Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo

Falling snow arrived on Monday evening to make this year's Christmas in Santa Fe a white one - bringing with it peace and wonder, warmth to holiday drinks, and added cheer to the farolito arrangement at Casa Dirt.

Merry Christmas, and best to you and yours. 

Peace on earth and goodwill toward man - Santa Fe, NM

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2010

 
 

Santa Fe's First Snow of the Year - 2012

Dawn breaks on the season's first snow 11/16/12

A drier than average Fall finally broke to form last Sunday with the season's first substantial snowfall. A few of us were actually out running that morning, complaining wickedly that the forecasters had blown their previous day's call for snow. Roughly four inches fell in town later that afternoon, fourteen inches were reported on the mountain. Not as much as a flake fell south of La Bajada, even in Tijeras, near Sandia Crest in the hills above Albuquerque.

This was not the year's first snow of course which arrived November 16th. Pretty late in the year compared with previous years unless you count a very small dusting of the trees up above 9,500ft in mid-October. The November snowfall was exciting, not because I'm charting this stuff, but because it was the first snow that mini-Dirt had ever seen! Little guy couldn't seem to get his stoke on though due to the part about it being freezing cold. Not enough perspective yet on what stuff is awesome and what stuff is so-so. He'll get the hang of it before too long.

Myself, the Pistol, and Lucy (Sangres far left)

In any case, we made note of 2011's first snow (up on the mountain) here.
2010's first snow (in town) noted here. 

Area ski resorts are up and running - as of yesterday (Sat. 12/15). Snuck in my first turns of the season early this morning. Daniel Gibson does a great job writing about area conditions in his Snow Trax column in The New Mexican, so I'll defer to him on what's open and what the conditions are. Interestingly Wolf Creek got jobbed on last week's storm, receiving a paltry 4in. of new. Pretty sure they'll catch up during the first few hours of the next system that blows through. 

If you need any extra motivation for the winter season - a clip from In Deep, Sean Pettit, Hains, AK, 2009. Snow! Snow! Snow!

New Belgium Brewery and Their Awesome Beer

Alright, I'm sitting at home the other evening drinking a cold frosty beer. Three separate friends brought it to my attention earlier in the day that it's the anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. It's Repeal Day! I'm pretty ok with that. What kind of nonsense feeds into prohibiting beer anyhow? It's both delicious and refreshing. There are clearly better things to go about stamping out of American culture.

OK, but here's the real story I'm getting around to here - the frosty beer I was drinking was a New Belgium Snow Day. A marvelous beverage. A bicycle on every beer cap, what more can you say. So several weeks before this I was - in a very similar manner as before - drinking a New Belgium beer thinking the exact same thing, and I thought to myself 'is there a way to invest in New Belgium, Inc.? Because these guys are sitting on a damned gold mine'! The answer to my question it seems is no, at least not in the publicly traded markets. Samuel Adams, yes. New Belgium, no.

But in my research I discover that New Belgium is so popular right now that they cannot make and ship their product fast enough to meet demand! They've actually had to reduce distribution of late to meet demand in their core markets in and around Colorado. That's a fantastic problem for a business to have. Their solution - which has been in the works for some time now apparently - is to add production. Specifically, build a new commercial sized brewery on the east coast. They put together plans for a new $175m LEED-certified facility and narrowed down their choice to bids from the cities of Philadelphia and Asheville, NC, and went with Asheville on account of the little town being a lot like the little town of Fort Collins, CO, the beer capital of the largest craft beer state in the country.

Asheville already had ten craft breweries before this announcement. Since the announcement it has landed the new east coast commercial expansion of Sierra Nevada. It also has a boat load of trails to go out and hammer on to work up a thirst for malt and hops. To sum up this little anecdote on beer I want to make it known that Asheville, NC - of all places - is now firmly on my list of places I have to visit, as it should be for any adventurous soul who likes to get out on the trails and recover later with a cold beverage and then tell cool stories. Simple pleasures my friends. The secret to life.

P.S. When I'm not drinking New Belgium I'm drinking local. Support your local breweries.

Moonlit Ride in the North Hills

Early a.m. ride out at La Tierra this morning. Crested the hills at Frank Ortiz Park when the morning colors went berzerker - a December sun lit up the east foothills in red while cotton-candy pink arced out and over just about everywhere else.

Rode a variation of the Super Loop. Terrific extended weather for biking and running but don't be like me and think that applies to the hours around dawn. Friggin' ice box. The fingers and toes paid a price.

December sunrise in the east. Full on volcanic red and orange

The full November moon sets down in juniper hills to the west

Pink and crimson over the Sangres

Lovely colors in the north as well

Big Blue points upward and onward. The morning lamp still lights the path

View Super Loop - Santa Fe, NM in a larger map