Colorado Ski Country USA

The ridiculously portable 16-50mm is my go to for landscape and wide angle shots, while the 55-250mm makes for intimate action shots. These are serving me well so far, and Im not sure how I feel about upgrading to have a $1200 lens on my back while moving 40 miles an hour down a mountain SD cards, batteries, cleaning kit When Im snowboarding and filming myself, I use an extendable pole for the most immersive video as seen here (for skiers I recommend the a pole or a chest mount). Through all of this gear, I still have to make room for the essentials: extra layer, sunglasses, another pair of gloves, spare goggle lens, my main form of sustenance (Cliff Bars), and lots of water.

Since my kids were young, Ive skied with a pack, if for no other reason than I needed to be armed with a wide variety of snacks at all times. Ive tried not skiing with my pack, but then Im constantly in need of some little somethingsunscreen, a neck gaiter, My pack has straps for carrying skis, so when I hike to the top of Tucker Mountain at Copper or hike out of Teocali Bowl at Crested Butte, which I did last week, I can pop my skis onto the pack, and hike hands free. I intend to keep skiing with a pack, but now I unclip the straps in the lift maze and swing the pack onto my lap for lift rides.

After one of the more enjoyable ski trips of my life in the middle of January to Silverton and Purgatory (what I dubbed the Southwest Swing)Ive been looking for a good weekend to revisit that part of the state and check out more of Colorados southwest ski areas. After a few great laps bouncing in and out of tree and mogul runs and pockets of foot-deep powder, we headed off to the backside to the Revelation lift (#15), which besides providing open powder runs also had some intimidating views. In the morning we stopped at Pagosa Baking Company for breakfast burritos and sandwiches only to find the Wolf Creek ski report on the board: one new inch and four inches in the past 48 hours. After a few runs, we skied and hiked the ridge from Treasure Stoke to the top of Alberta Peak at 11,900 feet in a little under 25 minutes and were greeted with some nice views off the backside.

That is one of the many reasons why we chose Sunlight Mountain Resort and Glenwood Springs for a mini family vacation last weekend. The drive through Glenwood Canyon is always beautiful, but my husband was the real lucky one on this particular trip - he saw a mountain lion sitting on the side of I-70! Everything about visiting Sunlight was easy something that makes the Gems resorts so special. For on this particular day, it seemed like everyone was at the base lodge where hoards of locals were getting ready for the Chili Cook-Off and Taste of Glenwood happening that afternoon (and buying girl scout cookies from the local girl scout, who was making a killing by the way). We initially thought we would go to the hot springs after skiing, after all, isnt that a must-do when visiting Glenwood Springs?