Rocky Water Images

More on the actual trip later.
Glad to be back

Images of Water in the Rocky Mountains

It seems ironic to me that my first impression of the Rocky Mountains was how much like a storm they looked. I had to reset my parameters. This seeming bank of storm clouds was really a major mountain range. I was at the Denver airport then and as we approached the mountains they looked less like clouds and more substantial. Once we were in the mountains though the water images returned. The mountains reminded me so much of giant waves. Once on the ski slopes the water imagery continued. Of course snow, the necessary condition for skiing along with slope, is frozen water. But did you realize that the undulations of the ski runs resemble waves themselves? Of course instead of you sitting stillish and seeing the waves come to you, on a ski slope you are moving along the fairly stationary wave s of snow. You ski along a steep slope as if you were sliding down a curling wave then turn and ski/slide the next one. Even my ski instructor continued the theme. She was attempting to get me to accomplish parallel turns. In the course of this she said that she thinks of the graceful turns that slide across and down the trail, looping slightly upward at each extreme as a sort of wave going from side to side of the slope making a wide loopy s curve down the mountain. Watery what?

Then there is the way everyone pushes drinking water. At this altitude, about 10,000 ft dehydration is a major issue and there is a theory that drinking lots of water will hasten your adjustment to high altitude as well as ward off the dreaded dehydration. Everywhere you stop there is water pressed on you. You float through a week here. The beer is good too although that does not help the dehydration problem it may help the altitude one. Or encourage you to worry less about it. At least the tap water is tasty. Could be Poland Spring.

On a more nature walk side of things, there are quite a few animals around. Snow shoe rabbit tracks are all over. There is a sort of gray bird that hangs out looking for food and I saw a very panicked little black squirrel caught out on a busy ski trail. It was doing the start stop dash thing trying to avoid skis and boards who were also jinking around each other trying not to run over the squirrel. All made it safely past the danger. The snowshoe trail took us past a fox den and driving in the mountains you can see hundreds of elk prints. Supposedly you can see wild mountain goats too ut I have not personally seen any so far.