The End of Snow? The Sad Saga of Downhill Skiing on Mt. Lemmon, AZ

Scientists are saying that 2015 is on pace to become the warmest year on record, surpassing the record set in 2014. The winters in Arizona are seeing far less snow with the warmer temperatures. Mt. Lemmon is a 9,000 ft. peak north of Tucson, AZ and has a small downhill ski area. 2013-2014 was the first year in 50 years it didn't open at all due to lack of snow. 2014-15 wasn't much better, only opening for 3 days. I happened to be on the mountain during that new year's eve storm that dumped about a foot of snow on the mountain. I had gone up for winter camping and cross-country skiing. But that turned out be the first and last hurrah of the winter. And we can't end without a mention of California's record drought 5 years running with catastrophic wildfires (some presidential candidates think all CA needed to do was build more reservoirs)

  VIDEO OF A NOW UNCOMMON SNOWSTORM ON MT. LEMMON-- XX SKIING, WINTER CAMPING

A VISIT TO BHUTAN IN EL PASO, TX---BHUTANESE ARCHITECTURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TX-EL PASO

A BUDDHIST TEMPLE FROM THE KINGDOM OF BHUTAN WAS RECENTLY INAUGURATED ON CAMPUS--(Will not be a practicing temple, more of an exhibit)

 A Hobo Dispatch Video Slideshow of the Campus Buildings, Temple, Prayer Flags, Prayer Wheel,  and Contemplative Garden, from a visit to the UTEP campus in Aug. 2015.

The following article gives an interesting overview of UTEP's Bhutan connection and related exhibits/activities--be sure and watch the amazing time-lapse video of the creation of the sand painting (link in the article) 

LINK TO ARTICLE ABOUT CAMPUS BHUTAN CONNECTIONS 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH TIME LAPSE OF SAND PAINTING ON CAMPUS 

Here's a link to a video about the construction of the Buddhist Temple on the UTEP campus when it was originally constructed at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC.---from there it was moved to El Paso

Watch the construction of the Temple at the Smithsonian 

Snapshots From Colombia; 2014 Los Recuerdos de Colombia; 2014

 This short video includes scenes from a recent visit (2014) to Bogota, Villa de Leyva and Tunja (Boyacá) and also a visit to National Park Lake Iguague. Este video corto incluye escenas de Bogota, Villa de Leyva (Boyacá) y una visita al parque nacional Laguna de Iguague.