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Anniversary weekend in Southern Colorado. Thanks to Karl for making it happen, The prestigious “Goldhill” take off at 12250′. Thank you Telluride AirForce. Everything worked out and we had an am Milk run flight and an evening glass off later that day. Thank you to my wonderful wife Rachel.
Hunter Creek PV envisioned. As mentioned in my previous blog, solar hot water is out, PV is in… Well how much could we save at Hunter Creek phase II if we were to go with PV. Off course you can hire an expensive consultant or go to the National Renewable Energy […]
Original by Martin Holladay www.greenbuildingadvisor.com December 26 2014In the northern half of the U.S. — and even much of the South — installing a residential solar hot water system doesn’t make any sense. It’s time to rethink traditional advice about installing a solar hot water system, because it’s now cheaper […]
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Since December 8, 2015, it has been my privilege to be serving on the Flégère ski Patrol. Secour PGHM Lachenal from Mariposa Productions on Vimeo. Patient pick up by the PGHM Helicopter. at the bottom of piste Lachenal.The Eurocopter EC145, now known as the Airbus Helicopters H145, is a twin-engine […]
We visited Karl Welter from the Telluride Ski Patrol on Exchange in Tignes for the 2015/16 winter. Thank you Karlito for the warm welcome and showing us around. Karl lives in Tignes du Lac and is on exchange from Telluride, ColoradoTignes (French pronunciation: [tiɲ]) is a commune in the Tarentaise […]
After skiing some of the best powder of our lives on Thursday, we got another 50cm overnight on Saturday morning. Enough to warrant an early morning of control work. Today Céd et moi worked our magic with our handiwork and made some beautiful avalanches. I love life and the people […]
In the morning 2/5/16 across the street Danno found a coffee shop and brought back cappuccinos and pastries! Then we both went back to have “another” coffee and use the toilet which just happened to be a true “squatty potty”! The kind with the porcelain foot placements and small hole […]
After a day at the spa we went to Courgné, Italy where my favorite restaurant is located and they were closed-wah wah wah! Danno was disappointed but you can’t really go wrong with Italian food:)! So we met up with our friend Flávio who lives there and owns the paragliding business.Flávio […]
Pré-Saint-Didier is a town and comune in the Aosta Valley region of north-western Italy, at 1,004 metres (3,294 ft) above sea level. Things here are great, not great snow but beautiful views! We went to Italy for my bday weekend! Just through the Mont Blanc tunnel there are thermal baths! […]
Today we pushed some snow, pente fab, passage de Trois, rognon de ptarmigan…
(The Three Valleys) is a ski region in the Tarentaise Valley, Savoie département of France, to the south of the town of Moûtiers, partly in the Vanoise National Park.Since 1973, it has been possible to ski the interlinked valleys using a single ski pass. Thus, Les Trois Vallées is one […]
This weekend we have to take care of some administrative affairs which leads us to Geneva, well not a lot of smiling going on here. Downtown Geneva from Mariposa Productions on Vimeo.
Today is January 3, 2016 we finally have snow and I take a beautiful run through the fluffy snow trails while Danno is working! On January 3, 1913 this very day my grandmother Coletta (Gill) Kiko was born. She would be 103 years young. Happy birthday grandma may your lucky […]
Cedric, Tessia and Izzy from Mariposa Productions on Vimeo. The January 2-15th stormcycle kinda rocked us a little. It wasn’t really until after the storm Cedric and I tallied up the storm total. 12 feet 7 inches in 13 days. It is hard to get data, just like so many […]
Rayray and Mayday from Mariposa Productions on Vimeo. Finally Danno let Rachel drive a little bit. After hiding the key all this time she was finally allowed to excercise her right to drive… To: Suisse.
Finally we get snow and have the day off to enjoy it!!!! We headed out for a hike and started creating snowballs. The snow was so wet and since we had gravity to our favor we were able to create BIG snowballs. It was awesome until it came time to […]
…and then it snowed. Jan 2nd it arrived. As the holiday crowd checked out, Mother Nature checked in with storm #3 and stayed for 10 days and delivered 3m of snow, rain, sleet and more snow, and then snow and wind, lots of it. Arming collu de la Trappe from […]
Sometimes it’s just plain old fun to play the tourist in your own town. We try to do this every weekend, as Rachel is chuckling next to me. We took the bus to downtown Chamonix where we were able to catch the Mer de Glace Train. A day of […]
People always ask me, “What do you do while Danno is at work?” Well on any ordinary day I find myself eating escargo with the Simonds, Jean Marc not shown in photos…
January 4 PIDA – loading Avalauncher from Mariposa Productions on Vimeo. Today we peppered some of the higher terrain which is of direct threat to some of the pistes with some “fleches” which are Avalauncher darts. It’s a pretty clever system powered by about 50 bars of high pressure to […]
Heli Pick up from Mariposa Productions on Vimeo. Today there was an avalanche just off-piste at the Grand Montets. It involved 3 climbers from Lithuania. We had 30cm of fresh snow after over six weeks of static weather. Everyone rallied in the rescue efforts, including 3 patrollers from La Flégère. […]
Fashionably late. Winter arrives! Au contraire what one may think, Rachel and I have not minded the late arrival of snow. We have had such a dynamic past 3 years, a little “bon vivant” has been a welcome tempo change. For it, the drought, I have gotten to know my co-workers […]
We spent New Year’s Eve in Annecy, New Years Day in Chamonix. It doesn’t matter how often I get to visit Annecy, it always makes me happy to be here. We camped on top of Col du Forclaz, which we had to ourselves and in the summer is impossible to […]
This is about 2700 meters, right above our house!!! The cable car to the summit, the Téléphérique de l’Aiguille du Midi, was built in 1955 and held the title of the world’s highest cable car for about two decades. It still holds the record as the highest vertical ascent cable car […]
Plan Praz Take off from Mariposa Productions on Vimeo. Today we had Karl from T-ride/ Tignes visit. I had taken two personal days and we were finally able to fly there Brevent Sorry to some of the more loyal followers of the blog… Sometimes I’m in the middle of posting […]
Aiguilles Rouges from Mariposa Productions on Vimeo. Today was a good day. Boxing Day it is called by some. I went to La Flégère while Danno was working and I took off on a solo hike! No snowshoes needed due to the lack of snow. Beautiful blue sky day. My […]
Running a call in French isn’t as easy as you think, however today was the first time I handled the call all by myself. From initial guest contact to opening up my pharmacy and handing over a Band-Aid, all in French.