Film
More Magic Powder from Vail
If I’m reading this analytics thing correctly, there were over 500 views of this blog yesterday. In just one day, 500 views. I can’t thank you enough: I was certain to have lost readership in the four weeks I was out and about. But apparently viewership has increased – and that’s a very nice thing.
In celebration of Vail’s final days of the season, here is yet another short video of just my friends and I skiing around in Vail. I ask myself what all these folks do
in the off-season (those who aren’t year-rounders like Tom) and my answer came from this article in the Vail Daily. Apparently most people are looking to get to Europe (or back home from Europe), creating a travel agent’s nightmare at a time when the skies are full of ash. I find it ironic how mountains can be both the cause of such happiness and unhappiness depending on which side of the slope you’re on. At least Vail isn’t on a fault-line and the only ash they have to worry about is the clean-up after the holiday bonfires.
The shots in this video could be a bit more exciting I admit, but I wanted to try different editing techniques and see what I could come up with in my “studio” (which quadruples as a kitchen, garage and dining room). A few friends have expressed interest in seeing more of me in the film, so this one features me talking and skiing in the end. I think the most interesting shot is my stack at the end of the clip. And yes: I know my Telemark form needs improving. This was only the third time I had Telied in about three years (excuses). A special thanks to everyone out in Vail who made my stay a great experience and to the boys who lead me around the mountain for a week. Another special thanks to Soundgarden for the soundtrack. They didn’t give me permission to use it, but it’s the song that always runs through my head when coming down a mountain and I think it adds a lot of energy to the clip. Hope you enjoy the film.
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Where I’ve Been
Dear reader: I can’t help but offer you my most sincere apologies for having left you in complete silence for well over a month. That’s not my style. In a perfect world, I’d give you updates, photos and blog posts from every corner that I travel to, every adventure I get myself involved in, and every cheese I eat. Alas, my internet connections while on-the-road are sometimes less than stable, and after a day of skiing, or biking, or traveling, publishing quality material after hours of edits is – quite frankly – the last thing on my mind (especially after a few glasses/bottles of red and great conversation among friends). But fear not: the past four weeks have been packed with all kinds of excitement which I intend on publishing here through photo, video and hyperbole.
By popular demand, a video on my travels to Vail, CO is first on my blog list. Here I interview Tom: a 50-year native in the Vail valley whose warmth and humor made the few days we skied in the valley a paradise. In fact, Vail just recently celebrated their Spring Fling last week, and you can read more about it in this article from SKI Magazine. I’ve also heard that they recently (within the past week or two) received another amazing amount of fresh snow. Anyone looking to get in some of the best, last runs of the season ought to make their way over to Vail soon. Now that the “busy” season is behind them, I’m certain the runs are almost empty. The question is: how much snow is really left on the mountain? Or is that all gone too? Last I had heard Vail Resorts was in the process of changing the International run to another name – the Lindsey Vonn? I think she deserves more than just the name of a ski run, but I digress.
I had always heard that Vail was “high,” but I guess I never gave it the credit it was due. Living in the Alps, I’ve always been rather fond of my lung capacity and my climbing ability. But then when I found myself winded simply climbing the stairs of my friend’s house, I realized the challenge to skiing Vail was more than just putting ski to snow. It also meant acclimating to a severe change in altitude over a short period of time. Another friend of mine suggested six weeks for full-acclimation. I only had a week in Colorado, so I sped up the process as best as I could.
For the record, I interviewed Tom in both Vail and Beaver Creek. So for those Vail veterans intent on guessing all the runs in the clip, you will definitely notice some of the footage is from Beaver Creek. Hopefully I’ll be getting another Vail video up within a few days. I hope you enjoy this short clip, and I’d love to hear your comments.
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A Bicerin in Torino: Not your Everyday Latte
To most people, Italy has enough coffee. In fact there’s the caffè lungo and corto, the caffè corretto and stretto, caffè machiato, americano, caffè latte and caffè d’orzo and – of course – the quintessential cappuccino, just to name a few. To the many folks who come from the land of “shots,” “grandes” and “Frappuccinos,” I can understand how this can all be very mystifying. Yet the next time you are in an Italian coffee house (or simply, caffè), remember that you may just be touching the bean when it comes to Italian coffee.
Just as most regions in Italy have their own cuisine, many also have their own local version of coffee. In Torino, for example, the Bicerin (pronounced /bee-sure-ean/) is a beverage you can only find in the coffee houses of Fiat’s native city. It’s a combination of coffee, foamed whole milk and chocolate – another local specialty. More interesting still is the history behind the drink, and the historical figures who used to drink it (and those important figures who still do today). Apparently the beverage came about in the early 1800s – although some reports date it to the 1700s – from another coffee house in Torino the Café della Bicerin: a few blocks away from where I made the film below. If you consider the drink was already popular by the time Torino became the first capital of Italy in 1861, chances are personalities like Cavour were drinking bicerin in 19th century Torino.
Often times it’s not just the coffee you drink that’s important, but where you drink it. In the case of Baratti and Milano, they have been making chocolates and coffee for well over 150 years. The architecture is reminiscent of the Italian Risorgimento, and the coffee house’s interior is stunningly beautiful. It’s no wonder the upper-class Italian bourgeois would meet here in the 1800s and discuss Italy’s political future. It’s true that at times a coffee is just a coffee. Yet at times it’s also a step back in time to taste the savors of another century. When drinking a bicerin at a historic Italian bar, it suddenly becomes an experience beyond just coffee: it’s cultural engagement.
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La Thuile: The Best Skiing in both France and Italy
Contrary to popular belief, ski instructing is not an easy job. Its fun but not necessarily easy. First of all, you’re in charge of ten skiers whose aptitudes are unknown to you. There’s one general rule concerning their abilities: if they say they are advanced they’re usually intermediates; if they say they’re intermediate they’re usually beginners; and if they say they are beginners they usually have never put on a pair of skis in their life. Over the next four hours you spend about an hour-and-a-half standing around: someone has lost a glove, someone needs the toilet, someone has the giggles and can’t go on, etc. At the end of the afternoon you have about one hour to ski on your own – which isn’t a lot if the lift lines are miles long. You grab the last cable car to town just in time to get in a happy-hour beer – and that slides you into a coma. You trudge off to the hotel for a quick shower, dinner and a nice book before passing out like a toddler on a road trip. If you’re younger than 27 of course you’ll go out, get wrecked, and pay the price the next day. But hey, that’s your business. I like to sleep at night since I know I have to do the same thing all over the next day.
The busy week is the reason why we ski on Sunday. Sunday is the official day off and no matter how shattered legs and minds can be from the prior week, we rally to wake up early, get the boots on and spend a day skiing – preferably at another resort. So Kenny, Steve and I went to La Thuile: 30 minutes from Courmayeur by bus where the skiing was top-notch. Situated along the French-Italian border in the Aosta Valley, it is a huge resort connected to La Rosière on the French side (just above Bourg St. Maurice on the South-facing side of the mountain). What does this mean? It means 150km of piste as well as some of the most spectacular off-piste in the Aosta Valley (in my humble opinion). You can get a ski pass for both sides (read: the whole mountain) but keep an eye on the weather: at 2650m the top of the Piccolo San Bernard has been known to host zero visibility conditions, strong winds and winter storms. In the summertime you can cross the Petit St. Bernard with hundreds of cyclists looking to imitate the Tour de France racers (the “Grande Boucle” came though last year touching the Grand St. Bernard on the other side of the valley and then the Petit St. Bernard all in one day). Regardless of the season the Piccolo San Bernardo is a great place to hang out for outdoor fun.
Getting to La Thuile is easy: there are numerous buses from Courmayeur and Aosta that go directly up to the ski station or drop you off in Pré St. Didier from where you can take a second bus up the mountain. I would link in the schedules here but SAVDA (public bus system) hasn’t updated them online. The buses run about 30-45 minutes apart. Just don’t travel on Sundays or around lunch time – you may get stuck for a few hours.
When in Pré St. Didier stop by the Tennis Bar (owned by Stefano Amatori). You’ll find it chock full of skiers enjoying an après-ski afternoon/evening/late night and Stefano plays some of the greatest music including Warren Zevon, Boston, and Blue Oyster Cult (well I think it’s great). The Tennis Bar is a good time if you’re on your way out of – or into – La Thuile. We were able to stop there on the last night of our stay in Courmayeur. The video below documents our “fun-day” of skiing without students in La Thuile. It’s nothing more than a neat little film and a good memory I shared with some excellent friends. I hope you enjoy it.
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Wrapped and Ready to Roll
Winter exercise is never easy: you either freeze your tuckus off outside or you breathe in all the moist nastiness that is other people’s perspiration in the gym. Let’s face it: in the winter, everyone flocks to the gym where there is a higher concentration of human beings, a higher concentration of CO2, and a higher concentration of sweat and humidity in the air that no gym ventilation system can really aerate. It can’t be good for you to have a fan blowing on you as you run on the treadmill (that’s how my grandmother said we all get sick). I prefer dressing up warmly and going outside. Even if its cold, I’ll take the outside.
Here in Chambéry temperatures can get pretty lo
w at times. There is a lot of humidity in the valleys and it makes the evenings bitter, bitter cold. At times I had to triple-check to make sure the heaters in my apartment were on. What’s fantastic about biking in the cold (or doing anything in the cold) is you get the same rush as skiing: cold temperatures outside while your body cooks nice and warm. The Romans and Nordic tribes knew about the benefits of hydrotherapy, as did the Greeks and Egyptians. The expansion and contraction of blood vessels pushes blood through the body giving you the rush needed to return to your cube and finish the day’s projects, or prepare for the afternoon’s three-hour meeting. Chances are if you try it once you’ll get the taste of it and you’ll keep doing it.
This is what my buddy Marc taught me to do: invest in the gear and get out there. Great summer riding begins with great winter riding and in this video you’ll see a few suggestions of how to go about facing the bitter cold. The panorama and adrenaline rush are worth it. This is a simple ride we often take around Chambéry that isn’t very difficult but gives us a nice two hour spin – especially in the winter time when the cols are snowed in. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
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Skiing in Les Karellis
There are certain things about France that don’t cease to amaze me. One is the incredible skiing in the winter. I’ve skied in a number of the more popular resorts in the French Alps (Courchevel, Val Thorens, Méribel, etc.) and of course the conditions were great and I had a great time. But what’s more interesting – and fun – are the resorts that people don’t know about. Les Karellis is one of those. Nestled away in the Valley of the Maurienne (about an hour’s drive from Chambéry to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne) you’ll find the slopes pretty empty and nicely groomed. We went last Saturday and the tourists either leave or arrive on the weekend and thus don’t get out on the slopes much on the weekend – but this was amazing. Except for a few locals (and I mean locals from Savoie, not locals from Paris) it felt like we had the mountain all to ourselves. There was great snow in the morning and the off-piste was spectacular. We sat around a few picnic tables at noon to eat lunch with Combe de Savoie cheese, ham, tea, and peanut butter and jam sandwiches (supplied by me – my French companions did not appreciate the American delicacy). Not only was the weather perfect, but so was the company: Lucile is an old friend of mine who organized the trip – this was the first time we got to ski together. She’s from the other side of the valley from Les Karellis and knew all of the surrounding valleys and peaks. She also pointed out the local fauna that were grazing just above her house. Natasha is a student in Geology and works with the local mountain guides; Céline hails from the North, 
but prefers the mountains and changing atmosphere of Savoie; and Patrick is half-Venezuelan, half-French and is a mad driver (especially when he stuffed four people and all their kit into his Peugeot to take us safely back to Chambéry). Towards the end of the day, we sat around Lucile’s house and ate crêpes, drank hot chocolate and tea and chatted about the enviromental issues concerning the Maurienne valley. A great day and a great way to listen to the concerns of the local Savoie youth, who are just as concerned for the mountains and the environment as are many of us who enjoy the outdoors.Thanks to Lucile and the rest of the gang for your hospitality.
If you want to check out the film of Les Karellis, its here. Otherwise you can go to the Vids page and see it there.
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My first edited uploaded video
What took the longest was just trying to remember how to use the damn program. It’s surprising how after only two and a half months my mind is able to forget the slightest things (I’m sure most ex-girlfriends would say I’d forget the slightest things after one and a half days, but life goes on). I was hoping to get up another video by today, but my canon vixia hf10 decided to crap the bed today. All of cnet’s rave reviews cannot save the broken relationship and canon and I are having recently. But fortunately, the flip mino hd has saved the day. In fact, all of the Geneva footage you see in this video was shot on my flip. In the bar it was dark (like all bars) but I’m pleasantly surprised at the image quality regardless of the low-light settings. Hooray for flip mino! But onto the video which you’ll find here and on the vids page: Since it had been almost a year since I had been up to Geneva to see Tom (he’s usually off around Europe paragliding – check out his blog here) I thought it was right to go up to his apartment and grab all of my ski gear out of it. At the same time, we might as well have made an evening of it – and we did. Technically we made an evening and a morning out of it, but who’s counting? In any case, I’d like to thank Tom for his filming assistance, and Tom: all of the shots of you are on the cutting room floor. Sorry mate!