New Colorado, Meet Old Colorado.
Snowshoe LCG (lowest common gear) to get up to CR21 from Green Mountain Falls, the morning after the blizzard.
What an amazing storm! It not only brought winds in the mountains of 60mph, temps in the teens, and twelve to fourteen inches of very wet snow, but it also was the collision between New Colorado and Old Colorado.
We’ve been in a drought for over a decade. The last biggish snow blizzard (winds, snow, whiteouts) was over a decade ago. New Colorado mentality is you go and do whatever and if you get in trouble someone is there to save you. It’s their job right? Old Colorado mentality is have good, solid equipment and, most importantly, the skill to know how to handle conditions you may encounter. If you don’t, stay home. It’s embarrassing to need help, and needing help should only be a last resort because something unexpected happened that couldn’t be planned for.
New Colorado mentality ran into and killed a Colorado Trooper aiding a stranded motorist. That’s horrible. Let’s learn to be humble before the amazing power of mother nature. It saves lives. Fascinatingly, our town marshall reported that while over a thousand motorists/vehicles were stranded overnight in El Paso County (mostly on the front range), no motorists were stranded overnight that he was aware of up here. Mountains teach skills, including the skill of knowing what is beyond one’s capacity. That is a good skill to have! Yet New Colorado would have common sense and thoughtfulness end up as #vanishingcommonarts.
New Colorado, meet the conditions that helped create Old Colorado. May this be a sign that our drought is ending. Grin. May God startle you with joy!
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