It was -14.7 F at 7am this morning. It has warmed up to -7 right now (8:30am). The thermometer said it got as cold as -15.2 last night. BRRRRRRRRR.

This  month’s desktop calendar is really nice. They are done by photographer Paul Hansen of ecopixel for the Green Mountain Club.

In December, Deer Leap Books in Bristol VT , a wonderful local independent bookstore, closed it’s doors. It wasn’t for lack of local support, but it still wasn’t enough to compete with Amazon, etc.

Today, I saw in the local paper that another fabulous indy bookstore, The Book Rack & Children’s Pages (this one in Essex, VT) is also closing. Very sad. I thought their formula was strong enough to keep them going. (Here’s the article.)

These are wonderful community places. The store’s owner is going to get involved with a recently formed organization called Local First Vermont, to help other Vermont businesses.

As the snow was piling up and the wind was creating drifts, the pile of snow building up by our front door at one point literally looked like the shape of a car! Here it was the day after.

Rich has been out snowblowing and shoveling on and off for three days now (in between skiing on the new snow at Mad River, off course). He’s just now attacking the pile. Check out the pink sunset in the valley, too. These are snow paths like I remember from my childhood.

The Champlain Valley Agency on Aging along with Burlington’s Operation Snow Shovel have been getting calls from seniors who need their paths and steps shoveled.  Right now, they have about 10 in Burlington, 1 in Winooski, 1 in Colchester and 1 in Milton.  If anyone is willing to shovel snow for a senior, please call Champlain Valley Agency on Aging at 865-0360.   Thank you so much for your consideration. 

www.cvaa.org

From MRG’s site this morning:

While it is difficult to give an exact measurement we reckon we have received between  40″ and 48″ (thats 3 1/2 and 4 feet folks) from this historic storm.  Needless to say the skiing conditions have improved to well beyond epic and are nearing mythic proportions. It is a blustery morning with strong winds and drifting snow. This is a day you are not going to want to miss.  It’s truly incredible! 

It’s also about 5 degrees at my house which means colder there. It was 0 yesterday at the top of the double. Brrrrrr

We have gotten at least 18″ of snow since going to sleep last night and it is still snowing hard at 5:30 pm. Rich and I went to Mad River in the late morning. They say that by 4pm today they had 2 feet of new snow and are looking at 3-4 feet total when the storm is over! We were both exhausted after skiing in the deep powder (hey for us a foot of powder is DEEEEEEP). The roads are pretty bad now. But when the roads are the worst, the skiing is the best. Mad River is 7 miles from our house – long miles since it’s up and over the mountain. I’m sure we’ll sleep pretty well tonight.

Heck now that they have wireless, maybe I”ll just bring my laptop over there tomorrow. Ski work ski work ski. 🙂

I discovered the GMC desktop calendar earlier this month. This was January’s.

It’s a photo of Vermont’s Mt. Mansfield and beyond with lots of snow! It was great to look at when we didn’ t have any snow and I really loved having it on my desktop this past month.

The image with the month calendar and GMC logo was created for GMC by Paul Hansen, a local photographer who’s company is ecopixel.com. I’m really looking forward to seeing what beautiful local photo I’ll get to have for Feb.

Looking at the ecopixel site, I noticed that he has an offer to create desktop calendars for other organizations. I think it’s a great idea. It has put the Green Mountain Club in my mind every day.

Rich and I had a great ski today. There were about 3 inches of fresh snow this morning and it was about 15 degrees, so  when we went out after lunch, the snow was dry and fluffy. The kind of snow where you can actually see the crystal shapes. On top of the base that we have been working on in trails in our woods, the new snow made for PERFECT ski conditions. I’m not exaggerating. For the entire time we were out, we couldn’t get over how optimal it was. And I was so happy to finally get out my real back country skis instead of my rock skis. They are light and they glide so beautifully. We went up through our woods and then crossed over to trails that lead up towards the Long Trail in the Green Mountains. Even the first few hours that we were basically climbing up hill were sweet. Then coming back down the trails was heavenly and just didn’t last long enough. Does it ever?

Having the cold weather makes a huge difference. Otherwise the snow is sticky and you have to really finagle with the wax. 

Perfect perfect perfect!

Are these really pictures of Vermont in January? Yes. I just took them in my front yard. Bah. I think ALL of the snow for planet earth is in Colorado right now.