when it's winter in the Colorado Rockies
Dec. 8th, 2009 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilanaramaFirstly, 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:
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:
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-09 08:57 pm (UTC)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.