Ear to the ground

“Who’s Edward Abbey?”

-A recent Colorado transplant seconds before getting two earfuls at an annual party in honor of the Southwest icon


Record burial

It’s officially official. The winter of 2007-08’s snowfall was a record breaker at many of Colorado’s ski areas.

Eight of Colorado’s nearly 30 ski areas tallied record snowfall accumulations and many more came close to breaking their past high-points. Silverton Mountain boasted the highest overall snowfall in the state with a total accumulation of 550 inches (nearly 46 feet). Telluride, Aspen/Snowmass, Beaver Creek, Crested Butte, Monarch, Powerhorn and Steamboat also posted record years.

In the runner-up category, Vail saw its third-snowiest winter on record, and Purgatory experienced its fifth-snowiest winter ever. Both Copper Mountain’s and Sunlight Mountain Resort’s snowfall totals landed in the top 10, and Keystone tied its best snowfall in the previous eight years.

In case you’ve already forgotten, snow was slow to come in the beginning of the 2007-08 ski season. But then it fell on 30 of December’s 31 days all over the state. By the end of January, ceaseless snow storms buried snow stakes from south to north. Many ski areas had snowfall on 59 of the 62 days since the first storm Dec. 1.

And on the off chance you didn’t get enough of the white stuff this season, there is hope.  Arapahoe Basin, Echo Mountain and Loveland are still open for business.


The Bachelor trail

Durango is still alive in the quest for reality TV fame and fortune. London businessman Matt Grant has chosen the final two on ABC’s “The Bachelor: London Calling,” and one of them is Durango’s 24-year-old Chelsea Wanstrath.

Grant met the final three women in Barbados for romantic dates for the episode. During their date, Grant and Chelsea went sailing and diving with sea turtles, though the Bachelor complained to the cameras that it was “the worst date.” Over dinner, he told Chelsea he was confused and frustrated by her hard-to-get attitude.

Grant then concluded the episode by giving her a “fantasy suite invitation.” They went to the room, and Chelsea erased any bad date hangover by slipping into a “sexy black slip dress.”

In two weeks, viewers will see what happened when Matt takes Chelsea and her arch-rival, Shayne – Lorenzo Lamas’ daughter, to London to meet his parents.

 

In this week's issue...

January 25, 2024
Bagging it

State plastic bag ban is in full effect, but enforcement varies

January 26, 2024
Paper chase

The Sneer is back – and no we’re not talking about Billy Idol’s comeback tour.

January 11, 2024
High and dry

New state climate report projects continued warming, declining streamflows