Fire and ice

Monday, March 10, 2014

Today we loaded up our gear and headed to Ski Apache Ski Resort. The road to the ski resort is a 12 mile, switch-backed treacherous mountain road with no shoulders to speak-of. It can take 30-45 minutes to get to the resort. We've driven it many times, so it's no longer scary to us. ;)

Along the way, we saw much evidence of the lightning-started wildfire from June 4-20, 2012. Around 250 homes and 44,300 acres were burned in the Little Bear Fire in the Lincoln National Forest. The cost of fighting the fire and dealing with the effects of the aftermath is estimated at a quarter billion dollars. Here are some pics from the fire-fighting at the resort.

Getting started up "Ski Run Road"

Climbing up the mountain, the views are great for the passenger!

We made it to the resort! Wow, look at all the burned trees.

Two new lifts were built soon after the fire, including a high-speed gondola to replace the original, and the resort opened that next winter.

We had a great first day. Most of the runs were open, and we got to ski terrain that hasn't been open to us before... usually because they don't have this good amount of snow this time of year. We even skied "the bowl", and rode the lift to the highest point of the resort at 12,500 feet. The view was amazing! At lunchtime, we walked back to the truck and ate the lunch we brought, then headed back to the slopes. We skied 8.8 miles and a max speed of 28mph.

Riding the gondola up!

View looking back to the base.

View looking up the mountain.

Tony at the top of the lift, 12,500 feet.

View looking southwest, we thought that lighter area in the distance might be White Sands National Monument.

Feels like you're on top of the world!

Me and the view of the base area. The red truck just to the left of my smile is ours.

Looking up to Apache Bowl Chair #6. We skiied down from there!

After we got home, we took it easy and had leftover steak for dinner. We watched some shows and I worked for a while. Tomorrow, more work is planned.