Christmas Day.

My first Christmas without my family! So to take my mind of sad things i take the day to go ski Aspen Mountain. All by myself with nobody else on the mountain pretty much i was in heaven.

Finally some serious snow.

Just in time for the big Christmas weekend the clouds come in and dump 15 inches of snow overnight and then continue to snow for the next 3 days!

Water Conservation Work.

With such beautiful weather i have been able to get some great photos of the Roaring Fork river when working with the Conservancy. 

Exploring Aspen

Aspen really is a completely different world! All the other Ski resorts i have visited feature an array of cheap bars and a million ski hire shops. Here all you see are the likes of the super expensive shops like Gucci  LV, Prada, Burberry and so on! So today's shopping was done completely from the pavement looking in. But i did get some nice views of Aspen Mountain

Women's Mountain Retreat Camp

This camp was organised by the military specific side of Challenge Aspen called C.A.M.O. This camp was specified for female wounded warriors as a recreational therapy retreat. I had the honour of working with an injured medic called Beth who really was an amazing character who was so open about telling me stories from Iraq. Made me really appreciate what people like her do and also made me appreciate the work that i do to make these possibilities a reality for these people.

Roaring Fork Water Conservancy.

After a hectic week with the TSB gang. (see previous post) I started my placement as a Program Intern at the Roaring Fork Conservancy (RFC). Its a very small office with only around 8 employees but the work they do is critical to the well-being of the area as the RF watershed contributes a significant percentage to the total output of the Colorado River! 

Tennessee School for the Blind.

Today starts the first "camp" to come to Challenge Aspen. TSB (Tennessee School for Blind) arrived today. And with them comes my first visual impaired guiding! A big Responsibly being in charge of telling a blind person when to turn by shouting at them! And to make it harder my Participant Chaz has never skied before.

Me, Chaz and John the instructor

But he picked up skiing so fast and by the end of the second day i was guiding him down harder terrain without the help of the instructor!

Challenge Aspen Training Sit Ski

Another Challenge Aspen training today was all about Sit Skis of which there are 2 types. mono-ski and bi-ski. the difference being the number of skis the "bucket" is attached to. However we are having a very slow start to the season with no sight of snow any time soon! 

Challenge Aspen Training VI

Today I began my training to fulfil my role at Challenge Aspen as an Adaptive Assistant. Starting with Level 1 VI (Visual Impairment) training. First we had to become familiar with the differing scales of visual impairments and the different causes. We then had to practice guiding each other using implements that limited out vision. 

My first Elk Sighting.

Elk migrate through the Aspen area of Colorado in huge numbers. And certain people are permitted to hunt them to ensure the population is managed. Today I was called to help one called Doug. I found that he couldn't manage to push it up the hill to house and so had called my and Rob (my cousins Husband) to come help push it up the hill, and my was the thing heavy!