I have official been a Coloradoan for over a week now, and I cannot tell what a trip even this first week has been. I have met so many new people, who come from such different backgrounds then the ones that I am used to. Most when first meeting me laughed at my “accent” and the infatuation I have with the Mountains….a majority of my friends here have seen the gorgeous Rockies out their windows for their entire life and cannot imagine living someplace flat without Mountains, such as Wisconsin. But our differences have made my experience out here that much more a learning experience. I am learning about the different foods that people commonly eat here such as: Rainbow Trout, sushi, “The Western Sandwich” (which is composed of scrambled eggs or egg omelet cooked with ham, onions, green peppers, salt and pepper, and usually served on toasted bagels). And my new friends are learning what Cheese Curds are!! Haha most think they sound disgusting and don’t believe me when I say they are super yummy.
But one of the greatest things that I admire about the people out here is their love of the outdoors. I do not think a single person I have met here does not have a love for being outside. Most grew up hiking, cycling, skiing/snowboarding, climbing, camping---and when I say camping I mean true camping where all you have is the pack on your back and sleeping out in the open under the stars, none of them would ever even consider camping in a motorhome or pull-behind camper. So it has been extremely exciting and fun for me to get introduced to all of these new things.
Last Thursday I had my first snowboarding class at Powderhorn Resort which was AMAZING! I now know what it feels like to snowboard in fresh powder, and ungroomed trails—and let me tell you the feeling in indescribable!! My class consist of over 100 students, but we were all broke down into groups about 7-12 students depending on our skill levels and given an instructor. My instructor’s name is Matt and he is super fun and teaching us all new skills. Pretty sure we will all be getting an easy “A” in the class. J
Then this weekend I experienced something totally new. I went Ice Climbing with the Outdoor Program here at school. It is an amazing club/office here on campus that takes trips every single weekend, doing everything from rock climbing to skydiving to everything in-between. We headed to Ouray, which is about 2 hours from the valley, in a big ol’ 15 passenger van. Now Ouray is a reasonably small Mountain town in the San Juan Mountains , which in my eyes are some of the most beautiful Mountains that I have ever seen. They have tons of beautiful canyons among the mountains and in some of the canyons the “ice farmers” create ice for the sport of ice climbing. The story of the Ouray Ice Climbing is pretty amazing if you ask me. To give you more of a background on the area I’m going to attach a Youtube link that will take you to a video about the area of Ouray.
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| The San Juan Mountains |
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| Again, The San Juans |
When we arrived at Ouray, we unloaded the van and got all of our gear into our backpacks. Before being able to enter into the actual park we first had to put on helmets and crampons-which are spikey things that you attach to the bottom of your special ice climbing boots that give you traction. Upon putting on the required gear we headed off on our 45 minute hike into the Mountains to get down into the canyons to begin climbing.
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| My friend Brook on the sketchy log bridge that we had to cross on our hike |
When we got down to the ice canyon, we were all watching fellow ice climbers shimming up and down the ice, making it look easy-as-pie. I remember standing there waiting for out lines to drop saying, “You have got to be kidding me! I am never going to be able to do that.” But I am happy to report that I did and made it all the way to the top on my FIRST attempt! What an adrenaline rush looking down at how far up I was!! It was amazing, and after I repelled down I wanted to do it again and again. Which all of us did for most of the afternoon.
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| The canyon where we climbed |
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| Taking my first climb! |
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| Me repelling down! |
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| I'm almost to the top! |
For lunch my friend Tom taught me how to make mac’n cheese in the wilderness, on this tiny little camping stove with these adorable little pots and pans---all of which fit into his backpack of course. And let me tell you it was some of the yummiest mac’n cheese I’ve ever had. I don’t know if that is because it was so cold down in the canyon and the warm food really hit the spot or if it was my amazing cooking….maybe a bit of both. Heheh
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| The Pocket Stove that we made mac'n cheese on -it's like 3 inches big! |
By time the sun started showing signs of retreating below the mountains it was time for us to pull our lines and begin our hike out of the canyon and back to the van. The hike out at the end of the day was beautiful. And just as we began to hike out, Colorado
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| A look at the canyon during the hike out |
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| The Moutains again |
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| The storm cloud that suddenly appeared |
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| One last look down the Ice Canyon |
After loading backup the van it was off to the Ouray Hot Springs! The Hot Springs Grand Junction
My Sunday was spent catching up on homework, doing some laundry, and of course cheering on my PACKERS!! We’re going to the SUPER BOWL BABY!!!! Yaaayyyy. J
Well that is about the extent of my week thus far, next weekend I am off to Aspen , CO
Until next time….sending love and good vibes from Colorado
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