Ear to the ground

“It’s the result of a botched tonsillectomy I had when I was a child.”

-Local man providing a novel explanation for his double chin

Old Man Winter mixes it up

Winter has arrived, at least in one small corner of the San Juan Mountains. Silverton Mountain Ski Area hit the microclimate jackpot on Dec. 19, when the eye of the storm centered on Storm Peak.

More than 22 inches of new snow fell overnight and at times as much as 3 inches an hour were dropping from the sky. The storm was also perfectly timed, just four days after the ski area’s Dec. 15 opening. Following the mystery dump, Silverton Mountain is reporting a mid mountain base of up to 70 inches on northern exposures, the deepest reported base in Colorado. 

Silverton Mountain explained that the ski area sits on the fence where Colorado snowstorms are concerned. The one-lift, expert-only ski area pulls good snow out of the Northwest flow we have been experiencing this winter, in addition to the more regular Southwest flow, which usually coats the San Juans. In fact the largest overnight snow total ever reported at Silverton Mountain occurred during a Northwest flow, when 38 inches of new snow fell overnight in April of 2000.

The Dec. 19 storm also smiled on other areas in the San Juans, just not as widely. During a season when any fresh is a blessing, more than 5 inches fell on Telluride. Durango Mountain Resort reported 6 inches, enough to soften up the area and allow the Durango Nordic Center to open on Dec. 21.

A local cup of joe

Looking for a cup of java free of corporate entanglements? A new website is doing its best to keep the local coffee bean from going extinct. The site, www.delocator.net, enables users to enter a zip code and get a list of independently owned coffee shops for the location.

The website’s rationale is, “Currently, independently owned cafés around the world are under aggressive attack; and their numbers have been sharply decreasing for many years. Delocator.net is a means to preserve these local businesses.”

Delocator.net notes that transnational corporations, like Diedrich, Gloria Jean’s, the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, and Starbucks are at the forefront of this assault. The site was established as a defense mechanism for independent business establishments.

The site also appears to have its facts straight. A quick check of the 81301 zip code turned up Durango Joe’s, Steaming Bean, Durango Coffee Co., Magpies, Jitters Java and Nature’s Oasis.