Our final day in the front country. Today is a big gear gear and packing day, in preparation for our departure tomorrow morning.
After breakfast, went over basic sled usage and packing technique. Since we’ll be skiing with these sleds both uphill and downhill, packing efficiency and balance is very important.
After sled backing, moved on to daypack, and getting everything else sorted out.
Skinning today was along Mail Cabin Creek. A short 2 mile skin in, and then we set up a mock campsite.
I taught a quick class on winter stove usage, and Lindsey did one on setting up a backcountry snow shelter.
Today was our first day testing field equipment, and going through avalanche rescue training. It’s been a long day, it’s late, and we’re getting up early tomorrow morning – so a few quick notes:
For the first time this trip, put climbing skins on my telemark skis. Also switched the bindings to climbing mode.
Tested functioning of our avalanche trancievers, and went over tranciever search theory in parking lot.
Did some quick skiing into the backcountry to find a good slope to look at snow and practice on.
Practiced finding buried “victims” with our avalanche trancievers, probes and shovels.
Practiced shoveling technique.
Spent a few hours in town this evening purchasing last minute gear and supplies.
Kate made indian food tonight. After dinner we relaxed as a group watching snow film “The Fine Line“.
Today was another full day at Grand Targhee Resort. In order to travel in the backcountry, it’s necessary to be very comfortable on skis – and since I’ll be using relatively new telemark skis, climbing skins, and will be pulling a gear sled, the more practice I can get before heading out into the backcountry, the better.
The morning was spent in a telemark lesson with my old friend Erica Linnell. Erica was an instructor on my very first NOLS course in Alaska, which I did the summer after I graduated high school. I spent a month with her hiking across the northern Talkeetna mountain range. Now, Erica lives in Driggs, and works for the NOLS Wilderness Medicine Institute, and teaches lessons at Grand Targhee. It was great to reconnect with Erica after 13 years!
After a full day at Grand Targhee, we came back to the NOLS base for a tasty dinner. This evening in Victor, Idaho we went to check out the Backcountry Film Festival. It seemed like the whole town came out to check out the latest backcountry adventure films. Standouts of the night included “Solitaire” by Sweetgrass Productions, and “Breaking Trail” by Powderwhore.
Today was our first full day together as a group. In preparation for or departure to the backcountry, we’re spending two day skiing at Grand Targhee Resort.
Although i grew up alpine skiing, and have been an avid snowboarder for the past 15 years, today was my first day Telemarking. Telemarking gear looks similar to alpine gear, however the heel of the boot binding on Telemark skis is free travel up and down. That allows the toe to pivot forward,
Giving a lot of freedom of motion. To make use of this motion, the standard telemark turn is significantly different than the alpine ski turn. It requires much more balance, flexibility, and leg strength.
I did a half day lesson, and spent the afternoon doing runs with coursemates.
Tonight we’re returning to NOLS base in Driggs for a bit of field preparation and relaxation. I’m also starting to get a few of my teaching modules together – I’ll be teaching basic backcountry medical and trauma patient assessment system, as well as a few others.
Today was the first day of the NOLS Winter Outdoor Educator Course. For the first few days of the course, we’ll be spending time in the front country, getting gear prepared for our departure to the backcountry, and going over backcountry education curriculum. This is likely the last blog post I’ll make for a while, however I will be keeping daily notes, and will post daily corresponding blog posts when I return to the front country on January 31st.
Day 1 – Arrival, Food Rationing, and Gear Selection
Woke up in Jackson, WY. Took bus with fellow students to NOLS Teton Valley Base in Driggs, Idaho. Stumbled into sailing crew mate Jesse Schenck on the bus, too.
Arrived early morning at NOLS TVB, met group, and immediately got started on rationing food. NOLS has their own food rationing system, to make sure each expedition member has proper food rations.
Also went through all expedition gear, and issuance of group gear, including avalanche rescue gear, sled gear, and telemark gear.
First few learning modules, covering group dynamics and culture, and cold injuries.
Tonight we’re enjoying free time on base, and tomorrow morning will be departing for a day of telemarking at Grand Targhee Resort.
Today I spent the day finishing up the last day of work for a while, and exploring Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Despite a low cloud cover creating a dismally cloudy day on the ground, as soon as the Jackson Hole Tram broke above the clouds the sun shining into the cloud filled basin was spectacular. Quick videoblog post as well as panorama.
Tomorrow on January 10th, 2012 I’ll be heading to the Driggs, Idaho base of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). I’m participating in the NOLS Winter Outdoor Educator Course, in which I’ll receive outdoor educator training from the leading outdoor training orginization in the United States. In addition to a small amount of classroom learning, we’ll also be living in the backcountry of the Teton Mountains for a while, ski mountaineering up and down the rugged mountains.
NOLS Winter Outdoor Educator Course Description:
Designed for practicing and aspiring winter outdoor educators, this course gives you the skills to teach in any winter wilderness.
We begin with five days of workshops, including a Recreational Level I Avalanche clinic and two days of professional ski instruction at Grand Targhee Resort.
Then we’ll move into the backcountry for miles of skiing in pristine powder. You’ll build elaborate snow shelters complete with kitchen counters, benches, and a cozy bedroom. With coaching from your instructors, you’ll teach classes of your own and be taught by fellow students.
For educators of all levels, teaching in the winter will polish your presentation skills and hone your class management. The longest of our winter courses, these 21 days provide some of the best expedition training at the school, preparing you to camp and lead well in any cold, snowy environment.
During the course, I’ll be almost completely out of contact, including out of contact with my SPOT Satellite Messenger – by orders from NOLS. However, I’ll be keeping daily logs, and will post them all upon my safe return.
My single day in Idaho Falls was a relaxing one. After laptopping in a Starbucks for a bit, feeding the ducks, and walking around town, I found this abandoned trailer park..
A single day in Idaho Falls, Idaho. The actual falls wrap all the way around, and are peppered with ducks and geese, who don’t fly south for the winter anymore.
This recently posted video for Sony Playstation Move highlights the power of projection mapping, combined with a dynamic projection environment. By moving the surfaces onto which light is projected, a completely new, flexible environment was created.
In this video, it seems like the actual projection was rendered beforehand, and projected from a normal projector. The performers had to synchronize their movements to match what was going to be projected. However, think of the possibilities of combining this type of projection mapping creativity with the real time environment and surface modeling of a system like the Microsoft Kinect, to create a live generated, projection mapped environment that responds to changes in the physical projection surfaces.. the possibilities are just starting to be realized.
These days in the tech scene, startups are everywhere – new companies developing new products or services, trying to make it to the bigtime. It seems like every week there’s a whole new host of companies out there. To stay updated on the landscape, here are a few resources I frequently look at:
Startup Accelerators and Incubators I Pay Attention To:
Techstars - “TechStars provides seed funding from over 75 top venture capital firms and angel investors who are vested in the success of your startup, as well as intense mentorship from hundreds of the best entrepreneurs in the world.”
Y Combinator – “Y Combinator runs two three-month funding cycles a year, one from January through March and one from June through August. We ask the founders of each startup we fund to move to the Bay Area for the duration of their cycle, during which we work intensively with them to get the company into the best shape possible. Each cycle culminates in an event called Demo Day, at which the startups present to an audience that now includes most of the world’s top startup investors.”
Sequoia Capital - “Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm founded by Don Valentine in 1972. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital “one of the highest-caliber venture firms” and noted that it is “one of Silicon Valley’s most influential venture-capital firms”. It invests between $100,000 and $1 million in seed stage, between $1 million and $10 million in early stage, and between $10 million and $100 million in growth stage.” – Crunchbase. Of note – Sequoia’s tips on writing a compelling business plan.
i/o Ventures – “i/o ventures is an early stage startup program that focuses heavily on mentorship. We work closely with founders from product launch through the next stage of company development, sharing what has proven to work for product scaling, revenue growth and fund raising.”
Co-Working
We Work - “WeWork is revolutionizing the traditional definition of work place by providing a collaborative and creative environment where innovative businesses and individuals can flourish. We provide all the basics, so you can focus your efforts on getting the job done.”
General Assembly - “General Assembly is a campus for technology, design, and entrepreneurship. We provide educational programming, space, and support to facilitate collaborative practices and learning opportunities across a community inspired by the entrepreneurial experience.”
The Summit SF - “The Summit presents an artisan approach to modern café culture; featuring Blue Bottle Coffee, offering craft beers and local wines, and serving conceptually creative cuisine – democratically priced. As a gathering place for like-minds, The Summit also functions as an art space called Peek Gallery, celebrating the connoisseur as curator and craft as art. … Located in the unique I/O Ventures incubation space, The Summit is home to 40+ telecommuters and numerous startups, which receive mentorship and funding from leaders in the tech industry. I/O Ventures is backed by the founders of seminal tech companies: MySpace, BitTorrent, etc. The Summit is their public living room.”
Startup News and Support
Startup Threads - “Startup Threads is a merchandising service for startups. We want to make it easy for you to get the merchandise you need, so you can focus on the rest of your business. Let us know what ways we can serve you and we’ll do the work to make it happen.”
Startup Digest – “StartupDigest publishes the best articles, videos, and weekly event digests in 81 cities all around the world. Each digest is curated by a collective force of over 100 curators who are all founders, investors, or hackers themselves.”
Over the past few years I’ve been a user of iOS app Voxer. CEO Tom Katis is a friend of mine, and I’ve had a great time using the app through it’s successive generations and revisions. Lately, Voxer has been accelerating in its reach, and is now hitting the prime time, moving up the Apple App Store top 10 lists, and gaining a widespread global userbase.
From Voxer’s website:
“Voxer is a Walkie Talkie application for smartphones. Voxer lets you send instant audio, text and photo messages to your friends (one or more!). Messages stream live as you talk and your friends join you live or listen later.
Voxer is available for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android devices.”
Recently, CNN did a feature on Voxer, going over the product’s usage and business model.
I’ll be looking forward to using Voxer going forward, and to new versions of the app. Right now I think the actual conversation flow works well, but there’s a bit to be desired for the user list and friend discovery process.
My blog is run on the WordPress blogging engine. Although I use a standalone WordPress.org installation running on my own Dreamhost server, I also integrate with a number of web services from WordPress.com. One of those services is Jetpack, which provides me with numerous sharing and statistical tools for my blog. For the end of the year, WordPress.com whipped up this report for me.
Clickthrough to the report page to see a firework for each of my posts… you might be there a while!
Each rocket represents a post published on this blog in 2011. And because we like to share, we made the fireworks available as a jQuery plugin on Github.
Some browsers are better suited for this kind of animation. In our tests, Safari and Chrome worked best. Your overall score is not known (details).
We made beautiful, animated fireworks to celebrate your blogging! Unfortunately this browser lacks the capability. We made a slide show to fill in but we hope you will come back to this page with an HTML5 browser. In our tests, Safari or Chrome worked best.
New years eve always sucks. You always end up getting very excited and concerned over having the “perfect” new years, and being in the best spot right at midnight.. and inevitably, it never happens. At least for me, in many past years, although I’ve been in good places I’m always just short of the absolute best place for new years. So, I’ve grown to not expect a lot out of new years.
This new years eve was my first one in the city I’m living. Traditionally, I’ve always been traveling over the new year. But this time I was right smack in the middle of NYC.
Happy New Year! To start the new year right, I went down to Coney Island with a group of friends, and jumped in the frigid Atlantic Ocean for the annual Polar Bear Swim.
Yes, the water was extremely cold, but the energy of the thousands of people there kept us swimming.
Personally, being on the beach at Coney Island during the winter is my favorite time. It’s usually relatively quiet, the waves are still lapping at the shore, and the drama of the continuously rotting and renewing boardwalk is pronounced. I’m looking to making a few more visits out there this winter.. hopefully in the snow.
