I live in the mountains outside of Boulder.  Once a year, every spring, for the last 10 years (since I moved here in 1995), I get snowed in for one to four days (the four day snow in included complete loss of power for three days, no water (since everything in our house is electric), no heat (electric), and no fridge / freezer (fortunately we had tons of snow to serve as our natural icebox.)

It started snowing late Saturday night and finished early Monday morning.  When it was done, I had 30 inches at my house, DIA shut down all afternoon Sunday and I cancelled my trip for the week to hunker down and – in the words of REO Speedwagon – I’ve been Ridin’ The Storm Out.

My dogs love the snow.  Since it’s now 50 degrees outside and the snow is receding, you don’t get the full early morning view (I didn’t have my camera act together – but trust me – it was massive.) 

The view from my bedroom window gives you a better feel for the magnitude of it (after a bunch had melted from the mountains already – including anything on a brick surface.)

It’ll be 60 degrees tomorrow and I expect all the white stuff will be gone and replaced with mud.

I’ve had many great meals in my life, but only a few that I’ll remember forever such as my first dinner at Tommy Toy’s (San Francisco) with Len Fassler or the first time Amy and went to Biba (Boston – now gone) together. 

Last night’s dinner at Le Cinq was legendary.  I don’t drink, so I’m usually ready to leave any meal (or party) after two hours and one minute, but I hung in for every delightful minute of last night’s five hour extravaganza.  We went with our friends – entrepreneurs Jeff Behrens and Lori Rutter (“The Jeff’s” – that was for Lori’s benefit) and their friend Nicolas Paulmier, a partner at Cinven, a large European private equity group.

Five hours, nine courses, five great friends, incredible restaurant staff, endless dessert, and a deep food coma afterwards.  Following is the menu (which they printed individually for each of us to take home!) for those of you that want to enjoy it vicariously.

Mercredi 06 Mars 2005
Diner au Restaurant Le Cinq
Philippe Legendre, Chef des Cuisines, Meilleur Ouvrier de France

Blanc et noir aux ecrevisses pattes rouges
Salade de morilles a l’araignee de mer et au vin jaune
Grosses asperges vertes au Parmesan et a la truffe, polenta et olives noires confites
Turbot de ligne au melon d’eau, nage aux epices et au citron vert
Langouste puce aux petits pois et aux oignons doux des Cevennes
Bar de ligne roti aux epices et aux artichauts poivrade
Le selection de nos Maitres fromagers
Granite d’ananas a l’hibiscus et parfum de litchi, emulsion coco
Du chocolat exclusivement …

Eric Beaumard, Directeur du Restaurant

or – in English – according to Babelfish

Wednesday 06 Mars 2005
Dinner at the Restaurant Five
Philippe Legendre, Chief of the Kitchens, Better Working of France

White and black with the ecrevisses red legs morel
Salade have the araignee sea and with the yellow wine
Grosses green asparaguses with the Parmesan and have truffle, polenta and crystallized black olives
Turbot of line to watermelon, swim with the epices and with the green lemon
Langouste chip with peas and soft onions of Cevennes
Bar of line roti to the epices and the artichokes poivrade
The selection of our Maitres Granite Cheesemongers 
Pineapple has the hibiscus and perfume of litchi, emulsion coconut
Of the chocolate exclusively…

Eric Beaumard, Director of the Restaurant

My friend Larry Nelson – who runs w3w3 with his wife Pat – had a nice article in the Denver Post yesterday.  Larry and Pat are total gems (they even “bought” my parents for a day at the Boulder Philharmonic gala last year when I guest conducted and also was the auctioneer).  w3w3 has been around through the Internet boom and bust and Larry has shown that he’s got real staying power for a vision he and Pat have.  If you are into the Colorado tech and business scene, w3w3 is a great source of continually interesting, entertaining, and useful content. 

I fly United – well – a LOT (yeah – I’m a 100K Premium Exec again this year) since I live in Colorado and United has something like 75% of the gates at DIA.  Like most United frequent flyers, I am somewhat skitzo about my “support” for United – if they get out of bankruptcy, I don’t expect them to operate any better than they traditionally have, but if they liquidate, I expect that my travel will be totally fucked for some period of time since DIA is such an economically unattractive hub for the airlines.

I’ve been referring to United as “Untied” as they struggle through the bankruptcy process and was pleasantly surprised today when I typed www.untied.com and discovered a delightful “complaint site” against United that’s been around for a while.  The stories are hysterical (in that sick, sad, sort of way) and eerily reminiscent of some of my experiences.

I’m an unapologetic conservationist.  I remember – during my first trip to Alaska in 1992 – Amy turning to me and saying as we were driving through massive open spaces on the Sterling Highway – “New England looked like this 200 years ago.”  While I understand the conundrum of being an environmentalist while owning an SUV (for a provocative and fabulously fun book on this top, try Michael Crichton’s latest masterpiece State of Fear), I’ve focused my “environmental” activity on land conservation.

While I live in the Republic of Boulder, home of Open Space, I was inspired to have an active, positive impact on conserving the front range mountain backdrop – the region of land in Colorado about 150 miles long and about 5 miles wide where the mountains meet the plains (from the top to the bottom of the state – it’s what you see if you look west from I-25.)  In the mid 1990’s, the five counties in this stretch of land (Larimer, Boulder, Jefferson, Douglas, and El Paso) started a “Front Mountain Backdrop Study” to try to figure out how to have a multi-regional coordination effort to preserve this land.  In the late 1990’s, it disappeared into the bermuda triangle of unfinished government projects.

I was inspired to act – rather than simply think or talk – in 1999 when I found out that a plan for a 142–acre open-pit mine was being proposed on the back side of Eldorado Mountain.  I live behind Eldorado Canyon (part of the Front Range Mountain Backdrop near Boulder) and was blown away that anyone thought it would be reasonable to build a quarry on the back side of this mountain.  Fortunately, I wasn’t alone, and the initiative was defeated.

Within a year, I heard of a proposal to put three 500’+ towers on the top of Eldorado Mountain ostensibly for HDTV transmission.  I thought the whole proposal was absurd and was incredibly riled up when I started hearing broad statements like “the tech / business community was creating all of these environmental problems.”  I gathered up some of my Boulder-area entrepreneurial friends and formed the Front Range Alliance (FRA) – a 501c(3) aimed at educating the tech and business community on issues and projects that affected the Front Range Mountain Backdrop.  At the time, I was a compete newbie with regard to the conservation and environmental infrastructure in Colorado, so as part of my activities I got to learn an incredible amount about what people were doing, what worked, and what didn’t work.

FRA was actively and visibly involved in helping defeat the tower rezoning initiative.  We looked at getting involved in a number of other projects and realized we needed to get smarter about the entire problem.  As part of this, we worked with a group called the Colorado Conservation Trust on a study to map the Front Range Mountain Backdrop. As we began to understand the magnitude of the issue, we correspondingly saw the size of the opportunity.

We spent a year puzzling over how to co-exist within the existing environmental and conservational non-profit infrastructure of Colorado.  At some point, the FRA board reached a critical juncture where we had to decide whether or not to functionally scale up Front Range Alliance beyond the small organization that it was.  As we struggled with this, the notion that the world (specifically the Colorado Front Range) didn’t need “yet another environmental non-profit” started to dawn on us.  We concluded that – like many for-profit companies – we could achieve our objectives faster and with more impact if we joined forces with an existing, significant, functionally and philosophically aligned organization.

Fortunately, the Colorado Conservation Trust (CCT) board agreed.  CCT acquired FRA at the end of last year, I joined the CCT board, and two of my fellow FRA board members (Ryan Martens and Liz Jacques) became trustees.  Last week, I sent out the following letter to the members of the Front Range Alliance, signalling the end of FRA as a stand-alone organization while reinforcing its potential future impact on the Front Range Mountain Backdrop through the ongoing efforts of CCT.

Since the founding of the Front Range Alliance (FRA) in 2001, my involvement in preserving the natural beauty of Colorado’s Front Range Mountain Backdrop has evolved in exciting and innovative ways. This evolution continues today with the recent announcement of the Front Range Alliance Board’s decision to join forces with the Colorado Conservation Trust (CCT).

Our strong desire to continue FRA’s success prompted our decision. The Front Range Mountain Backdrop is increasingly threatened by growth pressures and, at times, poorly planned development. We face limited resources and feel that our partnership with CCT can only expand the impact we can have in preserving the natural landscapes of the Front Range.

CCT’s goals are based on the premise that additional conservation investment from both the private and public sectors is necessary in order to preserve the land of Colorado. CCT focuses on securing new conservation dollars from untapped sources and leveraging investments in order to maximize the effectiveness of donors’ gifts. By working with CCT’s staff and Board and the influential circles of which they are a part, I am confident that FRA’s conservation goals will be accomplished at a higher level than if we were to continue to work on our own.

CCT is a lean, effective organization – over 96% of every dollar donated last year was invested directly into land conservation. CCT has raised nearly $6 million in the last three years, matching these funds with more than $12 million in other public and private dollars, and has reinvested those contributions in 25 conservation projects throughout eight regions of our state.

CCT has a proven commitment to preserving threatened lands in the Front Range Mountain Backdrop. CCT is currently collaborating with a number of funding agencies and non-profits to complete a $22.3 million preservation project in Larimer County. This project will result in the protection of approximately 55,000 acres of ranch lands with significant wildlife, scenic, recreational, agricultural, and historical values. Just recently, the CCT Board awarded $220,000 to jumpstart this project, expand the capacity of the local land trust and help to address the complicated system of severed mineral rights in the area.

The Board of FRA has unanimously agreed to join CCT and I am pleased to become the newest member of CCT’s Board of Directors. FRA Board members, Ryan Martens and Elizabeth Jacques, have also joined CCT as trustees.

I encourage you to continue your meaningful involvement in land preservation by making a contribution to CCT in support of its work in the Front Range of Colorado. CCT and FRA have, together, accomplished a great deal for the Front Range. But there is much more to do – achievable only with the engagement of people like us who are passionate about the beauty and character of our state’s landscapes.

Thank you for all that you do to preserve the Colorado we love.

Sincerely,

Brad Feld
Member, Board of Directors, Colorado Conservation Trust
Founder, Front Range Alliance

It started snowing last night, so we get to say the first Boulder snow of the year happened in October.  As I hauled my ass out of bed at 3am for my almost weekly trip to the bay area, I woke up to about six inches on the ground in the mountains where we live.  It was beautiful until I had to trudge out into it to clean off and warm up my car. 

Today was a strange day. At 2:30pm, on our way back from Aspen to Boulder, I got a call from my assistant Wendy saying, “there’s a fire in Eldorado Springs – I’m driving over to your place to see what’s up and check on your dogs.” Apparently, Boulder County was doing a controlled burn just outside of Eldorado Springs and it hopped the fire line and got out of control.

We’re back home and safe as the fire is now under control (after burning 50 acres). This is our third brush with fire in four years – the original Eldorado Springs fire was actually on our land (and came within 200 yards of our house) and the Walker Ranch fire (which burned over 1000 acres in three days) was less than two miles (and – more importantly – one ridge) away. After the Eldorado Springs fire that was on our land several years ago, I went on a “fire reading binge” to learn everything I could. Fire is an amazing, scary, and primal thing – I don’t think I’ll ever get comfortable with it.

Amy and I talked briefly about chucking our mountain life and moving to Cherry Creek. Yes – it was a brief conversation.

We’re back home in Colorado.  It’s radically different to wake up in Eldorado Canyon instead of Homer, but equally beautiful, in a different way.

My friend Paul Berberian and his friend Paul Wareham did a round trip from Colorado to Alaska earlier this month. They stopped off and visited us for a few days which included a trip to Anchorage for sushi (ironically, we don’t have much sushi in Homer, although we have an endless supply of halibut.)

PaulB took some incredible photos – many from the plane. Here’s the view from my house in Homer, which we’ve enjoyed most of the summer. After we landed in Anchorage for our sushi run, PaulW captured me kissing the ground – not because of pilot issues – but because the passenger is a weenie. And – if you wondered what my friendly neighborhood glacier looks like, here it is.