Bad break

The 5 am report said five inches but it was snowing hard when I got out of bed so I waited until noon to head out. Did you see how I made that sound like a plan rather than just laziness on my part? Actually I also wanted to get down some ideas for the novel I am writing - more about that in a later post.

By the time I got out there was at least six inches - making it officially a powder day - and in some places nearly a foot. I managed in an hour and a half to hit the classic tree runs: Shadows (good but a little shrubby below Duster), 3.30 trees, 2.30 trees which were the best, and Closet. I saw a grand total of three other people on these runs.

I came off the mountain when I heard that my Aussie friend Amanda (one of the Canberra girls) fell and fractured her tibia. She is scheduled for surgery later today, but she's going to be OK.

Update, 6 pm: I just discovered that California Dave and his wife Cesli were skiing with David and Amanda today and Cesli also broke her leg (fibula), about half an hour before Amanda. Today's conditions were diabolical for intermediate skiers - heavy push piles which grab your skis like Hulk Hogan if you push the tails rather than guiding the skis through the turn - but it's still hard to believe that two of my friends broke their legs this morning!

Here's the GPS data.


And here's that run through the 2.30 trees (actually more like 2.45).

From all over the place

I skied with a whole bunch of people today.

First up is Big Al. He's 77. If I can ski like that when I'm 77 (if I can ski at all then) I'll be very happy.

The others in the group were Ben, one of the Aussie pilots I skied with a couple of years ago, his dad Ian and uncle Graham from England, and finally Neils from Sydney.

Here's the GPS data.

California Dave

I skied today with my friend Dave from Santa Barbara, California, and then later with my Aussie friends as well, so in the end there were seven of us tearing down the mountain. It was pretty good until about 11 am when it started to get busy, making tearing down the mountain a little harder.

Here's the GPS data. Still waiting for snow.

Canberra boys (and girl)

I skied again today with one of my Canberra friends Therese and some guys from Canberra she knows, Grey, Paul and another Dan.

Today we really ripped up the groomers, lower Rainbow in particular which was nearly perfect for going fast.

Here's the GPS data.

Canberra girls (and boy)

I skied with my friends from Canberra today - David, Amanda and Therese.

I called today's post "Canberra girls (and boy)" for two reasons. First, I'd already used "Canberra friends" on my previous post, and second, Amanda and Therese were unhappy that I hadn't called it "Canberra girls" after seeing a post called "Brisbane boys". It's hard to keep your audience happy.

Here's today's GPS data. It was a beautiful bluebird day, the groomers weren't bad for the first hour or so and the bumps had just enough wind blown snow in the troughs to make them nice.

Canberra friends

Today I skied with Aussie friends from Canberra, Amanda and Therese.

Here's the GPS data.

Brisbane boys

The forecast yesterday was for a foot of new snow overnight, so in anticipation I stayed off the booze at the Australia Day party we went to last night.

Whilst the predicted storm hit us and hit us hard it moved through quite quickly so we only ended up with four inches. Still it was nice, although it was a bit windy and cold up top. The trees to skier's left of Cyclone were particularly good.

Here's the GPS data.


From the 1:10 mark I skied with Matthew from my old home town of Brisbane who I met on the Sundown Express chair. I think I might have freaked him out a bit in the 2.30 trees but he was a good sport.

More trees

Today was a day to ski some more trees which is what I did. Closet was good and Shadows was also nice, but there's a few exposed hazards lower down so the best run of the day was the 2.30 trees.

Here's the GPS data. No video today.

Trees, finally

At last we have enough snow to ski the trees with some confidence including Shadows which my favourite tree run. Plus it was a beautiful warm sunny day. Now I just want a storm that dumps 12 inches overnight so I can ski some serious powder trees.

Here's the GPS data. Note the long stop between the half hour and one hour mark. The Sundown Express stopped for some reason and was then closed after I got off.


Notwithstanding the return to the trees, the best run today was some lovely wind packed powder on Tornado.

Video to follow.

Update: Here's the video of that run down Tornado.

An unofficial power day

The 5 am report said zero inches, but it started snowing around 6.30 am and by the time I got up the mountain at 10.30 am there was at least six inches. So officially it was not a powder day but unofficially it was! On top of that, the snow was the perfect texture. Heavy and wet enough to stick to the layer underneath but light enough to still be a whole lot of powdery fun.

Here's the GPS data.

I skied with my Aussie friend Nicole today. Unlike Tuesday when it was cold, today it was warm. About 45F warmer!

Video highlights to follow later, probably tomorrow.

A very different Tuesday

As much as I enjoyed skiing with my Aussie mate Pete last Tuesday, with 11 inches of fresh powder this morning, today was a very different kind of Tuesday.

Here's the GPS data.

Here's the video highlights from the first half an hour before my camera died (the battery doesn't like it when it's really cold and it was really cold at -10F or -23C)


Best run of the day was the top of Sundown Liftline (which unfortunately funneled into the worst run of the day on lower Three O'Clock).

Snowshoeing Pearl Lake

I went snowshoeing with Marie out near Pearl Lake where her friend has a cabin. Between climbing up a decent size hill and digging one of the cars out of the snow twice (not quite as dramatic this time and I wasn't the driver so less ego damage) it was a pretty decent workout. Here's the GPS data.


I didn't realise until I got there that the friend's place is on the site of a defunct ski area - if you look at the satellite version of the map you can clearly see where the ski runs and lift lines were.

Next time I'm taking my skis (on my back) so I can add the old Steamboat Lake Ski Area to the list of places I've skied - all 370 vertical ft of it!

Skiing with Pete

I skied today with an Aussie friend Pete McMahon. We got out early while the tourists were still in bed and the first hour was awesome tearing up the groomers even if there was the occasional icy death trap to be avoided. It got a little busier later in the morning but the sun was out and the snow was better than I expected it to be especially on Buddy's Run, so all in all just another day in paradise!

Here's the GPS data.

And here's some nice bumps I found to skiers' right of Buddy's Run.

Much better

We just got back from two weeks in Australia and it looks like I didn't miss much. It was bad enough before I left - the last two days I skied before Christmas I didn't even bother to blog they were so bad - but word is that it has been even worse since.

Fortunately we had six inches of new snow yesterday, so today was surprisingly good. It was one of those rare occasions where the lower elevations got the most snow so the best runs were to be had on the lower mountain. Heavenly Daze in particular was way better than I expected it to be.

Here are some highlights.




And here is the GPS data.

Tim Tam contraband

Coming through Customs in LA yesterday, the agent asked us if the food we had declared was Tim Tams and said he'd have to confiscate them because they had too many calories!

Tim Tams are distributed in the US by Pepperidge Farm and are intermittently available at our local supermarket. All the friends we've given samples to have loved them. Looks like the Customs agents in LA like them too!

If you can't say anything nice...

...don't say anything at all. So here's the stats for today without commentary.

More snow, less people please

Well it's not really that we have too many people but rather that they are all crowded on to the same few intermediate runs. Once we get more snow which means more terrain open the people can spread out and more importantly I can get into the trees where they aren't.


Best run of the day, in fact the only half decent run of the day, was this one straight down under the Storm Peak Express chair.


Vagabond was death cookies all the way and Heavenly was icy and not much better, and even Sunset which only opened today was disappointing.

Tele-girls

I ran into a couple of my wife's friends Louise and Pat in the gondola today. They were out on their telemark skis. I skied a couple of runs with them before spending some time on the rocky, shrubby bumps of Cyclone and Tornado.

Well hello powder

I went out early only because Marie was heading out early. There was perhaps two inches of fresh on the ground down at valley level and I hadn't checked the report so I was very pleasantly surprised when I arrived at the top of the gondola to find eight inches of fresh powder.

I got some great freshies first up under the Four Points chair followed by more to skiers left and right of Buddies, to skiers right on lower Rainbow and then twice on Whiteout which had barely been touched. Heavenly was very dust on crust on the way home but by then I was so happy to be back in the powder I didn't care!


I'm kicking myself for not taking the video camera - I assumed there would be nothing worth filming today!

Triple Heavenly

"Triple Heavenly" is not a description of how good it was today but rather of the fact that I skied Heavenly/Vogue three times, with a side trip to lower Rainbow to hit the bumps to skier's right.


I got new custom fit boots this week, the type where they inject foam in around your foot so that it's a perfect fit. Today was their test and they definitely passed providing much better transfer of pressure to the edges which I had plenty of opportunity to check on today's hardpack. But I still don't understand people who say they have comfortable ski boots. My new boots are definitely the least uncomfortable boots I've owned but it still felt great to take them off when I was done.

Still waiting for snow

We're still waiting for the first big dump of the season here in Steamboat so again it was nothing exciting today; a few bumps and a few rocks but another trip to the gym avoided. Actually I'm in better shape at the start of this ski season than any season before, so I'm quite grateful to all those gym visits I've been making over the past few months.

Beats the gym

Not a lot to report today with no new snow and no new terrain, just a quick 49 minute trip to the top of Four Points and down again. But it still beats spending an hour at the gym!

A few freshies

Day two of the 2011-12 season and not much to report with only four lifts running.


One new lift opened today - Four Points - so there were a few freshies to be had for the first 30 minutes.

Opening Day powder!

Finally the ski season is back and it was an excellent opening day (but more snow is welcome any time).

Especially good were the freshies on Whiteout and Rainbow - both were so good I had to do them twice. And the groomers on the way home were just right and the sun was out.

Here's some highlights for your viewing pleasure.


Living the dream in Steamboat!

The definition of awesome design

The definition of awesome design is when you don't know you desperately want something until you see it because until then you didn't even imagine such a thing existing. Like this:

iCloud without a silver lining

I upgraded my iPhone and iPad this week to the latest version of iOS. Given that iOS 5 has some neat features I can overlook the fact that Apple seriously messed up the logistics of this release. If you're going offer upgrades to everything in the Apple universe all on the same day, you better be prepared for some unbelievable peak demand on your servers. Which Apple clearly wasn't, leading to all sorts of problems.

What I don't get is why everyone is so excited about iCloud. I'm absolutely excited about the vision but underwhelmed by the execution.

For me iCloud will be a winner when I can uninstall iTunes from my PC. I don't know if the Mac version is as bad, but iTunes for Windows looks to me like some sort of passive-aggressive Steve Jobs revenge on Bill Gates.

Right now the emphasis on iCloud seems to be on syncing mail and contacts and calendars. I've already got all that stuff in the cloud on my work mail server and Gmail instantly available to all my Apple devices. What I want to do is sync all the stuff I have to manage with iTunes like photos and videos and music.

The one step in this direction that Apple have made in this release - Photostream - is incredibly badly implemented. Sure it would be nice to have any photo I take on my iPhone instantly available on my iPad, but what idiot decided to release this without the ability to even delete a photo from the stream or an individual device?

Still the speed limit

C that is, as in E = MC², the speed of light.

Newspapers are breathlessly reporting that scientists have measured neutrinos travelling at faster that the speed of light, in seeming contradiction to the theory of relativity which tells us that the speed of light is the universe's speed limit.

I'm no particle physicist, but I'm sure that this result will not be reproducible, which is of course the standard for validating a scientific finding, and will prove to be a measurement error.

How can I be so sure? Simple logic (Or should I say "elementary my Dear Watson?")
If C isn't really the speed limit and the neutrinos really were able to exceed the speed of light they could pick any speed between 299 792 458 m/s and well, infinity. They they would pick a speed that is only just a tiny teeny bit bigger than what the scientists think is their margin of error simply does not pass the somebody screwed up somewhere test.

Goodbye Netflix

I've been a Netflix customer since November 2005, but just in case you're wondering what I think about the recent changes in Netflix pricing and services, I'm a Netflix customer no longer.

When the separate pricing for DVDs by mail and streaming were announced back in July I decided to drop streaming, since I can get pretty much the same catalog from Amazon for free as a Prime member, and dropped my DVD service back to one at a time, so that I could still order the occasional obscure movie on DVD. I hoped that a some time in the near future Netflix would negotiate some new deals with the studios and lure me back to their streaming service with a better price-value proposition.

That was until the worst apology ever from Reed Hastings their CEO, in which he dropped the bombshell that the DVD and streaming businesses would henceforth be run completely separately; different branding, separate websites and no unified queue or recommendations.

So today I hit the "Cancel My Subscription" button on the Netflix website. I admire Netflix's desire to move aggressively into streaming and to cannabalise their own DVD rental business before someone else does, something that far too few businesses confronted by technological change are willing to do, but that doesn't mean they ought to alienate and lose all their existing customers in the meantime.

Holiday in Iceland?

Since I live in Colorado and do a lot of international travel, I'm always interested in new international connections out of Denver. Right now we've got two* - British Airways to London which I've flown at least a dozen times, and Lufthansa to Frankfurt which I've flown once.

So I was sort of excited to hear that our options are about to increase by 50% with Icelandair to offer direct flights from Denver to Reykjavik. I say "sort of" because I'm not so sure what I'll do with this, other than take a holiday in Iceland, which I am sure would be fun - but only once.

Unfortunately Icelandair don't fly from Reykjavik to Dublin or this would be a really handy way for me to get to head office without having to go through Chicago, New York, London or any other congested and unreliable hub airport.


*I'm not including flights to Canada and Mexico; I don't consider those real international flights in the same way I don't consider Australia to New Zealand a real international flight. I think I'm conditioned by many years of long haul travel to expect an international flight to be 7 or 8 hours long, minimum!

New Blogger

This is Marie, Steamboat Lion's "lioness".

For some time, I've been wanting to "put pen to paper" and begin a writing project, but it's always been at the bottom of my To Do List. I attended a seminar last week about independent publishing, and one of the speakers suggested that I begin with a blog, so I accepted an invitation from Steamboat Lion to be an additional blogger on his site, and here I am!

Now I can do my political venting to this site instead of to him...!

Two seasons

My friend Byron who is a contractor / rancher likes to say there are only two seasons in Steamboat: "winter's coming" and "winter's here".

I prefer to express it as "wishing I was skiing" and "I am skiing!"

It's still 78 days until skiing, which is just about the right time to switch from my general fitness program to my skiing specific program.

50 years

My parents were married on this day 50 years ago. My dad passed away in early 2009 and my mum is fighting cancer, so there won't be any celebration, but it's still a milestone worth noting. Everything I know about loving your spouse completely whilst still driving each other crazy most of the time I learned by watching my parents!

Pro cycling comes to Steamboat

Professional cycling came to Steamboat today with the finish of Stage 4 of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge (and the start of stage 5 tomorrow morning).

All the top teams were there, including this year's Aussie winner of the Tour de France, Cadel Evans; so we had to be there at the finish waving the flag in support!

Krugman and space aliens

In an attempt to justify more Keynesian stimulus spending, Paul Krugman has suggested a strategy which has now most cleverly been dubbed Wag the Dalek - yes, a fake invasion by space aliens to justify massive government spending.

Actually, given the consistent Keynesian failure to understand that every dollar the government spends is a dollar not being spent by taxpayers themselves, I'm a little disappointed that Krugman didn't advocate a real alien invasion. Imagine the jobs created rebuilding our civilization once those helpful aliens blast us back to the stone age with their death rays.

It's all too bizarre for words. I do see the work of aliens here, but what I really think has happened is that the Nobel prize winning economist we called Paul Krugman has been replaced by an alien pretending (not very well) to be Paul Krugman. Seriously. How else can you explain this guy seeming to have unlearnt everything he ever knew as an economist?

Update: You can buy a (slightly geeky) t-shirt that makes the point:

Dinner with a show

The chef calls this one Mt Fuji!

Just one thing to get right

All a check in agent needs to do these days is get one thing right. When you print your own boarding pass and check in at a kiosk, all the agent needs to do is put the correct tag on your bag. Our check in agent today couldn't even manage that. It wasn't until our bags didn't arrive in DC and we looked at our baggage receipts that we realised that she'd put someone else's tags on our bag. Someone else who was going to Tampa Bay.

I've hated United so much for so long that I would have thought it impossible for me to hate them more. I was wrong. Very wrong.

Update 2.55pm, August 9
They give you a website to check the status of your bags (http://www.united.com/bagcheck) but all it tells you is that your bag has been found and is in transit to you. But you still have to call and talk to an agent to find out the specific flight it was put on and when you can realistically expect it. It's one thing not to have information on the website that they don't have, but what's the sense in having the website if it doesn't tell you the information they have and you want?

Awesome sunset

An awesome sunset last night.

The next manufacturing revolution

I've been watching developments in 3D printing for a while now with growing interesting and excitement. Having seen this latest video of the test flight of a model aircraft this was entirely built in a 3D printer. I'm absolutely convinced that this is the next revolution in manufacturing.


When I first starting following 3D printing the buzz was about being able to rapidly prototype components at a fraction of the traditional cost of manufacturing a one off item or being able to print complex shapes that traditional manufacturing couldn't produce cost-effectively.

The revelation from this video I watched recently was that you could print moving parts in situ.


But that's just a spanner or wrench. In this latest video they print the entire plane in a single operation. If you can do that you can print a car or a refrigerator or anything. My prediction is that 30 years from now everything that is manufactured, and I mean everything, will be manufactured in a 3D printer.

Wildflowers

One of the many nice things about hiking in Steamboat this time of year is the wildflowers.

If you are going to charge $5 for a cappuccino...

...you ought to learn how to make a decent one. This means you, Hyatt Regency Reston. For your information a cappuccino is one third espresso, one third milk and one third foam. It's not a cup of insipid, watery brown liquid with a little foam on top!

I officially do not understand airlines

Today we're flying from Ottawa to Washington DC (this post is brought to you courtesy of Ottawa airport's free wifi!)

We arrived quite early for our United flight so we asked about getting on an earlier United flight (same airline) only to be told that it would cost us $120 each.

We were also told that it was too early to check in for our original flight. So we had lunch and a cup of coffee and came back. At which time we were told (by a different agent) that we could get on an earlier Air Canada flight (yes a different airline) for no charge. In fact, because Air Canada does not charge for checked bags, we're saving fifty bucks.

I actually do understand what's going on here. It's all about the check-in agent. One decided to be helpful and the other one didn't. Simple as that.

Comment spam mystery

I get a lot of comment spam on this blog, which fortunately the Blogger comment spam filter does an excellent job of catching, saving you dear reader from endless ads for viagra, penile enhancement and pirated movie downloads.

I generally understand how comment spam works, even if I think comment spammers are low life scum who with every breathe steal oxygen that rightly belongs to the human race. What I can't figure out is why 90% of the comment spam is on this four year old post about rugby in Steamboat. Theories and explanations welcome in the (spam free) comments.

Of course I just realised that by mentioning viagra, penile enhancement and pirated movie downloads (twice now) this post is inviting even more comment spam!

Ticketing idiocy

No, not airline ticketing idiocy (although there's no shortage of that) but football ticketing idiocy.

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a Brisbane Lions home game on Saturday night and doubly fortunate to see them have their first win for the season (after seven losses to start the season). But I was rather unimpressed that I was unable to buy a ticket for a decent seat, knowing that with the Lions in a "rebuilding phase" the ground would not be even close to sold out. As it turned out it was less than half full (19,000 in a ground that holds over 40,000 people).

So I bought the cheapest ticket I could ($25.50). Where do you think I sat; in my cheap and not very good seat, or in one of the thousands of empty seats in the area where I wanted to sit (where I was more than willing to pay $61 for a ticket)?

I don't know who manages ticketing for Lions games at the Gabba, but they are idiots who are leaving money on the table.

No airline executives were harmed...

Recently I wondered if I would need to ritually sacrifice an airline executive in order to appease the airline gods.

I'm pleased to say such drastic action seems to have been unnecessary. Last week I managed to fly from Denver to Chicago to Ottawa to Washington to Los Angeles to Brisbane without a single delay or disruption. I even got the best seat on the plane (1A) on the Qantas flight to Brisbane!

Seriously Amazon.com. Seriously?

I'm all for free services sponsored by advertising - the entire Googleverse for example. But receiving "sponsored screensavers" aka ads on my Kindle to save $24? You have got to be joking Amazon.com. This must be an April Fools joke that's ten days late.

This is doubly disappointing given the rumours on the tech sites that Amazon would soon offer the Kindle for $99 or even free to Prime members like me!

Sweet closing day

The weird weather, spring one day, winter the next, continues so after yesterday's spring conditions today it was winter again. It wasn't an epic powder day, but it was a powder day and on closing day, April 10, that's epic enough!

The 5am report said three inches but it was snowing hard this morning so it was at least six inches by the time I hit the mountain at 10am.

And it just kept getting better for the rest of the morning. I thought my first run down Triangle 3, with plenty of wind blown drifts, and skier's right of Tornado, where the hard bumps were filled in just nice, would be my best run of the day. Then I thought my run down a completely untracked Priest Creek liftline would be the best of the day, until it was surpassed by the 2.45 trees, then the 2.15 trees and finally by Shadows where I was still able to find fresh lines after noon.

My home run for the day and for the season was, fittingly, Vertigo. It was a little dust on crust but the new snow was heavy enough to provide plenty of grab, so it was definitely skiable. Not the best I've ever seen it, but awesome for April.

Here's the GPS data.

So that's it for the 2010-11 season. I managed 40 days which given my travel commitments and moving house in December I'm happy with. It's way less than the 116 days I managed last season, but I had more powder days this year with the awesome 400+ inch season we've had. Any season where you ski Closet on opening day and Shadows on closing day is a great season.

Today is also our seventh anniversary of living in Steamboat. Living the dream doesn't get any better than this!

A better birthday

Last year on my birthday I ended up at a South African Emergency Room. This year I went skiing. It's not hard to figure out which experience makes for a more enjoyable birthday!

I was out around 10am which was probably 30 minutes too early, so the first runs were hardpack, but by 11am it had softened nicely in a number of places. Best run of the day was my second attempt at Vagabond after the snow had softened.

Here's the GPS data.

Is it really April 6?

For the past couple of weeks the weather has been swinging wildly between spring and winter. Today it was both. More rain than snow at the base, but definitely snow and quite misty and chilly at the top of the mountain (there's a reason it's called Storm Peak!)

It started snowing in the wee hours of the morning, so there was 3 or 4 inches on the ground by breakfast time and perhaps 6 inches by the time I managed to get out at 11 am. But that was on top of a hard base from yesterday's warmth, so you had to pick your spot or it was very dust on crust. My first run down Whiteout was especially bad. My eyes saw powder but my skis felt nothing but hard pack, and my head hadn't yet resolved the the two. It got a lot better after that though.

Best run of the day was definitely this one down the Ridge - largely untracked and deep enough to not feel the crust underneath.


This run down See Ya on the way home was also fun and interesting. On the lower mountain the snow was wet and heavy so it was a completely different feeling skiing through it. And you can see from the water accumulating on the camera lens how wet it was down there.


The other brilliant thing today; being the last week of the ski season there was barely anybody on the mountain.

Here's the GPS data.

Sydney airport deja vu

I'm sitting in my home office in Steamboat listening to the the radio from Australia on the internet.

The Australian Minister for Transport is currently talking about the need for a second airport in Sydney.

I have two words for him: Badgery's Creek.

That was the name of the second Sydney airport announced by the Australian Government in mid-1989. It was a political sop back then. I know this because I was part of the small team that put the proposal together to provide political cover to get approval to build a third runway at the real Sydney airport (whenever I land on 16L/34R, I like to think of it as "my runway").

It's still a sop now. There are very few cities that successfully run more than one major airport. New York, London, Tokyo, Paris and Chicago come to mind. All much bigger cities than Sydney.

One of the things the Minister was just rabbiting on about was that demand for slots exceeds supply. The best way to match supply and demand and to ensure a resource is allocated to its highest value use is via a very secret mechanism economists call price. In the context of airport slots that means auctioning slots off to the highest bidder. Of course that's not how it works. So I have zero sympathy for bleating about excess demand.

Angry airline gods

Clearly the airline gods are angry with me because in the past 2 months I'm 0 for 3 in terms of attempts to travel out of Steamboat without major disruptions.

In early February I attempted to travel from Steamboat to Dublin. It was supposed to be easy - direct flight from Steamboat to Chicago and then direct flight to Dublin. My flight out of Steamboat was delayed and I missed my connection in Chicago, so instead of the direct flight to Dublin I had to go via London which has the world's dumbest immigration process for transiting to Ireland.

In late February I attempted to travel from Steamboat to Washington via Houston. My flight from Houston to Washington was cancelled so I had to overnight in Houston.

Then today I attempted to fly from Steamboat to Washington via Denver. It was snowing hard as I left for the airport and half way there I received the email notification that my Steamboat to Denver flight had been cancelled.

Note that only this last disruption had anything to do with the winter weather in the mountains.

If anyone knows how to win back the favour of the airline gods, please feel free to comment. Do I have to ritually sacrifice an airline executive or something?

Update: 6.24pm: here's the report in today's paper on the storm and flight cancellations.

More than it looks

Here's today's GPS data.

It doesn't look like I did much - only 8,100 vertical ft in 1:46. But most of that was bumps, including three laps on Whiteout which totally jellied my legs. Which is why on Mother Nature on the way home I had my first proper ski came off fall in the bumps for the season.

A nice sparkling wine

With the slightly warmer temperatures of late March, the foot of snow that landed on the mountain last night was just a little too heavy to be Steamboat's famous Champagne Powder, but if it wasn't Champagne it was a very nice sparkling wine.

I had some conference calls with the east coast and Dublin this morning so I didn't get out until nearly 11am, but there were still plenty of freshies in the trees, especially on Shadows and Typhoon. But the best run of the day was definitely the powder bumps on Whiteout, and not surprisingly with a non-stop top to bottom run on a really tight line my maximum heart rate of 181bpm was at the bottom on that run.

Here's the GPS data.

Grabby skis

I had some trouble uploading my GPS data from Saturday so here is the delayed report.

After the warm weather earlier in the week, I had my skis retuned. Then Saturday was cold and wintry, so my skis were so "grabby" I could barely turn them. Which meant I had to stop and get them tuned again for the colder snow. Thanks to Ryan at Edgewerks I only lost 15 minutes.

Here's that troublesome GPS data:

Slush bumps

A lot of people like spring skiing because it's warm. Give me a full on winter storm with a foot of fresh powder any day. But if it has to be spring skiing then slush bumps are where it's at. They're soft and slow so you've got plenty of time to ski them just right.

Today the best slush bumps were on Whiteout. Here's the GPS data.

Bluebird powder

A spring storm dropped more than a foot of powder on Steamboati n the past 48 hours and with the sun shining brightly this morning, that makes today a bluebird powder day.

Picking a best run today is really hard. I'd have to go with this unexpected powder stash found in the trees between Valley View and Heavenly Daze on the way home.



Here's the GPS data.

Need wax

My timing today was much better than on Monday so the snow was nice and slushy by the time I hit the mountain. Unfortunately my skis were inadequately waxed, so the snow was also sticky and slow.

Best run of the day was super slushy bumps on Surprise.

Here's the GPS data.

Cursing DST

Yesterday I was only able to get our for about an hour. Due to work constraints I wasn't able to get out late enough for the snow to really have softened. But the sun was shining, so it was still fun cruising a few groomers on the lower mountain where it gets warmer sooner.

Here's the GPS data.

The problem with not being out late enough was compounded by the ridiculousness of starting Daylight Savings Time in mid-March, an idea brought to us by our DST overlords in Washington a few years back supposedly to save energy. In a rational world the fact that it doesn't (save energy) would have led to the change being reversed by now. Of course politics is the only field of human endeavour where the gap between intentions and results is completely and utterly irrelevant.

And I still have one pesky clock that I haven't managed to change yet!

Spring-ish

It looked like it was going to be a classic spring skiing day when I headed out this morning, but half way up the mountain the clouds started to gather. Fortunately it stayed warm enough to soften the snow a little, but not enough to create slush bumps, so I largely stuck to the groomers.

Hard to believe but best run of the day was Flintlock which is a lower intermediate trail. But when you do railroad tracks in a tuck all the way down it's a hoot.

Here's the GPS data.

How I feel about breakfast

I'm often up early to talk to my colleagues in Dublin and I'm always hungry when I wake up. But I also find when I eat at 6am I need to eat again at 9am. Actually I'm just finishing second breakfast as I write this post!

Another powder day in the Boat

I thought the storm that brought fresh snow yesterday was pretty much over, but today was even better than yesterday. It's hard to pick a best run on a day like this but if I had to choose I'd say the trees between Twister and the Four Points liftline.

Here's some video highlights.


And here's the GPS data.

Fat Tuesday for Fat Skis

It's another Fat Tuesday, Fat Ski day. The 5am report said 2 inches, but that was on top of six inches yesterday. And it was snowing hard all morning, so by the time I hit the mountain at 11 am it was at least 8 inches of fresh. Plus with barely anybody about there were plenty of nice stashes left even that late in the morning.

Shadows and Closet were good, and Vertigo was nice on the way home, if a little dust on crust on the lower half, but the best run of the day was definitely very big, very soft powder bumps on Whiteout. The first time non-stop from the road to the bottom was sweet, but the second time non-stop from the top was even sweeter.

Here's the GPS data.

27 percent

March 5 last year hit 100 consecutive days of skiing. March 5 this year is only day 27.

I've had a lot going on this season and last season I'd taken some time off work, so I'm not too disappointed. I have figured out though that skiing every day is actually easier on your body, at least after the first month. By then you're in such good skiing shape you don't feel a thing. Whereas today, after not skiing for a week, everything seemed to ache.

Nevertheless it was worth the pain. The five inches of fresh snow over the past two days made for a nice soft base, not the normal spring crunch, and there were still some nice stashes in the trees, especially on Closet and Rainbow. And the mountain seemed deserted.

Here's the GPS data.

Back from DC

I was at the office in DC (well northern Virginia to precise) most of this week so I didn't get out on the mountain until Friday. My timing was perfect because the 5 am report said 8 inches and there must have been another 4 inches between then and 9 am when I got to the mountain.

I spent the bulk of the morning riding the Pony Express as you can see from the GPS data with a quick hop into Closet before heading home to do some work on an important project. This time instead of Vertigo on the way home I hit Valley View and then See Ya which was super sweet.


Here's some video of my first run for the morning.


Today I skied with another Aussie friend Drew and a couple of other visiting Aussies guys that he met in a bar somewhere downtown. Best run of the day was Broadway trees where the leftovers were awesome. Here's the GPS data.

Ski report catch up

I've been busy since I last posted with my second trip to Dublin so far this year and friends from Australia in town. So here's the catch up reports on the past two weeks of skiing.

Yesterday it snowed hard in the morning. Unfortunately I had too many other commitments to get out, but there were still some nice leftovers today, especially in the trees. I skied with my Aussie friends MaryAnne and Vicki and Brad from Nantucket who we met on the lift. Here's the GPS data.

Wednesday was like spring with the temperature around 40F and the sun out. I skied with my Aussie friends Amanda, Therese, Rod and Claire. Here's the GPS data.

Last Sunday I skied with mostly the same Aussie crew, less Claire and plus Vicki. Here's the GPS data.

The really good stuff was the Sunday before last (February 6). I was due to fly out to Dublin midday but my flight got delayed so I missed my connection in Chicago for the direct flight to Dublin and had to go the long way via London, but it was absolutely worth it since I got to spend a whole morning playing in a foot of fresh powder! Here's the GPS data.

And here's some video of the awesome conditions. I skied with a local friend, Steve "Lewi" Lewis. That's him in black on the snowboard.

Best 3 inches ever

The 5 am report said three inches but it was snowing hard so I expected something more than that. But it turned out way better than expected. In places it was at least a foot deep.

The trees were awesome as expected, especially the 2.30 trees. But the best run of the day was the huge but very soft powder bumps to skier's right of Vertigo on the way home. So good in fact that I had to do it again. So the best run of the day turned out to be Vertigo the second time around, this time on a line to skier's left where the bumps weren't as big so I could really, really, really rip it up.

Here's the GPS data.

Better with friends

After a couple of bitterly cold days, it was still quite chilly this morning but I ventured out anyway, in need of some turns. I skied for a bit by myself and was about to head in when I ran into one of my many Aussie friends MaryAnne. So I skied with her crew for a couple more hours and had a great time. Especially good were the bumps to skiers right of Cyclone.

Here's the GPS data.

It's officially cold

Unlike the DC area where a few inches of snow closes the schools, there's no such thing as a snow day in Steamboat. But we do close the schools when it gets to -40 (F or C take your pick because that's where the scales cross). At that point there's simply too much risk of kids getting frostbite waiting for the bus and unless we're planning to change our system of arithmetic to Base 9, I think it's a good idea for small children to keep all ten of their fingers.

Anyway I mention this because the Steamboat schools closed today due to weather for the first time in 22 years. Interestingly Marie and I were here in Steamboat on our honeymoon the last time this happened in February 1989. We were staying at a hotel that is about 500 yards down the street where we now live.

Optimism

The weather forecast shows a storm moving in tonight or tomorrow, so being the eternal optimist that I am, I decided to preserve my legs for the upcoming powder day/s by just cruising around a few groomers. Best run of the day was high speed race turns down Two O'Clock. Here's the GPS data.

An easy hour

It was a glorious day on the mountain today - great snow, very few people and the sun was shining. The only problem was that we just got back from being in Dublin for the past two and half weeks, so all those extra red blood cells were gone and I soon found myself puffing like a steam train. So I put in just an easy hour. Well sort of. I did hit the 2.30 trees for a bit. And the Sundown liftline. And I did tear up a couple of groomers. But other than that an easy hour. And I was very happy with the way I skied technically.

Here's the GPS data.

Before you ditch your other distribution channels...

For several years airlines have been squeezing their traditional distribution channels like travel agents and driving business to their own websites. American Airlines took it a step further recently and withdrew its flights from other websites like Orbitz and Expedia.

I'm not criticising the strategy. Just saying that if you are going to do that you probably need to be extra, extra, extra careful about making sure that your website works!

Last clinic for the season

I had my last Local's Clinic for the season (I'm going to try telemark skiing next year and I'll definitely want to enrol in a clinic to learn that so it's definitely not my last clinic ever).

I arrived 45 minutes before kick off time so I decided to get in a lazy 6,00 vertical ft before we started (Gondola, Storm Peak, Thunderhead) which was a nice warm up. Teh morning was fairly casual with technical drills in Wally World, but the afternoon picked up with mostly bump skiing in the fog (bumps are extra interesting when you can't see them!).

Best run of the day was the bumps to skiers right of Cyclone.

Here's the GPS data.

Christmas Tree Bowl

I decided for a little variety today to ski the Christmas Tree Bowl. This is part of our double black diamond terrain at the very top of the mountain. As soon as I started I remembered why I rarely ski this part of the mountain - it's about 20 yards of super-steep terrain and then a long flat run out and even with the large amount of snow we've got there's still plenty of exposed rocks. All in all a complete waste of time.

Generally though the snow is still in great condition. Best run of the day was definitely the 3.30 trees. A made a point of skiing it fast and aggressive and I always ski better when I do that. The trouble is that fast and aggressive takes a lot of physical and mental energy so you can't do it all the time, so I spent the 45 minutes before that taking it easy and skiing poorly.

A (rarely) groomed Vertigo on the way home was also fun, but give me powder bumps on this baby any day!

Here's the GPS data.

Quick Hit

I've been so busy the last few days (and it was really, really, really cold over the weekend) that I haven't been out since Thursday. So today I only managed an hour and half of skiing, but that's still better than nothing.

Visibility was poor so I didn't bother with the helmet cam, but the snow was nice - soft and buttery - and the mountain was deserted. Still some idiot tele skier nearly managed to run into me on mid-Rainbow; message to that guy: "I do not have eyes in the back of my head mate!"

Here's the GPS data.

Not today, but tomorrow?

Today wasn't the epic powder day the weather forecast led me to expect - the seven inches in the previous 24 hours on the snow report this morning mostly fell yesterday afternoon - but the way it has been snowing since mid-afternoon, it looks like tomorrow will be (but also bitterly cold at around 0F or -18C).

Nevertheless it was a great day on the mountain. Best run of the day was Twilight aka 2:30 trees, especially the section below Duster which is the only thing I felt that I didn't ski like an old man today. Here's the video.


And here's the GPS data.

Nicole and Peter

Today I skied with my Aussie friends Nicole and Peter on about 3 inches of fresh.

Pete is a rapidly improving intermediate skier but that still meant nothing too challenging. Best run of the day was powder bumps to skiers' left of Hurricane with the powder bumps to skiers' left of Cyclone were a close second.

Here's the GPS data.

Video clinic

Skiing yesterday mostly involved videoing with my friend Elizabeth who is an intermediate skier and who is very keen to improve (she runs marathons so pushing herself is not a problem). Video is a fantastic learning tool - there's nothing like being able to see yourself skiing to be able to see what you are actually doing rather than what you think you are doing.

I didn't take any video of her husband Rob because I was afraid that shooting his fluorescent lime green helmet might damage my camera.

The end result for me was that it was a very casual two hours on the mountain. Since Elizabeth is not that keen for her performance to be put on Youtube for the world to see and I had some GPS issues (mostly due to operator error combined with some poor user interface design) that's all there is to report.

I'm not skiing today since it's Marie's birthday and we have a whole lot of people coming over to our new house later today.

Hungry elk

Because we had heavy snow early, the elk have struggled to get enough to eat and have been coming into residential areas much more than they usually do. Last night we almost hit a herd on our way home from dinner with friends and then this morning we looked out the window to see this big buck attacking a patch of exposed grass in our neighbour's yard.

Cruisy Christmas Eve

Whilst it was warm yesterday and the snow on the lower mountain today was hard and crunchy, the snow on the upper mountain today was perfect for just cruising around. Best run of the day was powder bumps on Tornado. Here's the GPS data.

Vertigo

Vertigo is my favourite run on the lower half of the mountain but I usually don't ski it until the end of my day. Today I was waiting for some friends so I hit it first up and it was so sweet it almost made my head spin (sorry...)


Concentration immediately after was also sweet. As was everything else on the mountain with all the snow we've been having. Here's the GPS data.

Friends from St Louis

I skied today with my friends from St Louis, Rob and Elizabeth. First day of the season for them, so we took it easy despite the 6 inches of fresh which is fast heading towards 18 based on the way it is continuing to come down. Could be a big day tomorrow.

Here's the GPS data.

Good days and bad days

Yesterday was a good day - several inches of fresh snow in the morning and more during the day, and even with Christmas only a week away the mountain was surprisingly uncrowded. Best run of the day was definitely Shadows, top to bottom (i.e. including the section below Duster) for the first time this season. Here's the GPS data.

Today started out fine. We had a nice lunch with friends out in a very beautiful part of rural Colorado but had a slight mishap on the way home. I took a corner a little too tight and skidded on the ice right into a ditch.

Thankfully their was no damage to the occupants (except the driver's pride) or vehicle, but it's not much fun waiting around for a couple of hours on a cold snowy afternoon in the middle of nowhere for the tow truck to pull you out! Fortunately our wonderful friends Gerry and Kathy were traveling behind us so we could wait in their nice warm car.

It Happened in Sun Valley

Actually it happened in Steamboat. I rode the Storm Peak Express this morning with a woman who offered to sing a song for my video camera. She chose It Happened in Sun Valley. Nice voice.


One of the nice things about living in a world class ski resort, apart from the world class skiing of course, is that you're surrounded by a lot of very happy people!

After that I joined my ski clinic with Jamie. The forecast had been for 12 inches of snow with high winds. In the end we got about four inches of snow with light winds which made for some very nice skiing. Priest Creek Liftline twice was the best of the day.

Here's the GPS data. A fairly big day - 22,000 vertical ft - for this early in the season.

Lucious leftovers

We had five inches of fresh yesterday but unfortunately I just couldn't make it out. I did get out for a couple of hours in the middle of today to enjoy the leftovers and it was still very, very nice, especially Shadows and Flying Z.

Here's the GPS data.

Vuvuzelas

As I mentioned previously I was in South Africa for the 2010 soccer World Cup.

A few people have asked me what I thought of the vuvuzelas. This sums up my feelings on the matter perfectly.

Broken finger

I broke my finger yesterday; not skiing (I didn't go out yesterday) but at the gym. If you've ever wondered who wins when a finger clashes with a 20lb dumbbell I can tell you that it's not the finger.

Fortunately the busted digit is on my right hand and I'm left handed; nevertheless even with only one finger on you non-dominant hand immobilised a lot of tasks (including typing) are surprisingly awkward.

I did ski on Saturday. I had an all day clinic with my coach Jamie which was great to fine tune my skiing so that I don't get back into bad habits. I went out electronically naked - no GPS or heart rate monitor or video - so I don't have any data, but it was about a 16,000 vertical ft day. There's been just enough new snow since last Monday's dump to keep it soft and buttery so it was a surprisingly good day.

Talking about last Monday, here's another video from that epic November powder day to keep us motivated for the next one. This run beneath the Four Points chair is one of my favorites to hit early on a powder day - jump on the Four Points chair when it opens at 8:45 am and fit in a run like this before the Storm Peak Express opens at 9 am. Watch for the drop off a rock into a deep drift of powder around 1:06. Whoa!

The cure for Monday mornings?

12 inches of fresh powder! It was certainly one of the most epic November powder days ever.

Fresh tracks were to be had everywhere but nowhere better than this run down one of Steamboat's (and the world's) best tree runs - Shadows.



Here's the GPS data.

Back in the groove

I didn't ski Friday because I pulled up sore from opening day which is not surprising given a break of nearly eight months and the fact that I skied too hard and not particularly well.

Yesterday I was much happier with the way I skied and it was such a beautiful day. Best run of the day was definitely this non-stop bump run down Whiteout. The nice thing about this video is that with sun behind me I can see how I'm skiing and note the corrections to make next time.


If you are wondering what the blur on the left side is, that's some snow stuck on the lens. I'm not sure how it got there since I didn't fall. Or if I did, it's been edited out. You'll never know. More importantly, neither will Marie. It seems she wasn't happy seeing the fall on Thursday's video.

Here's the GPS data.

Finally it's here

The 2010-11 ski season it is. It's less than eight months since I last skied but it seems like forever.

This year we've opened with top to bottom skiing after several very snowy weeks.

I acquired a new high definition helmet mounted camera a little while back, so here's the video of a sweet opening day run through the trees of Closet. Yes, I did fall. Did I mention that it's opening day? So I'm a tiny bit rusty.



It was cold out today - below 0F - but the sun was out and there was no wind so it was actually quite bearable. Especially when the pay off is opening day tree skiing!

Another hard drive fail

Yesterday my network attached drive failed. Unlike last time, I had all the data backed up.

It was easy enough to run down to Staples and get a new one. I couldn't get the same brand/model, and whilst all network drives do much the same things, they all do it slightly differently, so I had to spend a couple of hours getting it configured and all of the computers mapped to the right virtual drives so all my backup routines would continue to work correctly. It should have only taken 15 minutes, but the user guide was next to useless. The people who wrote it obviously have no concept of stepping the user through key concepts or common tasks.

The trickiest part was installing the client software on Marie's netbook which doesn't have a CD drive. The instructions included the following "if your computer does not have a CD drive, go to http://www.seagate.com/goflexhomesupport/" which I did, expecting to be able to download the software. No sign of it, or anything else that would help me solve the problem. So I had to copy the CD to a USB drive and install it that way.

Not a big deal really, but this is supposed to be consumer grade technology. There's no way the average consumer (i.e. someone who doesn't like to play with computers) could install this correctly.

Big fat soft flakes

That's what Champagne Powder is made of and plenty of it has been falling from the sky in the past week. With only ten days to go until opening day, it's looking like a much better start to the season than last year.

There's not quite enough snow yet to get an early start on the season by hiking for some turns, but certainly plenty to play in so yesterday we decided to go hiking in the snow up Emerald Mountain.

What's French for spam?

I've mentioned before how much I detest comment spam. But this one made me laugh:

Salut à tous,

Voulez-vous gagner des objets facilement?

Le site web xxxx.ca est un un site web facile d'acces qui vous permet de remporter de fabuleux prix sans investir beaucoup!

According to Google this roughly translates as:

Hello all,

Want to win things easily?

xxxx.ca website is a website easy access that allows you to win great prizes without investing a lot!

Is there anything anywhere on this blog to indicate that I, or my readers, are francophones? Well my wife Marie is, having been educated by French nuns through grade 9, but you can't tell that from my blog (at least until now).

Plus it was attached to a post about Aussies in Hollywood. Since it appears to be a French-Canadian website, it might have made at least a little sense if it were attached to this post which mentions a hotel in Ottawa with a French name.

The scary thing is that as dumb as spammers are, there are even dumber people out there who give them money!

Customer service in real time

This morning I left some slightly negative feedback about a purchase on the Amazon website (the packaging overkill issue I blogged recently).

Within a minute (literally) of clicking submit the company that fulfilled the order called me to address the issue.

One of the most critical parts of delivering good customer service is to actually listen to your customers; that's the only way to learn about problems so you can fix them, and it has the added benefit of making your customers feel valued.

You'd be amazed how many companies don't get that (like the hotel I blogged about yesterday, who haven't bothered to respond to the email I sent them).

Onecall.com clearly get it. I'll happily order from them again knowing that if there's a problem they'll be on it faster than Usain Bolt.

What does guaranteed mean?

In the thousands of nights I've stayed in hotels I've never needed or wanted a room with two beds.Well once, about 15 years ago when I shared a room on a business trip with my good friend Raj, and he hasn't stopped talking about how restless I am (stillness is not my karma).

Hotel rooms are small enough without half the space being taken up by a bed that you are not going to use. So one of my pet hates is booking a room with a king bed and finding at check in that they only have rooms with two queen beds available.

This is annoying enough at hotels that primarily serve business travelers, but it is inexcusable at hotels that attract couples wanting a romantic get away, like the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa which seems to have a constant stream of unhappy couples (yes, including us when we stayed there) checking in only to find that for 300 plus dollars a night (room only) they'd be sharing an old fashioned double bed instead of the king bed they'd requested.

One of the reasons I prefer Marriott hotels is that they track rooms with king beds and rooms with two queen beds as separate inventory, so that if they have a king bed room available when you make your reservation, they guarantee it.

Or so I thought. I received an email today from a Marriott that I was planning to stay at tonight saying "We wanted to let you know in advance that based on our occupancy, your bed preference might not be available today during your stay."

I'm sorry, but which part of guaranteed do I not understand correctly?

Facetime

I just tested out Facetime, the video calling technology built into the iPhone 4, with my friend Rob.

I've used a number of video calling technologies before (e.g. Skype) but this is the most natural by far. You immediately forget the technology; it just feels like a face to face conversation.

The only problem is that it's a closed system; you can only call other iPhone 4 users. Let's hope Apple open the technology up. Otherwise it will be the same old story; due to the network effect an inferior but open technology will come to dominate the market.

Fall winter storm

Steamboat was hit yesterday with what the weather service calls a winter storm. But there's a difference between a true winter storm and a late fall storm; the snow is much wetter and heavier than it would be in a true winter storm, and many of the trees still have their leaves (and berries), so it looks quite different. Still beautiful, just different.

The unfriendliest place in Steamboat is...

... the Post Office parking lot. Something comes over the fine citizens of Steamboat Springs when they are on a mission to collect their mail; they'd rather drive right over the top of you than stop than let you back out of your spot (even if you're 3/4 of the way out)!

Packaging overkill

I ordered a product online recently which arrived in this box.


Here's what was inside.


And here's the actual product.


Here's a comparison of the actual product and the mailing box. I calculate you could fit approximately 200 of these in this box.


If you are wondering what this is, I'll explain it in a forthcoming post. Hint: it fits on a helmet and I'm going to use it during the ski season.

First snow

To remind us that it's only 47 days until the opening of the ski season, Mother Nature delivered us our first dusting of snow on the mountain today.

Perfect rainbow

Driving back from downtown this evening we saw the most perfect rainbow I think I've ever seen framing the ski mountain perfectly.


Within the limits of my iPhone camera I needed to take two shots to get it all. You can see that my photoshop skills are limited!

Traditional publishers are idiots

Look closely at the pricing on Amazon for this book. The hardcover is $7.99 and the Kindle edition is $9.99!


Electronic books cost less to produce and distribute than physical books, there are no costs for inventory or returns, you can't lend them and you can't sell them when you are done. So they should always be priced lower than the physical book.

This is not Amazon's fault. The initial Kindle pricing model was that Amazon would set the prices. The publishers disliked that so much that they threatened to withdraw their books from Amazon with this very publisher, HarperCollins, leading the charge.

You might wonder what HarperCollins' agenda is. I can only surmise that they hope that they can sabotage the move to electronic books and maintain their current business model. Of course they would think that, because resisting digitalisation has worked so well for the entertainment industry!

When Amazon write "this price was set by the publisher" I don't know how they can resist adding "who are complete idiots and deserve to go the way of the dinosaurs."

Update: 6 October. I wrote this before I saw this article on the same subject in the New York Times.

The article discusses two specific examples and the publishers are quoted as saying "...those two books were the first they knew of that cost more as e-books than in hardcover on Amazon." Not only are they idiots, but they are either liars or completely and utterly clueless. I've seen dozens of examples on Amazon including some where the electronic book is more expensive than the paperback!

Hopefully enough pressure is building on publishers to stop this nonsense. By the way, I think the New York Times is much less imaginative with its headlines than I am!