A Gap-Year of Adventures: Telluride, Colorado Rockies

Full photo album: http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2172584&l=ef642&id=61205739

and first proper video of the trip entitled "Hi, Andy's Mom" where my American accent lasts for the first two words!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZSywnEdkEM

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Again, never heard of the place, like Moab, but again, one of those places I will definitely come back to! Nestled high up in the Colorado Rockies far away from the well known ski resorts like Aspen, Telluride is a small ski town that sits beneth the largest concentration of 14,000 ft mountains in the States. love it.

We also seem to have arrived at a good time of year, it's the off season, so although there is no snow, the arguably more fun stuff, like Mountain Biking, is big. Never downhilled before, but through forests rich of Autumnal colours today has got to have been one of the most fun days of my life. Flying down from 10,000 feet down trails made for bikes, just absolutely brilliant, and definitely given me the bug for it. Just phenomenal.

Just look at those fall colours on the ski slope!

Also, got up early today, after a night out at a local bar last night (for live music), thought the best way to wake up was to run up to Bear Creek Falls, about an 8 or 9 mile round trip, but that gets up over 10,000 ft, therefore the highest I've ever been... Was totally worth it for this waterfall

and views like this:

But the weather closed in, and as I only had the trail map and not a topo map best thing was to follow the trail back down. Was great to get caught up in a snow storm though, certainly didn't expect to see snow again after Lake Louise in Canada a few weeks ago.

Turn back time - Weather really closed in after about 10,500 ft. The air is noticably thin at this height too, thin enough to make my head ache, it's beyond me what it must be like up 20,000 ft in Alaska, or even more in the Himalayas...

A fantastic curry got the night off to a flyer, credit to Big Gihan our Sri Lankan curry expert. Making full use of the chalet (Americans saw condonimium) which in a word is unbelievable. En Suites, warm! showers, comfy beds, fire - after camping for over 40 nights, the feel of carpet on my feet was almost too much, I cried.

Look at this place! To see more of the chalet check out the You Tube video at the top

That night we ended up at the Million Dollar Saloon, after proving I was in fact over 21, and not 17 as the doorman thought, the hours drifted away to the sounds of Geresh, a strange mix of chilled out stroke heavy metal, sounded alright now I come to think of it. Not usually my thing, but the locals made it. The walk back was sooo cold, ice all over the roads, well below freezing. And we were supposed to camp here!

Here's the band (kinda in the background)