When it snows--make Snow Sculptures!

We may not have been making the national news lately (unless it snows in Denver, they tend to ignore our storms....), but we have been getting a TON of snow recently! A pattern has set up that brings us upwards of a foot of snow just about every other day. The statewide snowpack is at something like 125% of average right now, but in Southwestern Colorado, it is closer to 175% of average.

There has been so much snow this year that the state Division of Wildlife has resorted to feeding the wild deer and elk in the Gunnison area, because they were afraid that up to 30% of the herd would have starved to death since they are unable to reach their natural food sources through the deep snow! Here a few pictures that I took in Crested Butte when I was down there on Jan. 15th:







Yes--that is a barn buried under all that snow!






In many places, the houses are almost completely buried under snow:







This is the Three Seasons complex that we use for many of our groups. It's a good thing this is a 3 story building, because last week the first floor was completely buried!













In Breckenridge, we make good use of all that snow with our annual Snow Sculpture competition every year in late January. Piles of snow are packed into 14 foot tall blocks, and then teams from around the world come out and turn those blocks into spectacular works of art. Here are a few of this years' entries:




It is almost sad to see such amazing works of art simply melt or get blown over by the storms, but I guess that is part of the allure of the contest.

The bottom line is that if you are thinking about a group trip to Breckenridge next January, think about trying to come out here at the end of the month so you can see these in person!

For this year, with this much snow around, March should be absolutely LEGENDARY for skiing! If you haven't made your plans yet--GET ON IT! Availability is now VERY limited!

THINK SNOW!

Steve