Dan saying hello!

Welcome to the Mountain Nomad's blog. This is a co-written blog with my wife Elaine. Elaine and I live a fairly simple life…we work in a mountaineering shop in Boulder and live in a small town west of there, Nederland, Colorado at 8,700 feet above sea level. We got married back in 2010, and that story is one of epic proportions that I'll save for a later date! Elaine is my partner in crime and we're fairly unseperable.

We live for adventure in the mountains. By far our favorite activity is backcountry skiing in the mountains around our home in Colorado and beyond. We try to ski everyday, whether it be an all-day jaunt on days off or a dawn patrol session before work. We also nordic ski and dabble in the resort from time-to-time.

Last year we hiked the entire length of the Colorado Trail from Denver to Durango and that has set off some crazy ideas for a triple crown trifecta soon – the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail and Continental Divide Trail. We also enjoy mountain biking. Finally, we are hoping to take these adventures and put them into print, helping supplement this lifestyle.

Last but not least is our trusty companion Stella, a rescued Alaskan Husky. Stella is an athlete, athough I must say I have some concern for her tonight as she appears to have hurt her knee. More on that later.

This is actually my third incarnation of a blog. My intitial was back in the late 1990's to 2009 – offcamber.com and offcamber.typepad.com. This blog was primarily about mountain biking, which was a huge part of my life during this time. I was one of the ring leaders of a group called the Intergalactic Pilots, a group of interpid riders who rode singlespeeds around the mountains of Colorado. I dabbled in a bunch of endurance racing as well. I wasn't particularly fast, but I could ride for a long time. One of my favorites was Montezuma's Revenge, a very cool event that climbed to the top of 14,270 foot Greys Peak.

My life changed dramatically in 2009. A long-term relationship with a woman ended in an exceptionally tumultuous fashion and I lost a lot of friends in the process. It was a dark time, and during an particularly dark moment I deleted all the Off Camber stuff. I guess I wanted to eliminate any memory of that life. In retrospect, that was a mistake. It certainly feels like a different life now, but I wouldn't trade out the events of that year, as it's defined me a little bit and certainly changed me for the better. There is a certain comfort to knowing you can survive literally anything.

I restarted a blog called The White Room at thewhiteroom.typepad.com. No, I hadn't suddenly become a White Supremist – the "White Room" refers to the feeling of skiing on a powder day. I never really got into this blog however, as my life quickly changed again when I married Elaine a short time after.

This blog, our third incarnation, Mountain Nomads, is appropriate. It's my first co-written blog and thrilled about that, as I think we're co-writing this life together. We've intentionally made the title non-sport specific, as our interests will likely fluctuate in the upcoming decades as life changes. I think it's safe to say this blog will have two main content areas – love and adventure – because that's what we've dedicated our life to.

I'll leave this intital post with a picture from our wedding. We got married at Loveland Ski Area in 2011 and the picture of us got picked up by all the wire services. Pretty cool thing, and I think it exemplifies us well – deeply in love, on the top of a mountain with skiing all around.

Thanks for reading. I admit I'm a little rusty right now but hope to make posting a daily activity, so the writing brain should build!