Paul and Cora Winters are good friends of ours. Paul does have a way of pontificating once in awhile, but he's relatively non-intrusive about it. I enjoy his discussions about living here, and love visiting his website for his always new photos. So, I will be adding some of his thoughts here. For example: In Colorado, altitude is king... Intellectually, I knew this all along. Twenty years of vacations in Colorado couldn't help but reinforce the fact that the higher you go, the colder it gets, and the more difficult it is for "lowlanders" like me to breathe. I took about three months to really get used to the altitude. A brief week-long trip back to Ohio resulted in our losing a bit of acclimatization, but it was regained within a week. Staying down low for too long would undoubtedly require another lengthy acclimatization. A good excuse for not staying too long down in the lowlands! When it comes to weather, a thousand feet of altitude make a big difference, especially in the fall. I expected that I'd be able to watch the progression of fall aspen color move down the mountains from the 12,000 foot peaks across the valley down into the valley floor, just below 9,000 feet. I was wrong. I would have needed much more than three thousand feet to really see the progression, but it is there nevertheless. While it may look like early winter up here, pictures on television of Denver show the leaf color is at its peak. Once the snow starts flying the influence of altitude is very obvious to me just by looking out the window. "Down here" at 9100 feet, the first snow was gone within a couple of days. But it remained up top for several weeks. The peaks directly facing the sun lost their coat first, and it gradually melted in the shadows as well. Undaunted, Mother Nature keeps trying, and eventually succeeds in coating the tundra with the white coat that will last into next June. Meanwhile in October, unwilling to wait for the really big storms that come later on, man begins to cover selected ski trails with his own snow. Again, it's the highest resorts with the temperature advantage. Loveland Basin, straddling the Continental Divide at over 12,000 feet, opened first this year. Keystone, lower but with greater snowmaking capability, opened near the end of the month. Breckenridge, Copper and Vail usually open in mid-November. In the summer, one can find Colorado columbine blooming first at lower elevations, and later into July at higher elevations where snow lingers longer. Wildflowers can be found throughout the season, again first at lower altitudes, and later at higher. Even from a considerable distance one can see the tundra turning green as snow melts from its slopes. Later in the growing season, it's obvious from the color of the underlying rock where the snow sits longest, even when it's all gone, Green: early melting and a reasonable growing season, grey: late melting, and a summer too short to support much plant growth. And when the tundra begins turning red, we know that fall is not far away in the valleys. Paul Winters ________________________________________________________ Want to buy or sell a SnowHome in Summit County? Please visit our website. All the property listings are there. When you live or visit here, you will know "Snow Place Like Home". | 
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