Google Maps Mislead Me

My wife and I just completed a ski trip at Winter Park in Colorado. We opted to drive in order to save money as the savings in travel time turned out to only be an hour or so vs. flying. Before setting out I checked Google Maps to see the fastest way to get there and back. I had 3 possible routes to use with only 8 minutes separating the quickest 2. I decided to take US 40 from Salt Lake all the way to Winter Park on the way out as it indicated it would be the fastest way.

The drive to Winter Park went well and we arrived a little after dark. The travel time came very close to Google's estimate. We checked into our on-hill condo and enjoyed being able to wake up late and walk over to the gondola as the resort opened. Eventually our 3 days of skiing came to a close and it came time to return home. This time I decided to take the alternate route. Yes it added 30 miles to the trip but was only supposed to add 8 minutes and allowed us to take I-80 back to Salt Lake.

On the way out, we had to be very careful as US-40 is mostly 2 lanes and full of wildlife. In other words, you have to watch out so you don't hit a deer and ruin your car. This makes exceeding the speed limit extremely unwise.

Taking a different way back turned out to be very scenic and we got to see a part of the country we had yet to visit. Once we got on I-80, we simply turned on cruise control at 80 miles per hour as that is the speed limit most of the way. I didn't expect to get to Salt Lake until 7:30pm based on the time estimate given by Google Maps. We stopped once for gas and then another time for 75 cent ice cream cones in Little America (highly recommended). Imagine my surprise when we pulled into our driveway an hour before we were supposed to. I like it when Google Maps is wrong sometimes. Now I only wish I had known that on the way out as we might have gotten into Winter Park before nightfall.

Avalanche Danger

This morning I got a text from one of my neighbors back in Salt Lake. He would like to do some ski touring where you hike to the top of mountain under your own power before skiing down. He asked where I thought there is enough snow this early in the season. As that is something I had hoped to do on Monday morning before heading to the Bay Area, I had some ideas I could give him.

This afternoon I got a call from my son asking me if I wanted to drive out to the Uinta mountains this weekend to do a quick ski tour. For those that don't know, the Uinta mountains are in Eastern Utah. My son asked if I thought there would be enough snow. As he called while I sat in front of my computer, I pulled up the first place to go when thinking about doing some backcountry skiing in Utah: The Utah Avalanche Center. I clicked on the area for the Uinta mountains and checked to see the avalanche danger. It is fairly safe right now for South-facing slopes and dangerous for North-facing ones.

While ski resorts keep you informed about the ski conditions within their boundaries, the Utah Avalanche Center does an excellent job showing the rest of the state. One of my son's concerns is if there is enough snow to even ski at this time of the year. The site showed that there is enough snow and that people are out there making turns. It also showed what to avoid with respect to avalanche danger.

Should you find yourself in Utah (Colorado has an equivalent organization and corresponding website) looking to do some backcountry skiing, the Utah Avalanche Center website should be your first stop before gearing up. It will give you an idea of overall conditions as well as warn you about which slopes are unsafe. After all, it is all fun and games until the mountain tries to kill you.

Smart House Blues

Last week I went on an eight-day ski trip in Colorado with a couple of guys that frequently come to visit me at Snowbird in Utah. I have listened to their stories of skiing endless powder at Wolf Creek and so I decided to join them this year. They picked me up at the Denver airport and we proceeded to drive for our first night of lodging. John drove while Jim sat in the front passenger seat and I hung out in the back.

John is owner of a high-tech company in the Chicago area and loves technologies. He brought no fewer than 2 tablets, 2 smartphones, and a laptop computer complete with all of the cables and wires one would need to connect everything together. I wasn't in the car for more than 30 minutes before John's wife called about a problem with the TV. He was driving and couldn't really help her and so the call was quick. There were several more calls before we got to our destination.

The next morning we were up early to do some skiing and there were more calls related to the TV not working. Jim kept telling John to log into one of the cameras he has in his office and watch what his wife was doing. That would have to wait until we were back at the condo. Fortunately John was able to figure out the problem and I thought we were done with "fix-it" calls from his wife. Nope, as soon as the TV was fixed, there was a beeping noise coming from behind the furnace. Jim thought it was because the smoke alarm battery needed to be replace. After a dozen phone calls from the chairlift throughout the day, we discovered it was actually a low battery in a moisture sensor.

John has a "smart house" that is digitally connected to numerous sensors and alleged time-saving devices. Each device has a purpose that has proved its worth. Unfortunately for us, John never trained his wife on any of it and we dealt with constant calls about problems, beeps, and alarms throughout our trip. It sort of made me glad that my house is incredibly simple and the only real home automation I have is a computer-controlled thermostat that my wife is more than capable of handling. I had a great trip and only got calls from my wife asking about the skiing.