Colorado is white

We love the snow.  Taos was a beautiful wintery picture, from the high desert valleys to the alpine cirques.  Rolling into Taos from Albuquerque, where we got some help from a mechanic with the van and her lack of power (or so we thought,) all I could do was stare up at the snowy peaks.  The van was still so very low on up hill starting power that we almost got stuck in the main plaza of town because traffic nearly made us stop on a hill off of which we could certainly not have started.  Plus if we staled, it was so hard to get her started again. ???  But we parked successfully and made our way to the out door gear store Julie wanted to check out.  She was on the look out for skis.  You see I am traveling with 2 pairs of skis that I had not yet used and she had the sense to sell hers before she left, and just know that what you need and want is out their for you when you get there.  Well maybe she did not rationalize it like that but that is how she lives and I try to take as many lessons from her as possible.  

The gear store, Mountain Outfitters (please visit them,) has their skis on sale but none in her length.  So we start to look at maps of  the snowy candies of the area.  Shane, the local, backcountry expert, store sales person offers up oodles of bata on the Taos backcountry and is so helpful with his asking about our needs that once he learns of Julie's lack of skis he is on the internet to Telemarktips.com to see if they have any classifieds for Julie's want.  No; and anyway we want to go tomorrow to the mountains.  Shane is quick with a new plan.  Gretta, another employee, has 3 pairs of skis and she has been threatening to sell one of them.  Oh really!  Out comes Gretta to tell Julie about the 3 pairs of K2 Dawn Patrols she owns and obviously it is the only ski for her.  She and Julie chat while Shane and I discuss the Taos backcountry some more.  Gretta has to think about it but we leave the shop with the promise of a phone call before 5 pm.  

I am changing the oil on the van when Gretta calls with her offer to sell bindings and skis with her skins for a great price.  What a way to live, Julie now has her complete set up to go skiing tomorrow.  She arranges to make the exchange in the morning.  After a few more errands we are off to the hot springs for which Brain, a fellow VW Vanagon owner we met while changing the oil, has drawn a map.  Ahhhhh!  (Really they are only a warm springs but what a nice bath after being on the road for 4 days. )

The next morning we are delayed from our rendezvous by the van staling out and not restarting and killing the battery.  After a little help from AAA we are back to it and meet Greta at her house to scope out the sweet deal Julie has manifested.  The skis and skins look great and Greta is happy to pass on one her dear possessions to "the right woman."  The van starts (we are never sure if it will this week) and we roll out to the mountains.  

It takes us a few hours to unpack the van and find everything we need and pack it back up onto our backs before we strap on our skins and begin the 2.5 mile skin up to Williams Lake.  Julie has split the weight evenly among us and after only 10 minutes realizes how heavy this will be at 10,200'.  I pack off as much as I can from the outside of her pack and we keep at it slowly.  We pass under beautiful open avalanche chutes to our left which Shane told me about; Bong Chute, Pinky Chute, the fingers.   Maybe I'll get to ski these gems sometime.  We actually take the normal time to get to the lake (which is frozen and covered with snow.)  The lake is under the rim of a 13,000' cirque.  Wheeler Peak is the highest and the highest in NM.  Setting up our camp in the fading sunset is mostly my job as Julie has a terrible stomach ache.  I eat a cold dinner of food we had made back at the van.  Off to bed under the shelter of our rain fly.  Cold cold and nauseous.  Julie is cold and I am sweating and wishing I could throw up because I think I have food poisoning.  We agree to get out and pee and switch sleeping bags.  Julie is happily warming up in my down bag and I am, while going through the uncomfortable throws of food poisoning.  I try sitting, laying, tossing turning, until it finally leaves my system in the early morning.  (a mild case.(Julie had the same thing as the stomach ache when we arrived.))  Waking in the morning I am whipped but cannot lay in the sleeping bag doldrums anymore.  We eat a light b-fast and go back to the bags to warm up and rest.  Around noon we dress to ski.  The sun has at last begun to soften the snow all around the basin.  A tiring climb up the west side snow fields yields stunning views into a new higher cirque and back across the whole valley we had skied up.  The wind is bitter cold and power snow funnels down the north faces.  But the sun feels nice and after a little food and water we are ready for our first turns of 2009.  Nice?  I do enjoy myself in the corny scraping mank.  Julie finds the challenge of spring crust snow kicks her ass and drains her confidence.  We eat dinner in silence as Julie licks her wounds.  It was a good day of breath taking beauty.  We light the twilight with a fire.  The warmth is a blessing as the veil of frozen dark falls over us.  We are now veterans of the cold night and having steered clear of the salmon salad we head to bed.  The wind is so voracious that our fly sometimes goes flat onto us.   We are warm but the noise of the flapping fly is too much for Julie's sleep.  Around 12 the snow squalls begin and since we only have the fly, snow begins to drift in around us.  Yes this is not very fun to sleep in; the flapping fly and cold powder piling up on our bags, stuff, and boots.  We wake warm enough, not hot.  The grey snow clouds are still flurrying.  At b-fast we make enough water to drink with the stove but the fuel is spent.  Cold hard boiled eggs was supposed to be hot hard boiled eggs with parsley and cilantro.  Oh well eggs is eggs.  Julie goes back to warm up before packing as with no fuel we are obviously going down today.  I go for a little ski in the fresh 3" of powder.  We pack and clean our backcountry site of any human remains besides tracks and go down.  Down takes me 15 mins even with most of the weight this, skis are a wonderful thing.   Julie's not far behind.

The van starts but I lose the spark and let it sputter and die.  It won't start again.  Lucky we can push it.  With the help of 2 passers by we position the van ready for the down hill, lots of it since we were parked at 10,200.  We are off on another adventure.  To a hot springs I think!  

love zach