It’s been a hot minute now, hasn’t it? Let’s play catch-up with way too many pictures!
Turns out I’m part owner of this wonderful brewery, Snowbank Brewing! Paperwork was signed, wallets were put under duress and now I’m a proud partner with some of my favorite people in the world at what has become my first home, seeing as I’m here at least 60 hours a week.
We’ve come a long way since our very first tapping at the (sadly now defunct) Cranknstein. On August 22nd, we officially turned one year old!
It’s been a long year, yet it seems like we just opened yesterday. Since becoming an owner, I’ve also come to realize that sometimes balance is required in life, no matter how much I love being at the brewery all the time.
I’ve recently become an active member of Gociety – a website dedicated to adventure meet-ups.
Every Wednesday morning for the past month and a half, this group has been ascending Horsetooth Rock in order to catch a glimpse of the first rays of sunlight streaming over the horizon.
Hot coffee is brewed via JetBoil and all ten to twenty of us chow down on homemade breakfast burritos, take ridiculous GoPro pictures and then descend the mountain in order to get to work on time.
I love these people.
I tend to rep my brewery quite a bit…
I also sometimes force other brewery owners to join. This is Matt from Odell Brewing, now a co-owner of that brewery!
Of course all of my Gociety friends are now Snowbank addicts lovers.
These sunrises will never get old.
I took an actual full weekend off and headed up to Trestle in Winter Park with some awesome/insane biker guys for some downhill mountain biking. Almost faceplanted, but didn’t! They ended up heading down the black diamond trails while I stuck with going fast on the greens. I’m cool like that.
I’ve also been running early in the mornings. For some crazy reason, I’ve come to ENJOY running! WHO AM I?
I even bought shoes to match my hair to convince myself to run more. Or the shoes were just really comfortable. Definitely one of the two…
I took off for a week and head up to one of my favorite spots in the world – Jackson, Wyoming. And yes, I check this every single flight I take, Final Destination style.
The first day was a six mile hike followed by cliff jumping into glacier water.
This wonderful little vocal one was along for the trip. It was wonderful to have a large chunk of the extended family together for the first time in years!
I already miss this view.
The second day my pops and I went downhill mountain biking in Teton Village. I started the day off with a Golden Moose, a caffeinated beverage that I last had six years ago when I was in Wyoming last.
Lift ride up to the top!
Helmet on, ready to go!
My pops had an unfortunate incident where he biffed right in front of me. I slammed my knee into my frame attempting not to run over his face. Besides a cracked helmet and a couple of possibly cracked ribs, he’s fine! He even rode the rest of the trail down before succumbing to his injuries and heading to the store for some pain killers.
The next day I hiked up to the top of Rendezvous – 7.4 miles with a 4,000 foot elevation gain. Came across a new addition and sat on the swing enjoying the view.
Two and a half hours later I reached the top. A French man was walking down and asked why I’d walked up from the village instead of taking the tram up. My response? “If you hike to the top, the tram down is free!”
I hike because I’m cheap. And it was wonderful to escape from humans for two hours and hear nothing except for my wheezing lungs and the sound of the wind.
I celebrated the victory of the climb at Snake River Brewing with the parental unit.
And met up with a Colorado buddy, Ben, the next day as he was passing through the state on a long road trip.
Our final evening was spent halfway up the mountain with a glass of red wine, tempura summer vegetables and a relaxing sunset. Bliss.
I came back to the real world with a refreshed view on life, making a promise to myself to get out into the neat nature that surrounds me here in Colorado. Louie, my favorite regular with an awesome underbite, agreed with me.
My friend Kylie and I hiked up to Isabelle Glacier on my next day off.
The lovely Joule Bug joined us. This Instagram star is a trooper.
We heated up some French press coffee and shivered as we gazed over the crystal clear blue water.
The temperature at the end of that six mile hike was about 35 degrees, and there was absolutely not another human around.
We cradled the piping hot coffee cups in our hands, sipping greedily for the few seconds we could before the coffee also turned icy.
After a few hours of brutal freeze, we decided to hike back down and grab some hydration.
We hit the Tasty Weasel for a brew and then headed back into civilization.
Snowbank Brewing’s one year anniversary came about! We’ve bottled our first beer ever, Tripel Corkscrew, named after the snowboarding trick, the Backside Triple Cork 1440, made famous by Mark McMorris in 2013. This beer is a fruity Belgian Tripel with hints of peppery spice on the nose, a medium body full of citrus flavor with a touch of oak and a dry, lingering spicy finish. 8.5% ABV, 30 IBU. Conditioned on Blue Skies Winery Chardonnay French Oak.
We were absolutely slammed the entire anniversary weekend and had an amazing time with our regulars/newbies and amazing friends. And beer, of course.
I came ridiculously close to adopting this perfect, blissfuly happy dog, but he found a full family so he wouldn’t have to have a single mama like myself. I attempted not to tear up as the new family took Nugget away. Yes, I renamed him after a hop, and the gracious new family agreed to keep Nugget as his official name.
And then this. I was cleaning up after the celebrations and just happened to drop a heavy metal table on my foot. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone…
And just like that, my running and hiking days were delayed for four weeks. Nothing is broken, it’s just a “crush injury and massive contusion”. I get to wear this beautiful boot for four weeks until the bone bruise is finally healed. I also get to soak my foot in a bucket of ice water four times a day for twenty minutes each time. Brutal.
Which means I have extra time to study for the new Advanced Cicerone test!
Said studying will take place in my new favorite coffee shop, Bindle Coffee. It hurts me to post this since I want to keep this gem all to myself, but they deserve all of the customers they can get with their fantastic coffee and housemade almond milk. I may have spent four hours there yesterday morning…
So I’ve missed a few months, but I feel like the most important information has been covered! I hike, I travel, I drink coffee, I own a brewery, I break myself, I study beer.
Also, I’ve missed writing and living such an adventurous life. T-minus four weeks until the boot comes off and I’m back on top of that mountain!