skieldora

this past weekend was quite an wonderful one which involved a new city scene for a night, a new skiing town for the adventuresome and new humor for the soul. my friend got this killer of a deal where we could stay the night in boulder and ski our hearts out at eldora mountain. off we go..

words that come to mind when i think of boulder is energetic, esoteric, hippie but not hipster and flatirons [that i want to climb]. such a gem of a city that i think dearly of and love living within a short drive to. i admire its density mostly achieved by the 1960's 'no growth policy' and the innate desire for locals to transport themselves via bike or foot from here to there. the balance of college town thrown into the mix is always one that confuses me. maybe it's because boulder is just not fayetteville [my college town], so i try not to dwell on that too much. i think if i ever moved to boulder i would HAVE to go to school. if only they had a paramount masters program for urban design i would be moving tomorrow and enrolling yesterday. so it goes, i will just visit.
well, pearl street was a blast, people watching mostly and strangely enough it was a little dead for a friday night. then the hour struck 11 p.m. and from every which way crowds of vibrant people filled the streets. it was activated and showing its true colors.

skiing on minimal sleep is not recommended...ever. lazy and skier are not a good combo. surprisingly, the small amount of sleep i got sufficed for the day, lucky me. my skiing experience goes no further than steamboat so getting to adventure around a new mountain was great. the runs were much more hidden than i was used to which allowed my mind to wander and thoughts just took off as the snow fell around us. i love how a place can do this to the mind. new places evokes new thoughts and stifles unwanted ones. [even though i'm not having many of those these days] i guess that proves that adventuring into uncharted lands, for the individual of course, is stellar for the soul.

move overgolden

the ability to get in my car and drive 10 minutes west and be at the base of a climbing destination is remarkable! the best part of this particular destination is that even though how close it is to 'home' you still get the feeling that you are out of the city. which ever town you are coming from it doesn't matter. only thing important is that you are up and away for a warm winter sunday afternoon. the town almost directly below is Golden. home to coors beer, intelligent Mines students and apparently jolly rancher candy that i am ironically eating right now [weird]. then looking southeast you see denver and all its flat glory. if you look hard enough you might see the kansas state line. okay maybe not. it really is a great view onto all of the infrastructure and even the sad and ridiculous amounts of suburbia sprawl. this concept of the 90's never ceases to fascinate me. anyways, golden is fun, its cute but i whole-heartily think that it should be denver. now if you just close your eyes and think for a second [i understand this might be hard if you have never been to colorado and more specifically denver and even more specifically golden and most specifically north table mountain] that we super-impose the urban city of denver and i suppose a few of the metropolitan surroundings of my liking, right there at the foothills of the rockies. i can see it now.

why did this not happen? isin't it all about 'location, location, location'? don't get me wrong, i like denver, i love denver. i just think if it got up and ran 8 miles west it would be a dream city. and we would go climb during the week at lunch and rarely return. the boundaries would be the mountains and also our backyard, quite literally.

why do cities land where they do? duh. because of gold and such discoveries. but if i was the founder of denver colorado i would have chosen the mountains over the gold.

taa-da. the city.

an old locationfor a new year


who doesn't love the newness of anything? one can easily argue that broken-in and familiar is the best way to be, but there is just something great about the beginning of anything. so after an awesome new year's eve in denver i headed out new years day morningish to steamboat springs; a breathtaking mountain town that holds ALL of my colorado, prior to living in colorado, memories. a familiar place for the newness of this year: perfect. steamboat is the only place I had spent more than a layover in and is no doubt a sensational town. I hadn't visited in 5 years and even while every inch was capped in shining snow it all still felt so familiar. There is nothing like coming back to a place and your senses awaken through a nostalgic heart. The same view on the main street upon entering the town, one of two lone grocery stores was still standing firm in the same place I had remembered, and why wouldn't it be? the swimming pool with the giant slides that mark the right hand turn to my aunt and uncles house had changed. WHAT!? no more sweet slides. though do not worry, i soon found out there was just a renovation. a little sad at first, but after a visit to relax in the hot tubs, it still held its original presence that i could recall. there was one wonderful addition, a climbing wall that sat at the edge of a monstrous hot tub and when you could no longer hang on or rang the bell of victory you could just take the plunge. miraculous! brilliant invention of hot-tubbing and bouldering. i hope to see some of this in Heaven. okay, back to the city. ahhh yes, steamboat, so quaint and still capable of soaking up some 12,000 visitors on any given winter weekend. the skiing- remarkable and in the summer there are endless adventures to get lost in. hopefully i will make a few more trips before the snow melts.