Taos, the land of the Earthship...

After leaving Sarah and Dan in Albuquerque, we headed north, following the Rio Grande, to Taos.  Our primary motivation for stopping in Taos was to visit the headquarters of Earthship Biotecture, a sustainable architecture group based there. 

We spent an afternoon touring their visiting center, which is a fully-functional earthship, and looking around an active construction site.  The surrounding landscape and the structures were absolutely beautiful and definitely left us even more inspired to pursue our own earthship construction project in the future. To find out more about Earthship Biotecture, visit http://www.earthship.org/

A soon to be completed Earthship, currently under constriction...

(note the foundation of recycled tires, and the beautiful recycled glass bottle brick work)

The Earthship Biotecture International Headquarters

An adobe finished, recycled glass bottle wall

That evening, we camped just south of Taos on the shores of the Rio Grande.  Our campsite was beautiful and only a stone's throw from the river. 

to Albuquerque and beyond...

After a month of Idaho hospitality and experiencing what 562 inches of snow per year felt like, we packed away our skis and returned to the southwest.  Driving south, we watched as winter shook out her last few feet of snow on Utah, and before we knew it we were back in the desert.  Our friend and mentor, Sarah Councell, lives outside of ABQ and it was from her futon where we enjoyed this past weekend.

Sarah lives outside of ABQ on a beautiful parcel owned by her employer, Albuquerque Academy.  She serves as the current caretaker of the property, and in return is provided with a fantastic house in a beautiful canyon! With her own private set of boulders and a small, mountain waterfall, she resides there with her garden and her fiance, Dan.  We felt really fortunate to catch up with Sarah, while be able visit such a  special place and take in the beautiful views...

We spent Saturday clipping bolts along side the Rio Grande on some very cool New Mexican basalt.  The climbing was really interesting, with sharp, clean edges and cracks.   Somewhat reminiscent of the Gunks, but with bolts abounding.

All in all, Albuquerque was wonderful and it felt really great to do some cragging after a month of skiing, especially with Sarah! 

until next time...