Skiing in Iowa?
Greetings from middle america, home of the smallest ski areas that I have ever seen. The resorts here in Minnesota make my childhood resort of Crotched Mtn, New Hampshire look positively gigantic. Hyland Park is so small that the ski jump towers above summit, actually as big as the entire ant hill. The entire length of the hill also doubles as the landing of the ski jump. However, the passion of skiers from small areas like this one or ones like I grew up on cannot be matched by any ski resort giant. People joyfully ski with garbage bags through rain, sleet and hail with mammoth grins down those puny slopes. And it sure is amazing how many great skiers and olympians come from these grassroot areas - something about learning how to ski the ice rink type snow and the massive dedication required to keep oneself entertained?
Flying into Minneapolis greeted me with some 55 degree air, but not quite cold enough to keep the snowmaking firing at Buck Hill. Trees were in summer bloom, but conditions felt much more like winter than sunny Colorado. Granted, it has still been freezing at night in CB, so we are able to ski some nice big lines easily since the approach roads are melted out, but mid-day temps are soaring to 75 and the snow is melting faster than a straight line in Alaska.
We drove past the famous Buck Hill on our way to Osage, Iowa, home of Fox River Socks. The factory is very impressive - you can't imagine how much work goes into making a great pair of socks! So many people working so hard, so many machines knitting away! And how fun to now see my designs being knitted in the thousands in front of my very eyes. I'm here to design socks along with my friend Jenni Dow, who is also Fox River's PR wiz. We make a good team, along with the production team of Dan and Phil, balancing the needs of hard core athletes with everyday walkers, runners and gym rats. We worked hard to create fun colors, technical knitting styles and interesting patterns for a new line of socks that will be made from Ingeo Yarn, spun from corn fibers instead of petrochemical products - it is so soft and you can't tell the difference in performance! We are also redesigning the Organic wool line, which i am very excited about. Fox River has a strong history of working to be green, going way back to when the manager of the public utility, Wes Birsal, started helping them with energy costs and sustainable practices way back in the 1970's. Fox River was able to expand production and add 100,000 square feet and reduce the cost of its socks! Osage, Wes and Fox River made national news throughout the 80's for its energy efficiency work, saving 1.2 million dollars in energy costs from leaving the area per year. It was this tiny community that began my inspiration to start ORE, the Office for Resource Efficiency non-profit here in Crested Butte. We are even bringing Wes Birdsal here to CB this fall to talk to our electric company and local governments for inspiration. Fox River is committed to continuing that legacy with these new sock innovations. We also hope that FR will join One Percent for the Planet, to give back to the planet and promote more sustainability.
We stayed at the most quintisential Iowa B+B, the BlueBell - my room contained a bed with a canopy of fake pink flowers and Xmas lights, along with 12 pillows, 3 Xmas trees with big bows decorated to match along side, and 22 bunny rabbits in baskets surrounding me. The most popular sport in the area appears to be tractor lawn mower riding, I discovered while out for my afternoon run. I don't think they see too many folks outside exercising in these parts. "Town" is pretty quiet, with as many combines and tractors as cars and local hot spots consisting of the bridal store, VFW, quilting store, and hardware/feed store. And, get ready for this one, cell phones don't even work here. I can phone home from the back of an elephant in Sri Lanka, but not Osage and St. Ansgar, Iowa. I openly love it when I can escape technology for a bit!
Flying into Minneapolis greeted me with some 55 degree air, but not quite cold enough to keep the snowmaking firing at Buck Hill. Trees were in summer bloom, but conditions felt much more like winter than sunny Colorado. Granted, it has still been freezing at night in CB, so we are able to ski some nice big lines easily since the approach roads are melted out, but mid-day temps are soaring to 75 and the snow is melting faster than a straight line in Alaska.
We drove past the famous Buck Hill on our way to Osage, Iowa, home of Fox River Socks. The factory is very impressive - you can't imagine how much work goes into making a great pair of socks! So many people working so hard, so many machines knitting away! And how fun to now see my designs being knitted in the thousands in front of my very eyes. I'm here to design socks along with my friend Jenni Dow, who is also Fox River's PR wiz. We make a good team, along with the production team of Dan and Phil, balancing the needs of hard core athletes with everyday walkers, runners and gym rats. We worked hard to create fun colors, technical knitting styles and interesting patterns for a new line of socks that will be made from Ingeo Yarn, spun from corn fibers instead of petrochemical products - it is so soft and you can't tell the difference in performance! We are also redesigning the Organic wool line, which i am very excited about. Fox River has a strong history of working to be green, going way back to when the manager of the public utility, Wes Birsal, started helping them with energy costs and sustainable practices way back in the 1970's. Fox River was able to expand production and add 100,000 square feet and reduce the cost of its socks! Osage, Wes and Fox River made national news throughout the 80's for its energy efficiency work, saving 1.2 million dollars in energy costs from leaving the area per year. It was this tiny community that began my inspiration to start ORE, the Office for Resource Efficiency non-profit here in Crested Butte. We are even bringing Wes Birdsal here to CB this fall to talk to our electric company and local governments for inspiration. Fox River is committed to continuing that legacy with these new sock innovations. We also hope that FR will join One Percent for the Planet, to give back to the planet and promote more sustainability.
We stayed at the most quintisential Iowa B+B, the BlueBell - my room contained a bed with a canopy of fake pink flowers and Xmas lights, along with 12 pillows, 3 Xmas trees with big bows decorated to match along side, and 22 bunny rabbits in baskets surrounding me. The most popular sport in the area appears to be tractor lawn mower riding, I discovered while out for my afternoon run. I don't think they see too many folks outside exercising in these parts. "Town" is pretty quiet, with as many combines and tractors as cars and local hot spots consisting of the bridal store, VFW, quilting store, and hardware/feed store. And, get ready for this one, cell phones don't even work here. I can phone home from the back of an elephant in Sri Lanka, but not Osage and St. Ansgar, Iowa. I openly love it when I can escape technology for a bit!
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