Big Sky Montana

Every year my friend Ray has a tradition to go on a new adventure for New Years. This year it was Big Sky Montana for Snowmobiling. 

Going up the magic carpet

The resort is beautiful, nestled between several large mountains. 5,000 acres of fun with the highest peak at 11,150'. I didn't get that high as my snowboarding skills aren't ready for the black diamonds up at the peak.


Our room was at Village Center and had a fridge, microwave, and sink. I managed to cook some Boar's Head bacon purchased at the village mall a very short walk away. Gluten free beer was available at Whisky Jack's bar and all the restaurants were very helpful with steering me in a gluten free direction. Breakfast at Chet's even had gluten and other allergy information on the signs. I mostly stuck to cracked-egg omelets for breakfast. For lunch, bison burgers with no bun or cheese. Dinner was sometimes bison burgers, but I also had steak and Montana lamb. Once we went down to By Word of Mouth which is a few short miles from the resort (a bus can take you too) and had the best chopped lamb steak I've ever tasted.

As far as activities we did it all. First there was lots of relaxing in front of the fireplace with a mountain view in the window. Also, we did the snowshoe and zipline tours. I really enjoyed snowshoeing and took several pictures. It was snowing so it is hard to see much of the background. It was so quiet and serene with the snow and the trees. The zipline was a lot of fun. This was my second time doing something like that. I did hang upside down and have the picture to prove it. 

My tracks

The second day we had our fun with the snowmobiles. Ray got a touch of elevation sickness as we moved from 6k to 10k feet up the mountain. We got stuck four times up in the meadow with the deep powder. We weren't really on the bigger snowmobiles made for that. Our guide said that we were driving very well and could have probably used the larger ones. I had done trail riding before but the powder is so different. It is hard work getting unstuck. We would have probably been in serious trouble without our helpful guide.

Old Faithful

We also had a wonderful day at Yellowstone. We started in West Yellowstone and took a huge bus with tracks into the snowy park. I saw lots of wildlife including bison, bald eagles, elk, fish, and flies. The hot springs are very hot but even the flies can live there and some bacteria. The colors were amazing in some of the pools. We were there all day and barely scratched the sufface of the park. Also, I had to drive all the way from Big Sky to W. Yellowstone because it was snowing and foggy at the same time. I thought Ray was going to have a heart attack he was so nervous in the passenger seat!


I really improved on snowboarding through my Monday lesson and Tuesday on my own. By the end of Tuesday I navigated an entire run without sitting down. Only once did I sort of 'stop' on my heel edge before turning back to my toe side which was to avoid a nasty bit of snow that I'm sure I would have face-planted on. I can't wait to get back out again!


I'm not done uploading all the pictures yet but you can find most of them here. 

Big Sky New Years 2012

2011 Review

Travel

2011 started in Oklahoma City with Ray and one of his friends for his tradition of visiting a new place on New Years. We had a great time on som electric go carts.

SNOWCON was so much fun and I got to meet a bunch of Atlanta people for the first time. I can't wait to come down and hang out with them again. OCON was a blast even though it was smaller and less people were there. Chicago Mini-Con was also a load of fun and I really enjoyed hanging out with Earl, Jason and a bunch of the Chicago folks.

Went to Michigan a few times, like for a wedding, ChicagoCon and Thanksgiving.

My first Cruise ever was down to the Bahamas. I had such a great time and I can't possibly summarize how awesome it was.

Work trips included: St. Louis, Ft. Bragg, Kings Point,

Work

January I jumped right into a short deployment and the work drama that comes with it. I accomplished enough to get an award, but not as much as I wanted to. Took on a new position as Technical Director and I've been learning the ropes. Completed two major revisions to the software we develop. Hired as well as trained some very bright new folks.

Got my MCITP certifications (EA and SA). Renewed my CISSP.

Fitness

Started the year by stopping cross fit. I was enjoying it only sometimes. I noticed that on met-con days that my sleep was seriously disturbed and it would take me a week or more to recover. I also started rock climbing after a date took me there and fell in love with it. I've been belay certified and have taken most of my friends there at least once to see how much fun it is. I also took a Lead Belay class and will probably take the test in spring 2012. I look forward to some outdoor climbing in 2012.

I also started a 100 pushup challenge and while I've stalled in recent weeks due to my old shoulder injury, I expect to have 100 in a row under my belt by my birthday.

Also picked up Snowboarding!

Relationships

I feel a lot closer to my CCOS friends. We have a great group now. There was even some romance between some members, which didn't work out but was still fun to see. I had my first serious relationship in a long time, which also sort of halted quickly. I have been working hard expanding my social circles and have met a lot of cool people climbing and online. Went on a cruise with a friend who I now count as one of my closest (and probably youngest) friend. There have been some frustrations and tears in 2011. Those were worth it for the insights into what I want in a romance and in friendship.

Etc.

Bought a motorocycle after taking the safety class. Passed the MVA test after a failed attempt with a non-english speaking tester.

Snowboarding

Monday I went snowboarding for the first time. Elaine and I drove up to Blue Mountain, which is in Palmerton, PA north of Allentown.

I signed up for their first time ski & board package which included all the rentals I needed and access to unlimited lessons and the green hills.

We drove about 3 hours up there and arrived to get in line for tickets. Next time we will order online. We entered all or information into the rental computer and then walked over to get our shoes, board and helmet. Elaine went off to the lift and her first run while I spent a few hours with the high school boys who are the instructors. They were really great at helping me.

First I learned how to skate around with one foot in the bindings. I picked that up fairly quickly. Next we started learning J turns. I practiced that a bunch with one foot and then two feet strapped in. I moved on to the next station and started to learn how to traverse. This was really hard. I only practiced it once before Elaine asked if I was ready for lunch. We had a few bun-less burgers and sweet potato fries before I braved my first lift and green hill.

I managed getting on the lift no problem and got a few feet away before falling at the top. That first run down was a lot of falls though. I went 4 times total down the green hill. The line was really long for the lift or I would have done more. Sometimes Elaine came with me and other times I was by myself.

I couldn't stop turning heal side (ie. right) and would end up wiping out after coming all the way around fakie. I'm not quite ready for fakie! On the 3rd run I got going really well and ended up beating Elaine down the mountain (she was going to take my picture at the top and bottom but I made it down before she could strap in and turn the corner).

Since I had the problem going all the way around all the time I decided to go back to the lesson hill and try to work it out. Two of the guys watched me and diagnosed the problem. First, I was distributing my weight too far back. I need to bend my knees when I feel unstable, not lean back, which only brings the board around faster.

Second, I needed to find and feel the balance point on the board. So we spent the next 45 minutes practicing edging on both my heal and toe sides. Took a while but once it clicked I could do it with surprising confidence.

At this point both of us were ready to leave after a hard day on the slopes. I can't wait to get back and try to learn more. Special thanks to Diana for suggesting proper safety equipment. My butt still hurts but I'm sure I would have broken my wrists as I have a bad habit of catching my falls on my right hand.

The Music of Thomas Coates

If you follow me on twitter you know that I play French Horn and Alto Horn in a few groups in the Baltimore area. An Alto Horn is a kind of instrument used in modern British style brass bands that, oddly enough, plays the alto line of the music. I play it primarily in the Benfield Brass Band as one of the Solo part players. The other is long time member and section leader Beryl Flynn. I am in no shape way or form close to a professional player. We have some awesome musical moments in the group and from hearing our live recordings and audience reactions we do pretty well.

Out of the blue back in June I got an email from a person I didn't know, Michael O'Connor with the subject of "Alto Horn Needed".

I’m looking for a solid alto horn player to help with a professional recording of Civil War Band music in August. The group recording is my 47th PA Regt Band. The group is made up of professional brass players (some don’t actually make their living in music, but could have) from NY, PA, NH, MD, and I’m in FL. We are recording mostly the music of Thomas Coates, who led the 47th PA band from 1861-62. We can provide an authentic 1860s instrument and mouthpiece for you and pay [you].

A professional that I have played with in a few groups referred me which is how they knew to reach out to me. The idea of doing a recording was pretty scary but wasn't something I was going to pass up.

So a few weeks ago I got in the car, drove for 5 hours and showed up at a church in Pawling, NY to play an instrument I've never played before for a professional recording. The instrument in question, pictured below, is over 100 years old.

From Thomas Coates Recording

This horn is tuned 'high pitch'. At the time there was some disagreement on what frequency to tune instruments to. The music we recorded was all tuned to A = 452, which gives it a very interesting sound (A is usually 440 or 441 in modern orchestras). If you check out the rest of the pictures in the link above you will see that it has a strange pigtail. This can be replaced with a elbow to convert it from a rear-facing 'field' configuration to an upright 'concert' configuration. I played it rear facing which meant I had my very own microphone!

I took a few qik.com videos including this one which has pretty good sound quality. Most of the others are too poor to link to but you can see them all if you dig around. We played for 45 minutes to an hour at a time and then took 15 minute breaks, taking each song section by section until everyone was at least satisfied they got a few good takes.

Blowing Hard

I got into a conversation regarding wind power I'd like to share. Since I had listened to Alex Epstein's great Power Hour Interview with Robert Bryce I was a bit more informed then my left leaning friend on energy issues. He did manage to stump me at one point so here is how the conversation went.

First, I brought up the fact that "When power demand is highest, wind energy’s output is generally low. The reverse is also true: Wind-energy production is usually highest during the middle of the night, when electricity use is lowest." (NRO) . The "intermittency and extreme variability of wind energy" means that you have to build as much conventional (coal, natural gas, nuclear, etc.) capacity wherever you build wind turbines.

Next I pointed out that wind has a very low power density. To understand what this means imagine filling a pool with a garden hose. When I turn the water on it will take a really long time to fill. Now imagine I do the same thing and fill the pool with a fire hose. This time the pool fills very quickly. In both cases the amount of water (ie. energy) is the same, but when I used the firehouse I put the water in much faster. That is what power is -- how fast I can produce (or consume) energy in a given amount of time. It is measured in kilowatt-hours. Solar, notorious for low power density kicks wind's ass. Wind is especially poor when you consider the amount of resources (steel and concrete for example) that it takes per kilowatt hour.

I did get asked a question though that stumped me initially. My friend asked me, why if wind is so poor is Denmark in the process of switching almost entierly to wind? Well the answer can be found in Chapter 10 of Bryson's book "Power Hungry":

1. Denmark has the most expensive electricity in the modern world due to exorbitant taxes
2. 2/3 of the wind power generated is exported to neighboring countries below cost (wind blows a lot when you don't need it)
3. Hydroelectric power is purchased at peak demand rates ($expensive$) to meet high demand (wind doesn't blow when you need it)

If the goal is using the least amount of resources to generate ever greater energy at increasing rates, then the free market is the best way to determine this. We see it now, where the market isn't distorted by government, from natural gas power generation. I'd encourage folks to pick up Bryson's book for some great facts. The only criticism I would have to say up front is that he talks a lot about reducing dependence on foreign oil and on lowering carbon emissions. Some of that is accepting bad premises that these things are bad or can be solved by government intervention into economics. If you can look past those side discussions there is a lot you can take away.

Motorcycle

YF was nice enough to take this photo right after I put the money down on my new 2007 Buell Blast. It only has about 500 miles on it and I plan to put a lot more on there over the next year or two. If I continue to have as much fun riding as I am now, I may invest in a bigger/better bike down the road.

For those of you safety conscious folk out there notice my Snell 2010 safety rated helmet, sunglasses, boots, and motorcycle jacket. I need to upgrade the pants and the gloves.

Stretch Goals

In the last few months I've found a new obsession -- rock climbing. I randomly met someone online and one of the first activities we did together was to visit EarthTreks in Columbia. I am really looking forward to getting good enough to boulder and climb outdoors, perhaps by the end of this summer early far and defiantly by next year taking on some sport/lead climbing.

Thanks to the introduction to climbing class and the great help of my new climbing friends Vince, Neta and Mike, I've seen some tremendous improvements in the difficulty I can complete at the gym. My grip is improving and I've went from not being able to do any pull-ups, even after working on it in crossfit last year, to being able to do 5 pull-ups without any difficulty.

Climbing has exposed a bunch of things I didn't know about myself. First, this is a physical activity that is very taxing that I LOVE doing. That is new for me. I like the body composition improvements and upper body mass gains I've seen which is probably more due to being a beginner than anything else. I also have noticed just who inflexible I am, especially in my legs, which is funny since those are by far my strongest and largest muscles. I've started learning what I can about flexibility and stretching.

There are lots of different ways to stretch. I found a great explanation of the different types of stretching and which ones can improve what kinds of flexibility. The most effective kind of stretching for static-passive flexibility (the kind I need to improve for climbing) is PNF. "PNF is an acronym for proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation. It is not really a type of stretching but is a technique of combining passive stretching (see section Passive Stretching) and isometric stretching (see section Isometric Stretching) in order to achieve maximum static flexibility." (see link above). This is the kind of stretching my massage therapist and cross fit coach had both tried to explain to me. I know I get it a lot better after reading about it so I'm going to try to mix it in to my workouts.