate to ski with some mates on Breck's several hills this day. Including Sean Pieri, me, Dave Sheldon, and Bob Riefstahl. I wore the new Nano-Air with a -3° temp departing the Nest and forecast high of 20°. It was so successful and warm and even too much by the PM when even at the top of the mtn overachieved at 28° and sunny. The AM was fraught with crusty tops left from warm snowfall and very low overnight temps - even my Liberty driver boards were being deflected. I convinced the team of an early stop at Sevens, which led to an afternoon of warmed and nicer moveable snow off Kensho and Falcon. We had a blast bombing all across Breck from Pk 6 to Pk 1 catching very leftovers to ~18K vert and ski-in, ski-out accommodations from Sheldon's time share at Pk 9. Of course we stopped at Broken Compass on the trip home and I really enjoyed their Snow Pine DIPA DDH named Whacky One Off (I know right, pretty lewd, but tasty). We even toured Alexander's new townhome place in north Breck... it was good to see Chris & Bill.

Bob Watching Sheldon

Sheldon Standing Off The Lift

Skiing The Heavies 13Mar19

Well I finished irys Networking's taxes and was able to get to Summit after the concert and before the bulk of the blizzard. So, I thought I'd ski it of course. Lines were nill in the blizzard but the weather was an issue. The initial warmth made the 9" of fresh snow very heavy - still a blast but a lot of work. I skied Keystone and got many new tracks - here I'm celebrating then biffing on Blackhawk. The wind too was an issue, at times I couldn't even descend on Starfire as the uphill wind held me in place, while the spindrift pummeled my face. Springtime in the Rockies.

Wheatus @ The Bluebird 12Mar19

The Wheatus concert was awesome. He brought the whole band, which he did not do last time I saw him. The funky bass dude was full fretless that sounded cool (rocked my belly); really great was the new drummer Madden Class (Little Pepper). Of course it’s mainly about Brenden Beresford Brown who was excellent, sings higher than Neil Young, and made keen 4 part girl harmonies with his backup singers. I am waiting for a new Wheatus album to drop and they did play a metal-heavy new song that'll be there. We're lucky, this is only the second time Wheatus has played Denver.

The venue was good but not great; acoustically could have been tighter. DC Pizza beforehand was good.

Doughty was the headliner and OK but downtempo trip hop isn’t my fav style - he was like a beat poet - plenty of supportive fans though. Some of the Wheatus members backed him and BBB was awesome on lead guitar while Madden was really punchin’ it for his raps and Matthew played some space sampler thing for him.

Here's my fav Wheatus song, The London Sun, that I captured from the show (PW: GR8F1sh). It wasn't my mobile MD studio recorder - which I should remember to bring henceforth; it was just and iPhone so sorry about fidelity. It was very fun live, as was most of the 1 hour "set" - a lot from the Valentines album.

Wheatus - The London Sun @ Bluebird Denver

More PT Action 11Mar19

I hit the PT again today. Flows are still way down and fish are readily visible when spawning or otherwise. I was targeting bigger feeding fish and got good results out of the Nature Center, mostly on midges (grey vinyl KF or Awesome midges). I had 1/2 dozen good size cutbows on but didn't land them all. I don't know whether it was the take and set on the small flies, my early season skills or what. Nonetheless, a very nice outing including a 21"er and a thicker 20"er. The fish are gorgeously colored heading into the spawn and some males are beginning to sport the kype jaw. I went to Valco in the PM for lunch but didn't do much there - I didn't spot as many fish or as many redds. But again in the big weir hole I caught my fill of stockers before departing.

Cheers - The Wild Reeds 08Mar19

The latest album release from The Wild Reeds is out. It's good and while I've heard some prereleases via videos on YouTube, the full album is worth it yet more ethereal than their last offer. Here again too, I tend to prefer Sharon Silva's leads like on A Way To Stop, Don't Pretend and Run & Hide but I don't think they are better than Capable and Fruition from The World We Built. I'm excited we are going to their concert in May. Listen or buy their stuff here... https://thewildreeds.bandcamp.com/.

Yeah, the massive recent snowfall in Summit makes our pile so high it almost blots out the neighbor's house. We even had our own mini-avalanche when a part of the pile tumbled down, making guest parking impossible. Wow; this is likely to drive snowpack well above average but the rest of Mar & Apr are still to come - river runoffs will likely be extended as a result.