Originally Posted by
Nanuq
I came down to CO to help a freidn with her ranch. She keeps a bunch of horses and cashmere goats and divorced a few months ago and is trying to manage it solo, so I came dow to help with the sheering. The Avi course was just serendipity. I found out about it and signed up for it while down there, so it was not that I came down specifically for the course.
My friends ranch is up Deer Creek Canyon outside of Littleton, so I drove up to Boulder and Estes Park for the course.
Like I said too, I thought the Colorado Mountain School did a good job with the class and would recommend them and the class. Mark, one of the instructors, was exceptional. This was a man who was modest and soft spoken, yet was very VERY good at what he did. If you do take a course with them, try and get Mark.
As for Boulder, I do admit I have a bias against it to begin with. As a professional guide, I have taken people from all walks and demographics as well as geographic locations out into the backcountry in a myriad of ways. People always ask where the people are worst (meaning - New Yorkers, Los Angelenos...) and unilaterally I say "Boulder." Seriously, in my experience, people from Boulder have been arrogant, uptight, and "too-cool-to-be-impressed-with-anything-because-hey-we're-from-Boulder" types.
But while in Boulder (and it has been 20 years since I was last in Boulder) I had it confirmed. It is a VERY pretentious community. A lot fo "dress Mountain" without being "Mountain." It is just very contrived and arrogant. And the thing is, the majority of the "Mountain types" in Boulder, I would bet, wouldn't know what to do if their SUVs actually had to drive a dirt road.
Now I know I am guilty here of being a bit ethnocentric, but when you live in the actual wilds and go without all the things that Boulderites would shudder at being without (WHAT! No Wasabi Peas with our Fugu rolls! The horrors!) you do feel a bit of disdain for the psuedo-outdoorsy attitudes.
Also, it seemed that nobody is actually FROM Boulder! Not that that is a bad thing, as in Alaska, there are only a few that are born and raised here (hell, I am a transplant here. Been here for 18 years) but with Boulder there was just a vibe of entitlement that was unsettling.