Quick Winter Teaser
- Posted: March 31, 2010
- By: andylibrande
- In: Colorado, Snow, Summit County/I-70 Area
- 0
Well I jacked-up my main computer with a virus that makes Adolf Hitler seem like an adorable little kitten. Therefore I have been slacking on an insane scale with my website updates.
We have had some really nice days skiing in the last month or so (finally!) and here are a few quick ones to hold you over until I can get my ass in gear and get around 1,000 photos (about 5GB’s) uploaded and processed.
Deep turns at Montezuma by Trent (March 6th, 2010):
Jim Donovan taking a nice smooth entry (March 6th, 2010):
Caitlin cruising some nice turns (March 28th, 2010: ):
Beautiful Montezuma during a late afternoon windstorm (March 28th, 2010):
Well that’s it for the moment and more will be on the way.
If you are following from a feed here is the permalink: http://andylibrande.com/news/2010/03/quick-winter-teaser/
Zuma in the Summer?
- Posted: October 24, 2009
- By: andylibrande
- In: Camping, Colorado, Snow, Summit County/I-70 Area
- 0
Where: Montezuma, Colorado
When: 8/29/09-8/30/09
Who: Trent, Tweak, Scott, Duncan, Evan, Caitlin (as the sole female), Ellie the dog, and myself.
An overnight car-camping trip in the Deer Creek Valley was an opportunity to see the valley when it is not covered in snow. Overall a really crazy thing to see how different it looks in the Summer and the Winter. Some of the amazing things I thought was how much snow fills into the valley (7-10 ft), how much water is in the valley (huge beaver dams), how lush the slopes that we ski are, and how much I don’t like Scott Miller (I kid…).
Another major goal was to work on our base-camp area since it has fallen into disrepair this past winter. We built a great firepit that should be way better then the weak set-up we had last year and then helped reinforce a major wind-block as to better protect one part of the base-camp area.
Besides that we caused a lot of havoc:
Fireworks over Zuma:
The Beaver Dams:
The hardest part about crossing the Beaver Dams is making sure you don’t spill your beer. Trent was successful at that but still managed to get wet:
Evan attempting to look cool:
Zuma in the Morning (Left to Right: Steeps, Washout, Cone 1, Cone2, Cone 3):
Baby Chute and Big Chute w/o Snow (mtn goats were wandering around the top earlier):
Ellie the Water Dog:
Click on the Snow Category to the right to see other adventures at Zuma.
Late Spring/Early Summer – RAIN EDITION
- Posted: July 22, 2009
- By: andylibrande
- In: Colorado, Front Range, Random, Summit County/I-70 Area
- 0
Well going through the photos it took to compile the original post: Late Spring/Early Summer, I realized that for the first time ever I might have more then enough photos of just rain to compile a post.
Therefore I bring you the “RAIN EDITION” which highlights the serious amount of stormage that has come through our area. Please realize that the vast majority of these photos are mainly for illustrative purposes and are primarily for humor. Hope you enjoy.
Golden Gate State Park in the Rain:
Three Sisters Park in the Rain:
Castlewood in the Rain:
Hiding in Caves to Avoid the Rain:
Driving in the Rain:
Trying not to get hurt by rain:
Watching Rain’s close cousin Hail:
Horestooth Reservoir and trying to wakeboard in the Rain:
Watching Rain wreck havoc from far distances:
And a picture of Rain’s worse enemy: THE SUN!!!!
Picture coming as soon as I am able to see the sun…
Zuma 2.22.09
- Posted: March 29, 2009
- By: andylibrande
- In: Colorado, Snow, Summit County/I-70 Area
- 1
Note: Undergoing some changes to the site, if you notice anything wacky please leave a comment or send me a note.
Date: Feb 22nd, 2009
So the day after skiing with Tim Spano and crew we went back to Zuma for a little more action. While the snow was not the greatest we still sent some pretty sick lines.
Evan put down a line in the Washout area that is one of the steepest lines possible at Zuma. When looking at the slides #19-22, the duration of time is less then a second and the speed generated from that initial turn was pretty insane to watch. I was standing out on a cliff point and apparently need to re-shoot the line to give a better perspective of the sheer size of the line. The last slide (#27) shows most of the line and the three turns over 700-800 ft of vert.
Enjoy the slides:
Click here for larger photos: http://andylibrande.com/slideshows/Zuma_2.22.09/index.html
Special Edition of Zuma
- Posted: March 26, 2009
- By: andylibrande
- In: Colorado, Snow, Summit County/I-70 Area
- 2
Date of Action: February 21st, 2009
Location: Deer Creek Valley, Montezuma, Colorado
Culprits: Myself, Trent, Tweak, Scott, Tim, Sabrina
The long lost Tim Spano meandered his way back on an apparent epic journey back to the land of the free, hot-dogs, PBR, and of course snow. Finally got to spend some time skiing Zuma with him and his gf Sabrina which turned out to be a pretty good day on a couple of fresh inches.
Anyways here is a collection of the photos from that day in easy to use slideshow format!!! Let me know what you think of the format via the comments (or if you are lucky enough to socially interact with me you could tell me at that time as well), I have also included a few of the better photos for download at the bottom as well.
Thanks to Sabrina for taking good photos while I was skiing!!!!
Bigger size located out here: http://andylibrande.com/slideshows/Zuma_2.21.09/index.html
Time for Some Snow
- Posted: January 20, 2009
- By: andylibrande
- In: Colorado, Snow, Summit County/I-70 Area
- 4
Winter has been treating Colorado well lately, you know 60 degree temps in Denver while it continues to snow in the high-country…can’t really complain.
Finally had a chance to get out there and ski Montezuma again (been 8 months!!!) and luckily for us the mountain gods were kind enough to give us perfect snow, amazing weather, and some damn-fine lines.
Date: January 17th, 2009
Location: Deer Creek Valley, Montezuma, Colorado
Crew: Trent, Evan, Matt, and myself
Trent dropping into the Steeps (2nd line of the day):
Evan on the first line of the day (approx time 9:30 am):
Myself (lookers left) and Matt (right) eyeing our respective virgin lines:
Trent dropping in via “Baby Notch”, him and Evan both had to crawl into the chute to hit this line:
Evan did essentially the same line and Trent took some video of it.
Check out the VIDEO here: http://www.bcbhc.com/albums/Jan182009/BabyNotch_Evan_1172009.wmv
Tweak slaying a bad-ass line:
Myself getting some easy pow turns on the first run of the day:
Reflections on Zuma:
Check out more photos in the gallery thing:
Playing in the Aspens: Kluttergarden Bouldering
- Posted: July 25, 2008
- By: andylibrande
- In: Colorado, Rock, Summit County/I-70 Area
- 2
Feast on this set of photos I got last weekend at the Kluttergarden Bouldering area near Red Cliff and Minturn. First off any one of any level should go bouldering at this place. It is located in a beautiful forest that is a perfect blend of Aspen trees and lodgepole pines. The boulders are all closely clustered with enough space to let various groups spread out over the area and the approach to all of these climbs are literally minutes from the parking area.
Chris working one of many of the area classics, the Minturn Mile:
Me working on one of many problems the area has:
On the drive-up the most apparent thing is how jacked up Colorado forests are due to the Pine Beetle, couldn’t believe how much forest is messed-up around summit county; guess you don’t notice it in the winter. Here is a good article on it: http://www.newsweek.com/id/148297
Also a big thanks to Page and Chris for letting me stay up at the condo that they got for the weekend in Beaver Creek!!! Not much beats waking up to a perfect morning to the sounds of a decent sized creek and then going for a swim in the outdoor pool/hottub. Follow that up with some fly-fishing along the Eagle River. Perfecto…
We threw ourselves at a bunch of problems with some good sendage; good thing the locals had some benches for us to rest upon:
Teva Mountain Games 2008
- Posted: June 25, 2008
- By: andylibrande
- In: Colorado, Random, Rock, Summit County/I-70 Area
- 1
Awesome! Had a lot of fun checking out the teva mountain games this year for the first time. First off thanks to Ben (and technically his uncle) for a place to crash in Vail; sure made the difference.
Back to the story, the games are a lot like the Winter X-Games which I have attended on several occasions, except everyone here seemed a lot more laid-back and chill. I was able to see several events such as kayaking freestyle, biking slopestyle, biking freeride, speed bouldering, a free Ozomatli concert, and lastly the Bouldering World Championships.
Rarely does something like the Bouldering World Championships happen on US soil and especially in Colorado. This is the second Climbing World Champioship to ever happen in the US and the first bouldering style comp; the last championship in the US was 18 years ago!
Therefore this is a pretty significant event and one that anyone slightly interested in should have attended. The format to the comp was actually a lot of fun as the semi-finals move along at a nice speed with lots of action happening all the time. We were with several people who do not really climb and they all enjoyed the event very much.
The finals were straight-up a very unique experience and quite insane to see. First off the official report was that 7,500 people were there at the finals (which I thought there was a good 4-5K), so just full of people that were all really getting into the show. The massive crowd combined with a beautiful mountain sunset in one of the most beautiful spots there is, made the comp just that much better.
Well enough talking, I am going to post the photos in a new manner. Please let me know if you like this way via the comments sections.
I didn’t really do a good job taking photos as I was more into watching the games and being a snapshooter, however check out these awesome photos from that weekend: http://tevamountaingames.com/ev_photo.cfm
Also for the climbing results check out: http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/alex_johnson_wins_vail_world_cup/
No More Blue Balls- Zuma 4/13/08
- Posted: May 06, 2008
- By: andylibrande
- In: Colorado, Snow, Summit County/I-70 Area
- 0
Location: Deer Creek Valley, Montezuma
Date: 4/13/2008; the day the majority of the resorts closed in Colorado
Crew: Trent Cook, Evan O’Connell, Scott Miller, Duncan Maxwell, Tweak (aka Matt Holden), and Myself
After having to deal with less then ideal weather conditions for the previous 3-4 weeks we had one day of just pure beauty. With relatively new snow all over the hills we tore it up as we explored numerous lines across all of the faces that were skiable; each of us did at least seven runs (over 42 lines for you math geniuses out there!!!) and literally skied til exhaustion.
The first run of the day happened at 9:15am and the last one happened at 4:00pm, and the result is as shown below:
Check out the picture gallery for the top 25 pics from the day: http://andylibrande.com/pictures/photos/album37
Tweak cruising through:
Click the following for more action:
Duncan taking quite the fall off of a natural kicker (I am going to put this sequence into a video as it is damn funny):
The crew at the end of the day watching a view other lines:
That’s just a few of the pics the rest can be found at the gallery listed above. I have a bunch more things coming including some additional video action that should be straight crazy.
Peace.
The One Picture Teaser
- Posted: April 14, 2008
- By: andylibrande
- In: Colorado, Snow, Summit County/I-70 Area
- 0
Yep. That was Sunday April 13th. The day the resorts closed.
You are only getting one pic for now…(mainly ‘cuz I have 500+ that I need to edit down).
Scott launching off a cornice between cone 2 and 3 in Zuma:
Hopefully this quells the masses. More to come…
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