Connie in Ouray

 

 13 feet of snow!  On this date last year, we had 110 inches, and let me tell you something you already know.  Forty-six inches more snow is a helluva lot more than 46 inches.  Four additional feet leaves us with not a lot of places to put the snow, and we now refer to the road as the snow chute.   Highway 550 is now open to Silverton and perhaps to Durango.  I haven't received word from the Sheriff.  There were just a few days I was feeling hemmed in on MFL due to road conditions.  I can't imagine being completely cut off as Silverton was.   When Greg and I were coming into town yesterday from Montrose and passed Fellin Park, we saw both a frisbee football game and the ground crew - what Greg calls the deer herd - sharing space.  Hilarious.

 We've been gone since last Wednesday, arrived back home last night.  Chimene was nice enough to do the snowfall measuring, and she totaled 7.75 inches.  With the 2.5 we got last night, we are now well over 12 feet...and it's snowing now.  I just received notice from Ouray County Sheriff that 550 is closed from here to Purgatory Ski starting tonight until further notice for "winter maintenance."  There were two more deadly avalanches in the state over the weekend, triggered by snowmobilers and skiers in the back country, and I can only imagine what they're dealing with over Red Mountain Pass and Molas Pass.  It has been a season. As I said before, MFL is getting really hard to navigate.  If we stay in the ruts, it's doable, but Mike has had to park the TT.  The ruts are too deep for it to avoid scraping the bottom of the car.  This is the first time in the three winters this has happened because the melt/freeze has been significant this year.  This reminds me

Three more inches overnight brings us to 137.5 inches.  Red Mountain Pass is open.  We had sun this morning!  The road is driveable but really messy and difficult. We have a roof glacier.  It started as the beginning of a roof avalanche, but because of melt/freeze, melt/freeze, it is now moving glacially off the roof.  I plowed through snow this morning to take these pictures.  What a different winter it has been! The back of our house:  it's in there somewhere

 In the past two days, we've gotten 12 inches of measurable snow, but that's not the whole story.  We've had rain, sleet, and snow, so I don't know how much moisture we really have.  The road is a mess, even though it was blown yesterday afternoon.  The slush is hard to handle, then it freezes...you get the drift.  It's sleeting as I write this early evening Sunday.  Totals for now:  134.5 inches, three more than all of 2021-2022 winter. Red Mountain Pass is closed again.  I don't think it was closed this many days in all of 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 winters combined. Nothing Dempsey likes more than lying on top of the snow

With temperatures forecast the next to 10 days to be in the 40s, it definitely is starting to feel different up here.  There is rain in the forecast for late in the week, and that will melt snow quickly. A few photos of our roof avalanche Saturday yesterday morning: Before and  after So many people are talking about what a difficult winter it's been.  I suppose it goes with all the snow that we would not have many bright days, but the number of gloomy days has made it hard.  

 The Ice Park is winding down, so we're looking forward to about six weeks of being able to park in front of the post office, getting into restaurants without waiting, driving through town at the speed limit instead of 10 mph.   It's snowing lightly as I write this, and we're at 122 inches for the season.  It's a lot.  Mike and I went snowshoeing this morning, and the breathtaking quiet was broken only by the sound of snowshows on crunchy snow and a backcountry avalanche.   Bear meadow:  I wonder how tall that tree in the foreground really is These are pictures from the back of our house.  Speaking of avalanches... We're all mesmerized by these  curved icicles Coming soon to a roof near you.... When I hung the Christmas ornaments on the tree outside, I didn't think through how I was going to get them off.  They will have to stay until the melt. Four o'clock this morning, we all woke up to a fox barking outside Greg's bedroom window.  He/she was really lo