The Colorado Mountain Companion: A Potpourri of Useful Miscellany from the Highest Parts of the Highest State [Paperback]

A treasure trove of useful (and just plainfun)information about Colorado’s mountain country. A handy-dandy, comprehensive, wide-ranging reference guide to settling (good-naturedly) any arguments about Colorado’s high country. We’re not just talking about population figures, elevation stats, or lists of Fourteeners and rivers, although these are included. You will learn far more including mountain lexicons (so that you’ll know what a gutter bunny, potato chip, and prunereallymean), Colorado as a movie set, Colorado songs, skiing, fishing, avalanches, geology, historic districts, hiking and biking, snakes, Superfund sites, strange festivals, weather miserability index, and much more.

A treasure trove of useful (and just plainfun)information about Colorado’s mountain country. A handy-dandy, comprehensive, wide-ranging reference guide to settling (good-naturedly) any arguments about Colorado’s high country. We’re not just talking about population figures, elevation stats, or lists of Fourteeners and rivers, although these are included. You will learn far more including mountain lexicons (so that you’ll know what a gutter bunny, potato chip, and prunereallymean), Colorado as a movie set, Colorado songs, skiing, fishing, avalanches, geology, historic districts, hiking and biking, snakes, Superfund sites, strange festivals, weather miserability index and much more.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Introduction

7 The “Icebox of the Nation” Designation Not So Simple

13 Why Are Gunnison and Alamosa So Cold?

13 Windchill and the Weather Miserability Index

17 How Are Sunny Days Measured?

18 Non-Possessive Place Names

19 A Sense of Scale

20 Just Exactly How Big Is Colorado?

24 Colorado Mountain Lexicon

32 How Colorado’s Mountain Towns Got Their Names

42 Highest Towns a Matter of lCL