Marc's Public Blog

I wasn't happy with Vail closing early (again the earliest in the history of kirkwood, not counting covid last year), but in the end, there was not a lot of snow, so it's probably not a huge loss.
I went with Deana who had been meaning to go to Tahoe, and this made the trip more fun for sure, especially on easter sunday where she definitely wanted to be in the running for bunny spirit :)

Carson Spur was honestly not showing a lot of snow, and despite the higher temps, the early morning was on the icy side outside of groomers, so it was a chasing the right snow, day:

Deana got some rentals:

getting ready for the day :)

it was easter, bunny ears

She then went mostly on chair 1 and 2:

A few pictures from higher up:

a few people still went hiking up, but the snow wasn't worth it for me

not very busy

Then, we did something I haven't done in many years: lunch :)

I went on the backside to check it out, it had started to melt, but still had snow:

the wall drop never got a lot of snow, and started getting questionable to ride again

And that was it for the weird 2020-2021 season. Not the best, but better than nothing.

lots of people, lines for getting food

the wall was pretty tracked out, but not that much snow at the top

The forecast for overnight snow went down to 6", but thankfully Kirkwood got 1ft, nice!

eagle bowl, not open yet

got more snow refills during the day

I went to the back side when it opened:

fawn ridge delivered

the line wasn't bad

I definitely got some good rides that day:

a later ride on fawn ridge:

Day #3 was a bluebird with pleny of pow left:

saw a heli land at martin point, not quite sure why

As a first (for me), I used half the day to hike two peaks, starting with Thimble Peak:

the other side was nice, but a bit bare

After Thimble peak from chair 4, I went to hike Glove Rock over palisades. As I expected, by the time I got there (15:40), the temperatures went down and the top crusted, making the ride down a lot less satisfying:

you have to hike far to see those signs

nice view of the back

it was spooky to ride on the other side of the ridge, away from the resort

I then rode the ridge some more

and afer another warning, it was time to ride back down

I wasn't the first person to do this :)

And that was it for day #3, very nice conditions, and snow that was good until 2/3rd of teh 3rd day.

DJ Blurr running the decks

Syd came next

he came prepared for the cold, thanks burning man

plenty of burning man crowd, they were also prepared (yes, it was actually cold as balls)

Triode and Blurr, enjoying the party

As the sun was setting, Dave Dresden came on. Great to see club quarantine ouside of a computer screen:

This was not a trance event, but Dave played a bit for us anyway (thanks Dave):

This was also my first time to try my brand new high resolution outfit, now with 2 computers, and 4 times more pixels. It needs a bit of work still (plus a ridiculous amount of improvements I already have in mind for it), but it worked, yeah!

Thanks Syd, this was fun!

This was our last stop on Arturo's ski road trip

Day #1 was great, awesome pow for the location, we spent most of our time at Strawberry Bowl:

lots of lines to be had

The runs were wonderful:

Day #2 was still good, less pow, but still plenty of good snow:

we took the tram to John Paul Ridge

great view

lots of pow, still

I wish I would have been able to better communicate with her in her last years, but that was not in the cards, so don't waste the time you do have with your own family. I know I could have done better with the time we did have, but at the same time, I also know that she did know I loved her in my own ways and I'm happy that she was able to come visit me in the US a few times before it became not possible for her to travel anymore (I also saw her every Xmas in France). I know she enjoyed the bike ride around Stevens Creek Trail the first time she came and last time she was able to bike, or the flights I gave her, including flying to Harris' Ranch for steak, and she probably still liked that ride I gave her in my F430 around skyline and that kind of caused her to throw up after a few turns too many (oops). But at the end of the day, she was also very happy reading in our yard, and looking at our birds.

my mom was a good cook, including bread

2000 was the first year she was able to come to my first house in sunnyvale, she help pick things and decorate a bit

I took her on the 49 mile drive around SF, including a few extra stops I added

dutch family embordery

each time I came for Xmas, she made sure I was well fed :)

yummy souflé

another year she came, we went to the Chinese and Japanese Gardens in Golden Gate Park

a picture she got with flowers I got sent to her for her BD

2013 birthday

nice french restaurant, I took her at for Xmas

tour of Google in 2007

I took her for a couple of flights, one to Harry's Ranch for steak and a bay tour to Monterey

Had lunch on Monterey

She came for my wedding and our cat was happy to make friends

Wedding day

as long as she was able to travel, we went to Holland every year for a family reunion

Our cat, five, was happy to see her again in 2011

We went for a tour of Stanford

After 2011, she wasn't able to travel anymore, so I only saw her in France for Xmas, including a yearly Xmas day lunch that my brother and Diane helped more and more with over time.

By 2017, she wasn't able to care for herself anymore, including getting up if she fell, so we had to move her to a retirement home. I flew to france last minute to help with her affairs, emptying her house, and helping getting it sold. She ended up staying there 3.5 years as her health and mind got worse over time, until her heart attack (by then she wasn't able to walk at all anymore, and gained a fair amount of weight):

Last Xmas, 2020, was challenging. Travelling was restricted between both countries, but since I was a citizen of one country, and resident of the other one, I was allowed to travel. It was not a fun 12H flight wearing an N100 mask the whole way, but I'm glad I made it. Her facility made us wear scrubs for covid, which felt a bit over the top, but whatever. Last time I saw her:

my last picture of her

We were allowed to see her 1h in a special room instead of the normal 30mn due to covid restrictions. I think she was happy to see us, although it was hard to tell. I could have gone to see her a second time before leaving Paris (2H trip for 30mn allowed visit), but I didn't really have it in me, especially with the covid restrictions added, the visit was difficult and bittersweet.
I tried to talk to her on the phone these last few weeks. the first time, she sounded confused, could only reply in Dutch, and it wasn't clear she understood that I was calling her. The 2nd time a week later, she barely managed to pick up the phone, dropped it and the line went dead.

She finally died of a heart attack during lunch about a week later. The staff tried to revive her, but did not succeed. She was 77.

It's a tough thing to say, but as far as I was concerned, she had very little quality of life left (although at least she wasn't physically suffering, but I'm reasonably sure she could tell she was losing her brain over time, and to me, that would be more painful than physical pain), and as hard as it is to say, I was conflicted about whether she was still able to enjoy life. I know it was painful for me to see her over time (the few times I was in france), so in some way I was kind of waiting for it to be over.
It would be easier if I could believe that she's in a better place, but I only get to believe that her time on earth ended and hope she got to enjoy most of it as much as possible.
Spend quality time with your loved ones as if it could be the last time, as you'll never know when it was, until after the fact.

More photos, courtesy of google photos auto face recognition and sorting: https://photos.app.goo.gl/cjBkLgzn4AV7UVAS7

Normally I'd be fighting with airports and how to get back to France (tricky since I'm snowboarding in Utah, don't have my passport, and need to fly in the wrong direction first to get it, plus covid tests, before finding some flights back towards Europe, the direct flights having gone from 3 per day to 2 per week at this time), but my mom opted to give her body to science, and given travel restrictions and the covid risks to the rest of the family, we won't have a ceremony at this time, but this page is my remembrance of her.

After 4 days in Utah on Arturo's ski road trip, our next stop was Crested Butte in Colorado.

Crested Butte is not a mountain for beginners, and a bit on the bony side, but very interesting terrain. We got to meet Karl and Suwei:

great views

good pow on the sides, but you had to pay the price of getting back

the tow ropes were there to weed snowboarders :)

before the ride down

then the hike back up

Wanna smoke some rocks, dude

we went for banana to find some powder

Then another hike to another run: spellbound (hike was not that fun):

arturo didn't even make it to the beginning of the descent :)

it was a fun run down, with another hike to get out at the bottom

After a 2 day drive, this was our first stop on Arturo's ski road trip

We were in a yotelpad, small, but close to the lift:

nice cell phone tree

So much powder:

The trees were good:

Day #2: was lots of snow:

the next day, there was a bit of a line to get up, 45mn+

but pow!

did I mention snow?

The trees in the morning were lovely:

So much pow:

I went back to the trees and found lots of things hiding under the snow and got my snow pants ripped out :)

The powder in the other trees, was ridiculously good:

Day #3 was a bluebird:

even more lines

Day #4, we went to Park City:

still pow

stupid guy that kept photobombing my pictures

After a while, I got tired and took the traverse gondola back to Canyons:

big valley between

mid station where you could ski back down to either mountain

back to Canyons

a few crossing lifts

nice views

We stopped at the salt flats for lunch:

Back to 80 with random burning man art:

Eventually you got yotelpad at Canyons/Park city:

still full car

Go here for pictures of Canyons and Park City: http://marc.merlins.org/perso/snow/post_2021-02-14_Canyons-and-Park-City_-2ft-of-fresh-fluffy-powder.html

After Canyons/Park City, we went drove to Colorado for Crested Butte where we met Karl and Suwe:

beautiful views

nice hotel room right by the slopes

Go here for pictures of Crested Butte: http://marc.merlins.org/perso/snow/post_2021-02-19_Crested-Butte.html

After Crested Butte, we did the long drive back to Salt Lake City:

On the way, we stopped at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison:

damnit, the photobomber again

Nice lunch spot:

We finally got to our AirBnB not too far from Snowbassin:

Go here for pictures of Snow Bassin where we lucked out with more pow: http://marc.merlins.org/perso/snow/post_2021-02-24_Snowbassin-with-surprise-8_-of-pow.html

After 2 great days at snowbassin, I had had enough goodness (and my body enough beating), so I took a flight home to enjoy some rest at home:

Thanks to Arturo, Johannes, Karl and Suwe for the fun trip!

We got lucky and got an unusal early cold storm in January, which covered all the rocks and ice. I drove there on a tuesday afternoon before the storm hit, parked the car underground and waited for the storm and the lifts to open.

I made it in one shot (no recharging) and 11% left when I arrived. That was by far a best condition scenario: no headlights, no heat, no windshield wipers, and no snow to add rolling resistance. I know that it's not safe to attempt this in one shot if all the stars don't align, but on the plus side, there is now a supercharger in jackson (only 5mn detour), so it's much easier to charge if needed. That said, I only had to charge when I arrived at kirkwood.

Day #1, wednesday. Big dump, lots of wind, kirkwood only managed to open 6 (the only lift to the top) by 15:28 and promptly closed it at 16:00. Disappointing to say the least. The old kirkwood would have stayed open past 16:00 as a gesture of good faith. The new kirkwood, closed after 32mn:

Day #2, thursday. Another big dump. Thursday, they opened at 13:00 again (new dump). The "you had one job" twitter guy failed to tell anyone that anything opened. I just noticed it on the webcam and ran outside screaming "WTF?"
They closed at 15:00 sharp, because the road was closing at 15:30. They knew they were punishing every single person who paid you and KW to stay on site. They didn't care.
The old kirkwood turned away people for the lift if they didn't have logdging and kept them running until 16:00. The new KW closed for everyone.

Day #3, friday: the wall never opened. Again, it was probably hard to make safe, but I'm pretty sure they could have opened friday.

Johannes came to join me for a few hours:

Day #4, saturday. The wall didn't open until 10. Why? Nobody knows. And then it closed at 14:00 for reasons unknown.

by the weekend, people came, teslas filled the electric parking slots

there was a line by 07:30 already

Time to go to chair 4 that had just opened.

slight line to chair 4

probably first time of the year that the wave was rideable

fawn ridge

At the end of the time, I was able to retrieve my camera pouch I dropped off the lift:

So all in all the snow was fantastic, and kirkwood as a resort was beyond disappointing in multiple ways. I will seriously consider heavenly next time.

I'll start by saying that the kit is very cool in design: the sensors are wired so that they just work, but they can be disconnected and used with wire cables later:

The kit is not as diverse as a previous kit I had, but that previous kit had so many sensors, many hard to use, and came with no instructions whatsoever. The seeed studio kit is much better in that respect and only costs $25:

You could probably use one of these: https://www.seeedstudio.com/Seeeduino-Lotus-Cortex-M0-p-2896.html

Documentation:

The main downside though was that this was a colaboration with arduino, who thinks it still makes sense to push the entirely obsolete and overpriced arduino uno. The uno is so limited that it's not every funny. The kit could not even make proper use of OLED display due to lack of RAM. I really really wish it was designed to work with a proper 32bit board, like the one shown in this picture (you can also see the wires between the different boards):

At the time of this writing, the kit does not come with instructions on using a better board that is 3.3v based instead of the 5V arduino uno. See this bug: https://github.com/arduino-libraries/Arduino_SensorKit/issues/10
To use it, Install "arduino sensor kit" from tools/manage libraries, which will include dependencies:

In my arduino install, I ended up with this:

The OLED display can be used with U8g2 insted of U8x8 (see https://github.com/arduino-libraries/Arduino_SensorKit/issues/8 ), but this sstretches the very limited memory on an arduino uno:

One downside of the kit was that it didn't have an example that uses all the sensors, but I wrote one, so now it does ( https://github.com/arduino-libraries/Arduino_SensorKit/pull/6 ):

The resulting code is here: https://github.com/arduino-libraries/Arduino_SensorKit/blob/main/examples/Combined_Demo/Combined_Demo.ino

Enjoy the kit!