when it's winter in the Colorado Rockies

[ilanarama]

Firstly, GIP. Because although I do not so much do the Santa hat icon thing, when blnchflr offered to santa-hattify icons (of her choice) I asked for one, and, hee! Mountain can has Santa hat!

Second, winter has come to Durango, and I know you all must be wondering how I am managing to keep up my arduous running schedule. And well you may ask, because frankly this is the first year I've ever planned on seriously running through the winter (as opposed to running occasionally when it's nice). The answer: screwshoes.

Kitty approves of screwshoes!


I made them last month, but yesterday and today were the first times I have actually run in them. And they do the trick! They feel really secure even on that kind of packed snow which has melted a little and hardened into ice, although I have not yet had to run across glare ice which I suspect might be trickier. They feel just like regular shoes on a thin layer of packed snow, although they clatter and feel a little heavy and awkward on bare pavement. In unpacked snow (more than 2-3 inches) it feels kind of like running through sand. They do tend to accumulate lumps of snow in the gap under the heel.

Of course there are other aspects of winter that I'm going to have to get used to. Running in yesterday's light snowfall was kind of fun, and I actually overheated a little under my jacket, but I could tell my gloves and socks wouldn't hold out for much longer than the hour and twenty minutes or so I was running before getting wet and cold. Today I headed out when the snow had apparently stopped and the sun was feebly shining - except about 2/3 through the run it went from 0 to blizzard in about 60 seconds, and whoa, sideways snow makes your face cold and fogs up your glasses. Fortunately there were only a couple of spots on my route exposed to the wind, and I didn't have that much farther to go, anyway.

Today I brought a camera with me and although I didn't see the bald eagle that hangs out along the river, I did see a couple of deer:


And a couple more photos, before and after it suddenly started snowing again:

Comments

[sara]

OoOo, screw shoes! There were definitely times last winter when something like that would have been darned handy.

It doesn't snow all that much here, but our hill doesn't get plowed when it does. Which usually isn't a big problem unless we get a year like last year, when we had snow on the ground for three weeks, no plowing. That was...interesting (I parked at the park-and-ride lot just off the plowed road and hiked it).

[ilanarama]

Yeah, I suppose in a place where it doesn't snow much the government doesn't bother investing in sufficient snow-removal equipment. At least here it snows a lot (relatively speaking) so the roads and even the paved path where I run are plowed. More or less.

[sara]

Most years, we have five or six "snow days" and they cancel school and everyone just stays in; it just became an issue last year because nothing thawed for most of the middle part of December.

And nobody here can drive in snow to save their lives (or mine!) We're very good at rain, and on snow and ice everyone zips around and slides all over the place.

[ilanarama]

People here are pretty good about driving in snow. Most people have either Subaru wagons (which is pretty much the unofficial state car of Colorado) or pickup trucks/SUVs of some type, 4WD, and studded snow tires are legal and common. And we get lots of practice. But every once in a while there's some asshole who thinks that 4WD makes up for a lack of common sense, which, no.

[sara]

Yeah, around here it actually ices up so rarely that we make rude remarks about people who drive around in their snow tires all winter. In Bend, sure; here...well, mostly it just chews up the roads.

(My son says, "Wow, that is a BIG Santa hat on that mountain! I want one that big!")

[idlerat]

That's a great icon. It looks like the Grinch has been giant-ized and is sneaking up on the valley.

I wonder what it's like to be a deer when it suddenly goes all snowy. Do they remember snow from previous winters? are they like, "yay/crap, the snow is back"? Or have they already forgotten about last week, and think, "It has always been snow. Thus has it ever been."

[ilanarama]

Hee, it is! It is a sneaking mountain with a Santa hat!

The deer seem entirely unfazed by the snow. I mean, it must be awkward for them to bound around with snow up to their bellies. But they just - bound around! And they are smart enough to dig under the snow for food. Not like cows who will starve unless you give them hay. So they must have some memory operating there.

[blnchflr]

Gah, you have so much snow already!!

(Also, as per usual: KITTEH!)

They do tend to accumulate lumps of snow in the gap under the heel.
I find regular winter boots can do that, too - first you don't really notice it, but then it starts feeling more and more as if you're walking on boots with heels :o)

Thanks for the report on screw shoes!

[ilanarama]

Yeah, it's weird either walking with the lumps of snow. My winter boots don't have a cut-out like that though, and I have just screwified my trail shoes which have a much smaller scoop there so I am hoping they won't get filled with snow (they will probably just get filled FASTER though).

The thing about this climate is that snow melts. I mean, today it is sunny and gorgeous and even though the air temperature is above freezing, thin layers of snow are melting. It won't be unlikely for us to have a period of sunny days with the temperature well above freezing, which will result in all the south-facing areas melting off, but anything shaded staying full of snow.

[luzula]

You have snow and I don't! This is not fair. We had some, but then it melted. : (

And hey, a cat! It looks...well, my first thought isn't "cute", actually. The cat looks more "I am complete master of this situation. It's my closet, my shoes, my cardboard box."

[luzula]

Oh, and also: I'll start reading both your LJ:s on DW from now on.

[luzula]

Ooops. Maybe I should've asked before I defriended you on LJ, because now you can't read my locked posts there. Tell me if you want them back, or if it's okay to read them on DW.

[ilanarama]

Kitty, of course, is complete master of EVERYTHING. She actually had that closet as her hideout first, before I decided to put boxes (they are so I can make two layers of shoes) and shoes and other running gear in there. So I'm just glad she's okay with it.

And it's fine to defriend me on lj as long as you imported your posts so that I can read the equivalents here. I didn't import on my other lj, but I rarely post locked except for pointers here. But let me know if you need access to anything in particular.

[luzula]

Yes, everything is imported. And the defriending on LJ is just so I don't have to see posts on both LJ and DW--I find that kind of annoying.

[ilanarama]

What I do is if people leave me friended, I leave them friended but filter them out on LJ. I do have a special DW-friends filter that I look at occasionally because sometimes people don't crosspost. I also like to look at comments on both sites of discussions that intrigue me.

[luzula]

Hmm, yes, that's an idea. I've never done the filtering thing, but it's probably not that hard. Maybe I should check it out.

[halfpastmorrow]

Snow! It's so pretty I tend to forget how damp and messy it makes things.

[ilanarama]

Hee, it is pretty, but fortunately not as damp and messy here as it is in other parts of the country where they get wetter, thicker snow. A pain to shovel, though!

[gnomad]

Screw shoes! I will totally have to do that this winter when the ice hits and the sidewalks become treacherous. I was considering buying some snow tires for my bicycle too, but maybe I can DIY it with screws...

[ilanarama]

Yeah, I think there is a similar procedure for bike tires, except that you use shorter screws and go from the inside out so the points face out. I have never done it for the bike but I know people who do. I saw three cyclists on Monday and one on Tuesday, and we all high-fived each other as fellow nutcases.