Scotland

7 days of Munro bagging with golf at Muirfield at each end. Mary meanwhile holding the fort in Snowmass and welcoming our new music student  - Norman Huynh who has just been given a 3 year associate conductor's position at Portland OR - who will stay with us for the 8 week long music festival.  Item of late news - we watched him conduct on July19 the 1st movement of Beethoven's  5th for the ACA orchestra at the tent. Other festival highlights - Puccini's La Boheme at the Wheeler with student leads ( i.e appropriately cast which is invariably not the case in professional performances at the Met, ROH, Glyndbourne ! ) , and some brilliant Mozart and Haydn symphonies at the Tent.

With Jane and Johannes in Inverness in their new house

Jane with '6 weeks to go' and therefore losing my munro companion on this trip

Angus, the ferryman awaiting me at the appointed hour at the east end of Loch Mullardoch on day 1

Easy access - 5 miles up the loch to my starting point for the 4 munros on the north side .

Heading for munro No. 2. No need for compass here

Ditto

Lunch time day 2.  Left car here on road to Lochcarron and biked 6 miles up the glen to the south

The views SW towards Skye from Munros 5 and 6 in the twilight

Emerging from tent following morning - dreich describes it pretty well

Munros 7 and 8 completed, collected tent and bike and back to car

Munros 9, 10, 11, and 12 in Knoydart. Looking west to the last of them Sgurr na Ciche

Profusion - need to know what they are though

Rod i/c barbecued steak - well protected against those pesky midges

Munro 13 - Sgurr Thuilm on a cracker of a morning

A burn to cross on the way

Final pull to summit of Sgurr Thuilm

Top of the world

Looking north back up to Knoydart

Loch Arkaig looking east to the Ben Nevis range

A rare view of Ben Nevisand northern corries

Normal weather service resumed. Munros 14 and 15 in the Mamores

Day 7 and Munro 16 .  Here having car trunk breakfast at the dam at eastern end of Loch Quoich with Gairich back right

Looking back down Loch Quoich from near the summit

Dropped in on good friends Richard and Sheila Evans on way back to Edinburgh . Ewe 95 sheared. Impressive

Job well done

Raemore ( Fife ) looking its usual magnificent self

Martha S comes to stay

What a superb visit we've just had from our Atlanta cycling friend Martha. We raised many toasts to dear Dick whom we missed greatly,  our last and final meeting being on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia - April blog entry refers.  Dick lost his long and courageous battle against cancer in October.

Martha made the most of every minute here and the tie up with Gracie to whom we introduced her was memorable. They were born within 5 days of each other and went to the same girls boarding school briefly, but at different times ( and had therefore never met ), in Connecticut. Both great athletes, both have/had their own landscaping businesses and both with the same zest for life and adventure.

The birthday girls. A surprise party for Martha at Gracie's house

Gracie and Sunshine

On the morning of the skin up to Gwyn's with M and Martha. Managed to get first chair on High Alpine and enjoyed the virtually virgin Upper Green Cabin

and then the traditional breakfast at Gwyns - not much left of Martha's pancakes.

Skinning up to The Cliffhouse on Buttermilk - almost there!

Made it - Highlands in the background

Saying goodbye after a leisurely breakfast at Main Street Cafe

See you, Martha, in Pueblo, CO at beginning of May ! She's going to join us for the last leg of trans am Part 2 once we've crossed Kansas, and hopefully all the way home to Snowmass via Hoosier pass ( elevation 11,542 feet ) and Breckenridge. Keep up the training !

Buddy Ski Day

Annual Buddy Ski day at Buttermilk. Here at the top of west Buttermilk about to "drop " into the terrain park

Sergio sets the pace

Lunch provided by the Buddy program restored energy levels

G and Sergio about to hit the half pipe

Sergio leads the way over the box .....

......  Mary following - the upper extreme of our terrain park skills. Just as well we were on skis, not boards.

Oregon

We got off to a bad start with all flights out of Aspen (more accurately flights into Aspen were cancelled due to tail wind and therefore no planes ) cancelled - landing and taking off both in same direction has major hazards. so after a couple of hours waiting in vain at the airport , we got RFTA back to MR and had a relaxing day here. All went smoothly the next day although re-routed via Denver and direct flight form there to Eugene.  What a contrast to see some green. All well at NW Monterey Drive and a superb week with the family.  Wee Maggie a dream baby. Oli as cute as ever.

Steamboat Springs

For decades I've had dreams of skiing this high profile Colorado powder ski resort. How fortuitous therefore to discover from our new Provence cycle touring friends Carol and Bill Overmeyer ( of I-dotter fame for those who know anything about the OSU , Columbus , OH  Buckeyes football marching band  ) that they spend a lot of most winters in Steamboat. And they kindly invited us to stay. The beauty of having 3 days off work each week made it possible. Minor last minute hitch was that I.70 had closed the day before with rock slides entailing a longish detour through Rifle , Meeker , and Craig. In fact it was a gorgeous 4 hour drive through the high plains of central, western slope, Colorado. Two and a half days of skiing there guided expertly by Bill and Carol culminating in a powder morning on the last day.

Stopping for breakfast in Meeker - traditional western style. Not used to strangers it seemed.

First sight of Steamboat

Looking west over the high plains.  Not majestic , but hugely impressive in its own way . A big sky ! Mary with Bill & Carol......

....and with Beaners outside their house

Back in Snowmass with my good pal Peter - well recovered from bone marrow transplants and seemingly endless treatments. Still on though for a hike to top of Long Shot. Highland Bowl next time

Off next week to Oregon to see our newest grandbaby Maggie.

Mid Season Review

It's been a fabulous snow winter.  Sadly the really good powder days have come on our working days. We have though had one or two epic days the highlight being the powder tour on Richmond Ridge with Harry.  This came only 10 days after we thought Mary had damaged a tendon in her knee following a nasty fall on her board at Buttermilk in the powder. Thanks to our new Medicare cover she went  to Emergency at AVH and had a scan and an MRI only to reveal that it was muscle and bone bruising.  Phew ! And she managed the powder tour with no ill effects.

Our new and delightful Little Buddy Sergio .

Harry and Diana come out from London.

At back of Ajax on Richmond ridge. This Cat gave us 12 spectacular runs with a cabin lunch in the middle.

After one particularly mouth watering run in 3 feet of fresh powder.

John and Luanne Milward from Lexington , KY come to dinner.

Next week we're off to Steamboat Springs for our 3 days off on the invitation of our cycling friends Carol and Bill Overmeyer - the i-dotter from Columbus, OH whom we met cycling in Provence and who joined us for 3 days last year on our trans am tour in KY.

Start of the 2015/16 season

Masses of early season snow and the resorts opened a week before the scheduled Thanksgiving date. Good news except that Mary had to start her 3 day work week in Aspen earlier than she'd have liked. For me , Thanksgiving day as usual and back to the 4 days a week ( 37 hours ) and long ones at that. But 4 different routes on all 4 days, and particularly the D5 shift (dealing with the radio phone call-in service) on Tuesdays will keep the brain sharp (or sharper !).

FIS Women's GS finish - Note skier 2 gates from home where Shiffrin fell a few minutes later on 2nd run needing only to cross the line to win

By chance , we happen to catch Beige on his way to work at 7.30

A bull elk on Long Shot. Totally unphased by us as we skinned towards him

Pre-season skin up Long Shot. 4 hours up, one down. M listening to her TED talks on Ipad.

The top

Back on the Woodbridge/Seasons 4 route

Another pre-season skin up - Sneaky's this time catching a boarding instructors' training group

A group of skiing instructors being put through their paces