All Photos By Paul Purpura : ©2010 www.nelsoncountylife.com : Three young men prepare to jump into 37° water at Wintergreen Resort this past weekend as part of The Crazy Pond Swim. Click any photo to enlarge.

Wintergreen Resort
Nelson County, Virginia

It’s been weeks since we’ve seen snow in the valley portions of Nelson, but not up at Wintergreen Resort! There’s still snow on the slopes, though it is admittedly on its way out. Our Paul Paul Purpura was on hand again for several years in a row at the annual Slide & Splash Bash Weekend, generally known as Pond Skimming. Though there may be a few more days of skiing left, The Pond Skimming signals the unofficial end to the season as warmer days approach. Though the resort plans to have slopes open at least one more weekend due to the amount of snow still left.

Jay Roberts, VP of Mountain Operations at Wintergreen, kicks off the pond skimming 2010 this past Sunday.

See other photos in addition to the ones below by visiting our Nelson Mag Facebook Album. Just click on the image above this caption.

Paul tells us:

The winners of the Pond Skimming Contest (who won an assortment of prizes including lift tickets and such) were:
1st place – Brian Seymour
2nd place – Duane Brown
3rd place – Danny Mooksla
Best Costume – Clint Showalker

A young woman takes a skim across the 70' pond this past weekend at Wintergreen.

And another takes a crack at it!

In this next sequence of shots, Paul captures the action of this skimmer wiping out, excellent photography!

In this next sequence Paul grabbed shots of snowboard instructor, Byron Humphries, doing a 360° turn on the pond.

Come on Spring!

Photo By Paul Purpura : ©2009 www.nelsoncountylife.com : Atop the mountain at Wintergreen Resort, VA looking down Big Acorn towards Humpback Mountain.

Nelson County, Virginia
After readings touching 80° yesterday, much cooler temps are on the way for the coming week as September winds up and October begins on Thursday. A brief thundershower Monday dropped .04 inches of rain here at our flagship NCL-Nelson County Life Weatheret Station in the Rockfish Valley, while NCL-Wintergreen Nature Foundation up at 3500 feet on Devil’s Knob got exactly 1/4 of an inch of rain. The mountain topped out at 69° yesterday at 1:30 PM, but quickly began dropping after a cold front accompanied by the fast moving thundershower rolled through. Paul Purpura grabbed the beautiful shot above from one of the slopes over at Wintergreen Resort. Believe it or not, it won’t be much longer before those slopes will be covered in snow!

The remainder of the week looks generally sunny with fall like temperatures. Some 30’s for overnight lows will even be felt by folks living up on the mountains as fall begins to take hold across Central Virginia. The best chances for rain move back in by next weekend.

Listen to Tommy’s Audio Weather by clicking on the player just below the banner on our homepage at www.nelsoncountylife.com or by heading over to Tommy’s Weather here.

Photos By Paul Purpura : ©2009 NCL Magazine : Bikers take to the starting line at The 2009 Devils Backbone Challenge in Roseland, Virginia

Roseland/Beech Grove
Nelson County, Virginia
Devils Backbone Challenge 2009 is in the history books and the first event is a total success! The parking lot of Devils Backbone Brewing Company was packed Saturday morning as bikers from all over the region participated in the inaugural event at the Nelson County microbrewery. Nelson County Life Magazine was a co-sponsor of this year’s event.

Our Paul Purpura, with his very big new lens in tow, was out to grab all of the shots both on the pavement and cross country!

One of the contestants in Saturday's race cuts cross country in The Devils Backbone Challenge.

The race was part of the larger Virginia Off Road Series.

Before going offroad, bikers had the easier challenge of pavement, winding up Brent's Mountain!

Long before the race got underway, entrants signed in for the race at the beautiful brewery just below Black Rock Mountain in Beech Grover/Roseland.

The weather perfectly cooperated for the 1st annual event that brewery owner, Steve Crandall, says will be held every Memorial Day from now on.

Photo By Heidi Crandall : Marines prepare for the DBBC Challenge!

Photo By Heidi Crandall : Another view of the race's start.

Woody Elliot, the coordinator of The Devils Backbone Challenge, hands out awards after the race.

See you at the 2010 Devils Backbone Challenge!

Photos By Paul Purpura : ©NCL Magazine : Paul captured these images of the recent stormy & rainy skies at Lake Monacan in Nellysford, Virginia. The images are in high definition. Click on any image for larger view.

Nellysford
Nelson County, Virginia
If you have been reading Nelson County Life’s printed edition or this web edition for any length of time, you’ve certainly seen the work of Paul Purpura over the years. Paul handles most everything at Wintergreen, but occasionally slips down to the valley and grabs shots as well. One of his favorite spots is at Lake Monacan in Stoney Creek. In the past day or so Paul grabbed these shots showing the dreary weather over the past week to 10 days. We couldn’t resist putting these in a regular front page post. They are simply too good to miss!

Rain clouds over Lake Monacan this week in Nelson County, Virginia.

Over the past several weeks Paul has been experimenting with high definition (HD) photography. That’s why these images appear so vivid and 3 dimensional. He’s perfectly captured the mood of things lately in Central Virginia with all of the rainfall.

A father and son fish from the pier at Lake Monacan under threatening skies.

Paul, thank you for sharing these images, these are some of the best!