Macquarie Pass

I'm flying out of Sydney to Beijing tomorrow so today we drove from Canberra to Sydney a distance of about 300 km or 160 miles, which is similar to the distance from Steamboat to Denver, but a lot flatter!

We took the scenic route through Macquarie Pass. It's quite a bit slower but well worth the extra time if you can spare it. Stop at the cafe in Robertson at the top of the pass located in the old cheese factory. The Devonshire Tea (scones with jam and cream) is fantastic. You can get scones in the US, but they're scones in the same way that American Football and Aussie Rules are the same thing.

Wellington sunrise

Taken from the window of my room at the Intercontinental Hotel around 7 am. The ship coming in to dock is one of the ferries that carriers passengers and vehicles across Cook Strait between New Zealand's North Island and South Island.

Wellington (again)

I arrived in Wellington (NZ) today via Denver, Los Angeles and Auckland. This is my third visit in the last 12 months. One of the wins I had last year was a contract with a government agency here and we are actively chasing another one, so it won't be my last visit either. Fortunately, I like Wellington. It's like a bigger version of Hobart (Tasmania) where my parents lived for many years.

I managed to sleep for most of the flight between LA and Auckland mostly thanks to flying business class for a change. Surprisingly (or maybe not), it's much easier to sleep in a seat that goes completely flat than sitting nearly upright!

So I only watched one movie, The Holiday starring Jude Law (great performance), Cameron Diaz, Jack Black and Kate Winslet. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I'm a sucker for romantic comedies so you should discount my opinion accordingly. Unless you also recognise that the romantic comedy is Hollywood's crowning achievement, in which case see this as soon as you can!

P.S. If you read this hot off the press in the US where it is still April 21, and you are wondering why the post is dated April 22, I've adopted the practice of applying the local time (being the local time wherever I am posting from) to my posts.

It's supposed to be a free country

Of course our political masters are more than happy to forget that when it comes to their obsession with drugs. It recently took me 15 minutes to buy a packet of Sinutabs - what is from a drug safety perspective an over-the-counter medicine - because they contain psuedoephedrine which can be used to make meth. Too bad this measure has been totally ineffective since meth is now mostly smuggled in bulk from labs in Mexico. To make it worse, it was my Mum that needed the Sinutabs, but she couldn't buy them at all since she doesn't have a US issued ID.

So following on from that smashing success, some bright spark of a Congressman from Missouri wants to ban baking soda - yes, you read that correctly: baking freaking soda - because it can be used to make crack cocaine. Well even if that's correct (and I don't know anything about making crack) I would have thought that it's the cocaine in crack cocaine that's the problem.

Take me to your baking soda overlords.

Final day?

Today was my final day for the 2006-07 season unless the weather intervenes and we get some significant snowfall between now and the 15th.

I went out today mostly because I like the idea of skiing on my birthday*. My expectations were low based on the reports from friends who skied over the last few days, but all in all it was better than I expected.

Yes it was quite slushy in places and bare in quite a few spots and worst of all there were several places where the snow was very sticky, which is really hard work. But the very top of the mountain, maybe the top 500 vertical ft, was great due to one or two inches of new snow overnight and enough cloud cover to stop it melting.

Bumps are really fun when it's like this. The soft sticky snow means you don't have to worry about going fast and can instead concentrate on the huge number of things you need to be able to do simultaneously and instantaneously if you are going to ski bumps well, including:

Picking the right line. You need to choose a path between the bumps which involves enough turning to slow you down without turning so far that you end up bouncing off the top of the next bump.

Not over-edging. Everything you learn about edging on groomed terrain you need to unlearn to ski bumps. If you over-edge your skis shoot our from underneath you and you lose control. Over-edging also means turning too far which we've just talked about. Instead you have to concentrate on flattening the skis.

Skiing not in the valley between the bumps but down and around the side of the bump while allowing your (un-edged) skis to slip down the side to bleed off speed (see the previous point on flattening the skis).

Allowing your legs to compress as you come over the top of the bump and then extend as you head down the other side, smoothing out the ride.

Making an early and aggressive pole plant on the top of the next bump, which commits you to the line, prevents you from over-rotating and over-edging, and keeps your body forward which naturally helps you avoid all the other potential problems.

Got all that?

So I really enjoyed the bumps on Rolex, BC Lift Line, Surprise and the bottom section of Whiteout. The 3.30 and 2.30 trees were also nice, but my best run of the day was definitely Big Meadow where a fresh dusting of snow and very little traffic (there were about 15 people on the mountain today, or at least that's how it seemed) meant I could make beautiful tracks, and the sun peeped out from behind the clouds in the middle of the run to give it a totally surreal feeling.

So here's what is likely the final map for the season. Today's total of 10,802 vertical ft brings my season total to 519,001 vertical ft.



* Not only is today my birthday but it's also the third anniversary of my arrival in the US as a permanent resident, which means I'm now eligible to apply for citizenship (normally you have to be resident for five years, but it's three if you're married to a US citizen as I am).

Almost done

The 2006-07 season has ten days left to run (the counter at the bottom of the page says nine days because the ski company just recently extended the closing day from Saturday 14th to Sunday 15th), but I think I'm close to being finished. It's not that I mind spring skiing, but it just serves to remind me how much more I love the real thing - skiing waist deep powder!

However next Monday is my (44th) birthday, and I do like the idea of skiing on my birthday so I may head out again then. Or I may go snowshoeing with my wife instead.

Anyway, here's the map of today's runs for a total of 15,856 vertical ft and a season total of 508,199 vertical ft. I didn't get close to my million vertical feet goal but at least I made half a million.

April skiing

Today was a mix of typical spring skiing - warm and slushy - with patches of cooler, overcast weather thrown in and stashes of surprisingly good snow hiding amongst the trees.

Here's the map of today's runs for a total of 15,932 vertical ft and a season total of 492,343 vertical ft.

All things are relative

Even powder days. Although today's five inches (and eight inches total in the past 48 hours) of heavy powder doesn't meet the strict standard for a powder day, relative to the past two weeks it was so good that I'm going to count it! It gave me one last chance for the season to visit my favourite tree runs - Closet, Shadows and Twilight - so I'll take it.

The weather certainly has been extraordinary with the temperature in the 60's (F) only two days ago. I think this is Winter's last encore, its way of saying "I'll be back before you know it with more powder"!

Here's the map of today's runs for a total of 16,578 vertical ft and a season total of 476,411 vertical ft.

Where's the snow?

It's been over three weeks since any decent snow fall and the weather remains unseasonably warm. Fortunately we have a good base so the cover is still not too bad and there's a period of about an hour or two a day that the snow is soft but not slushy.

Here's the map of today's runs for a total of 10,232 vertical ft and a season total of 459,833 vertical ft (or 46% of my season goal of skiing one million vertical ft - I'm going to be lucky to make half of my goal).

Road trip - day 6

Today was the final day of our road trip. You can see our route from Durango back to Steamboat on the map below.


I don't have any photos, but Colorado Highway 550 from Silverton to Ouray is probably the most spectacular drive I've ever taken. In this part of the State they refer to Colorado as "the Switzerland of America." Well actually no. The true locals refer to Switzerland as "the Colorado of Europe"!

Road trip - day 5

The highlight of our road trip so far was today's visit to Mesa Verde National Park located in southwest Colorado.

It's amazing to look at these places and wonder what on earth drove the inhabitants to build them in the first place (they'd lived for the previous 600 years on top of the mesa) and then abandon them completely within two or three generations?

We only spent a few hours today but we loved it so much that we are planning to come back for two or three days some time to really see it properly.

The only part open to visit at this time of year is "Spruce Tree House". I'd read about Mesa Verde and even seen pictures, but this view that greets you as you begin the walk down to the site just blew me away.

It's even better as you get closer.


And just awesome right up close.


While you can't visit the other sites at the moment, you can see them from the road. This is the Cliff Palace which is the largest and most famous of them.


I included that distant shot so you could see where it is in relation to the mesa top and the canyon. Here's a close up.


We started the day in Santa Fe and are spending the night in Durango. You can see our route for today on the map below.

Road trip - day 4

We arrived in Santa Fe last night and spent today seeing the sites.

Santa Fe (La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís to use the full name which translates as Royal City of the Holy Faith of St Francis of Assisi) was established by the Spanish in 1610 and the locals have done a wonderful job of preserving its unique architecture. But I have to admit that I was a little disappointed.

The uniformity of the architecture, while superficially appealing, is so obviously imposed (through a strict enforcement of what is known as the Spanish Pueblo Revival style), and the city is so focused on tourism (personally, I can only look at so many art galleries), that there's a certain lack of authenticity that makes the place feel a little too much like a theme park. Although the stuff that was built when this style was original, like the San Miguel Mission, is beautiful.

Road trip - day 3

If you ever needed convincing of the enormous diversity of Colorado, I can think of no better example than the Great Sand Dunes National Park which we visited today.

Here are several square miles of 750 ft high sand dunes sitting in an alpine valley at the base of snow capped peaks.

After the dunes we also visited San Juan, the oldest town in Colorado and stopped for lunch in Taos. We also visited Santuario de Chimayo which is a major pilgrimmage site, especially around Easter.


You can see our route for today on the map below.

Road trip - day 2

Our route today took us out to Boulder for a quick visit (and morning tea at the Dushanbe tea house) before heading back up into the Rockies on highway 285.

We stopped for lunch at Buena Vista which is aptly named since it sits at the base of the Collegiate Peaks, a group of 14,000+ ft mountains named after famous universities (e.g. Mt Harvard and Mt Oxford).


You can see our route for today on the map below.

Road trip - day 1

I started a six day road trip today with my wife and parents who are visiting from Australia. Today we travelled as far as Denver and plan to continue south to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, continuing on to Santa Fe in New Mexico, then heading north again to Mesa Verde National Park in south west Colorado before heading home to Steamboat. You can see our planned route on the map below.

Melting fast

There's not much to add to the previous posts from this week - just more spring skiing.

Here's the map of today's runs for a total of 13,156 vertical ft and a season total of 449,601 vertical ft (or 45% of my season goal of skiing one million vertical ft).

Mississippi skiing

Today I skied with a bunch of guys from Mississippi, including one guy who played professional (American) football with O.J. Simpson at the San Francisco 49ers and reckons he's innocent!

I went out today with the fewest layers of clothing I've ever skied in - basically the shell of my suit and a t-shirt underneath - and I was still a little too warm in the sun.

Here's the map of today's runs for a total of 9,438 vertical ft and a season total of 436,445 vertical ft (or 43.6% of my season goal of skiing one million vertical ft).

Spring return

Between a trip to Paris and a bad chest cold it's been two weeks since I was on skis. In those two weeks I've gone from skiing in chest deep powder to weather that is typical of late spring. The maximum today was above 50F when it should be about 40F this time of year. It's a really pleasant way to ski, but if this keeps up the snow will run out before the season is meant to be over!

Here's the map of today's runs for a total of 11,542 vertical ft and a season total of 427,007 vertical ft (or 42.7% of my season goal of skiing one million vertical ft which with only a month left in the season I've accepted I'm not going to get close to).

Chartres

Today we visited Chartres which is about 90km (55 miles) outside Paris or one hour by train to see the famous cathedral there.



I find medieval cathedrals quite fascinating since they provide a window into not only the religious life of the time but also the political, economic and social systems. It always amazes me how much could be achieved in stone, and what people living often on the brink of starvation would sacrifice to build churches that would generally not be finished in their lifetime (or even their children's or grandchildren's).

At the same time they provide evidence for the limits of medieval scientific and engineering knowledge and show how slowly knowledge grew before the industrial revolution.

Take for example the towers on the cathedral. The south tower (on the right) was built along with most of the rest of the cathedral in the early 13th century whilst the north tower (on the left) was built 300 years later in the 16th century, and while the style is quite different the engineering limits are fundamentally the same. Yet another 300 years later Eiffel was able to build a tower of steel nearly three times as tall as a temporary structure.

Paris

It doesn't get much better that skiing chest deep snow and visiting Paris in the same week.* I'm here for some meetings Thursday, Friday and Monday (meaning I get to stay over the weekend!)

Of course I couldn't do that without bringing my lovely wife who has been out visiting some of the sites that she missed on our last visit in 2001 (well actually visiting all the galleries and art museums that I refused to go to). Yesterday it was the Musée D'Orsay and today the Rodin Museum.



She also snapped this impressive shot of Les Invalides. A bit fancier than any veterans hospital I've seen in the US or Australia!


We've also been spending plenty of time enjoying the wonderful food and atmosphere of the ubiquitous French cafes, bistros and restaurants, so I'll have to ski extra hard when I get home.


* Actually it does get better because I also found out this week that I'd received a nice bonus as a reward for a successful 2006.