It’s a great time of year in BV. The weather is getting really warm and the snow is receding. Last week, I climbed the Buffalo peaks (13.2k) via a cross country route from the Tumble trail. There were a few snow fields to navigate and a vicious wind, but otherwise it was a straight forward climb.

I’ve also been busy around the house. I made another giant pot of corn chowder and filled the planters.

The dogs have been putting in a lot of miles on the trail and seem to be enjoying it here.

The snow finally melted enough that I could make it to the saddle on Mt. Yale. In a couple weeks, I’ll try for the summit on the East ridge. The last picture is Yale in the distance taken from further down the Colorado Trail.

On Saturday I did the Spirit Vertical Run DUO 14er Challenge – a virtual race put on by Spectrum in Austin. The goal was to climb 12,571 feet, which is the elevation gain from Buena Vista, CO to two Collegiate Peak summits (Mt Harvard and Mt Columbia), combined. It took me over 10 hours to do 11 repeats of a segment of Colorado Trail on Mt. Yale. I ended up climbing just over 12.6k in 30 miles (up and down). I got 2nd place.

The town is still dead, but the weather is awesome. Last week was supposed to be the Collegiate Peaks Trail Run, but it was cancelled. I decided to do one loop solo, unsupported. The weather was awesome and I only got lost once.

The only thing in town that has been challenging is the grocery store. On days when the weather has been borderline, I’ve cooked. I’d already made 6 gallons of chili and now we have 9 trays of veggie lasagna to fill up our new refrigerator. All the animals around us are also eating. The hummingbirds came the day after the feeder went up and Darby is always hungry.

The dogs have been walking 30+ miles a week and often get to swim in the afternoons. The last picture is from sunrise this morning. The full moon is setting over Mt Princeton. This picture of Princeton and the one above are 10 days apart, showing you how much snow has melted from the peaks.

There are worst places to be stuck in. Pretty much everything is closed in BV except the trails. They are closed to all but locals, so they aren’t busy. We have a great routine: online yoga every morning, a dog walk on the river trail, and an afternoon hike in the mountains or across the river. Happy hour is at 4:30 and we brought plenty of food from Austin. The only annoying thing is that the single grocery store in town is packed, so I limit my visits to opening time one day per week. We have gotten take-out from the neighborhood restaurant and have bought several bottles of the local whiskey to help out.

We’ve made one trip with the dogs up Midland Hill and several trips to the Avalanche Trailhead.

The Surf Hotel is closed, but every couple weeks they are making take and bake lasagna at cost and anything extra you pay goes to the staff. We have an order coming on Friday.

Avalanche is snow free for the first mile and you can almost get 1k feet of climb in. The weather turned cold this week, but I’m betting I’ll be able to get half way up by the end of the month.

The dogs are in heaven. If you click through the pictures below, you can see Darby in her crazy state after getting a bath.