Sometimes you feel like you have bad luck, sometimes you feel like you have good luck. Sometimes you get really freakin lucky. Today was one of those days for me.
I overnighted in Gunnison, CO last night after doing some backcountry skiing on Monarch pass. I’ve been out in the boondocks attempting some 14ers, but today was a travel day. My ski partners have all gone back to Avon so I journeyed alone to southwest Colorado.
I drove about 6 hours today through the very sparsely populated lower left quadrant of CO, passing through about 3 towns of any real size. I stopped a few times to cook lunch, get gas, etc. Every time that I restarted the van after stopping, she fired right off like the van has every time I’ve tried to start her.
Keep in mind I crossed several mountain passes in a vigorous springtime snowstorm. Here is a picture of the road I drove (in slightly worse conditions than I found it).

The picture is to show where I could have broken down. The middle of nowhere. In an avalanche path. In a snowstorm. Instead of a shoulder, you have a 55 degree slope of death into a river of ice. The closest mechanic is 85 miles away.
Today, I am lucky because Aunt B (my van) chose to break down in Durango. I was coming into town, picked up a hitchhiker, took her into downtown, then drove to an outdoor store for to get my boots worked on. I came outside and the van wouldn’t crank. 😦 The good news is I am fairly certain what the problem is and it shouldn’t be too bad of a fix.
Since I am currently parked about 50 yards from the Animas river, I am now living in a broken down van, down by the river.
New name for the van after this weekend:
“Base Camp”
I think it’s all that hanging out with McCarrell.
Once you get the van fixed you should try to get up to Telluride and ski the San Joaquin Couloir…