Okemo

So I went to Okemo over the weekend for a day. It was ok, kind of icy and mid winter cold. We had a half foot of fine, dry snow down in the valley, but the top had gotten wind scorched. The storm was one of the Arctic driven ones. However it has gotten way too warm this week, which will mess up the weekend...

Also I just added this new satellite image of the Okemo trail map, you can clearly see the addition of the Jackson Gore ridge, by zooming back and forth between levels. (The pictures
were taken at different times)

Satellite map of Okemo - play with this a little to get it to work_

Oi vay

Me and Guano took this lift a lot over the Easter holiday - glad it did not break down
on us.

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Canadian ski gondola breakdown strands 75 Page 1/2

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- A breakdown of a gondola system at a ski
resort in Lake Louise, Alberta, stranded 75 people for as long as five hours in
frigid temperatures.
Rick Werner, operations manager at the resort in Banff National Park, said a
safety switch on the Grizzly Express gondola tripped at about 3 p.m. Sunday.
It took eight rescue teams until nearly 9 p.m. to get everyone down and take
them off the mountain by snowmobile or snow cat, the Canadian Broadcasting
Corp., reported. Crews used a pulley device to reach the cable cars and then
lowered people in harnesses to the ground.
It stranded about 75 children and adults along the resort's longest lift, which
stretches 9,500 feet from the resort's base to a mountaintop.
Temperatures had dipped to 21 degrees by early evening.
The resort promised a full investigation into the shutdown.

Shirts Ordered

Dear arvind,

Thank you for placing your order with CustomInk.com. Your guaranteed delivery date is on or before Friday, December 9, 2005. Below, please find an Order Confirmation for your records.

We will begin processing your order immediately. Because you used your own uploaded artwork in your design, we will require your approval of a final picture proof before your custom items go to print. An email with a link to the proof will be sent once your order has been processed, so be sure to check your email regularly to ensure that your order is not delayed.

At any time, you can track the progress of your order. Either click the tracking link provided in the Order Confirmation below or use the Track Your Order feature on our Welcome page. If you wish to make changes to your standard delivery order, please call 800.293.4232. CustomInk will happily accept such changes if submitted within 24 hours. Please note that for rush delivery orders, changes and cancellations are not possible.

We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you. Please feel free to contact us if we can be helpful in any way.

Thanks again.

-CustomInk.com
800.293.4232
service@customink.com

=====================================
CUSTOMINK ORDER CONFIRMATION

Order Tracking #: 227961
Track: Tracking Number

Design: aspenfinal
Date Placed: Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Delivery Date: On or before Friday, December 9, 2005

Item: Gildan 100% Cotton T - Natural

Decoration: Screenprinting, 1 color front, 4 color back

Quantity: M: 1, L: 3, XL: 5, XXL: 1; Total: 10

Subtotal: $200.30
Tax: $.00
Total Price: $200.30

Customer Contact Info:
arvind rao
Ph: 212 723 7881
Alt Ph: 212 723 7137

Shipping Address:
arvind rao
411 e. 57th st
2c
new york
NY 10022
US
Ph: 212 723 7881

Billing: Mastercard

Billing Address:
arvind k rao
411 e. 57th st
new york
NY 10022
US
Ph: 212 521 3110

--------------
Also, Sparky is no longer sure about attendance. We could still use another attendee, especially for the tail end of the week which is Jan 26 onwards, since the house will have an empty bed or two at that point.

SKI Magazine Rankings

#4 Snowmass

The big news is finally official: Construction of Snowmass's much needed and much contested new base village has begun. Since Snowmass opened in 1967 it has always been a world class hill and has always lacked a world class base village that would give the resort a clearly defined identity. Some locals are already criticizing the scope of the massive new village as being out of character for Snowmass. You can decide for yourself when its finished in 2011. More immediately, skiers, who grouse each year about too many old, slow lifts will be riding two new ones this winter. The Village Express six pack whips from Fanny Hill to Sam's Knob in less than 10 minutes. And in just two minutes, the Sky Cab gondola delivers you from the new Base Village - the first phase of which is scheduled to be opened next season - to the freshly refurbished Snowmass Village Mall. In truth Snowmass's nightlife tends to be unfairly disparaged (undoubtedly due to Aspen - queen of the night - holding court a few miles up valley). Snowmass's social options may be thin in number, but not in sophistication, as it offers both first class restaurants (Il Poggio, Butch's, Sage) and bars (Cirque, Zane's, Tower). Ultimately, though, Snowmass's biggest draw has always been its vast, varied mountain. In addition to the endless full throttle cruisers (Dallas Freeway, Green Cabin, Grey Wolf, Big Burn etc) for which Snowmass is adored (makes you feel like a better skier), there are knee quaking steeps in Hanging Valley and the Cirque. Snowmass is also home to one of the biggest terrain parks in America, a beginners version of the same, a ski by reindeer corral, a paintball arena, and enough other attractions to make you wonder if Disney has a stake in the place. (It doesn't, though Michael Eisner does own a house) Even with Snowmass ranked #4, many readers view it as underrated. If coming changes go as planned that may no longer be the case. -- Jay Cowan (SKI magazine OCT 2005)

#8 Aspen

The glitzy town of Aspen has become such an icon that the mountain itself tends to be chronically underappreciated. Having the coolest ski town at your base can do that to a hill. Still, while its relatively small compared to such leviathons such as Vail and Whistler, Aspen(technically Ajax mountain) skis huge, especially when you link multiple pitches top to bottom, follow locals to the best stashes (such as Trainor Ridge) and throw in a backside romp (Midnight Mine to a waiting taxi). There are many reasons why a lot of great, world savvy skiers think Aspen is still the best. If, after truly exploring all of this big little mountain, you're somehow still feeling underwhelmed (congested, poor egress, nasty and dangerous funneling) you could always kick off your skis and head to town. And what a town. Ranked #2 in Off Hill Activities, it offers enough diversions on any given day to make you beg for a nap. Paragliding, hot-air balooning, mine tours, the X games, a troupe from the Cirque du Soleil, world class restaurants, posh boutiques and some of America's highest rated hotels (Little Nell, St Regis, Jerome...Aspen has it all) Which means you can catch acts as diverse as Widespread Panic, the New York String Quartet or the Shakespeare Theater Company of Washington. Many readers call it the ultimate ski town not to mention the a great place to meet a millionaire. So with Aspen crushing the competition in Dining and Apres Ski (both #1) and earning a #4 in Lodging, it's easy to see why Ajax Mountain sometimes gets overlooked, especially with three other eminently skiable mountains in the valley. The upside:Even if you don't mesh with the old-school challenge of Ajax, you can still find terrain to suit your style. It's in the smaller, simpler things where visitors find Aspen lacking. There's no good place with a band to have a post run beer one reader complains. Holy Swank Town too pretentious another insists. And nearly everyone identifies with the reader who peg's Aspen's main weakness as my bank account. In the end however, you live the high life when you're there because it's Aspen. -- J.C. (SKI OCT 2005)

Shirt Sizes

We are having trip t-shirts made up again. Here are the sizes I was planning on ordering. The design will be different but the sizes are the same as we had last year. If your shirt last year did not fit right, please let me know and we can get you a different size.

Arv XL
David XL
Sean XXL
Guano XL
Doug M
Rajiv XL
Yuji L
Chris XL
Sparky L
Alex L

Here is our shirt design,

http://customink.com/cink/r.jsp?E=arvind1.rao%40citigroup.com&F=aspen2

The flight info thread has been updated for everyone's flight details. A few other various threads have also been updated for current information. If you know your travel details, please advise so that possible convoys, taxi pools, or car rentals can be arranged.

Plant

PS: The NY Times had an article about Kitzbuehl on Sunday.

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/11/13/travel/13hahnenkamm.html

Early season skiing

In case any of you are trying to get in some skiing before the big trip, here are some places reputed to have good early season skiing.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9995348/

Plant

Travel Details

Ok, now that we have finalized the destination and timing, let's go over various transportation issues.

Trip : Aspen / Snowmass
Dates : Saturday, Jan 21 - Sunday Jan 29

There are 3 main ways to get to Aspen / Snowmass

1) Fly in to Denver and shuttle/rental car drive over. Denver is served by United mostly, and some other carriers. It is pretty easy to use Frequent Flyer miles to get into Denver. The drive to Aspen is 220 miles and about 4-5 hours. It requires going over the continental divide and is reputed to be a tough drive. Shuttles are $108, probably less for a big group. This is probably Bruha's best option if he can fly direct from Europe into Denver. Others may want to join him here and convoy over, possibly in a rental or shuttle.

2) Fly in to Eagle / Vail and shuttle/rental car drive over. This is well served by the non United group of carriers and is a 757 jet capable field. It is is mostly an all weather field, but not 100% all weather. Currently you can use American miles to get in there, but I'm not sure the status with other carriers. It gets pricey as the season goes on to fly here. The drive to Aspen is 150 miles and about 2 hours. It is reputed to be an easy valley drive. Shuttles are $53 or so. For those who can fly direct to Eagle (DFW, ORD, LGA, EWR, MPL, etc) this is a very good option. For certain structural reasons (DIA bond payments) this can be a good deal, if booked before snowfall. I am going to fly in to here on a direct flight from LGA, returning to EWR. I have not booked shuttles / rentals yet until we come to some kind of consensus decision on that.

3) Fly in to Sandy/Pitkin in Aspen (possibly by way of Denver) and taxi over. This is served by a few carriers, probably mostly United. This airport is a turboprop/puddle jumper airport and can have significant weather issues. I don't know the exact cancellation rate, but have heard numerous anecdotal accounts of reroutings. I do not know how easy/difficult it is to use miles to travel here, but would expect that it would be hard unless you were a United premium passenger or something. The drive into town or Snowmass is about 5 miles and is a quick taxi ride. For those on the West Coast, there may even be some direct flights into this airfield, which would be worth the effort. If one flew in here, just taxi over to whatever house we rent or someone will come by and pick you up (if possible).

Anyways, start thinking about those, and consider using miles if possible. Realize using miles will either require early planning or using up 50,000 or so.

Plant

PS: I would be more leary of flying Delta than I was before....to wit:

NEW YORK, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- A decision by pilots of Atlanta-based Delta AirLines to strike, if a bankruptcy court abrogates their contract, could kill thecarrier, the carrier says.A bankruptcy court was set to rule Wednesday on Delta's request to end itspilots' contract and impose $325 million in concessions on the 6,000 pilots,TheStreet.com reported Tuesday.The company's characterization of a potential pilots strike as "murder-suicide"came after the Air Line Pilots Association raised the prospect of a strike --if the court rejects their contract.The nation's third-largest carrier filed for bankruptcy in September, after the ALPA gave management about $1 billion in concessions.

Finances

I will be having to send $3000 to the home owner next week to hold the house. Over the years, experience has taught me the wisdom of collecting money from attendees up front so I don't chase people for monies for the next 6.9 months. Accordingly, I'll be needing checks from people.
We do not have a precise handle on what the trip is going cost, at least from a collective sense. Last year we spend $5412 as a group, and it'll definitely be higher this year, due to increased lodging costs. Last year we collected $675 per person, and I'm assuming most of us spent around $1400 for the full week with airfare, lift tickets, and other various expenses included. $200/day is my usual cost estimate/guidance for skiing the Rockies in any case. (Europe tends to be an extra $100/day, with the Northeast tending to cost $100/day less).

I believe we will have 8 shares in the house (with 7 full ones) and (hopefully) Yuji/Doug splitting the week.

Plant
Bru
Spam
Waldo
Bagel
Guano
Alex
Doug/Yuji (mid week switchy switchy)

Here is my estimate of forecast expenses

housing 6000
car & gas 1000 (I am hoping this is less)
shirts 200
provisions 800 (we underestimated this last year)
------
$8000

At 8 shares, that works out to be $1000/person. The half share persons would be liable for $500. If we have more/less people attend I will make adjustments to make the number fair for everyone. Apparently the house is capped at 9 persons for short term rentals so I hope we are not oversubscribed.

If for some reason you are forced to pull out after signing up, we will make "best efforts" to find a replacement but can only reallocate the variable expenses (car, shirts, provisions) to the rest of the group. I can provide a letter to anyone whose employer forces a cancellation, so that you can attempt to get reimbursed.

As is our custom, room/bedding rap will be offered in order of payment so please remit monies to

Arvind Rao
411 E.57th St
Apt 2C
New York, NY 10022

I will advise upon receipt, and in what order they come in.

Thank you.

Plant

Some positive news and a property we should consider (now booked!)

Here's the update from today...

I spoke with an absentee owner in Columbus*, OH who seems to have a pretty good house that would meet our needs. They rent it out relatively infrequently, mostly just to cover fixed costs, which is the situation we're looking for. [That type of owner tends to have higher quality furnishings and more generic "stuff" than places that are essentially income properties. The place we stayed in Grand Targhee -- while very nice -- was clearly an income producer and not a place the owners really visited as you could tell from the pathetic kitchen accoutrements that did not befit a million dollar home.]

* He claimed not to know "Drug" Cohen or Senor Eskimobar

Anyways, I digress. Here's the details of the place that's available for our time frame.

Location

The home is in the "Ridge Run" sector of Snowmass. There are numerous pockets in this area, as you can see from the map in my prior post. It's about 12 minutes from the Aspen airport, which the owner recommended people fly in to if they can. It's close to a shuttle bus stop, but the owner recommended driving to the bus stop to lug the gear. We would be about 20 minutes from the town of Aspen and the 3 other ski areas there, but obviously super close to Snowmass. Snowmass is where the larger homes as well as ski in/ski out properties are.

Bedding:

The home has 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, and at least 7 beds. One of the beds can be turned into two twins, in addition. It's pretty big too, about 3800 sq. feet. The main feature is a massive 3 story stone fireplace (that weighs an astonishing 120 tons) along with a rec room. As far as I can tell, the place seems big enough that if we have extra folks show up (I'm budgeting / assuming we have 6-8 people) those people can crash on couches or use the extra bedding. As usual, room rap will be decided by order of payment ... and consumption of gin.

Terms & Conditions

The house is a good deal for the region and quality it represents at $750 per night. That includes taxes and cleaning -- most other rates I've seen sneak those on in the end. In addition, there is a midweek cleaning, which given our slovenliness, is going to be most welcome. Given that the owners are not real investment managers, we can probably buy an extra day stay, if there is sufficient group interest. If we have 8 official people like last year, it will be approx $650/person in lodging costs. If extra folks show up, clearly that drops, but that cost is manageable even without extra folk. They have a handyman on call if something breaks as well as a plowing service to deal with the driveway and walks. (That is something I've found some owners haven't really thought through, so it's good that these are all set up). Terms are 50% upfront to hold the place, with a $500 damage deposit, and a 7 day min. rental with full payment required 60 days prior. Those are standard for owner direct rentals.

I am hoping, although this may be naive, that we can exist with either no rental car, or a much smaller one. (We spent $1338 on the truck and associated expenses last year, and it was a terrible value. Our comparable cost for a similar vehicle at Vail was $900, which was still too high, I think)

The owners son in law made a web site www.snowmasshome.com/index.htm and it does a pretty good job covering the details. Please take a look at it, and hopefully we can discuss later this week. I've looked at a number of places over the internet in the last several days and I'm pleasantly surprised by this. I had kind of given up hope on a quality owner direct rental.

Frask,

Plant

PS: Bruha has booked his airline tix ; he is flying into Denver direct from LHR on Brit Air, arriving Friday, Jan 20 and departing Sunday, Jan 29. Some of you may want to convoy with him.

PPS: Also, Okemo up in Vermont has 6-18 in of snow covering the mountain already and is opening up next weekend, which seems extraordinarily early.

Communique from Home Owner

Hi Arvand. Thanks for your email this morning.

To Confirm:
The date starting January 21, 2006 and ending January 29, 2006 - 8 nights @ 750.00 per night.

Number in your party is 8, with 9 maximum.

50% is due to reserve. The last 50% plus a refundable $500. damage deposit is due 60 days before arrival. Send to John Breen, 886 Clayton Drive, Worthington, Ohio 43085.

I have a full packet of information for you on the house, phone numbers to call in case of need plus a map. I'll also enclose keys to our home and will send these on receipt of the final payment. I'll send the packet to the address shown on your email unless you tell me otherwise.

Our home management service will have everything ready for you when you arrive. The snow removal service functions automatically after a 4 inch or so snowfall. Midweek maid service is included.

Our Worthington phone: 614/885-1273 (until we leave for Snowmass November 18th)

My cell phone works anywhere: 614/619-7111

Snowmass home phone: 970/923-5897

Snowmass opens on Thanksgiving and I'll get a couple of trail maps and send them to you. I'm sure that you'll love what you see.

If you have any questions, give me a call.

John and Jan Breen

Property Search so Far

Today, I went throught the VRBO website and emailed owners of the 5 Snowmass properties that looked vaguely interesting. We'll see what they come back with. Most of them don't look that great though.

In addition I reviewed the Aspen Times newspaper but nothing there really stuck out. I don't think we really care about the $10,000 Xmas week special offers.

I spoke with one national rental chain company, which was totally worthless. Their web site was counterproductive, and their 800 number call center staffers (which their web site steered everyone towards) was unable to answer basic questions like 1. is the property available or 2. what is the number of beds . They wanted to take your information and "get back to you". That appears to be sheer agency brokerage, and if we wanted a middling experience, we could stay at some Ramada picked out by 1 800 6969 6969 too.

Afterwards, I checked 3-4 real estate agent web sites out and the level of property quality appeared higher on them, with correspondingly higher prices, since one is paying a fee embedded in the rate, and that agent is keeping that rental rate in line with demand. This may end up being the route we choose to get a good place.

[ Often rentals by owners are not "marked to market" as owners simply decide they want to rent out their place to get some fixed dollar amount of money to cover property taxes or other fixed costs. That is how we got such good deals on the places at Vail and Sun Valley by the way. My rental in Tahoe was not such a good deal though ! ]

Lastly, I left an indication of interest on Bloomberg. I have to think there are some folks out there who have homes they simply don't rent out but if someone shook the tree a little, something might fall out. I have had success before with WTB or WTSublet ads before, especially with unusual items.

As progress happens, we will keep you posted.

RentalPlant