We killed Barbie!!

For those who have never seen South Park, this reference is probably lost.



OK, maybe we didn't kill Barbie, but we came close.

Barbie Reid, our friend and neighbor from Raleigh came out to visit. Barbie's husband Mark was off on business and couldn't join us this year.



The main focus of the trip was improved skiing. Julie and Barbie signed up for a 3-day women's ski clinic at Deer Valley. Julie did this clinic two years ago and had great success with it. We had fantastic weather and both ladies were extremely happy with what they learned.



This shot was from the day before the clinic. Being a guy, I wasn't allowed to go along for a photo shoot during the class sessions. Barbie started somewhere between beginner and intermediate. She was cruising down blue slopes, but with form that would make it hard to get much further.

At the end of three days, she had made some big improvements and was starting to carve her turns. For non-skiers, this is a big deal. Many skiers skid their turns and it is hard to improve.



Julie's an excellent skier but has lacked the confidence to tackle some of the hardest slopes. I'm the opposite, lots of confidence and less kills. I think they call that "male".

Her group in the clinic did Deer Valley's Daly Chutes, a double black diamond. Her confidence has grown in leaps and bounds. She went bounding down through some moguls fields, one of which laid me flat on by back two days later.

Now I am going to have to try and catch up!



Then we killed Barbie, or maimed her at least. Late on her last day of skiing, she took a fall skiing off the Empire lift. She gave her knee a bad twist and couldn't stand on it.



This earned her a toboggan ride down the mountain, provided by Deer Valley's ski patrol, followed by a trip to the doctor. In the doctor's office, there were several skiers with leg injuries and one with a possible concussion.

A big thanks to the Deer Valley Ski Patrol. They were quick to the fall, very nice, got her off the mountain quickly, and even dropped her rental skis and boots off for her. They made a ski injury a lot more tolerable.



So far, it looks like a sprain rather than a tear, which is great news. You have to wait a week or so for the swelling to go down before they can really tell the extent. She's in a brace and hopping around in crutches.



Living in Park City, you get this reminder all the time. That legal crap on the back of the ski ticket says something about "Skiing is dangerous and you may suffer great bodily harm". All it takes is one bad turn, one surprise under the snow, or a meeting with a reckless skier (or more likely, a snowboarder). Be limber. Be strong. Be balanced. Most of all, be lucky.

Heal quickly Barbie!

World Cup Skiing

This weekend was huge for the local Park City sports scene. Deer Valley and PCMR (Park City Mountain Resort) got together to host skiing's Freestyle World Cup. This includes the moguls, aerial jumping, and the halfpipe. I took advantage of the nice weather and went out to shoot some pictures.

This is the view from the halfpipe looking down at the Park City golf course. During the winter, this area is used as the base for cross country skiing. Between the golf course and some public trails, they have full 5k and 10k courses to ski.



If you haven't ever seen a halfpipe, this is a big one. It is 22 feet from the lip down to the bottom. That means a lot of vertical to gather speed for big tricks, and a long way to fall when you screw up. A decent crowd had gathered to watch the finals.



The most amazing thing is to watch the skiers come flying out of the pipe, twisting and spinning, only to drop back out of sight seconds later. If you happen to be standing where someone pops up, it's a rush!



The main trick for the skiers is to come up spinning. The difficulty increases based on number of spins, crossing skis, reaching down for grabs, or adding a flip.



Big points come to those who get big air. This guy is probably 12-15 feet above the lip, putting him 35-40 feet above the bottom.



You wonder if they ever get a chance to take in the view as they fly by.



Some things look more like "oh my God" moments than intentional tricks.



The next set of pictures are kind of an accidental bonus. Next to the halfpipe is one of PCMR's biggest terrain parks. It has a series of fairly large jumps, and any person (idiot) is welcome to jump in and go for a ride. I was right across from this jump and turned to catch some locals enjoying the day. I think they were as exciting as the international halfpipe competitors.

Notice that there are two people in the air here.



Not hindered by the monstorous halfpipe, these guys just came sailing by, twisting every which way.



A nice grab...



It doesn't look like you should be able to recover from this.



Some actually hit the jump backwards and go from there. I wonder if the person who first thought of twin-tip skis envisioned this. Twin-tips are skis that have the curved up edge on both the front and back, so you can go either direction.



Every once in a while, there would be two guys in the air at once, one right behind the other. You have to wonder what the wreck would look like if the first guys takes a spill.



On that note, it was quite the busy day. Although the competitors didn't get too banged up, PCMR had 4 trips out by AirMed and 4 more by ambulance. Mosts were from the terrain parks and one was another victim of "skier versus tree". If you haven't played that game, the tree always wins.



Now we change venues, heading to Deer Valley. I shot these pictures one night from up near our house. They were holding the aerial jumping finals, and around 7,000 people attend. The jumping area and the mogul runs are lit up for the competitions. I like this view because even from a mile away, the lighting is amazing.



Zoomed in a good bit, you can see the race course and the jump (bottom right). Double click on the picture for a better view.



Trying to squeeze 7,000 spectators into the base of Deer Valley was a bit of a parking disaster. I took this 15 second exposure to get all the car lights and the lodge.



The next afternoon we stopped by to watch the women's mogul competition. These competitors hit a small jump, blast through a long run of moguls, do a second jump, and then a few moguls to finish. Your score is based on speed through the moguls and the quality and ifficulty of your jumps.

Just watching them makes my knees hurt. They are firing up and down like steel pistons.



It is hard to see the size and shape of the moguls in the late afternoon light, but trust me, they are big and frequent.



The jumps aren't nearly as spectacular as anything shown up above, but they are landing into a set of moguls on a steep run!



... and sometimes the jumps don't work out. One competitor was injured after the first jump, and apparently it was bad. This is the ski patrol working to get her onto a tobogan to get her down the hill. They were being very slow and very careful, so I would guess she got banged up pretty bad.



A lesson: if you get hurt in the moguls, do it near the bottom. It took a good half hour to get the tobogan down the run and I am sure it was quite painful. The ski patrolers at the top left are roping the tobogan down as the patrolers on the bottom right try and wrestle it through the bumps.



The AirMed helicopter was back in the picture again. It landed while they were getting her down, but I later heard that she didn't have to fly out. We got cold standing around because the competition had stopped for 45 minutes, so we took off for home.

It was an impressive weekend. A great international competition. The local sports heros did well. The crowds were large and enthusiastic.

Its great to live in a place where all this entertainment is provided for free!

Fluffy new snow

A normal snow in Park City tends to be very dry and fluffy and the storm brings some wind. That means good skiing, but the snow doesn't stick to the trees. This last storm was a little wetter and there was no wind at all.

Here is our house with all the Gambel Oaks in the open space behind us. These oaks are scraggly scrub oaks and normally look pretty ugly.



Looking up the mountain behind us, you can see all the Gambel Oaks and the one big evergreen. I keep trying to figure out how to decorate it with Christmas lights, but I haven't got a good answer for 800 feet of extension cords. It will look great when I finally get it figured out.



A view of downtown Park City and Park City Mountain Resort.



Another round of Where's Waldog, your chance to hunt for the hiding Jasper. First, the easier one.



This one is just a tiny bit harder.



He really does seem to enjoy posing for these.

A gorgeous day in the neighborhood.

When God tells you where to ski

I was going skiing this morning with Rob Schumacher and Ron Lee. We were near the top of Park City when suddenly Jupiter Peak lit up in the sunshine. Must be where we should head. Of course, skiing with Rob the hiker and Ron the marathoner meant less vertical from ski lifts and more vertical from hiking. The skiing was nice, but my thighs are beat!

Bird Watching

I grew up in a family that did a lot of bird watching. I still do some, but in our household Cosette is the main bird watcher. We built some shelves in the storage room, but haven't put anything on them yet. Turns out that they are a great place to hide and watch the comings and goings at a bird feeder.

Sundance Star Sightings

So far, here is the list of stars we have seen at Sundance. Julie has seen a lot that I haven't, because of her Sundance volunteer work at Eccles Theater. This isn't a bad list, given that we did no celebrity stalking this year.

• Jodie Foster
• Robin Williams
• Don Cheadle (Oceans Eleven, Crash, Hotel Rwanda)
• John Krasinski (Jim on The Office)
• Wesley Snipes
• Tom Arnold
• Ed Helms (Andy on The Office)
• Robert Redford
• Bobcat Goldthwait (stand up comedian)
• Minnie Driver
• Uma Thurman
• Kevin Spacey
• Anthony Edwards (doc on ER)
• Billy Bob Thorton
• Tea Leoni
• Spike Lee
• Kyle MacLachlan (Orson on Desperate Housewives)
• Sting
• James Gandolfini
  

I've probably mentioned this before, but if you ever want to know anything about an actor, director, movie, TV show, soundtrack, ...., go to imdb.com. It knows everything!

Excellent customer support

I bitch publicly when I get bad service, so it is only fair that I give credit to companies that do well.

I have a Canon SD890 pocket camera and it had a hangup with the lens opening at power-up. I went to Canon's web site to see what service headaches I would have to go through. I entered my model and purchase date. From there, it was easy:

1. "You are in the warranty period. Print this form out and mail your camera to the address listed."
2. I mailed the camera
3. Quickly got a confirmation e-mail: "we got the camera you mailed"
4. Next day, got an e-mail: "your camera is definitely broken and definitely under warranty"
5. Next day, got an e-mail: "your camera has been fixed"
6. Next day, got an e-mail: "here is your express tracking number"

I have the camera and all is good. A big "thanks" to Canon for making it so incredibly easy and then for doing such an awesome job of keeping me informed of progress. Also, for doing it so quickly.

Steve's advice: when shopping for cameras, always comparison shop, but then give Canon some bonus points for customer service.

This is my third Canon pocket camera and Julie has another one.

Bad air update

A few days ago, I posted a picture about the nasty air down in the valley. Just saw the news. Utah now claims four of the top five "worst air cities" in the country. A big congrats to Salt Lake, Ogden, Logan, and Provo!!

Bye George

As I sit watching the Obama's inauguration, I thought it would be nice to give George Bush some of the credit he is due as he leaves office. It's quite a long list. If you are a serious conservative, you might want to skip to the next post.

• Attacked and took over two countries.
• Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.
• Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
• Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
• Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
• First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
• First president in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.
• First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in U.S. history.
• After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.
• Set the record for most campaign fundraising trips than any other president in U.S. history.
• In first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.
• Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in U.S. history.
• Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
• Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in U.S. history.
• Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
• Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in U.S. history.
• Presided over the biggest energy crises in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.
• Presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have.
• Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans.
• Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.
• Dissolved more international treaties than any president in U.S. history.
• Presidency is the most secretive and unaccountable of any in U.S. history.
• Members of cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history (the 'poorest' multimillionaire, Condoleezza Rice, has an Exxon oil tanker named after her).
• First president in U.S. history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously go bankrupt.
• Presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world.
• First president in U.S. history to order a U.S. attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation.
• Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
• Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in U.S. history.
• First president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the human rights commission.
• First president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the elections monitoring board.
• Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in U.S. history.
• Rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant.
• Withdrew from the World Court of Law.
• Refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.
• First president in U.S. history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. elections).
• All-time U.S. (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.
• Biggest lifetime campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).
• Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in U.S. history.
• First president in U.S. history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
• First president to run and hide when the U.S. came under attack (and then lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1)
• First U.S. president to establish a secret shadow government.
• Took the biggest world sympathy for the U.S. after 9/11, and in less than a year made the U.S. the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in U.S. and world history).
• With a policy of 'disengagement' created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.
• Fist U.S. president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.
• First U.S. president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the U.S. than their immediate neighbor, North Korea.
• Changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
• Set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated U.S. law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts.
• Failed to fulfill my pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive.'
• Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capital building. After 18 months, no leads and zero suspects.
• In the 18 months following the 9/11 attacks successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.
• Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in U.S. history.
• In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the U.S. has ever been since the Civil War.
• Entered office with the strongest economy in U.S. history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.

A smog suck'n good time

I count my blessings every time we have an inversion. When the high pressure system comes to Utah, the air gets quite stagnant. The valleys fill with pollution and there just isn't anything to clear it out.

Here is a look at what it is like to live in Salt Lake City. It is a "code red", which basically advises you to stay inside and not breath.



Here is what it looks like from our porch in Park City this morning. What a difference a range of mountains can make.



I think I'll avoid any Salt Lake City trips until the next big storm comes through and scours the valley air.