Two Hurricanes in the Pacific

In the winter time I have one of the tabs in my browser set to the weather page at Alta Ski Area as it guides me on what to expect when I go skiing. That information is useless in the summer time and so instead I focus on hurricanes. While this may not seem to effect me as I reside in the landlocked state of Utah, it actually does. Furthermore hurricanes have a huge effect on vacation and travel plans. An Atlantic hurricane can really screw up flights throughout the entire country.

I have been watching NOAA's hurricane site for about 10 years and have seen something today I have never seen before. There is currently a hurricane south of Hawaii named Iona. Fortunately it is on a westward path and Hawaii is safe, for now. Behind it is the tropical storm Keli. I wouldn't expect there to be hurricanes so close together as the first one should be pulling energy from the ocean that would be required for the one behind it. That is probably why Keli is only a tropical storm and not expected to grow as it continues west and well south of Hawaii.

While I have seen multiple storms in either the Atlantic or Pacific oceans at the same time, I haven't seen two additional storms starting to form with a probability greater than 60% to become named storms. The furthest west storm is just east of Keli and has a 70% chance of turning into a tropical storm. A little bit closer to Mexico the conditions are a bit higher for storm formation as it has a 90% chance of forming into something of concern.

I am not worried about a hurricane making its way to Utah but I have seen storms like that send copious amounts of moisture my way. While it could be devastating for those near the coast, it could provide the Western United States with some badly needed precipitation. For some it will be bad, for others it will be good.

Fortunately I am not headed to Mexico, Hawaii, nor Florida in the near future and so I don't need to worry about changing vacation or travel plans. If I planned to go to Hawaii next week, I would keep those plans as none of the storms seem to be headed that way. If I planned to go to the west coast of Mexico, I might be watching the storm forming there but probably wouldn't change my plans either. The Atlantic has been relatively calm this year so far and continues to look that way now. With that being said, now is a good time to pay attention to hurricane forecasts as this is the time of year when it really gets interesting.  

Technology Improves Our Lives

This morning I woke up at 6am and ran through my usual morning routine of breakfast. Then I got ready to go skiing. It is early November which means lifts are not really running at Alta and so if you want to ski, you get to hike up the hill and earn your turns. My daughter joined me today.

Yesterday we did the same thing and had the luxury of clear skies. Today we started driving in a rainstorm that turned into snow the higher in elevation we drove. We arrived at the Wildcat lot in a full-blown blizzard. My daughter and I don't care as we live by the philosophy that there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. We got our skis ready and started climbing the hill while it snowed heavily around us. 

I felt incredibly comfortable as I hiked up the hill. We both made sure not to overdress as that would cause us to sweat too much which would freeze and make us cold. Instead the breathability of our Gortex-like shells kept the water out and allowed our perspiration to escape. I thought to myself that even though I was outside, I felt comfortable enough as if inside.

Technology constantly makes our lives better. I would not want to trade places with the wealthiest people of 200 years ago because of our many modern conveniences. Clothing is just one example. The many uses of electricity also come to mind. We can use it to keep us warm in the winter and cool in the summer, not to mention run our computers, light our homes, and power our entertainment devices. Yes, I am happy living right now.

Technology Can't Compete with Mother Nature

Mankind has achieved some really amazing things. Just thinking about all the technological advancements that allow me to post to this blog illustrates some of those achievements. Looking at advances in transportation, housing, food production, and many other areas leads one to believe that we can do a lot.

Tuesday we had a nice snowstorm here in Utah and so I decided to drive up to Alta Ski Area on Wednesday morning before work and see if I could make a few turns before the lifts start running in earnest. In addition to snow, Tuesday's storm ushered in colder temperatures and Alta has started making snow. Making snow is a fairly simple process where you spray tiny water droplets in front of a large-powerful fan that keeps the water in the air long enough to freeze before it hits the ground. The key to making snow is having cold enough temperatures.

I put on all my equipment and started hiking up a run called Corkscrew. It is the same run I hike at the beginning of every season and Alta is kind enough to allow people like me the chance to do so. They also have their snow makers cranking out snow so skiers don't have to worry about rocks in the middle of the run. The only problem is that you don't want to spend too much time in front of the snow makers as it can be cold and wet. During the course of my hike, I passed no fewer than 5 snow makers blowing snow 50 to 100 feet in the air.

Man-made snow has a much different consistency than natural snow. It is great for a base layer on runs that are skied frequently as it is more ice than Mother Nature's soft-fluffy flakes. The ice is more durable and does not get scraped off the mountain nearly as easily. The downside is that it is ice and not very fun to ski. I would much rather have natural snow fall from the sky and get compressed by hoards of skiers. Still the technology does allow us early skiing when Mother Nature doesn't cooperate.

As I hiked up the trail, I saw the remnants of Tuesday's storm and marveled at the uniform consistency. The snow blanketed the entire mountain without the need of strategically-placed machines. Even though Alta's snow makers cranked out a lot of fresh snow, it paled in comparison to what Mother Nature provided. Yes mankind can do some amazing things but we still have a long ways to go to catch up to naturally occurring phenomenon.

Carnage and Destruction

Last week I tried to ski every morning before work only to have my plans thwarted by avalanche danger. The huge snowfall coupled with rapidly warming temperatures created an unsafe environment for driving the canyon between the Salt Lake valley and the ski areas up Little Cottonwood Canyon, Snowbird and Alta. For the first 3 days, I could go to a safe area closer to home and tour to Alien Tower at the top of Suncrest in Draper. Then the warming temperatures melted a lot of snow and I decided it was no longer worth it. I waited patiently and was rewarded on Saturday morning with a safe window where the canyon opened enough to drive to Alta. Then I had to wait until the sun went down for them to open it again. It meant hanging out at Alta until after 7pm even though the lifts stopped running at 4:30.

As the canyon is closed again this morning and probably won't open until Saturday, I used my early morning time to create a video of Saturday's drive up to Alta where I filmed about 80% of the trip. In the video you can see most of the avalanches that crossed the road during the previous week. I missed the first one which is when I decided that I should probably pull out my phone and capture video as others might be interested in the carnage and destruction.

What is it about carnage and destruction that attracts viewers to video sites like YouTube? I get a lot of views of my skiing videos but this one will probably turn out to be one of my most popular. Should someone ask how to get a bazillion views of their video, I would recommend including natural disasters or other train-wreck ideas. People just can't help but watch.

Technology Can Help Make Smart Decisions

Today I went skiing with the adult members of my family and we had quite the adventure. We started at Alta and went looking for leftover powder from yesterday. We skied over to the Supreme chairlift only to discover all the new snow had been skied out. We probed along the ski run looking for newly opened gates to see if we might find something fun to ski. All of the gates remained closed because of high avalanche danger and so we stayed on the main run.

Next we headed over to the Sugarloaf chairlift and traversed over to the Collins side of the resort. We had a bit of a hike but made some good turns and found some unskied snow. Unfortunately it was a long way to go for only a few turns. We kept looking. When we got to the bottom of the Collins chairlift the line looked very long compared to the Wildcat lift which only had a few people in it. Not wanting to wait in line, we headed up Wildcat. At the top, we had a decision to make. We could stay at Alta or we could drop into Snowbird via the Keyhole gate. It is this decision where technology could have helped yet we trusted our own intuition. Well I trusted mine and my wife gave me the look that said she didn't.

There are several options for moving between Snowbird and Alta. Before even considering skiing both resorts in the same day you need to have an AltaBird pass. Otherwise you are stuck in one resort or the other. We all had the requisite pass and wanted to take advantage of it. We knew we could use the Keyhole gate to get from Alta to Snowbird. The trick was how to get from Snowbird back to Alta. One option is to take the public bus. That is always the last resort as we came to ski, not ride a bus. There is also the option of dropping into Mineral Basin and taking the Baldy Express chair back to Alta. Unfortunately it is too early in the season and Mineral Basin isn't open yet.

As we sat on the top of the Wildcat chairlift deciding which way to go, we knew we couldn't use Mineral Basin but knew we could use the Armpit gate on Baldy to get from Snowbird to Alta. With that as our plan, we headed to Snowbird. In hindsight, we had all of the tools necessary to augment our decision. We should have pulled out a mobile phone and checked to make sure we could use the Tram to get up to Baldy. Given the tram closure, we could also leverage the Little Cloud chairlift. Furthermore, we could have verified that the ski patrol allowed people to ski on Baldy. Remember that the avalanche danger was high enough at Alta that we couldn't guarantee Baldy would be skiable.

Armed with only the intuition that we would be able to get back to our car at Alta, we headed to Snowbird. We definitely found the fresh powder we wanted. Those turns at the top of Keyhole are the stuff skier's dreams are made of. Then we carefully threaded our way down the narrow chute that gives Keyhole its name. Once on the main runs at Snowbird we headed to the tram so we could get back to Alta. This is where the adventure began.

We got to the tram and found it to be closed. We are not sure we would have known that while still at Alta as the closure seemed to happen as we got there. The reason for the closure was high winds at the top of the mountain. A quick check of the weather on the Snowbird website would have told us that the winds approached the maximum speeds for tram operation and we might be flirting with a closure. We explained our desire to return to Alta in the hopes of a suggestion from the Snowbird staff. I threw out the idea of heading over to Little Cloud and hiking from it to the top of the tram so we could get to Baldy. Chairlifts can run in higher wind speeds than the tram. Unfortunately Little Cloud was temporarily closed because of avalanche activity in the resort.

We saw our options decreasing with every idea but had a few more. Next we headed up the Peruvian chairlift. From there we had 2 options. We could try to make the short hike up a very steep face which would put us on Baldy. The second option was to ski down to the condo complex below and make the mile walk to Alta. I didn't want to wear everyone out and I do enough hiking so I suggested I would make the hike up to Baldy, get to the car, and drive down to pick the rest of the party up at Snowbird. My wife wanted someone else to go with me and so I picked the kid that kept up with me best while hiking earlier in the season. We started the climb and got about a third of the way up before others on the trail told us that ski patrol had just closed Baldy because of avalanche danger.

That left skiing down to the condos and hiking the mile to Alta. We tried to find other ways to get to Alta as we skied down towards the condos but couldn't find one. We pulled off our skis, threw them over our shoulders, and started walking. It didn't take long to find a ski trail. We put our skis back on and skied across the snow. We found another parking area and pulled skis off to walk through before putting our skis on for the last time. We had to skate up a few slight inclines but we made it to Alta and got the car.

We never wanted to take the bus and that turned out to be a blessing. Right now the public transit system in Salt Lake can't find enough drivers and so they have suspended bus service at Snowbird and Alta until later in the month. It turns out, the bus was never an option. Once again, a quick Internet search would have told us that our absolute fail-safe option wasn't an option after all.

Ultimately we had the technology at our fingertips to help us make an informed decision. Knowing the buses were not running might have been enough to keep me from making the wrong decision to head into Snowbird. In the end though, I did get a good story out of the experience. I also hit my step count for the day before noon.

Top 5 Steepest Ski Areas in North America

Last night I was putting the finishing touches on my latest video, the Top 5 Steepest Ski Areas in North America when I realized that I needed one more picture for the video. I mentioned High Rustler at Alta but didn't have any pictures of the iconic ski run. I had already shown pictures of the trail map and knew that a quality photo taken from the road would convey the right message.

My daughter is a ski instructor at Alta and I asked her if she had any pictures of High Rustler. She didn't but did have today off and so we drove up to the resort together. Before getting to the parking lot, I pulled off to the side of the road and she took a beautiful picture with my camera. We then spent the morning skiing on our World Cup GS race skis carving high-speed turns on the beautifully groomed runs. A few hours later, we headed home.

Dropping the photo into iMovie was easy and it made for a dramatic scene in the video. High Rustler is really one of those steep runs that even advanced skiers have nightmares about. When I first started skiing it in college, I would have to force any fear out of my mind or it would paralyze me at the top. Today's photo captured that. If you are interested in seeing it, just watch the link at the top of the post.

Opening Day at Alta

Today is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and it is fitting that I should post about one thing I am thankful for: opening day at Alta ski resort. This morning my wife and I awoke at 7am and quickly got ready so we could head up for the morning celebration. We arrived at 8am and I quickly got ready. I left my wife in the warm car while I stood in the cold line and saved us places close to the front. Eventually my wife joined me followed shortly by our youngest daughter who is a ski instructor at the resort. Today is her day off and so she got to ski with us.

So what does opening day have to do with computers and technology? As usual, not a single thing. Well there is the point I could make about how we got 3 inches of fresh snow this morning and I could have looked up that information on the Internet before getting in the car. The funny thing though is that I would have made the trip anyways. While it is the first day of lift-serviced skiing, it is my 16th day this season and so I had a really good idea of what the conditions would be like. I didn't need to waste my time looking them up.

Hopefully you too have something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season. Perhaps your item is even much more meaningful than mine. I sure hope so as there are many things I am thankful for. I just chose to list this one today.

Doordash Doesn't Deliver During Snowstorms

Today we have a new person starting on the team at work and so the manager arranged lunch for everyone. That means I got a gift certificate for Doordash. My daughter is home with me because she can't get up the canyon for her job at Alta due to a massive snowstorm right now. I asked her if she wanted to share lunch with me. We decided on pizza and so I logged onto the site to order it. Guess what? That same snowstorm that is keeping my daughter from getting to work is also keeping Doordash from delivering a pizza. I probably should have figured that one out on my own.

My Hackathon Project

A couple of times a year we get to participate in hackathon projects at work. This allows people to work on things that interest them above and beyond their daily work. Our latest hackathon finished a week ago and I had a really great time.

Most hackathon projects are related to the PlayStation but I decided to do something a bit different. Several years ago I came up with the idea of attaching a speaker to my skis so that I would be able to find them if I lost them on a powdery day. For those that don't ski, bindings are meant to release your skis in the event of a fall so that they don't cause damage to your body. Ski brakes then extend into the snow and keep the skis from running away down the hill. The system works great most of the time with fresh powder being the exception. When you lose your skis on a powdery day, it is anyone's guess as to where they are.

My idea is to being able to have the speaker start making noise when you activate it with your smartphone. I bought a $30 microcontroller board with Bluetooth capabilities, a small buzzer, and a Lithium-ion battery. It didn't take long to put everything together and modify a few sample programs to get the board talking with my mobile phone. I could turn the buzzer on and off from my phone before going to bed on the first night of the event.

I woke up the next morning and took the device to Snowbird ski resort to do some testing. The first thing I wanted to check is how loud the buzzer was. Unfortunately, it wasn't that loud. Not wanting to waste the day, I next checked how far the Bluetooth worked. At around 150 feet or 50 meters, I could still communicate with the microcontroller from my smartphone which is more than enough distance. I found that to be encouraging and came home to work on the low-sound issue.

I replaced the buzzer with a speaker but that didn't help at all. The microcontroller just didn't have enough power to drive the speaker very loudly. As I felt stuck with the buzzer, I actually soldered the buzzer to the microcontroller board. That increased the sound output by 3 times. I could now hear the device from 60 feet away instead of just 20.

The next day I headed up to Alta ski resort and waited for the lifts to start carrying skiers to the top of the mountain. We had several inches of new snow and that made for great test conditions. While waiting in line, I ran over to an area of fresh snow and buried the microcontroller about 6 inches deep. I activated the buzzer and didn't hear a blasted thing. It turns out snow is a great sound insulator. While I felt disappointed, I still had one more test to perform: battery life in the cold conditions. That means I spent 2 hours powder skiing with the device turned on and communicating with my smartphone. I had my daughter with me who is an excellent powder skier and we had a lot of fun.

Now someone reviewing my hackathon project  might think I wasted the company's time by working on a device that has no relevance to video games. The reality is that I have never worked with a microcontroller before and this served as an entrance for me to other hardware projects. I actually have a very good idea for my next hackathon. I will use the same microcontroller board with a few of its analog-to-digital inputs to help create a new type of controller. I won't say more than that but it will definitely be related to video games and how to make them better.

PS5 is Cheap Compared to Skiing

My youngest daughter is a ski instructor at Alta Ski Resort here in Utah. Before lunch I talked with her a bit and she looked into how much she makes per lesson compared with how much the resort makes. It is important this season as there won't be group lessons because of COVID-19. That means she will be giving private lessons all winter long. For an all-day private lesson, Alta Ski School charges $700. Let's not worry about how much of that my daughter will see (not much, if you are wondering). That figure startled her as it did me. I decided that if I was just getting into skiing, I couldn't afford it.

That $700 figure doesn't include ski equipment rentals, lift tickets, or food. So basically, if you need help learning how to ski, plan on dropping $1000 for a single day of skiing. All I can say is, "Wow!"

Now Alta is known as a relatively inexpensive place to ski. When I was in college, I liked Alta because a lift ticket cost so much less than other resorts in the area. Naturally my daughter and I became curious and looked at how much private lessons are at Park City. You can plan on dropping $900 there. We also looked at the most expensive resort in Utah and that is Deer Valley. During peak season, expect to spend over $1100 for private lessons there.

When the PlayStation 5 price was announced, I thought it a bit pricey. Now I realize that I can afford to play video games a lot easier than I can afford to go skiing. For the price of one day of skiing, I can get a PS5 and an XBox Series X. The only problem is finding a store with the new video game consoles.

Finding a Job Amid COVID-19

It seems that you can't watch the evening news, visit an online news site, or read a newspaper without seeing headlines about record unemployment. My youngest daughter, son-in-law, and youngest son are all effected by the horrible job hunting conditions due to the current global pandemic. I'm sure you all have people close to you in similar situations. Hopefully I can share some strategies to help.

Let's start with my youngest son. He just graduated from the University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. It seems that no matter what he does, he can't get anyone to even look at his resume or return his inquiries. This is an incredibly tough job market for people with experience; It is even tougher for those just coming out of college looking to land a first full-time job. Fortunately my son is married and his wife is a nurse. Her skills are in high-demand and so my son will be heading to graduate school while she pays the bills. As nobody is sure if classes will be held in the fall, he is focusing on online programs as that will be the best option for the foreseeable future. My son also has another internship lined up with a highly respected organization. The requirement for the internship is that he is enrolled in a graduate program.

My son-in-law is also a fairly recent college graduate. His job was eliminated because of COVID-19 and he won't be returning until social distancing rules are relaxed. His wife, my daughter, is also in a unique situation where she will be going to graduate school. That makes finding a job for my son-in-law rather difficult. While my son is looking at online programs, my daughter's program requires her to be on campus and she will be moving from Utah to Alabama. If she can't be in class, they may defer her start until meeting restrictions are lifted. Not knowing when they will move makes finding a short-term job almost impossible. At some point it is easier to just collect unemployment and my son-in-law falls into that category for now.

Finally there is my youngest daughter. She has lost her job twice and a 2-month period. She started the year as a ski instructor at Alta ski resort. March 14th she went to work thinking she would make it through the season before they closed because of COVID-19. The next day, she didn't have a job. Her employer did the best they could with providing a little extra pay to bridge the gap between her next job. Rather than sit around waiting for her summer job to start, she immediately applied to Amazon and 2 weeks after her last day at Alta, she started fulfilling orders at an Amazon warehouse in Salt Lake City. She knew it was only a short-term gig and was glad. Working in a warehouse is not the right job for someone used to being outdoors every day of the week. After a month, she quit so she could start preparing for her summer job. She had been accepted to teach at a ski resort in New Zealand but that country is locked down and a week before her flight was scheduled to depart she was told not to come. So how would you like to lose your primary job twice in the same 2-month period? Fortunately for my daughter has found another job at an outdoor summer camp that is scrambling to open in the next couple of weeks. Let's hope they can pull it off.

So what are the takeaways from my 3 anecdotal experiences? First, this is a tough job market for new college graduates and you might want to think about getting an online graduate degree. Second, it is a tough job market for professionals with only a few years experience. Don't be afraid to file for unemployment as it may provide some badly needed income until you can find a job. Finally, there are jobs out there if you look hard enough and are willing to do almost anything. Sure you may be stuck in a warehouse shipping unmentionables to really bored people for $17/hour, but there are jobs. I hope this helps.

Website Updates Can Be Difficult

Recently Alta ski resort updated their website and I am having trouble learning how to navigate it. As it is ski season, I have a morning routine I follow even when I am in California and not planning to ski that day. When I am home in Utah, I get my breakfast and then sit down with a web browser to check Alta's website. I am looking for how much new snow they received overnight, what lifts will be running, and what the grooming looks like for the day. Next I pull up Snowbird's site as they have different information that helps give me an idea of what the ski conditions are like. Finally I pull up the Utah Avalanche Center site and carefully go through the morning's report.

I am looking for specific things in all 3 sites and I had a system. With Alta's website redesign, I find myself having to go to 3 different pages to get the same information I used to be able to get from 1. The changes have frustrated me over the past week. I do have to admit that the new site is much prettier though.

This evening I decided to do more than just look at Alta's website and play around with it. Guess what, they have a shortcut to a page that has all the information I want in a single place. In the top right corner of the home page is graphic with information about what the weather is currently doing. All I have to do is click on that and it takes me to a much more graphically pleasing version of my previous favorite page. Furthermore it has more information than before and that is helpful.

The point of this post is that we sometimes resist change instead of embracing it. While a website update can be difficult, sometimes all it takes is playing around with the site a bit and you may find you like it more than before. That is definitely the case with Alta's site and I have to say, "Thank you."

Merry Christmas

I hope you had a very merry Christmas this year. Mine felt a little different this year as my kids are all getting older and have families of their own. My wife and I woke early with our youngest daughter and opened a few gifts. Then we all got ready to go skiing. My daughter is an instructor up at Alta and left before me and my wife.

Eventually my wife and I got out the door and thought we would head to Alta as well (Snowbird is also an option). That way if our daughter didn't have any kids to teach, we could take a few runs together. Ultimately we never got to ski with our daughter but we did have some great runs in the fresh snow.

For the past few years we have had snow on Christmas eve which makes for a great day of skiing. Today was no exception. The funny thing is that the snow prediction for the week was only a couple of inches at the resorts. Fortunately we got a lot more than that. While I looked at the weather the report last night, I made sure to double check Alta's website this morning. Sure enough, the 1 to 3 inches predicted turned into 9.

While skiers used to be able to call resorts for snow reports, the Internet has made things much easier. We can look things up at the resort website and find out the latest weather reports. If we want more information, we can look at webcams and see the conditions first-hand. Today those conditions looked pretty good and it made for a very merry Christmas.

Too Much Snow

Is there such a thing as too much snow for a skier? The answer is YES. Today happened to be one of those days where we got too much snow in a single day.

This morning it started snowing at around 6 am. By the time my daughter got in the car to head up to Alta where they needed her to teach ski lessons, we had over an inch in the front yard. I got up and got ready to go with my wife and son and had to clean the driveway again. That means the snow was falling at around 2 inches per hour. We got close to the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon when the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) closed it because of avalanche danger. With no expected opening time, we turned around and came home.

I got rather grumpy because I didn't get to go skiing today. My son, wife, and I did take the chance to practice with our avalanche beacons and probes so that we will be ready to use them should that become necessary (I sure hope not). Little did I know that my adventure with the snow had only just begun.

While I had made it home safely I still had my daughter up at Alta and I worried about her safe return. The avalanche danger got so bad that the resorts closed just after noon. That means there is a serious problem as ski resorts never close because of too much snow. While the road closed to all uphill traffic, they opened it to those headed down. Then a natural avalanche let loose and came across the road closing it to everyone. My daughter had made it from Alta down to Snowbird before being diverted off the road and into a parking lot. She then got directed into a concrete structure built to withstand an avalanche direct hit. There she waited for 4 hours.

The whole time my daughter waited to get down from the ski resort, I kept checking all of the technology available to me. UDOT actively tweeted about road conditions around the state and every once and a while would mention Little Cottonwood Canyon. They also have a great website where you can click on video cameras located on a map to get a picture of the traffic at that location. When my daughter would text me with information about where she was in the canyon, I could look at the video cameras and at least see cars on the road. If there weren't any, then the road was still closed.

Over 12 hours after leaving home this morning, my daughter finally pulled our trusty Jeep into the garage. The storm total for that 12-hour period? 23 inches, which turns out to be about 2 inches an hour. Yes, there can be such a thing as too much snow for a skier . . . but it is very rare.

Christmas 2018

I normally don't post to my blog on Christmas but have some extra time this evening after a very busy day with the family. I thought I would sit down and type a few words about this special day of the year. While it would be fun to pontificate on what makes a good Christmas, I like my blog to have a more technical focus and so I will try to stick to that. However I would like to add that a good snow always makes a great Christmas and today I had a great day skiing at Alta.

My kids and wife don't really have a large list of things they can get me for Christmas. If there is something I want, I will generally go out an get it. Everyone did surprise me this year and got me a few things that I had talked about during the year but had forgotten about.

My stocking contained a couple of off-brand sports cameras that I pointed out to my daughter when they came on sale for $50. They seem equivalent to the GoPro Hero 4 but I have only had the chance to play with them for a bit and may be overselling them. I have wanted to create more adventure videos and so I am hoping the cameras will help gather footage. One nice thing about having 2 of them is I can set them up to record from different angles and have more footage to choose from.

The new cameras are capable of recording in 4K and so it is important to make sure I have Class 10 or U3 micro SD cards (this is the technical part of the post). I have a couple of them from a few weeks ago and so I am good for now but will want to pick up more. I will be interested to provide a review of the camera hardware once I spend a bit more time with them. Stay tuned for that in a future post. Until then, I hope you have had a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Dawn Patrol

Last night before heading to bed, my two sons and youngest daughter hatched a plan to wake up early and go skiing. My youngest son, daughter, and I all have unlimited seasons passes to Alta but my oldest son does not. We also all had to go to work and couldn't justify having one person pay for a pass only to ski for an hour or so. Instead we headed to the mountains before the resorts even opened and planned to hike to the top under our own power and then ski down at about the same time the lifts started depositing paying customers to the top. Some resorts don't allow hikers and those that do have specific instructions that must be followed. You are also required to have specific safety equipment that include avalanche beacons, avalanche probes, and a good shovel.

Hiking before the lifts even start running is commonly known as "Dawn Patrol" and is a great way to start any day. We followed the usual safety protocol and made sure to check all the appropriate websites before leaving the house. Then we drove to the "Summer Road" area of Alta and headed up to an area known as "Patsy Marley."

It has been about a week since the last snow and so the skiing didn't include glorious powder that most people associate with Utah skiing. Instead the high-point of the morning included spectacular scenery on our hike through the forest and up the mountain. We hiked for about 90 minutes and then skied down in about 5.

Interestingly I found it much easier to sit in front of a computer and get work done. I had the ability to concentrate for a lot longer and got a lot done. If you find yourself staring at the prospect of a long day in front of a computer, I highly recommend "Dawn Patrol."

WiFi at Alta Ski Resort

Yesterday I decided I would spend my day working from Alta Ski resort instead of at home. Normally I would have gone up in the morning, done a bit of skiing, and then come home to work. Instead I drove up with my daughter who teaches skiing there. Upon arrival, I immediately headed to the Albion Grill where I set up camp for the day. I sat at the window and looked out at the spectacular mountains. I found a place where I could watch my daughter teach her little groms. I enjoyed watching her instruct cute little kids.

When the lifts opened up, I went out and took a few runs. The high temperature of the morning registered around 5 degrees Fahrenheit. So after 4 runs, I headed back to the lodge to warm up and do some more work. I found the WiFi in the lodge to be superb. I had to download a 500 MB file and the free service didn't get too slow for everyone else. Furthermore the file seemed to be ready to use in a matter of seconds. Out of respect to everyone else, I didn't try to download any more large files.

At lunch I noticed the lift lines became non-existent. I headed out for a few runs until everyone finished lunch and the lines returned. Then I headed back to the lodge for more software testing and e-mail reading. My wife arrived around 3pm to take a few runs with our son and daughter-in-law. I headed out with her for an hour or so and then we drove home.

If you find yourself looking for a change of scenery and have the option of working from home, I highly suggest heading to a ski lodge. If the WiFi is as good as Alta's, you can get a lot done. Furthermore the scenery and atmosphere is awesome. I highly recommend it.

Back to the Normal Routine

For the past month or so, my normal routine temporarily changed. It all started when my company decided to redo the floors in our gym. That meant no exercising at work for 2 weeks. It also meant I got to refresh my memory of the marina showers. I prefer the ones at work a lot more.

Next I had my usual winter ski trip with my wife. Every winter, I like to take a few days to try and ski someplace new. We thought about visiting Telluride in Colorado but opted to stay closer to home because of snow conditions. Instead we skied at Deer Valley, Snowbird, and Alta. Due to our seasons passes, the price of lift tickets amounted to absolutely nothing. Throw in the lack of a need to find a hotel room and the trip came in at a bargain price.

Finally I had a business trip to London and took my youngest daughter who has never been out of the country. We had a great trip and I got a lot of good work done. It just meant a departure from the normal routine.

This week I am at in my office in the Bay Area with everything back to normal. Don't get me wrong, I love to mix things up every now and then. Not having to go to work because of a ski vacation is a good thing. However now I am glad to be back on a regular schedule with my normal exercise and shower facilities available. It also means I have time in the evenings to test more video games. There are a number of new ones that have come out. I have spent some time watching my son play Horizon Zero Dawn and today a friend from EA picked me up a copy of Mass Effect Andromeda. They both look to be spectacular games. When I am on my boat during the week, I can play without feeling any guilt at all. Now my only decision is which one to play first.

Online Reviews

Last week I spent the first three days skiing Aspen. Three of the four ski resorts there consistently make the list of the top 30 ski resorts in the Western United States every year. I have always wanted to ski the Aspen resorts and enjoyed the chance to do so.

Today at lunch we discussed one of the latest blockbuster films: Batman vs. Superman. I saw the movie last week and have some definite opinions about it. Even though the release has been highly anticipated, the film has received a number of negative reviews.

These two events have me thinking about various reviews and how much you can trust them. I am very particular when it comes to skiing. I know what I like and look for a good mountain with great snow more than tasty restaurants or nightlife after skiing. However some people are more concerned about the later and Aspen definitely lives up to their expectations. Personally I found all 3 mountains to be rather lackluster and over hyped. I actually don't even agree with the ranking that everyone came up with for the 3 Aspen resorts. General consensus has Snowmass as the best followed by Aspen Mountain and then Aspen Highlands. Snowmass is definitely large but lacks any really challenging terrain. I would rank them in reverse order.

In the case of the movie, I have to partly agree with the negative reviews but also think that some have been to harsh. It contained a lot of action but also seemed to drag at times. There wasn't much comic relief and that may have turned some people off. When the movie finished, I looked at my watch and it surprised me that almost three hours had passed. It felt more like two hours and so I have to admit that I was thoroughly entertained.

While we all want a quick thumbs-up or thumbs-down rating for potential purchases, it is important to read online reviews thoroughly. Most of the time you can determine why a review has been narrowed down to thumbs-up or down and that may sway your own opinion. In my own case, I enjoyed Aspen but ended up checking out of the hotel a day early and heading back to Snowbird/Alta while not regretting it for a second.

Ski Season Around the Corner

Last night I flew home to Utah from the Bay Area because I will be heading to Japan on Sunday. I am attending a conference and last year I needed to leave on Saturday to make it in time. This year my team has decided to forget about the first day so we don't blow a weekend at home. I wish I had known that when I was making my flight arrangements a month ago. Oh well, I got an extra day to work from home. It actually worked out well though.

Before I left last night, my wife sent me a text indicating it was going to be a bumpy landing. She was not wrong, it was quite the roller coaster. That was because we had a storm coming in. There was a 40 degree temperature drop over night and this morning I had a bunch of snow in my front yard. It is a good thing my home office doesn't have any windows or I would have spent the day watching the snow pile up.

I am in my fourth year on the board of directors for the Snowbird Sports Education Foundation or Snowbird Ski Team. One of the perks is that I get a huge discount on my Snowbird Seasons Pass. The only problem with it is that I have to abide by certain rules. One of those is that I have to pick up my season's pass at specific times. This afternoon at 4pm was one of those times. I won't be around at the other times and so if I want to get my pass before the mountain opens, I had to get it today. So it worked out for me.

What does any of that have to do with computers? Well a number of resorts are getting ready to open and the best way to decide if it is worth making the trek to the mountains is by looking at their web cameras. Here are some links to some of my favorite mountains:

Alta, Utah
Snowbird, Utah
Snowbasin, Utah

Squaw Valley, California
Kirkwood, California

Vail, Colorado

Whistler, B.C., Canada