Sunset

 Lots of weather blowing through today, but we got a nice (albeit rather brief) sunset after lots of clouds, gusty wind, and some graupel this morning…

Visitors

 Chad got us a trail cam; now we have photographic evidence of the friends who have been leaving tracks.

Local skiing

 I managed to hit the powder jackpot earlier this week, exploring the local ski hill after a 40” snow dump.  They have good trees here :)

Also people are super friendly and talkative when one is wearing a mutant cat helmet cover.

Exploring Bandelier National Monument

 Our friend Will arrived last night, and we hoped that the snow would be sufficiently melted to go poke around the ruins at Bandelier. The day turned out to be pleasantly warm and with good light for some B&W photo experiments...

Morning change of plans

 I was going to go for a jog this morning, but after about 200 yards, headed back to the house to change gear. 

Skiing from the front door!

Contrast

 Yesterday morning, it was warm enough that we found a friendly snake sunning in the front courtyard.

Today, we woke up to a couple of inches of snow!

Morning light

Enjoy the morning light on Placer Mountain.

Weekend camping

In an effort to not do chores last weekend, we went camping at Villanueva State Park.  We had a site next to the river, which was nice even if the fish weren’t biting.

Today’s outing to Aspen View (today being last Sunday)

 The appropriately-named Aspen View trail climbs high up above Santa Fe; the trailhead is at about 10,000 ft. We got up early to beat the traffic up the hill to the local ski resort, so we arrived at the trailhead by 8am.

Time to shed a layer on the way up

Looking down into Santa Fe

Climbing through the trees

It was a chilly day, in the teens but no breeze. We skied all the way to an expansive overlook, about 11,400 feet, and then carved turns through a big open bowl until we got tangled in a mess of deadfall…  which is fun in its own way...