Marc's Public Blog

Found some friends at amsterdam station, and after dropping luggage at the hotel, went out in Amsterdam to visit the Our House music museum

nice weather for early March

A few more things I hadn't seen yet, but starting to scrape the bottom a bit ;)

Then, they had fake museums, including a cheese museum and a tulip museum:

Another "museum" is Electric Lady Land, which is hard to visit due to fairly limited hours on some days. It as an interesting private collection of phosphorescent stuff:

After that, went to Utrecht for ASOT 1000, and after an all nighter for the party, went directly to the airport to catch a non stop KLM back to SFO. Had enough time to enjoy the KLM lounge on the way :)

we celebrated with a mexican dinner big enough for 4 :)

After staying at Eagle which was a bit less insanely overpriced than closer to the ski slopes (which was over $500/night), Arturo suggested spending the first day at Vail (friday) to avoid the crowds. It worked out well:

[html:h2}Day4: Vail[html:/h2}

Unfortunately I managed to slip on the ice and fall on my flow finding, which shattered it. It was broken beyond repair, but I was able to use my snowboard leach to fasten the backplate to my boot and the front part of the binding, which miraculously allowed me to board all day in difficult conditions. The only downside was that I had to stay strapped on to the board all day, which I sure did. Normally it's no big deal, but the wind chill was so cold that it was tough:

anyway, we went for work (oh yeah, the gopros didn't work, way too cold)

we eventually got to the back bowls, they opened late

thanks to Arturo for finding snow that wasn't icy

It took more snow and finding the right back bowls to get bottomless powder eventually. Arturo did a good job finding that, although the conditions were rough, low vis and really cold winds. After a while, the back bowls started closing and it was time to get back. Getting back to the front side at the end of the day, requires long lines:

We had some good tree runs though:

After that, we found a ski patrol sign to get out via a less congested route:

[html:h2}Day5: Beaver Creek[html:/h2}

Next day was Beaver Creek, not really any new snow, but great leftovers:

wonderful corderoy :)

After doing the corderoy, Arturo and I found heaps of wonderful trees with fresh pow:

Doing the trees was a *lot* of work, so we had a good lunch:

Pretty homerun:

We then relocated from Eagle to Karl and Suwei's condo at Keystone:

night skiing :)

[html:h2}Day6: BreckenRidge[html:/h2}

The next morning, we went to Breckenridge with Karl and Suwei. It was a bit icy by then unfortunately:

longer line to the t-chair

we got some more fresh snow

dinner

[html:h2}Day7: Keystone[html:/h2}

The 7th and last day, I went to Keystone. By then unfortunately most of the snow was poor quality outside of groomers, where I don't spend much time, but I went around to see the resort again:

happy dog

I went to the outback, which I forgot is actually kind of small. You can hike quite a while, but the way down is actaully not that long. Still, it's fun:

I did a few runs and eventually decided to head back:

I tried the trees down Santiago and some of the snow was actually pretty bad

By then, at the bottom of the chair, a liftie thought I somehow crossed a rope and went poaching what was really terrible snow. After he realized that there must have been some ropes missing and let it be. I was leaving by then anyway. Given the so-so snow I tried to leave earlier to catch an earlier flight home, but that didn't work:

The last 2 days were not the best snow, especially the last one, but overall this was a really good trip. Thanks to Arturo for having me.

[html:h2}Day1: Aspen/Ajax[html:/h2}

The next morning, we went to Aspen so that I could remind to Arturo that Aspen Mountain actually sucks and we should only go to Highlands or Snowmass. Still, since we were there, we snowboarded it to confirm it really wasn't a snowboarder mountain :)

if you miss one or 2 lifts kind of high up, you are stuck with going back to the bottom and taking the gondola back up

don't ask :)

nice view of the airport

We then went back to a restaurent we had been to years ago in Aspen. It wasn't quite the same level, but still good:

[html:h2}Day2: Aspen Snowmass[html:/h2}

The next morning we had a good amount of fresh snow, so we went to snowmass:

it's a bit of a bus ride

we started with campground

plenty of pow

Then, a "yellow jacket" appeared and messed things up. long story, had to go back to the bottom and wasted an hour and money, but that just allowed for more snow to fall and the powder to become bottomless:

KT Gully from the Cirque tow rope

[html:h2}Day3: Aspen Snowmass[html:/h2} Third day was a bluebird, we went back to Snowmass since we knew there was plenty of powder left:

found this guy up top

We then went up high alpine and did a couple of hanging valley runs before the side country gate closed:

worth the hike

instagram queen in action :)

nice valley down

back to alpine springs for another run

Video summary:

The first night, we had the usual ice cocktail outside, before dinner:

and the dinners were fabulous!

I'm not much of a wine person, but they had great wines

Next morning, we had a quick intro very early (06:15) to go drive before the ice got too hot:

the professional photographer got there before I did and got this nice shot

glad to be back

great to see the cars waiting for us again

We didn't spend much time in the chalet this year, we only had 3 half days with the 4th day cancelled altogether due to bad weather each time (too warm, or even rain):

Just like last years, I had to re-learn how to stup the cars: sport plus (or sport for turbo cars to avoid the spoiler), and disable PSM:

Mike was my codriver this year (the first day at least, after that we got one car each due to having much reduced driving time):

Mike knew what he was doing, I had to re-learn things, but he hit the ground running :)

The first 2 days, we only had half days (2nd day, we actually left at 06:15 to start driving at runrise until 11:00 when it got warm enough to rain, so the day was over).

Lots of exercises and smaller tracks, this one was Day2.3_Drift_Circle5:

Some of the tracks were a bit tricky and I had to re-learn to go much slower to avoid spinning into a snow bank, like Day2.4_Track1_int:

3rd day was cancelled altogether due to rain and warm weather, so we went karting instead:

I'm not that great at karting, but I'm an aggressive passer :)

I had great hopes that day #4 would make up for all the lost track time, but we weren't able to start driving until noon due to the amount of track damage from rain, and then a snow storm. DAy #4 was icy as hell, the bus wasn't even able to drive in, we had to take cayennes for the last leg:

Emilie, working hard as always :)

Day #4 was a bit tough, some of the tracks were too tight due to water damage (too many cones). I did more or less ok on the wider track, and got some nice controlled drifts, but I also lost the car a few times, including hitting ice too quickly and some terminal oversteer that threw me backwards in a snowbank. I unfortunately needed a cayenne to be towed out...

I did a bit better later in the day, but it was still tough:

On this track, I was doing better I thought, but I got over confident, went a bit too fast, ended up backwards in a snowbank, and had to have a cayenne tow me out :( (track1.6_crash_cayenne_int) at the 03:10 mark:

This was my last session on the last day, given that I Was struggling earlier in the day, it was not too bad (Day4.Track4.3_int). The fun parts are the mega powerslides at 3:35 all the way to 4:00, 06:55 to 07:24, 10:25 to 10:55 in Day4.Track4.3_int:

We got plenty of driving for one day (4H, one car each), but that wasn't enough to make up for all lost time on previous days. Oh well, it is what it is. It still was a lot fo fun, because seriously, how can it not be?

Beautiful pictures from our professional photographer, and he got a few of me in action:

Like each time, thanks to all the instructors and to Porsche for letting us drive their cars and make mistakes, so that we could learn in ways hat would not be possible otherwise. This was fun, we should do this again :)

poor cars did get bumper damage

are those factory zip ties? :)

Lots of cool memories and trip in memory lane

daugherboards that contained entire motherboards and CPUs, cool

I remember having a MB like this, also note the extra holes around the CPU to allow for bigger CPUs to fit

man, I remember all of these

I met my friend Nicolas for dinner after arriving

The next day, I went to drive to Laval for a few other attractions, starting with Cosmodome. It's not a must do attraction, but I was curious to check it out since it was onthe way to Esterel:

the main attraction was a custom mission to mars or to the moon

it was interesting

it included some games

the displays after that were basic and a bit underwhelming

Next door was the Armand Frappier, a Canadian scientist who helped to discover vaccines:

I got to help testing a vaccine :)

mission accomplished :)

I then checked out MontVR, it was ok enough, just worth the 1H I spent there ;)

From there was time for the Porsche Ice Experience during the few following days.

On the way back to the airport, I had most of a day, so I went to check out the Biodome and related attractions in downtown:

had to clean up my car a bit

During my drive, I noticed that people had tent carports in their driveways to avoid cleaning their cars

I started with the insectarium which was quite nice

really cool camouflage

pretty colors

beautiful fellow

Next, the botanical garden was a bit snowy but nice to see:

Last, but not least was the biodome:

I also watchd a movie at the planetarium, and then it was time to get back to the airport and fly home.

seems that my car is still barely able to make it to kirkwood without charging despite the 10% loss since I bought it

I did charge in jackson and picked up another 30% to have a good margin

Carson Spur looked nice

The next morning, we didn't get the 18" we were hoping for, but still got a good 8" which wasn't bad (plus 9" during the day)

lines weren't terrible for a sunday

Chair 6 opened 30mn behind, not too bad

nice storm nonetheless

The wall opened just before 11:00, which was nice

Lots of pow

The next night didn't have more snow, but was able to catch up with TODOs

Kirkwood really sucks now, only a single charger left with 2 ports (used to be 10)

Monday was a bluebird:

Went in line for chair 2 and backside for when it was going to open at 11:00

first time doing the backside this season

fawn ridge delivered as always

Vista was unfortunately closed

After 2 good days, it was a reasonably easy drive home, although 88 was icy for quite a while and there were multiple accidents:

got home by using 56%, not bad