A Visit From the Neighborhood Moose

This morning my husband spied a couple of local moose standing on the road beside our house. They were looking up and down the road nervously, then decided to climb over the bank of snow left by the snowplow to plunge into the narrow wetlands behind the house. Below are a couple of photos that my husband snapped of them as they lumbered by.

Watching the Dew Tour Mountain Competition in Breckenridge

Yesterday was the last day of the 2014 Dew Tour Mountain Competition in Breckenridge. The event included men's and women's ski and snowboard superpipe and slopestyle events as well as an evening streetstyle event downtown on a collection of street features under the lights on Washington Street. I did watch two on-mountain events as well as the streetstyle one, the women's and men's snowboard superpipe finals.

I was especially impressed by 14-year-old Chloe Kim, who took second place in the women's event, only a half point behind Olympic gold medal winner and veteran snowboarder Kelly Clark, who took first. I'm sure Chloe Kim will be one to watch in the 2018 Winter Olympics. I was pleased as punch when she agreed to pose for a photo with me right after she nailed her second place run (see below). Below that is a photo of the top three women in the event on the podium (from left to right), Chloe Kim, second, Kelly Clark, first, and Arielle Gold, third.

For more information about the event, go to the Dew Tour website. Here's the link for the women's snowboard superpipe event.

Two Signings Coming Up for Holiday Shoppers!

For the holiday shopping season, I've arranged two book signings so readers can buy personalized and autographed copies of my mystery novels for gift giving (or for themselves!).

On Friday, November 28th, from 2 to 4 PM, I will appear at The French Kiss as part of the GoBreck Black Friday Shop Hop experience where local merchants will offer treats and/or special discounts to holiday shoppers. Here's the address:

Friday, November 28, 2 - 4 PM
The French Kiss
226 South Main Street
Breckenridge, CO 80424

To promote the Indies First Campaign and Small Business Saturday, I will appear at Next Page Books and Nosh from noon to 2 PM on Saturday, November 29th to promote books written by some of my favorite Colorado authors (Sandra Dallas, Maggie Sefton, Ann Parker, and Craig Johnson), as well as my own. I hope my local fans will stop by to chat about books--and maybe buy a few! Here's the address:

Saturday, November 29, noon - 2 PM
Next Page Books and Nosh
409 Main Street, #101
Frisco, CO 80443

A New Review for A Basket of Trouble

A surprise review for A Basket of Trouble, the third and latest book in my Claire Hanover gift basket designer series, appeared in the Summit Daily News today. A quote from the review states: "Fans of Groundwater's writing should be thrilled." I'm thrilled, too!

Gondola Evacuation

About a week and a half ago, my husband and I joined about 150 other volunteers to help the Breckenridge Mountain ski patrollers practice evacuating people (and dogs and kids) from gondola cars, in case of breakdown. We lined up at 8:30 AM to sign waivers, eat donuts, and get assigned to groups of 4-5 people per gondola car. Then we loaded into the cars, were sent up the mountain, and the lift attendants stopped the gondola when we were all in place. Then we waited while ski patrollers climbed up the nearest up hill tower then worked their way down the cable to the gondola cars below that tower. Our car was the third one evacuated by our team of patrollers. We were suspended above the Cucumber Gulch wetlands in the Breckenridge Nordic Center grounds.

In the first photo below, a ski patroller is standing on top of the gondola car uphill of us. He has finished evacuating that car, is hooked onto the gondola cable, and is about to slide down that cable to our car. In the second photo, I'm being lowered to the ground in the "diaper". The last two photos show my husband being lowered.

After we were gently lowered to the ground, we walked out on the hiking/snowshoe trail to the road, then back down to the base of the gondola, where we were served a delicious barbecue lunch as a thank-you for our volunteer service. A great way to spend the morning!

Moose!

A few days ago, a neighborhood friend called us to say that moose were currently hanging out near the retention pond below the Peak 8 Base of the Breckenridge Ski Area. My husband went up and took some photos of the large critters, and I'm sharing them below. Along with black bears, mountain lions, coyotes, and foxes, they're just some of the wildlife that we share our town and its environs with.

Visiting the Bristlecone Pines on Windy Ridge

Last week, my husband and I and some neighbors drove to Alma, Colorado, to visit the Bristlecone Pine Scenic Area, established by the U.S. National Forest Service on Windy Ridge overlooking the town. Some of the trees are over 1000 years old. As you can see from the photos below, Windy Ridge lives up to it's name. The force of the winds has bent the trees over. The wind even made it hard to walk straight!