Now this
is what the view from every office should look like. I’m currently in Innsbruck, Austria visiting the Institut fur Quantenoptik und Quanteninformation. One of the few place in the world where you can study quantum computing and then go skiing. Or if you want to, you can go skiing and then study quantum computing. Of course my favorite is to ski and do quantum computing at the same time. This is fine just as long as you realize that putting yourself in a superposition of going to the left of a tree and to the right of a tree will most probably result in you dying.
Scott is here as well and tomorrow the poor denizens will get a double feature of our talks.
Ski Season 05-06, Day 3
Skied at Crystal Mountain near Mt. Rainier. On the drive up I saw what I thought was a moose! But apparently there are no Moose near Mt. Rainir. Perhaps it was an elk or a mule deer, but I could have sworn it was a moose. It snowed most of the morning and then cleared a bit after noon. Crystal is nice and has many large fast lifts. However I spent most of my time on the smallest slowest lift they had: because it went to the best snow. Interestingly the lifts which serviced more intermediate and beginner lifts were very packed (although the lines went fast: especially when you go in the singles line, eh?)
A report on my new skis is probably in order. I have a pair of 2005 Rossignol Bandit B2s. Today I got to test them out in some heavy Pacific snow. And boy are they are good ski for cutting through this heavy snow. I’m also enjoying the easy and speed of the turns on my B2s. Interestingly I haven’t had any of the problems some others have described with catching tails. But I think this may be because I’m moving to a much shorter ski than my last pair which were 205s. The B2s seem pretty stable at high speed. The only place where I worry they may be a bit weak is on ice. But I only had a chance to test at the end of the day at the bottom of the mountain, which had much worse snow than the top of the mountain.
While many of you will be traveling to QIP in Paris, and I am disapointed that I will not be able to attend, ski days like this, however, can help to lessen the pain.
Ski Season 05-06, Day 2
Saturday I went to Steven’s Pass for a day of skiing. This ski area is rather nice, especially due to the fact that they had about a foot of new snow. I suspect, however, that when the snow conditions are icy the place isn’t as much fun. What was amazing about the ski area was the number of people on the runs in comparison to the waits at the bottom of the lift. There were tons of people on the runs, but very small lift lines (at least on the backside.) Also if you go to Steven’s on a weekday, you should go early. Why? Because the wait to buy a ticket was absolutely ridicious. I mean, I have never seen lift lines move so slowly. Oh, and by the way, my new skis rock!
Ski Season 05-06, Day 1
This last Saturday I had the opportunity to go on my first ski trip of the season. Amazingly the northwest has been getting pounded by snow over the last few weeks. Now this posed a problem, because, as some of you may recall at the end of last season I did the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, and had to be rescued by the ski patrol. In the process, my skis from last year were completely destroyed. Well with the snow starting to fall, this made me extremely nervous. Would, after nearly twenty years of skiing I finally be forced to actually rent skis again? The horror! Well I went to rent skis at a local shop, and well, you know how it is. You see the nice pretty new skis and you just can’t resist. So I’m now the proud owner of a pair of 2005 Rossignol Bandit B2 182cm skis. And a helmet.
Anyway, we made the two and half hour drive from Seattle to Mt. Baker. The snow was good. They had a bit over a foot of new snow. The first runs were very nice and at the end of the day, when I’d remembered how to ski again, it began snowing again and so was again very nice. Mt. Baker is a very flakey ski resort. They have like one trail map sign for the entire resort. There were a couple of place I would have liked to ski, but they need another few feet of snow before I take my new skis on those runs.
Two highlights from the trip. One was early in the day. I hit a jump, not realizing that there was another jump immediately after it. I ended up nearly eating my ski tips, but somehow managed to stay upright over the second jump. I’m not sure what happened to my friend Bill who was following me over these two bumps. All I know is that we were under the chair lift and the most amazing groans and shouts of awe came from the lift. It must have been pretty good to illicit such a vocal response. The other highlight came at the end of the day. It was snowing and the conditions were such that you couldn’t see ANYTHING. I mean I had absolutely no depth perception. So I skied by following one of my fellow travels, a fellow by the name of Brendan. He’s a boarder and he was flying down the hill with me close on his heals. Turn. Turn. Turn. Tur….whooops that turn was in the middle of the air. Brendan had hit a dropoff mid turn. I was able to stop, but I can tell you there is nothing funnier than watching the increasing panic in someone who is midair and wondering, “where the heck is the ground.” Priceless.
Let It Snow, Let It Snow
Sweet, sweet, NW weather news. But remember, even with this good news, it is important for everyone to continue to perform a snow dance every few days or so.
Day 10 – The Stupidest Day of My Life
Beware the Ides of March
Yesterday was a snow day shutting down work at the Santa Fe Institute. It snowed about a foot in town. So with a friend, Alex, we decided to go to Taos for a great day of powder skiing.
First run of the day, starting about 10:15, we hiked up the ridgeline above the chair lift to get some nice fresh powder. We went beyond the turn off to the first shoots, but when we got to the top of the hill above this, the wind was too strong and so we strapped on on our skis and headed back to the first shoots. Alex was above me and he told me we had to cut very strongly to the skiers right to get back to the runs. Well, I thought I was traversing pretty hard. A few hundred feet down, I noticed that I didn’t know where Alex had gone to. But taking his advice, I kept trying to traverse to my right. About a 1500 feet later, I realized that I must have gone into a drainage basin on the backside of the mountain. Mistake. Big mistake. Deadly mistake.
I won’t describe for you the details of the next few hours as I realized I was lost, had no idea where I was, had only an apple in my pocket for food, and was faced with trying to climb out of where I was in conditions where I was postholing up to my waist and chest. By around noon my voice was hoarse from yelling for help.
Then a little before one o’clock, following my tracks, appeared my saviors, two ski partrollers, Michael and Rick. Alex had seen me take the wrong turn into the drainage basin, and had almost immediately contacted the ski patrol. If it wasn’t for Alex noticing my wrong turn, immediately contacting ski patrol, and the two brave souls Michael and Rick, well, I don’t really want to think about it. Stupid, David. Stupid, David.
We spent the next five hours making our way down the drainage basin through some astoundingly bad terrain. Here is what the terrain did to my ski:
Let’s just say that yesterday was one of the scariest days of my short life. Please, don’t be an idiot like me. Always ski with someone and if you don’t know the terrain but your buddy does, always stay in contact with your friend. If you don’t know where you’re going, don’t ski there. Always carry extra food and water with you. Dress warmly. Carry a pack with a medical kit, extra layers, matches, etc.
Day 9
It’s been far too long since my last ski trip. Yesterday I went skiing at the Santa Fe Ski Basin. It’s amazing what a small amout of new snow can do to make the conditions enjoyable. Steve Flammia came up with following interesting question: “How many chairs (what percentage) do you pass on your way from the top to the bottom of the chair lift?” [correction: As Joe points out, I somehow managed to totally mangle this question. Of course the question should be how many chairs you pass on the way from the bottom to the top of the chair. God Mondays are rough.] Make a first intuitive guess without thinking about the problem. I’d love to hear what people’s first guesses are in the comments.
Day 8
Halfday at the Santa Fe Basin with other SFI cohorts. Mostly this trip was notable for a beautiful crash in which I had to hike 50 meters up the mountain to retrieve my ski. It wasn’t so much that I was going fast, as that I did many acrobatic twists as I slid down the hill.
Day 7
Santa Fe Ski Basin, yesterday. A few inches of new snow. Snow was still good from the big storms earlier in the week; I especially liked the snow in the trees. Slowly I’m learning where some really neat runs are on the mountain. Sadly the top of the mountain was cloudbound most of the day. On the other hand, this made it feel like I was descending from the heavens when I would come out of the clouds. Falling out of the clouds to see the spectacular view over Santa Fe is not a bad day of skiing, I must say.
Day Six
The last two days have been rather stormfilled. So, I couldn’t resist this morning and headed up the Santa Fe Ski Basin for a half day of skiing. Around two feet of snow had fallen over the past two days with around 10 inches last night. My first run I had the usual reaction to lots of powder and was pretty temid, but by the next run I was going crazy. Skiing in the glades was particularly ripe with a lot of the snow not even tracked out when I left around noon. I’ve also already found a couple really nice secret stashes. Oh, and I also hit a tree. Or well I got slapped in the face by some large braches and now it looks like I’ve been in a fight. Damn tree sucker punched me.