On the Boards

The ski season is waning. It stuttered at the start and then turned into an excellent year with 4.24 meters the maximum depth at the top of the mountain so far. The most recent memorable outings were these:

March 5: Eli and I with TomCairn and Tim - probably the best outback conditions I've skied in several years, a beautiful day with good friends. As typical, Eli and I skied just one run before heading back to Spokane. Our ski line was just short of the Uleda cornice and descended through the trees, but not at all close quarters. The walk out was about 1 hour 20 minutes. Had Eli and I been by ourselves, I would have chosen the terrain behind Sam's Alley - which would have been a bit wind scoured. Fortunately, Tim had skied the day before and made a much better choice.

March 9: This evening at 7:30 PM we went to Brokeback Mountain at the Panida. When we exited the theater at 9:45.02 PM, there were 6 inches of fresh snow and it was still snowing (straight down) hard. Such lovely snowfall typically (in Northidaho) turns to rain at the tail end, but when we reached Schweitzer the next morning there were about 8 inches of fresh, light snow (by Northidaho standards) awaiting our first tracks. Eli, Diane, and I stayed in the area and had a great ski day. Eli had her first exposure to the T-bar runs. The pre-ski locker room used by the locals was more crowded on this Thursday than on any weekend this year.

March 12: Eli and I skied outback, Larch Park, alone and had a fine run. The walk out was inconsistent - some fluff, and some slab. It took about 1 hour 30 minutes. I came out higher than
planned - almost at the top of Chair 1. TomCairn were headed to their sailboat in Nanaimo, while Bill was at the Caribou Hut with Tim and Miles.

Speaking of Nanaimo, it appears that we'll be there next Fall Semester. I have received an electronic copy of the letter of invitation to teach one course for that term. There are still
some hurdles - the main one being the permit to work in Canada, but that is hopefully straightforward. We'll actually head to Victoria around March 25, 26 and then up to Nanaimo
where I'll give a couple of presentations - one to the Computer Science department and the other as part of their Science Lecture series (March 29). Eli, her mother, and I will drive
over - and Nik may join us also.

Richard
2006.03.15