Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information opinion website and e magazine. Lou's passion for the past 45 years has been alpinism, climbing, mountaineering and skiing -- along with all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about
backcountry skiing and is well known as the first person to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, otherwise known as the
Fourteeners! Books and free back country news and information here, and tons of Randonnee rando telemark info.
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That pictures scares me. Colby, Tyler and a fire of that size. However, skiing burn areas is pretty fun…
The boys assured me that they’d built bigger fires back in their tree farm days. That eased my mind.
Hmmm…I don’t see any pitchforks laden with sizzling hunks of meat (preferably wild game). What kind of amateur operation is this?
Yeah, we’d better get our act together!
Looks like you are one giant marshmallow short of a great party!
Seens like a lot of potentially good winter-night firewood went up in flames and smoke!
@JohnnyC don’t worry there were several Tecate’s harmed that night and after moving all that wood multiple times.
@andyc you should see the wood piles that still survive!
Speaking of wild meat, any of your crew hunting elk this year?
Brian, sure, we always get tags and give it a try. For quite a while now we’ve realized that hunt seasons conflict a bit with ramping up the website for winter, so that’s put a damper on things on the meat harvesting side. But whatever happens, we simply enjoy hunting, “success” or not. This year we might have a bit more flexibility since the cabin is basically ready for winter already. On the other hand, I’ve got one larger project and a couple of smaller ones that would be good to get done before the snow flies…
More importantly, did you sacrifice any skis to the snow Gods in anticipation of the upcoming winter? I’ve got a few pair of old ones I’d be happy to donate. When we start throwing DPS skis on the fire then we’ll know we’re making way too much money.
@Joe–good to hear! Firewood has been on my mind–just finished putting up 6+ cords for the winter (and I hope next winter) last month.
Burn permit please. Just kidding.
We did a burn like this a few years ago and got visited by Basalt Fire District Fire Chief Scott Thompson. Ouch. No fine but a good ass chew’n.
Where is this porta cabin out of Marble? I’m gonna do the leadking basin loop on my mountain bike next week. Let me know where to leave the bottle of Cabernet Lou!
Glenn
Got the permit. Was super frustrating to get this done, as last spring when snow was still on the ground at the cabin they wouldn’t give us a permit because they quite issuing them for the whole fire district. Ridiculous. Now, with fall approaching and the aspen trees getting more flammable, we can now get a burn permit. There is a joke in there, but it’s not a very pleasant joke. Typical bureaucratic BS. But we’ll play the game. No sense getting anyone’s undies in a bunch. Also, they don’t have much of a specific definition of what a “camp fire” is as opposed to something bigger. Thus, there is a grey area you can fit a fairly big fire into without needing a permit. Of course, the one pictured above definitely needed the permit!
What’s weird is that they used to do burn bans by elevation. Now it’s for the whole region, even areas above timberline! During a burn ban, it would even be illegal to build a fire on a snowfield at 13,000 feet!
Sorry I missed out on the fun Lou. But looks like you had some great help.
Scott, we’re probably doing it again. I’ll let you know. Lou
I am with Anton. I don’t like the looks of the Christoff brothers and that fire. Keep them away from my property. What happened to the woodsheds and other stuff on your lot Lou? Are they out of view or moved? I feel like I should be able to see it in the photo. And for the record Caleb=0 Elk=1.
Caleb, I agree, those guys have to be kept on a tight leash. The dog, however, is quite well behaved.
The reason why you don’t see anything in the photo is that the location is down at the lower level of the property. Actually quite a nice little area down there. Would be a good yurt location or something like that.