Antarctica Blog

The end of our stop in Colorado is rapidly approaching. We had an amazing week in Summit County. We couldn’t have asked for better weather and conditions. I took Wednesday off from the slopes; did some shopping and relaxed around the Condo. It was snowing pretty hard and was supposed to taper off on Thursday.

On Thursday I went to Vail. They were reporting 4 inches of new snow overnight. When I got to the Back Bowls, it was evident that there was far more than 4 inches. I rode up on the lift with a ski patroller and over heard a conversation on her radio. Someone from the base was asking for a more accurate measurement of snow depth. The patroller replied that there was more like 13” while the person at the base lamented “mis-advertising” the mountain’s conditions. I heard more than one person say that it was quite possibly the best day of the season. It was easily the best one I have had in a while. There remained, throughout the day, a thin veil of clouds that kept the temperatures low and the snow light. Which made for superb riding.

On Friday I convinced Luci that the conditions were going to be just the way she liked them; sunny, warm and soft. We went together to Keystone and had a great day together on the slopes. It was really perfect.

On Saturday we went together to Breckenridge and I hiked up peak 9 and got fresh runs on the Whale’s Tail amongst other things. Luci stayed in the valley and explored the town. By the end of the day I was exhausted from 5 days of open to close riding.

Back in Boulder we took a quick trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park and basked in the hospitality of our gracious hosts, Amy and Eric. Tomorrow we end our return trip from Antarctica to Maine and after a brief 5 days at home we leave again.

We got Ash dropped off at the airport and decided to hold onto the car for the remaining days before our flight out. To kill the time we drove up into Eugella National Park to look for platypus. We stayed in a bungalow in Fitch Hatton Gorge for two nights unwinding. We went for a nice hike to a couple of waterfalls and for a drive around the park. No platypus though. We found out when we got back to Mackay that we were looking in the wrong place.

Tues the 22nd started at 5am in Mackay and finished in Denver, CO about 30hrs later at 3:30pm the same day. No, really! Because we crossed the international date line we actually arrived in Denver 15 minutes before we left Sydney on our transpacific flight. Our good friends Amy and Eric (who came to visit us at Boccalatte last summer) picked us up at the airport. We spent the week at Eric’s house in Boulder and they introduced us to their friends and showed us around the town. We made a trip into the city to the Raytheon Polar Services Company offices to talk about work for next year. We still have no definite answers.

At the moment we are in the town of Silverthorne in Summit county. We are staying at the condo of some very generous friends in Denver. The Spelmans are the parents of some fellow Antarcticans and model citizens of Wheat Ridge, CO . When Luci and I were planning on coming out to the Raytheon job fair in 2003 to find work in Antarctica, our friend Kirk said we should stay with his parents. Karen and Allen put us up in their home and offered to let us stay in their condo while we waited to hear something from Raytheon. We had Easter lunch with the Spelman family on Sunday and then came up to the condo where we have been snowboarding/skiing.

On Monday we went to Arapahoe Basin where it was a little windy but in general a beautiful sunny spring day. Yesterday, I went alone to Copper Mountain where it snowed on and off most of the day. I spent the morning on the lower slopes around the Timberline Lift and in the afternoon had some amazing runs in the Spaulding Snow Bowl.

It took a while to figure out that, in Australia, most internet places don’t let you use USB devices. Since I type the blog and edit the pictures on our laptop (a very tiny ... [Continue reading this entry]

We went for the hike on Magnetic Island that we had hoped to. We even saw a Koala at very close range. We reached the top of a rise and we looking out over the other side of the ... [Continue reading this entry]

For just a moment I feel like I have to plug Virgin Blue and low cost airlines in general. For short hauls they can’t be beat. The way they work ... [Continue reading this entry]

Since we are only in the Sydney area for a few days we had to cram the whole city tour into a couple of hours. We took the bus in from the ... [Continue reading this entry]

The Treaty House was interesting. What I found much more interesting than the Pakeha (European) relics were the Maori ones. Housed at the sight is a massive ceremonial war canoe ... [Continue reading this entry]

We have done well to reserve in advance for everything. It makes travel seem a little less spontaneous and free but it saves a lot of hassle. Being summer here ... [Continue reading this entry]

We got our last things mailed out from the Clothing Distribution Center (the USAP operations center in NZ) so now are packs are finally the ideal size for travel. In all I ... [Continue reading this entry]