Yesterday was the eleventh anniversary of our wedding on 3/11/11. Last year we went on a week long bike ride through southeastern Arizona. This year we took a long weekend and are gonna get four days of skiing and snowboarding in at Crested Butte ski resort.
Neither of us have visited Crested Butte in the winter and so far it’s been very impressive. Nice runs. Short lift lines. Amazing views. The small town has great food options too.
When it starts snowing in our area of Colorado you need to be ready with some type of plan. If you want to be able to use your driveway or porch you need to figure out when and where you are going to start moving snow. This isn’t like mowing the lawn where if you forget to mow you can still drive your car. If you let snow stay in place it eventually turns to ice and then you are in big trouble.
Snow management requires planning and then action. If its snowing hard you should plan on getting out at least 2 times a day to cover the same ground. For example we got about 8 inches of snow in 24 hours a few weeks ago. While my snow blower can handle up to 12 inches of snow it is best to clear things out before that much accumulates.
This makes it easier on the machinery and also means you are keeping your driveway clear more often. If you want to use your driveway it is best to have it clear or at least mostly clear of snow. Once there is more than 1 or 2 inches of snow on the road or deck you should start clearing it off. At that depth is can start to give you traction problems and its going to start packing down.
Packed snow is slightly better than unpacked snow in terms of traction, but it is more difficult to remove and melts slower than if you had removed it. If the snow is falling and you are at 1 to 2 inches get out there and clean things up.
Then plan on getting back out there in 6 to 10 hours to clean up the stuff that kept coming down. Yes its a lot of work but once the storm is gone and your driveway and deck are already clear you will be happier. Once the snow gets time to melt and re-freeze it creates a crust and is much more difficult to remove.
I like getting outside and being active. Movement makes me smile and laugh and helps me forget about everything I don’t need to be worrying about. With the recent snowstorms we have been getting it has been difficult to get outside and have fun.
For over a year now I have been looking for cross county ski equipment so that I can go outside and play with snow on the ground. The problem we ran into last year was that everyone else wanted to do the same thing. There was a shortage of cross country ski equipment, similar to what the bike industry is seeing. I looked for used and new gear but nothing came to fruition.
One option to cross country skis are a splitboard. A splitboard is a snowboard that comes apart into two pieces that resemble skis. The bindings are moved from their snowboarding position into a cross country ski position with the heel free to lift, just like a cross country ski. This allows the user to traverse flat sections of snow like a cross country skier. With the aid of climbing skins the user can go up steep hills. Once at the top they recombine the board into one and snowboard down in style.
The problem with splitboards is they are expensive due to the added manufacturing work and lower demand as most people like riding up chairlifts to snowboard. The good new is that Craigslist is still in operation and still delivers the goods. Sure enough I though about getting a splitboard last Friday and searched on Craigslist for one. I got a hit from someone in my small ass town selling a 2 year old board with bindings for a steal. I contacted them and made the purchase Saturday morning. Within 20 minutes I was skiing around our property.
The main purpose of a splitboard is to allow people to get into the backcountry and snowboard. The problem with this is avalanches. The key is to wait until later in the season to start going into the backcountry. Once the snow settles it is safe from avalanche and is then safe for splitboarding. I figure that will be around April. Until then I will enjoy using the splitboard only as cross country skis on my land and other flat areas.
For a variety of reasons we ended up with a north facing garage door on the house. Since we live in the northern hemisphere this means there is very little direct sunlight on the north ends of anything. This wouldn’t matter except that our area gets a decent amount of snowfall in the winter.
Since there is no direct sunlight the snow piles up and up. If you are not vigilant about removing the snow it can pile up and block the driveway. It can pile up so much that it can damage the door which would suck.
So the first thing I do whenever we have snowfall is shovel and clear out the concrete apron in front of the door. There is a lot of other snow removal that I have to do, but I always put this first so that it gets done. Once I complete the rest of the snow management, if it has been snowing, I will clear the apron again.
The grind continues, but the views are great.
I wanted to get a sunrise shot this morning with my drone. The operating temperature for my drone is 32F and it was 0F this morning. I figured I should get at least a few minutes of operating time if I take the drone from the warm house outside and move quickly. I was wrong.
The first issue I noticed was that if I took my hand off of the control stick that makes the drone rise up the drone started dropping. Normally it will maintain altitude but not when it is this cold. The next issue was a low voltage warning even though the battery had 80% charge.
My first attempt to get some shots was a failure. I took it up and tried to get it into position for a photo but the warnings were going crazy. I really did not want to have to go fish the drone out of the snow so I flew it back onto the deck as fast as I could while avoiding crashing it into the house.
For my second attempt I put a fresher battery in and walked out to the front driveway of the house. I took off from there and started taking photos as soon as I was up in the air. Then I moved the drone south to get better angles for shots.
In the end I got the shot posted above and am pretty happy with it. Tomorrow I will try again with the batteries topped up to 100% and start from where I want to get the shots in.