Marc's Public Blog

Getting to Silverton

durango is a small airport mostly served by turboprops

Silverton is about 1H20 from the Durango airport, or longer if the weather is bad. Note that the town is at 9300ft of altitude, so while it will help you getting used to the altitude, it may also make it harder for you to sleep (diamox for altitude and sleeping pills help).
Johannes booked us up a bread and breakfast: Villa DallaValle. The lady who ran it was super nice, prices were very reasonable, and they even had free wifi. What else can a man ask for? :)

Silverton City

The deal about Silverton

So, when my colleague Johannes tried to invite me to join him, I was really on the fence. Quite frankly, I hate hiking, I even dislike unbinding when a ski resort has an uphill on path and I'm much happier when I can board down, already strapped in, from the lift directly to the slope and back to the chair before I unstrap :)
At Silverton, not only hiking is required, but it could be 5mn if you're lucky, or a more typical 15mn. If they haven't had snow in a while and you want to start from the 13,300ft peak (from the 12,300ft-ish top of the chair), you could be hiking for 1h+.
The good news is that you get to pick which group you're in, and you can pick a minimal hiking group, although unfortunately for us, that also meant intermediate group, and at least one skiier was a bit too intermediate to our state on the first couple of days (more on that later).

They do avalanche control and have mandatory basic avalanche training and force you to rent an avalanche beacon. Now, they still do avalanche prevention and they have professionals that know when the snow is likely safe, or not, but it's hard to get 100%. In the meantime, in 7 years of operation, they haven't had anyone fully covered in an avalanche yet, so that's not bad considering that even regular resorts have avalanche accidents sometimes.

So, Silverton (which actually the name of the nearby former silver mining town), the resort is technically in gladstone up a one way road. The place is not fancy, and it's not trying to be (eh, how could they be with only up to 80 guests per day?).
The resort is a tent in the snow with no running water but an outbound only phone, the rental "shop" is a likely broken down school bus wedged in the snow The only thing that looked new and in good shape was their powerful Eurocopter Heli (the same kind that flew to the top of everest), which is the one right place to spend money :)
Oh, in exchange for the lack of water, you get a free red bull :) and if you order the $10 sacked lunch, it also has a bottle of water. Now, the trick about sack lunches is that in the more advanced groups it may be tricky for you to have the time to pick it up, even to eat on the lift, or at least get it anywhere close to noon (unless you're willing to sit a run out). If you don't mind surviving on bars or somesuch, and you are more advanced, I recommend you carry your lunch with you and eat it on the 10mn lift as you get hungry, or while waiting for the pickup van after a run.
The last thing to mention is the restrooms, all I'll say is that if you don't have to use them, you'll be happier (they're an outhouse) :)

silverton: a tent, a burried schoolbus, and the heli

the sole ski lift

If you look at the tracks, you'll see they go back to a road. You can't ski all the way back to the lift (although the backside does have a cat track you can take back to the road), and once you are at the road, they pick you up with a fan, schoolbus, freshly jumped former UPS truck :) , or a pickup truck.

Silverton Day 1

This was the hardest day for me of course since I hadn't been able to exercise in 3 weeks, or see anything but sea level. Despite the diamox, I could tell the effects of altitude, but thankfully they did not cripple me.
Being in the intermediate group and only doing 5 runs was the right thing to do for that day. Our last ride up, the 15mn hike up did take its toll on me. I made it but had to stop a couple of times, I could clearly feel the effects of altitude.
The snow itself was fantastic, fresh tracks everywhere since it had just snowed 20" a few days prior and the resort was closed.

a primer on avalance training

one of the many hikes past the lift

Silverton Day 2

For day 2, I had acclimatized a bit more and we were hoping to go to a slightly more advanced group as long as it did not include major hiking. Unfortunately, we were told that advanced groups also meant advanced hiking. In the end, we got stuck in the same low intermediate group with the same slow skier. Doh! (yes, they should really have an advanced skier, more moderate hiking group)
That said, it's not like the day was bad :) The snow was still great and we actually had some sun and nicer weather (even got a tan through my sunscreen).

Heli Ride

After a couple of runs, our guide asked us if we would fancy joining a heli ride, to which we said "hell yes" :) We were actually reserved for 2 heli rides the next day, but they weren't booked, so it made sense to do one right away since the snow was pretty awesome.
It was my first heli ride from and to a mountain top, being a pilot myself I know that it's tough to fly low in mountains in any conditions other than no winds, and for a heli it's even more interesting since the heli has to land right on a mountain top where the wind and turbulence can be the strongest, and it may have compensate for the weight of and balance of the passengers and getting and out of the heli if the heli has to hover over terrain that's not quite landable (like let's say soft snow on a mountain top). Also, landing on a spot that is no bigger than a kind size bed is no piece of cake. Luckily, their pilot is as top notch as the high power Eurocopter they use (on top of him also being an airplane and heli instructor and very nice fellow, like everyone who works at Silverton).
The ride down from the first mountain top we flew to was reasonably easy terrain, but great powder, and definitely gave us a taste for the next day.
After 5 rides (including the heli ride) the day was over, mostly due to the fact that we got stuck in the intermediate group again.

a custom half pipe for Shawn White, celebrity snowboarder

that looked like a guide, having a little fun :)

top of the world! (kinda) :)

Stuck in sugar snow

oh boy, this is bad...

stones and rocks didn't help enough

that finally worked (we had one for each wheel)

Silverton Day 3

By day #3, I was as acclimatized to the altitude as I felt I was going to get, and we did not want to repeat the slow "intermediate" group a 3rd time, so we went to the advanced group. We ended up with 2 crazy Swiss snowboarders who just kicked ass. The good news is that we did not have to do much hiking because there was just so much powder to be had nearby, and because we were going to get two heli rides.
The powder runs we did almost off the lift or from a short hike were quite good, then the subsequent heli ride was a warm up per se (which was good for me because I had somehow put 3 core shots in my board and started an edge separation the previous day, it was out for repair, and I was having a hard time getting used to the new board and stance).
Then for the second heli ride, we did the narn: the highest peak you can fly to in the mountain (and definitely not hike to). The pilot landed on a spot that was no bigger than my bed, and just slowly sunk the heli in the fresh snow until he felt a stable enough mountain top to let us off (of course, they know it's supposed to work, they've done it before and scouted it when there is no snow, but still, damn impressive). The ride down was a bit of side slipping at the top but much fun below that. Well worth it :)
The best part was that despite the 2 heli rides, we still squeezed in 6 rides that day as opposed to 5 (the most you can reasonably manage if you hurry is around 7 it seems).

vantage point from first heli spot

the heli was nice enough to wait for us at the bottom for a 2nd ride

nice heli panel

top of the Gnar

the heli landed on that little spot

our guide scoping the way down

See a video of a nice heli landing on Gnar

Silverton Day 4

Day #3 was really the highlight of the trip for me, although the powder was really the best on days 1 and 2, as it was already warm enough by day 3 that it would melt and freeze overnight in some places.

Climbing up to the Billboard: buyer beware

Day 4 was mostly a chill out day, except that due to few customers they only had a single advanced group and a few people wanted to hike to the Billboard, which is the highest hikeable peak (about 13,000ft from the 12,200 chair top). I wasn't really stoked by a 1H+ hike, but went with the group since I knew that I was in good enough shape to hike 700ft up. The problem was that the path became more sketchy as we went up and went from a hike to a mountaineering climb which I was not ready for. By then there was really only one way: up and in some spots I was hoping not to slip while hanging on to rocks (with my snowboard attached sideways on the back of my pack, and throwing me a bit off balance or hitting the rock face on the left). Some portions were roped, making the climb less dangerous, but other portions weren't and you had to climb up diagonally to the mountain face, as the guide admitted later were 'no fuck up zones' as slipping and falling would have had very possible dire consequences.
We finally got to the top after a pretty steep climb that you can only do by stepping in not always very deep boot kicks and pulling yourself up on a rope, while wishing your snowboard boots had crampons and that you had proper climbing and safety gear. At least they had a rope, without which I would have fallen down a couple of times since I slipped and hung on to the rope.
For those who might think I'm a pussy, I hiked up Mt Whitney, the highest peak in the continental US (1500ft higher), but notice how I said hiked, not climbed. My only point is that I really wish they had warned us that this was not a hike up but a serious climb up with real dangers others than normal snowboarding dangers (never mind if it's in a portion of the unreadable 10,000+ word waiver they make you sign without you being able to humanely read it without missing at least the first run in the morning).
I mentioned that to the owner, and hopefully guides will at least give people a fair verbal warning to people about the climb before they go on it. My take is that your risks of injuring yourself or dying from that climb are higher than the avalanche danger, so it can't hurt to let people know verbally when they join a group and give them the option of switching (which was my other suggestion: they should have an advanced skier/boarder group with minimal hiking and one with 'bring it on' hiking, to each their own).
The rest of the 4 runs we did were fine, powder was better in the trees by then due to the sun and fast melting snow in some spots.

long ass hike to the billboard

the hike became a somewhat dicy climb after this point

at the top, finally

the ride down was pretty nice

Conclusion

Here are a few pictures that my buddy Johannes, took:

bridge was slippery and with very uneven snow

Plenty of powder (and stay between the lines)

chatting with the eurocopter pilot

Unfortunately, I was midly disappointed by Judge Jules' set. He did a good job working the crowd and spinning, but I just didn't care much for most of the tracks he played, which was a bit surprising since the last times I saw him, he played great ones. I guess there are days with and without as they say :)

Anyway, it was still a good evening, and thanks to the folks from Ruby Skye for letting me take pictures.

I could write a lot about Insteon, but I already have spent around 10H doing so in the Misterhouse Insteon docs for linux HA I wrote. In the process, I also researched UPB and Z-Wave to decide which one was the best option and here is my Summary of X10 vs UPB vs Z-Wave vs Insteon.

my own Blender Defender

what an insteon dimmer switch looks like

my main power strip going to a filter, X10 and Insteon modems

X10 CM11a on the left, Insteon Filter on lower right and Insteon Modem (PLM) on upper right

The Insteon Filter allows me to plug my UPS and devices in the back of it without them messing with Insteon signals going to and coming from the powerline.

While most of the time was spent setting up misterhouse to control our home lights and create virtual scenes as well as manage our outside lights depending on motion sensor input, I also build our own Blender Defender to teach chat to stay off the counter where he likes to go explore in search of food :) (Blender Defender is not my idea, I just improved on the concept since mine had to work at night too, see the link for the original author who inspired me).

My blender defender was a bit harder to build because it had to work at night, and I had to include a motion sensor to turn the light on first before the camera could work and detect motion (which makes things a bit harder because the motion detection library has to deal with a change in light, which can look like motion).
So far, it seems to have worked, although it was a bit less satisfying, maybe also because our blender is missing the strobe lights and isn't as scary and chat seems to have learned the first time.

Anyway, here's the result, taken in the middle of the night with the living room light turned via Insteon thanks to the script (yes, the camera doesn't show the blender, but the cat has been coming by jumping from the couch next to the kitchen counter, and this is the only camera angle that stops the cat as soon as he crosses the threshold without triggering when he's at the same height on the couch side, which is allowed).

Just like the original blender defender, I also used the super cheap D-Link DSC-900 and wrote my own scripts to activate my insteon device and light (including the fun part of preventing the outside patio light from turning on on outside motion sensor events as the light through the window could have changed the kitchen picture enough to trigger the blender in the middle of the night).
The hard part in the setup was the motion sensor library tweaks. You'll want motion and I heartily recommend starting with my motion.conf file and look for the CHANGED tags as a guide to setup your own (please understand that eventually you'll need to tweak for your own room and camera, good luck with that :) ).

Anyway, I finally had to get a new badge after 6 years when mine wouldn't be bent enough to open doors anyway. I was kind of sad about it, but so be it...

Before and after:

3H later at the ER I had 5 stitches on my chin, a very bruised left hand, but nothing broken (mostly typing with just one hand right now, hopefully my left hand will feel better soon). (after calling home to have Jennifer pick me up and the bike, I drove myslef to the ER with the one good hand).

my left hand is still quite swollen and sprained


My GPS watch is toast

All in all, it could have been much worse. I got a good reminder of the meaning of kinetic energy, and especially center of gravity. I'll also see if I can retune my brake bias. Oh yeah, I may want to be less optimistic about my ability to time lights so that I don't have to stop and start as much.

BTW, for those who believe in that, it was Friday 13th :)

I found a couple of other coworkers to agree with me on that point :) and we went to Heavenly. Unfortunately, IMO, we didn't do the lifts quite right: I think we should have started with Sky Express and camped at Mott (lifties didn't know when it was going to open, and I missed that by 30-45mn, which was way too much for nice fresh runs) instead of starting at Stagecoach. Yet, we all got great runs and a great day nonetheless (while I missed most of Mott, the tree runs off Sky and California trail were pretty grand).
Then, I tried my luck and went to Killebrew when it opened. It was indeed a great run down, but the 30-45mn getting back in snow that I could not walk on, and could only hop on my snowboard on, on a long flat or sometimes uphill trail, just didn't make it worth the price of admission IMO.

And now that I'm in ranting mode, while the views are really nice, and some of the slopes and tree runs are great when they do get enough snow (which this time they had), Heavenly has so many flat spots, it's not even funny.
I won't mention Killebrew canyon because I'm willing to consider it as a separate portion of the mountain, but the numerous flat or uphill spots, the number of times you have to unbind off a lift just to get to a trail (like Dipper Express to Mott), or runs that just end up nowhere close to a lift are hard to bear for a snowboarder who hates to walk or push. However, the possibly worst part was getting back to Stagecoach at the end of the day: it required taking Crossover (flat/uphill) which was badly labelled and then dumped me into Olympic, with more bad markings to get to Stagecoach. I eventually got there thanks to taking out my map 3 times in freezing cold (my fingers were dying) and my GPS with lift names vs where I actually was (sure, it's better if you know the mountain inside and out, but I get to say it sucks :) )

nice run, but not steep enough for that amount of powder

The tree runs from California Trail or off sky were great

and heavenly wins again for its view

sign that says 'if you have not used a chair lift before', at the bottom of Mott Canyon, hahaha

Mott Canyon

more great tree runs

The lovely sometimes uphill path off Killebrew

and here's the track & stats of the day at Heavenly