Incredibly Ellie

Skiing has always been a huge part of my life, but this winter, I have fallen in love with it all over again. I have a new outlook on skiing, one I didn't know I could have. I've been skiing for as long as I can remember and it was always the highlight of the year going on our annual family ski trip. We would get up early and be on the mountain as soon as it opened. At the time, I hated waking up early every day while we were on vacation, but now that I look back at it, I'm happy that I was pushed to ski all day. Those vacations dwindled as us kids got older and entered college and high school, but we still found a way to slide around on the snow for at least a couple days during the winter. But this winter...it's all different. Being paid to teach others how to ski and help them fall in love with the sport like we have, we had to better our own ski skills. I entered the job not knowing what they were going to teach us. Not only did they teach us how to teach others...

Today is my day off. I got to sleep in, finish a blog post that has been waiting for my attention, go into town for an organically made breakfast burrito, have lunch with my friends, and watch a storm come in. I am still sitting on the couch on our pouch, watching the water fall from the sky. I watched the first lightning strike come into view of this storm. I watched and listen to bright flashes of light followed by the immediate expansion of air that causes the rumble and cracks in the sky. I am enjoying spending my day off this way; at peace watching and listening to the rain, thinking about what my next move will be in a second, a minute, hours, days, weeks, months, years. I have started the lifestyle I knew that was coming after graduation with my degree. I remember sitting during graduation wondering how I would adapt to this lifestyle. Will I hate it? Will I want to quit? Or will I come to like it? Sitting here today, I realized I love where I am. I wouldn't want to chan...

I arrived at Harmel's in the early afternoon. It's been ten years since I have been here and it was interesting to see how it compared to my memories. Once I found someone to check in with, I was shown to the bunk house I would be calling home for the next four months and starting settling in. After getting settled, I met the other females wranglers that were already up here. They invited me to go out on a hike with them and another wrangler to go check the condition one of the trails we ride on. We were able to bond a little bit and get to know each other on the hike. The hike was beautiful. It was up on a small ridge that lined the river that is the heart of the ranch. It had snowed here just earlier in the week so the trail was pretty muddy, but that made for excellent conditions to see bear prints. Yep! A bear had walked the same trail that we were on probably earlier that day. I wasn't too concerned since it was early in the afternoon and we were traveling in gr...

Welcome to my first post! I will be doing my best this summer to keep this blog up to date and share what I am up to at Harmel's. I'm so excited to get this going, so let's get started! I left the house yesterday morning at around 9:15 and actually left Flagstaff at 10am (I drove passed my usual gas station, so I had to drive back, then go to the bank, then I went to Starbucks for breakfast and it was really crowded, but I was really hungry). The whole drive really wasn't that bad. I went to Gallop, NM for my first gas stop (no offense to anyone, but that place was weird and sketchy), then I went up the 491 through Native American Reservation, up to Cortez, CO, and then made my way up to Telluride, which is where I stayed last night. It was so beautiful there! It had snowed there the night before and so it looked like winter in the little valley and there still could of been skiing on the mountain. But, I checked into my hotel/Inn and it was so ...