Yurt – Doesn't Fit In

January 12, 2009

Moonlight Over Spruce Hole

Moonlight over Spruce Hole, originally uploaded by gregjsmith.

I completed my third yurt trip and it was by far the best. The basic concept here is that we cross country ski to a Yurt and spend a few days away from the world. The Spruce Hole yurt is nice because it has bedding and is fairly large. The yurt itself is located in Colorado just across the boarder from Chama, NM. All we really need to carry is food, drink, clothes and personal hygiene items. There were four other people besides my self on this trip and we stayed for three nights.

This is usually the only cross country skiing I do, I’m mostly a down hill guy. Plus I’m not in any great shape and I therefore tend to be the slow one of the group. Caring a 30 to 40 pound pack doesn’t help. The first several hundred yards of the trail are all up hill. It is grueling work getting there but worth it once we finally arrive.

This particular trip was planned around the full moon. The highlight was our moonlight ski in the nearby Spruce Hole meadow. The moon was incredibly bright and blue. It was an incredible experience that I can’t begin to describe with my pathetic words and pictures. Speaking of which, taking pictures in moonlight requires a tripod which I didn’t have. Yet I managed to take a few decent pictures. You can find all the pictures I took on my Flickr set. They are all geotagged so you can view them on a map.

March 25, 2008

Yurt Trip Photos

To follow up on my last post where my friends were stranded in a Yurt a few extra days due to the storm, my friend Rick has posted photos from the trip on Flickr.

February 4, 2008

Friends Stranded In The Snow

The last 2 years I have went on cross country skiing to Yurts in southern Colorado near Chama, NM. This year I declined the trip for several reason. Chama is getting hit with record snow this week and my friends did not show at the meeting point on Saturday or Sunday. They have since closed the roads between Chama and the boarder. I am in AZ right now and my other friend Steve (who also usually goes but didn’t this year) has been in touch with the sheriffs department. Here’s his report for today.

Search & Rescue could not reach them today. There are 3 parties stranded: 5, 4 & 2 people according to sherif’s dpt (when I called this PM). Search called off for tonight. 2 snow cats being loaded for deployment in AM. Snow condition are severe… possibly record-breaking.

Hopefully, when they tried to leave the Yurt, they realized they couldn’t make it out and went back. They will be warm and comfortable in the yurt but they are running out of food. I hope they get to them tomorrow.

Update 02/05/08 6:43 am: I’m happy to report that my friends are safe. Apparently, search and rescue wasn’t able to make it to their yurt, equipment issues of some sort. When the owner of the yurt was contacted he said he could make it up, on skis. Which he did and guided them out. Impressive, no? Keep in mind this guy probably skis up to the yurt in between rentals with supplies to restock it. He could probably do it blindfolded. I now get to look forward to the stories.

Chama, by the way, has been declared a disaster area and I don’t think they have figured out how they are going to get back there to pick up their vehicles.