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?