Brrrr - it's cold!

Here is Ryan scraping off a foot of snow that fell overnight. We are in the Colorado Rockies at a place called Eagle - Vail. While Ryan was trying to get all the snow off the car, he had the car running with the heater on inside andclosed the front door; these fancy new cars have an automatic locking device and after a few seconds we were stranded outside of the car with our bags and keys for the house inside and no way of getting in! A locksmith helped us out.

The next morning, after a clear sky, the temperature plummetted to -23C, the coldest either of us have ever experienced! But that didn't stop the Zammits from hitting the slopes (or rather the slopes hitting us!) We tried our hands (or should I say feet?) at snowboarding and discovered how hard snow can be! On one occasion, Ryan's board dug in and he flipped so quickly that he landed on his head and did a full somersault! We managed to get in 4 full days of snowboarding with beautiful clear blue skies (pictures will follow when we can download them).

Just down the road was a beautiful place called Hanging Lake. It was about an hour's hike up a mountain and although the path was extremely icy, it was definately worth the trek. As you can see behind us, the waterfalls flowing into the crystal clear pond were all frozen but this didn't seem to worry the trout - they seem to thrive in the freezing cold water.

Just above this lake was a cave with frozen stalagtites and a waterfall that gushed out the middle of a rock face. Here Ryan was taking a picture and like a true photographer was so focussed on his shot that he wasn't concentrating on his footing and slipped (like you see in the comic films) right onto his back! He lay there for a minute and then managed a thumbs up to let Taryn know he was still alive.