February turned out to be a bit of a strange month as far as weather goes in Telluride. Typically we get our biggest and best snowstorms in this part of the winter, but after 60" of powder in January the snow gods must have gotten confused and thought it was time for spring. The last month has been marked by uncharacteristically high temperatures and weeks of sunshine. That might sound nice to those of you who are sick of shoveling out your driveway, but on a ski resort 50 degrees and sunny is cause for alarm. We were lucky that we had such above-average snowfall at the beginning of the season, because over the last month we've lost a lot of our base. With no fresh snow on the mountain, motivation to ride has been a bit low for us, so we've been spending lots of our time off in the library trying to plan our wedding, or traveling outside of Telluride to find some other adventures. 

The one upside to not having a lot of powder-days is we finally got the chance to go ice climbing in Ouray without feeling like we were missing out on good snow. We managed to make two climbing trips in February and considering the warm temperatures and the amount of the river that had thawed in the canyon they will probably be our only trips this season. Both times we left Telluride the night before and camped in our truck in the parking lot so that we could get up bright and early and climb all day. On our first trip we met some really great people from Northern California who we were able to swap routes with, and at the end of the day they even shared their crockpot dinner with us back at their hotel! Our second time in Ouray we brought along Steve's cousin Tyler for his first ever ice climbing adventure. We managed to get in quite a few climbs on three different routes, including one with a chimney-style crux between two pillars of ice that challenged all of us to our limits of strength and flexibility.

Just when we had resigned ourselves to nothing but spring-skiing for the rest of the season, the snow gods blew back in with a little two day storm at the end of the month. Although the base of the mountain only got about 4" in 48 hours, the upper slopes got pounded, and that plus a bit of wind-loading made for the best run on Palmyra either of us has ever had. We had planned on hiking to Mountain Quail, about a 30 minute hike from the top of lift 12, but we got there just as ski patrol was opening the peak, so we decided to go all the way and we were rewarded with waist deep turns on untouched powder. Neither of us had ever been all the way to the summit of Palmyra before, preferring to drop just below on a run called Tramshot, but after two hours of climbing through knee-deep drifts we knew it would be worth it to go all the way. The snow was so deep we never even touched the bottom!

We've only got a few more weeks here in Telluride before we pack up and head up to Alaska for the summer. Its crazy how fast this winter has flown by, but looking back we've had a lot of really great adventures so we really can't complain. Spring break is coming up in the next few weeks, so we'll both be busy teaching for ski school almost every day of the week. Between working, packing and planning a wedding its going to be a busy last month in paradise.

Finding time to go all the way to the library to use the internet has proven difficult this past month with all the amazing snow we've been getting here in Telluride. Over 60 inches of fresh Powder meant the best January the resort has seen in about 10 years, and with our part-time ski school schedule we were able to enjoy every minute of it. We had several great powder-days in the trees and bumps off of lifts 7, 8, 9 and 14, and throughout the month we ticked off some epic runs on the resorts hike-to terrain. We had a couple of good runs on Chutes 8 and 9, a few knee-deep laps on Bald Mountain, some face-shots off of Mountain Quail and Genevieve, and a 90 minute hike up Palmyra (13,470') for some fresh turns on it's first day open this season.

When we weren't busy shredding the pow we did manage to make time for a little professional development. We both passed our American Association of Snowboard Instructors Level 1 exams, which makes us much more "official" as snowboard instructors, and also comes with a bit of a raise for the rest of the season. The exam consisted of 3 days of riding and two written exams. We were tested on our ability to teach, assess the biomechanics of snowboarding, and of course our snowboarding skills. The exam was held here in Telluride and we took it along with 6 of our coworkers, so it was super convenient and we had a lot of fun.

Towards the end of the month Steve's family came out for a visit, and we got to spend 3 days showing them around our winter wonderland. The kids got to go sledding and build a snowman, and on their second day in town the kids went to ski school while the adults rented ski bikes so we could give them a tour of the mountain. At the end of the day Steve proposed to me at the top of lift 10 in front of the Enchanted forest, so our big news for the month is that we're getting married! It's certainly been a very eventful month for us, even if it's not that interesting to read about. February has already been off to an adventure-filled start, but you'll have to wait for the next post to read all about it.

A few weeks ago, Steve and I managed to wrangle another day off together, and we decided to make the most of it by doing something a bit different. I found a good deal on cross country ski rentals and a trail pass for the Snow Farm, so we woke up early and headed out of town. The snow farm was an hours drive over the mountain along the same road we traveled to go to Treble Cone for our birthdays. As we wound up the road past golden-brown grass covered hills it was hard to have faith that there would be enough snow up there to go cross country skiing. Even when we arrived at the access road for the snow farm the mountains were still bare, but as we rounded the final bend all of a sudden we were surrounded by white. The same phenomenon occurs when we go snowboarding... because the climate is just too mild for snow to survive anywhere but at the very tops of the mountains in the shaded areas.

When we arrived at the Snow Farm we found out they were gearing up for a big cross country ski race the next day, and we felt a bit out of place surrounded by a bunch of Lycra-clad athletes springing around the trails. The skis we were given were thinner than the cross country skis we have at home, designed more for racing than exploring the back country, but they didn't take too much getting used to. We decided to leave the racing crowd behind and set out on the Loop Trail, a 13 kilometer round trip that would take us over gently rolling hills  and past the Meadow Hut. It took us about three hours to reach the hut, where we stopped to warm up a bit and eat the lunch we had packed before continuing the last few kilometers back to the base building. We debated exploring another one of the shorter trails, but decided to save our energy so we could go night skiing at Coronet Peak.

We drove back into town around 4pm and treated ourselves to Domino's before headed up to the mountain. Neither of us had ever been night skiing before and we weren't quite sure what to expect. The sunset from the top of the mountain was spectacular, and we soon got used to the darkness in-between light-towers. The evening was warm and the snow was quite soft and slushy, so after a few hours on the main chair we decided to head over to the beginner lift and work on some tricks. We've both been concentrating this season on learning to ride switch (with our opposite foot forward) and we spent the last few hours working on 360s, tail and nose presses and buttering. We won't  be joining the x-games anytime soon, but we both made good progress on new skills and had a lot of fun riding together.

One of the perks of having our birthdays just two days apart is that it gives us a great excuse to spend a little extra money to do something special. So after several months of working multiple jobs and saving every penny, we took the day off in between our birthdays and took a trip to Treble Cone in Wanaka for a day of snowboarding. We jumped on a bus at 745 in the morning, slept most of the 90 minute drive to the mountain, and had our tickets by 10am. Following the bus drivers advice, we headed straight for the top of the mountain, and we weren't disappointed. After a warm up lap we hiked up to the top of the mountain and we found the closest thing to powder we've seen in New Zealand, as well as one of the best views yet.

After our hike we spent the rest of the day on the Saddle Basin lift, enjoying the best runs on the mountain. Our favorite spot was a run called Super Pipe, a huge drain with 30ft walls that acted as a natural half pipe. Even after the clouds moved in and the visibility started to deteriorate the snow in Super Pipe was still good. Of the three mountains that we've ridden in New Zealand so far, Treble Cone was the closest thing to a "proper" ski resort. The beginner and advanced areas didn't overlap, the difficult runs were actually challenging, the runs were well-marked, the lift ramps were well-maintained, they didn't groom every run to within an inch of its life, and maps were available everywhere (and for free!). It would be great to go back one more time before the season ends.