We had a lovely trip back to Peoria for Christmas this last week. Lots of family time, lots of dog time, lots of much needed R&R, lots of decadent food, and lots of laughs. We were UNSTOKED to return to work in Colorado, but eh, what can you do?
Words can only do so much sometime, so as usual, some photos below. [Click to enlarge, hover for caption.]
xoxo and Merry Christmas,
D&D
Because we don't want to fly with each other's Christmas presents, we decided to have a little early Christmas gift exchange on Saturday (known as Dani & Dierker Day henceforth). After opening presents and having our usual bagel+cc and coffee, we headed up the hill for a tour up to Forest Lakes. We had a lovely time poking around, and only saw one other party in the same drainage as us. We were up in the same area two weekends ago, but in low-viz conditions. Cresting the ridge to the lowest Forest Lake, we both got pretty stoked at what we couldn't see the last trip to the drainage. A huge headwall with tons of steep bowls and tight couloirs made for a great backdrop to toodling around in awe. After a few transitions, the midday sun was making for some heavy snow conditions so we headed back to Ned for some nepali lunch, followed by a nap and a movie. Happy early Christmas to us!
Sunday was equally fun-- we toured on Caribou Road with Jen P to help sort out new-boot-issues, and then enjoyed Scrabble and coffee, a visit with Laurelyn, a bootfitting session at Neptune, and beers and sandwiches at Southern Sun. A great way to end the weekend!
xoxo,
D&D
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After a challenging ATC workout on Thursday morning, we were still in major recovery mode by Saturday morning. Leaving East Portal in a whiteout, wobbling turned to hobbling, which eventually turned to just a slower-than-usual pace and a few more grunts than usual as we headed up to Arapahoe Lakes. Our long warmup to just-above-treeline was rewarded with solitude in the storm and some excellent turns in powder on edge-able windslab. Dipping into the trees, we found more fresh turns. The coverage has improved significantly in the last few weeks, and it was a relief to leave the cautious safety turns back in November.
On Sunday, we had a very enjoyable morning with Morgs up at Flattop for the first time this season. We had some variable turns all to our selves, and didn't see anyone else out until we were on our way out.
Highlight of the weekend (not pictured): Morgs doing a legit slo-mo somersault in her skis, complete with a headstand in the middle. IMPRESSIVE!!!
xoxo, d&d
Kendra and us went to DCPA to see Leah in concert. It was a fantastic amount of Christmas Cheese, complete with children's show choir, christmas tree, The Clauses, bows, and sing-a-long carols. DANG. Nice work L-mer.
xoxo, d&d
This last weekend we toured at 2 new spots and had a blast. On Saturday, we toured up to Forest Lakes in a whiteout to check out the north side of Radiotower. Kristie, Graham, and Chinook joined us on Sunday, and we had a lovely tour up at Caribou. Pics below! [Click to enlarge, hover for captions.]
d&d
We went back to California to have Thanksgiving with the Perrots. Lots of wonderful family time, photos below to remember The Good Times. <3
xoxo, D&D
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