Lift-served skiing on Aspen Mountain this summer?

Per SkiCo spokesman, Jeff Hanle:

It's a possibility. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a probability.

noted in the 4/27/08 Aspen Times Weekly.

Before I moved to Aspen Memorial Day weekend of 1999, I visited Memorial Day weekend of 1996 and again the same weekend in 1998.

Both years, the gondola was running to upload and download foot traffic for the holiday weekend.

But in 1998, we were surprised to see that, in addition to foot traffic, there was skier traffic.

They were skiing the top of Aspen Mountain.

Maybe this year too . . .

An American Flag in Paris

On Sunday, the Paris Daily Photo blog posted a photo of a giant American flag being paraded down a street in Paris.

It brought to mind a reminiscence from my first trip to Paris.

It was 30 years ago and I was an oblivious teenager.

I traveled to Paris from Ramstein, Germany with my immediate family and my uncle and his family. 13 of us all together. We called it the Polish Invasion.

We arrived in Paris on the Fourth of July and, after a slight car accident in which my dad in his brand new Mercedes rear ended my uncle's Volvo, we checked into our hotel. When my cousins, brothers and I went to the window of our rooms to look out at our Paris street, we saw multiple American flags flying in the breeze.

At first, this did not seem odd. Then, it dawned on us that, wait, we were in France, not the US.

I was very impressed with what I saw as a marvelous French expression of support for the American Independence Day.

Only recently did I learn that we were staying in an American military hotel . . .

Photo Credit

Public Servant? Not.

I have to sit through an interminable City Council meeting tonight.

It starts at 5 pm and will probably go till sometime after 10 pm.

May I never be an elected official.

Don't think I'll have the energy to say anything else afterwards.

Talk to you tomorrow.

PostSecret Event

I feel in the know.

I went to PostSecret this morning to see this week's secrets only to find the following post from Frank:

Some days I walk to my mailbox excited to see the new secrets only to open the door and discover that the mail has not been delivered yet.

I know how disappointing that can be.

I will be back home very soon and will post the new secrets Sunday evening.

Thanks for your patience.

-Frank

I know why!

He's in Colorado. I spent yesterday evening with him in Fort Collins.

It was very interesting. He clearly gives a lot of talks and is very polished while still being warm and encouraging. Since Fort Collins is a college town (Colorado State University), the majority of the audience was college age which did make me feel a bit dated but it was also very touching to hear these earnest college students come up to the mikes to share their secrets. Some of them were funny while others were heartbreaking.

Frank gave an overview of the history of PostSecret and shared his journey from dissatisfied drone to the connected, purposeful life he leads now. He truly champions the cause of suicide prevention and mentioned it multiple times in his presentation.

Since he told us last night that he flies home today, I expect that PostSecret will be updated in short order.

New fence?

We were doing the flea market thing in Fort Collins today and we think we may have found our new fence.

Steve's been looking for a wrought iron fence to put around our garden in our front yard. We've found a few things but nothing was quite right.

Until now.

This fencing is actually a pale green which should complement our light green house well. It's got that distressed look because it's, well, old.

And rusty.

Which is basically what we're looking for.

So, now we have to go home and measure. Then, we'll send our friend, the Fort Collins' resident back to the flea market. She'll even deliver the fencing to us in Aspen sometime this summer when she comes up to visit her parents.

Such service.

Road trip

Steve and I drove to Fort Collins today.

It's a five hour drive.

We left at 7:30 am and arrived in Fort Collins at 4:30 pm.

That's way more than five hours.

We knew we were taking the scenic route. We consciously chose to take the scenic route.

What we neglected to factor in was that the scenic route we chose is a dead end in the winter.

Now I know that according to the calendar, it is no longer winter.

However, we're talking about the mountains in Colorado. The mountains in Colorado thumb their noses at the calendar. (Do mountains have noses?)

So, here in Colorado, some roads are still closed for the winter. We could have easily discovered this if we had checked.

But, instead, we opted to find out the hard way . . .

What?

Oh well, at least there are four other coffee shops in Aspen.

Franklin and Lucy by Joseph E. Persico

As someone who was not well-acquainted with the personal life of the only man to spend 12 years as the President of the United States, I found Franklin and Lucy edifying.

Persico does not limit himself to presenting the story of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt and Lucy Mercer Rutherford. He includes multiple other women who figured heavily in Franklin's life and also details the important relationships in Eleanor's life.

In measured tones, Persico delves into the motivations and likely depth of the relationships. He presents the speculation, weighs the evidence and provides his own conclusions, which may or may not be accurate. He avoids the titillating while acknowledging how differently the players would have been treated under today's rules.

The book is surprisingly broad and extends far beyond its title.

It's raining

You know the saying, When it rains it pours?

Well, it's raining.

All of the sudden (as of Friday), I have a major deal at my first job, a major deal at my second job, ordinary firefighting at both and crap at home.

It's times like these that I just want to check out for a while . . .

Success?

I have 7 of the 12 gift certificates in hand.

The other five are (supposedly) waiting to be picked up tomorrow.

What I was unable to accomplish in three days over the weekend took approximately 15 minutes today. There was a five minute phone call with the owner of Saxy's (yes, she did call me) and then 10 minutes or less with a more competent cashier at Paradise Bakery.

I told the guy at Paradise Bakery that this weekend just must have been a gift certificate free zone.

Thwarted

I needed to get 12 gift certificates for an employee appreciation thing we do.

I cannot tell you how hard this simple task has been.

I've been trying since Friday and still have not succeeded.

First I went to Ben & Jerry's in Aspen. For some reason, the high school boy working behind the counter was completely oblivious to the fact that there were two entirely different songs blaring out of the speakers in the store. "Oh. I hadn't noticed," he mumbled when I pointed it out to him.

I guess I'm showing my age but this alone was giving me an unbelievable headache.

He then spent 15 minutes figuring out that he didn't have enough gift certificates. And another several minutes failing to comprehend that if I couldn't get all the gift certificates I needed, I didn't want any of them.

Next, I tried Saxy's in Basalt. I stopped there on my way home from Denver yesterday after having been driving for almost 12 hours. The girl there told me that she didn't have any gift certificates but they'd probably have some today. So I asked if I could get a call this morning to let me know for sure. She left a note and happily I did get a call this morning. The woman I spoke to was a bit confused but seemed to understand what I needed by the end of the conversation and told me the gift certificates would be waiting for me to pick up this afternoon.

Since I had decided to get only some of the gift certificates from Saxy's, this afternoon before I headed downvalley, I stopped at Paradise Bakery here in Aspen to pick up the rest. I was running late but didn't think it would be too time consuming. Wrong. After 20 minutes of watching the guy at the cash register scan brand new gift cards and then discard them as used, I left empty handed. I'm convinced that he was doing something wrong but it's not like I could tell him that.

At this point, knowing that I would not be distributing these employee rewards at today's end of the season get together, I decided to still stop by Saxy's so that at least I'd have some of the gift certificates in hand.

No such luck.

When I got to Saxy's, there were only 2 gift certificates left. I needed 5. It turns out that while they had had enough this morning, they hadn't put them aside for me and had sold a few during the day.

Although very frustrated, I asked that the owner give me a call so that I could arrange to get them later in the week. The owner was there when I was but she was on the phone and I was running late, so I figured it made more sense for her to call me.

It's now 4 hours later and she has yet to do so.

I think I'm just going to go to Target . . .

Photo Credit

Airfares

In an attempt to avoid the drive to Denver this morning, I had been trying to come up with alternatives when I remembered that Frontier is due to start flying in and out of Aspen. There have been lots of news stories about how the airfares are dropping so I thought, maybe this would be my out.

On Thursday, I checked airfares from Denver to Aspen today with a return in a week.

$758!

So much for dropping airfares.

Suspecting that perhaps I was just early for the party, I checked the same roundtrip, just one week later.

$214.

Hmmmm. It's all about timing, isn't it?

Why you should feel sorry for me or aren't I a martyr?

Rachel has been in Ashland, Oregon this week on Ex-Ed.

Ex-Ed is short for Experiential Education and it's a program through Aspen High School whereby the entire high school goes on these really cool trips. Now, they don't all go together, they just all go the same week.

There are lots of cool choices. They go camping in the Tetons and bicycling in the Bay Area. They volunteer in Harlem and Pearlington. They do a music trip to Memphis and an arts trip to Denver. The trips are structured so that there are members of all classes (freshmen through senior) on them and they are assigned by lottery, although you do get to indicate your preferences.

Last year, Rachel took a raft trip through Cataract Canyon, her first choice. This year, she's on a theatre trip (a Shakespeare trip) to Ashland, Oregon, again her first choice. This doesn't usually happen. She thinks she going to get her last choice next year.

So, you're thinking, so far, so good. Why should I feel sorry for you?

Well, I'll tell you. See, I have to pick Rachel up at 9:30 am tomorrow morning.

Still don't see the problem?

Well, I have to pick Rachel up at DIA.

Which is in Denver. On the far side of Denver.

Which is at least 4 hours away. And sometimes more.

So, I have to leave at 4:30 am tomorrow morning to drive 8 hours round trip (at least) to pick up my offspring.

Now, don't you feel sorry for me?

Remind me again why I had a kid?

Oh yeah, never mind . . .

Photo Credit

My powers of persuasion?

It turns out that Governor Ritter signed the Sunday Liquor Sales Law on Monday.

If you'll recall, I sent him an email urging him to do so.

Any connection? I think so.

GOV. RITTER SIGNS SUNDAY LIQUOR SALES LAW

Gov. Bill Ritter today signed Senate Bill 82 into law, repealing a 75-year-old prohibition against Sunday alcohol sales at liquor stores. Colorado now becomes the 35th state to permit Sunday retail sales of beer, wine and spirits.

The new law, sponsored by Sen. Jennifer Veiga and Rep. Cheri Jahn, takes effect July 1.

"This is a law whose time has finally come." Gov. Ritter said. "The ban on Sunday sales was an antiquated law that long ago outlived its usefulness or relevance. Everything we know about modern consumer demand says the people of Colorado want the conveniences, options and choices this law will bring. This is about stepping into the 21st Century.

"Let's also be clear: This does not mean we will be any less vigilant in our efforts to fight underage drinking, DUI or alcohol abuse. We will remain as vigilant as ever."

"I'm delighted to have moved this measure successfully through the legislature," Sen. Veiga said. "This is a win-win for Colorado consumers and Colorado businesses."

"As a small business owner, I cannot imagine having the government tell me what days of the week I am allowed to open my doors," said Rep. Jahn, who owns a cleaning business. "This decision should be dictated by consumer demand. It's time to level the playing field in Colorado. Liquor stores owners will now be able to join all of the other businesses in having the choice to be opened or closed on Sundays."

Photo credit

Interesting statistics

I was poking around online for some demographic information about Aspen to post on my new photoblog when I came across the following information of the Aspen Chamber Resort Association website which I found pretty interesting. So I thought I'd share:

Average daily population in Aspen: 20,871. Occasionally, this number spikes to over 27,000. Generally the heaviest days for visitation occur during July and early August. Winter months are somewhat slower although Christmas/New Year's numbers regularly approach 25,000**.
1997 Aspen Metro Area Seasonal Population**
Average Summer Residents: 7,397
Average Occasional Residents: 1,852
Average Overnight Tourists: 4,466
Total Average Summer Residents: 13,715
Average Winter Residents: 7,397
Average Occasional Residents: 2,066
Average Overnight Tourist: 5,051
Total Average Winter Residents: 14,514

*2000 U.S. Census Bureau Report
**Based on Aspen Sanitation District Flow

Keep in mind that the year round resident population of Aspen is approximately 5900.

Married Life

Set in 1949, this movie, with its deep cast, is a bit of a shape shifter. It's set up like a film noir but is it? It's about romance at the same time it's about infidelity at the same time it's about murder.

Chris Cooper, the chameleon, plays Harry Allen, the oh-so respectable businessman in what seems a successful marriage who admits an affair to his best friend, Richard the philanderer (Pierce Brosnan). Richard immediately resolves to take the lovely Kay (Rachel McAdams) from Harry while Harry is so conflicting about hurting his faithful wife, Pat (Patricia Clarkson) that he resolves to kill her to spare her the pain of divorce. But Pat has some surprises of her own.

For all this passion and intrigue, the movie never loses its head or gets overly emotional and yet, left me feeling hopeful.

I recommend it.

The Band's Visit

The synopsis on the movie's website reads,

Once, not long ago, a small Egyptian Police band arrived in Israel. They came to play at an initiation ceremony but, due to bureaucracy, bad luck, or for whatever reason, they were left stranded at the airport. They tried to manage on their own, only to find themselves in a desolate, almost forgotten, small Israeli town, somewhere in the heart of the desert. A lost band in a lost town. Not many people remember this. It wasn't that important.

This was the movie that was disqualified for an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film because too much of its dialogue was in English. This is because English was the only common language between the Israelis and the Egyptians in the film. All of the dialogue amongst the Israelis and amongst the Egyptians occurred in their respective languages but since the movie is about how they interacted, there was also a lot of English. Heavily accented English, but English nonetheless.

It's a shame since this was quite an enjoyable movie. Very quiet and character driven with no climax, just a denouement. It was affecting to watch how their brief exposures to each other changed the main characters.

Upcoming Event

As an avid PostSecret fan, I have watched the PostSecret Events Calendar as Frank Warren has traipsed across the country making appearances.

Colorado never seems to show up on the schedule.

Until now.

Frank is coming to Fort Collins on April 26.

Steve and I have friends in Fort Collins.

Fort Collins is only 5 hours away. (Only!?!)

So, guess who has 4 tickets?

Woo-hoo!

Weak

I know but it's the best I can do today.
At least she's cute.

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

An eye-opening view of an area and an era about which I knew very little.

I mean I haven't even read The Grapes of Wrath.

I had heard of the Dust Bowl and understood that Okies was a pejorative term but that was about the extent of my knowledge.

Timothy Egan provides an indepth explanation of the events which laid the foundation for the manmade disaster which overtook the Great Plains and was exacerbated by the Depression. Egan then proceeds to chronicle the Dust Bowl years through the eyes and words of the individuals who suffered through it.

He describes why those who stayed did so, in a way both convincing and heart-breaking. The decision to leave was difficult but staying often resulted in death.

The Worst Hard Time is a compassionate yet clear-eyed telling of where man's folly can take us.

Powder Posse

More local perks.

One of the snow safety tools which the Aspen Highlands Patrol utilizes in its avalanche prevention efforts is ski tracking. In addition to boot packing, ski cutting and bombing, ski tracking plays an integral role.

Part of the problem with closing on April 6 and not reopening until April 19 is that there's no one out there skiing in the interim.

Not as big a deal if there's little or no new snow but . . .

We've had 9 inches in the last 24 hours. And there's more coming. In fact, it's falling right now.

So . . .

The Aspen Times 04/10/2008, Page A02
Aspen Highlands to form powder posse

Aspen Times Staff Report

Feel like making tracks in all that powder collecting on Aspen Highlands?

The Aspen Skiing Co. is organizing a "powder posse to ski track the mountain and break up the layers of accumulating snow on Friday. Though Highlands is currently closed, it will reopen for the final two weekends of April. "When planning to extend the season at Aspen Highlands, one of the risks was getting so much post-season snow that we'd be required to ski track the mountain. Fortunately, that concern has materialized, says a Skico email announcing the plan to round up a posse.

To join in the effort:
You must be an expert skier or rider in good physical shape.
You must be comfortable in deep snow on expert terrain.
Sign a waiver.
Bring lunch and liquids.

Interested participants should show up 9:30 a.m.Friday at Highlands. No ski pass is necessary and the parking will be free. Participants will be directed where to ski and ride. Posse members don't need an avalanche transceiver, shovel or probe, according to the Skico.

I'm in

The historic Dewey Bridge burned the other day. The bridge, which spanned the Colorado River near Moab, Utah, was built in 1916 and at the time was the second longest suspension bridge west of the Mississippi. It had long been closed to vehicular traffic but had been renovated and was open to pedestrian and bike traffic.

The loss of the bridge was quite sad. A seven year old Grand Junction, Colorado boy who was camping in the area started a fire while playing with matches. The photos of the bridge burning are stunning. Steve wrote an amazing elegy.

Many people are up in arms about the destruction of the bridge and there is some talk about rebuilding it but there's just as much talk about not rebuilding it.

Me, I'm all in favor of rebuilding it. I understand it won't be the original but I've been in plenty of places were reproductions or reconstructions are still worth seeing and visiting. Heck, it was like that all over Seoul where many of the buildings had been destroyed by the Japanese.

So, if anyone wants to start a Rebuild Dewey Bridge organization to fund the reconstruction with private donations, count me in.

Photo Credit

Throwing up

Just quickly throwing up a post since the patrol banquet is tonight and I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to post anything later.

I'm looking forward to the banquet. It's at L'Hostaria which has really good food and it's generally a fun party with real awards, funny awards, a slide show and live music.

March Madness on Demand

If you've been paying attention, you probably know that I don't have a TV

(well, actually there is a TV in my crawl space but it's not mine and more importantly it's not where I can watch it. And even if it was where I could watch it, I don't have cable. Which you really have to have in the mountains if you want to watch TV. Unless of course you have satellite TV. Which I don't. But enough of this already . . .)

The point is, I don't have a TV.

And tonight was the final game of the Final Four.

With some TV events, this would necessitate a trip to my parents' place.

But not with the Final Four. Because the NCAA made all of the games available live online. Really good quality online.

I watched Davidson beat Wisconsin online and tonight I was able to watch Memphis lose to Kansas online. While sitting on my bed. Without having to go out in the cold.

This is pretty cool. I get to eat my cake and have it too.

No TV in the house the majority of the time which is a good thing.

But online TV for special occasions which is also a good thing.

Par-tay

Aspen Highlands Closing Day party has reached legendary status.

Each year, it's a bigger deal. This year, for the first time in my almost 10 years, they actually brought in porta-potties.

There was a pond skimming contest, a live band, a DJ, costumes and a ton of craziness.

The bartenders inside were mixing vodka and cranberries in beer pitchers and margaritas in ice buckets and all the drinks were subject to some seriously heavy pours.

The only downer was the rather contemptuous attitude ZG Grill, the party's host, has towards its customers. They usually have a $20 minimum for credit cards but today they jacked it up to a $40 minimum and of course, the local ATM was out of order.

In addition, they had huge signs saying "NO FREE WATER. BOTTLED WATER $2"

The former violates their merchant agreement with Visa/Mastercard and I've got to think that the latter violates liquor laws.

But who's telling?

Went skiing

Aspen Highlands closes tomorrow.

Sorta.

Since the snow is still so good and there's still so much of it, Highlands closes tomorrow and then reopens for the weekends of 4/19-20 and 4/26-27.

But since tomorrow is still officially closing day, tomorrow will be the big blow-out closing day party. I mean, the BIG BLOW-OUT closing day party.

Yesterday morning when we were driving back upvalley, we passed a Coors truck towing a Coors trailer with multiple taps. Steve said, "I'll bet they're going to Highlands for the party Sunday."

Sure, enough, today when we went to Highlands to meet some friends, there was the Coors trailer set up on the deck at the base.

Along with 10 or so porta-potties.

Today dawned a pretty grey day so ordinarily we would not have wandered out to go skiing. But friends from Breckenridge called last night to say they would be up at Highlands today so I prevailed upon Steve to do the social thing and go into his office on his day off.

We had fun. The snow conditions were variable, crunchy then soft then sticky but, if you paid attention, you could avoid the yucky stuff.

There was, however, an event yesterday which cast a very sad pall over the mountain. Wallace Westfeldt, a 22 year old local professional snowboarder who grew up in Aspen and whose father used to run the Aspen SkiCo ski schools, died during a film shoot yesterday out of bounds near Highlands.

Very tragic.

Minutiae

Ellie has too many toys.

I don't think we've ever thrown away one of Ellie's toys. No matter how chewed up it is.

We've thrown away the stuffing. We've thrown away the dead squeakers. But not the toys.

Ellie is 5 years old. That's a lot of toys.

So, the spirit of spring cleaning, I decided. I was going to throw away the dead toys.

However, in the spirit of domestic harmony, I was wise enough to realize that I couldn't just throw away the toys. Even though throwing away the toys would still leave her with dozens of toys.

Oh no, that wouldn't do.

Not that the dog would care. No, it's the humans in the household I had to pacify.

So, this morning, after my 7 am board meeting downvalley (where all the shopping is), Steve and I went to Target and bought Ellie 6 new toys.

Only then did I get to throw away the dozen dead ones.

Aspen Shortsfest

Aspen Shortsfest started yesterday.

I don't like short stories. Not sure why but I don't.

So Steve thought I might not like short films. But they're different.

Not sure why but they are.

Anyhow, for the first time in the almost nine years that I've lived here, I went to a Shortsfest event last night.

Tried to go to two but got shut down on the second one. They sell passes to the whole 5 day long festival and then they sell advance sales individual tickets. Then, because they never know how many passholders are going to show up, they have a waitlist line that they let in once they determine how many empty seats there are.

For the second event, for which we couldn't get advance sales tickets, we were the first people in the waitlist line who didn't get in. As Steve said, we were the biggest losers. At least we weren't the only losers. You know, misery loves company.

But enough about the event we didn't see. What about the event we did?

It was Competition Program One and it was made up of 8 different shorts, 3 animated and 5 live action.

I really didn't like two of the animated shorts, Bill Plympton's Boomtown and The Wise Man. They were just too esoteric and too self-satisfied with their artistic skill. The other animated short, John and Karen, was cute and funny and honest. It was the awkward apology scene between a couple after one offends the other. Oh, and the couple are a polar bear and a penguin.

Since Steve and I were late, we missed most of the first live action short, It's My Turn (Ismet Ergun). I liked all four of the others, although one, Alagados, was a rather formulaic look at a youth trying to rise out of the ghetto in Brazil. Left in Baghdad was a touching portrait of a wounded Iraq war veteran and Just One Hour was a funny, twisted proposition between complete strangers.

But my favorite was Sikumi (On the Ice), a dark, character piece about a crime in the remote Arctic.

Steve's at the second event tonight but I couldn't go since I had parental schlepping duties to fulfill. I think he bought tickets for both of us for something tomorrow.

New blog

After Susie turned me on to the Paris Daily Photo, I discovered that there's a whole community of City Daily Photo bloggers.

Since Mountain Musings Project 365 Photoblog often ends up being a photo a day of Aspen, I've decided to make it official and start an Aspen Daily Photo blog.

I'll keep the Mountain Musings 365 photoblog going as mostly a personal photoblog and will operate the ADP blog with slightly different rules, such as not requiring the photos to be posted the day they are taken (not that I never broke that rule before . . .)

I've invited Steve and Rachel to be contributors.

Hung out a bit here today

Patrol dog Gus at the Aspen Highlands Mid-Mountain Patrol, aka Midway.