Wonder where she was living in Colorado. I climbed those hills and cliffs every single spare mo' I had for 8 years running.
Sadly, b/c of global warming, blizzards are getting very few and far between there.
Can't think of anywhere where a shop is 2 hours away by car unless it's one of the ranger accommodations in one of the parks, and she ain't no park ranger. Even the most remote, say, in the San Juans, is still not THAT far from 'civilisation'.
Most of the wilderness there - thankfully - is public property.
Unless you're living in a new 'burb - sadly, an all too frequent occurance these days - cougars are really not much of a bother unless you're fond of going out at dawn or dusk. There have been some attacks in Rocky Mtn. National Park and indeed a couple scarily close to Boulder in the NCAR area, but they are quite rare - cougars don't really like to hang round people.
In all those 8 years, I only saw one fairly close up. And that was a year when there was a LOT of snow - 1996, I think it was. And that made for slim picking for the cougs to eat. Saw a mountain goat very high up, above 13,000 feet, which was strange as it was. Saw the cougar a few minutes later, again quite strange b/c they don't tend to roam that high above treeline.
The beauty part about Colorado - and the reason the backcountry is so prone to deadly slab avalanches - is that it is VERY much freeze/thaw. There'll be a cold snap, but it NEVER lasts for long. And, it is sunny so often, winter and summer, that - believe it or not - it actually grows tiresome.
She's full of crap.