Ear to the

ground

“Mom and dad, I’m Gaelic!”

-A young Durangoan coming out of the closet on St. Patrick’s Day

The power

of the nag

Lost in the Canadian wilderness, a backcountry snowboarder faced fatigue, stormy conditions and extreme cold. However, the 25-year-old made it through the night and eventually back home. He credited his nagging girlfriend.  

“I was desperate and exhausted, and every time I felt like just sitting down and lying there for a minute, I heard her screaming in my head, ‘No way, Phil. You just get back up on your feet and you come home!’” Phil Durand told theRocky Mountain Outlook.

Durand was among a group of snowboarders in Banff National Park, near the border with Jasper National Park. They were going back for another run when he lost sight of his companions in a snow squall. The snow was falling fast, and the wind was gusting up to 50 mph.

At a ridge, Durand hovered in the trees not far from where searchers found a massive avalanche the next day. The wind combined with cold very nearly killed him. To stay warm, Durand said he stood up every few minutes and did jumping jacks, still wearing his snowshoes.

“If I did fall asleep, I knew it would be my last sleep, and then I couldn’t sleep,” he said. “I’m in good shape, but that’s not what kept me alive. I know it’s all mental. It’s all my girlfriend screaming in my head.”

Cover girl

A Durango photographer is getting some big air time this month. Jenny Gummersall’s hand colored fine art photo is prominently displayed as cover art for the March issue ofSouthwest Art Magazine, a national publication is based in Boulder.

In addition to the cover shot, the magazine features a four-page article on Gummersall’s work.  “Two threads weave through Gummersall’s perceptive works; humor and the beauty in everyday Western life,” wrote Bonnie Gangelhoff, senior editor.

Of her photography, Gummersall commented, “What I see and can capture in a photograph is a complete acknowledgment of what I perceive. What the viewer does with that is their own, I am always trying to shift people’s views of things – to get them to see the beauty in basic ordinary forms.”

Gummersall’s work is currently being exhibited as part of the “Colorado Masters” show at the Sandy Carson gallery in Denver and is on display at the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art and the Muse Gallery in Jackson Hole.