Jim Schley

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

Bob Dylan, originally uploaded by jimschley.

I’ve been working to digitize the very large CD collection that Danielle and I have amassed over the years, and when I grabbed the live double-disc album pictured here, I realized that the 1978 photo of Bob Dylan on the cover shows him with the same hairstyle that I have right now.

Putting all of the music onto the computer has been a slow process, but it will be great when we can store the physical disks and cases away in the basement and can access all the music from iTunes. Finding great albums like this one that you haven’t listened to in a long time is an awesome side benefit. This Bob Dylan album was recorded live at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo in Spring of 1978.

I’ve been having fun with Animoto and produced a photo/video redux to the 2007-2008 ski season.

I’ve been playing with Animoto, and it’s pretty cool. Check out the short movie I made with photos from our trip to Mexico last Fall:

Memorial Day skiing - Sugarbush, originally uploaded by jimschley.

Ok, ok… everyone knows I’m more than a little bit obsessed with skiing, so it wasn’t that big of a surprise that packed the skis on my back and hiked up to ski the remains of the man-made glacier on Steins Run on Monday. There wasn’t a lot of snow left up there, but it kept staring me in the face all weekend long as we pursued the normal Springtime activities in the Mad River Valley. Late Monday afternoon, I could take it no longer and headed up the mountain. There were three distinct skiable patches of snow on Stein’s, the largest starting from the top of the trail. It was about 20 turns until I had to traverse a small snowless stretch to another small patch for four or five turns. After that I had to take the skis off to portage down to the lower patches, each yielding about 15 turns. It was a lot of fun and a great workout. The new AT equipment completely rocks. The Garmont Axon boots are awesome both for skiing and for hiking or skinning. Now I think I’m really done skiing for the season. Less than six months to go until I’m at it again, and I already can’t wait.

Danielle after the race, originally uploaded by jimschley.

Danielle and I both ran the Stow Run for the Woods 5K road race yesterday. It’s a race that I particularly enjoy because it benefits the Stow Conservation Trust and it’s close to home. Danielle did a great job, setting a new personal record for herself. I somehow managed to finish in 23rd place– the same placing as last year even though I was 40 seconds slower. It wasn’t a particularly fast race for me but I did finish in second place in my age group!

Two weeks of above average temperatures and no freezing nights took a toll on the snowpack, and we arrived at Sugarbush to rapidly liquefying ski trails. It was a pleasant surprise to see Stein’s Run with edge to edge deep coverage as well as lots of snow on Spring Fling. Downspout had a reasonable layer of slush allowing for navigation down to the Heaven’s Gate lift to access Ripcord, Spillsville, Organgrinder and Jester. Everything was extremely soft and mushy but not rotten. Ripcord had sublime bumps that were good run after run. Organgrinder was great too and had excellent coverage. The lower reaches of Ripcord were sketchy but made for fun challenges leaping mini-crevasses with running water and skiing the grass and mud when required. A trip down Jester was needed to traverse over to the lower mountain. With dry weather and balmy temperatures, the skiing was extremely pleasant. Stein’s Run was absolutely great– leaving a rooster tail of slush snow flying behind me as I flew down. It was sad to bid the ski season farewell, especially with so much snow remaining on Stein’s Run, but it was a great season, life goes on, and season’s change. 13/111 trails open and 287 inches of snowfall at the conclusion of the 2007-2008 season.

We saw temperatures 28 degrees above normal on Saturday along with bright sunshine and clear blue skies. If it’s not going to snow a lot in April, that warm weather and sunshine is exactly what a skier likes to see for optimal Spring skiing condtions. The warm weather and deep snowpack made for some of the best Spring skiing I’ve ever experienced. Most trails at Lincoln Peak were still open on Saturday morning, and we took advantage of some of our favorite natural snow trails while they were still skiable. Lower Birdland required some creative lines through the woods and over to Stein’s in order to avoid the melted out lower section bit was really cool to be still hitting it.

Castlerock stayed opened through Sunday which was a record-setting 141 straight days. We were excited to get up there early on Saturday morning and had a blast cruising down the bumps on Middle Earth despite the fact that there were some bare spots and the runout below the lift had some melted out areas that weren’t skiable. We loved it, and it was a fitting way to say goodbye to the Castlerock terrain until next season. Stein’s Run had been groomed on Friday night, and I really wasn’t happy about it, but it was fun to bomb down in arcing turns on succulent corn snow. The Mall had full, top-to-bottom coverage on Saturday morning and perfect bumps– it was brilliant.

The real skiing was off the summit of Lincoln Peak with Ripcord as the Spring-skiing, bump-lovers showcase. Organgrinder was great too, but Ripcord was primo with huge bumps and sweet lines. The coverage was very good, with only a few holes on the very lower reaches. Organgrinder was flawless with smaller bumps and solid coverage. The snow surface was slightly slushy, but factoring in the weather, you really couldn’t beat the overall skiing experience. The mercury did almost hit 80 degrees on Saturday, and that meant skiing in shorts and tshirts. At times it felt more like we were enjoying a day at the beach than a day on the snow- 30 SPF sunblock was in full effect. Sitting on the patio with a few beers felt pretty nice, but it couldn’t keep us away from going back up and enjoying a couple more runs down the newly formed bumps on Stein’s. It was so much fun that we probably could have kept running laps until sunset. I don’t think I’ve ever skied on such a warm day.

The weather on Sunday was just as perfect as Saturday yet slightly cooler. It still demanded shorts and tshirt, but wasn’t outright hot like Saturday was. More laps on Ripcord and Stein’s were in order. The skiing was phenomenal. The soft, slushy snow was a bit toiling on the legs, but it was so forgiving to ski. Non-stop bumps all weekend turned my legs to rubber, but it felt great. Skiing on such deep snowpack (alebeit rapidly dwindling) in such amazingly warm temperatures is really a treat and something to be savored and enjoyed in the rare opportunities you get. What could be better? 61/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 287 inches of snow for the season.

Jim skiing, originally uploaded by jimschley.

Pouring rain a whipping winds woke me up at 5:30 AM on Saturday morning, and I wasn’t optimistic about the prospects of skiing when I looked out the window. I went back to bed and when I woke up, I could see a little sunshine through the curtains. The weather forecast was blown (thankfully), and we ended up with a great spring ski day. Temps reached the upper fifties making for very comfortable skiing on beautiful soft corn snow, and we saw quite a bit of sun amidst the clouds. The snow coverage was superb. We did laps on Castlerock; the bumps were spectacular, and the rocks were all still buried. Lower Castlerock Run was a bit burned out and required taking some creative lines, but other than that, everything looked great. My run down my favorite trail, Liftline, was as good as it gets; skiing the hero bumps under the lift. Everything up top was great too. There were beautiful soft bumps on Paradise, Ripcord, and Spillsville– it doesn’t get much better than that. Despite all expectations, Saturday ended up being a very memorable ski day. Sunday wasn’t quite comparable despite a little bit of snow overnight– temperatures were cold and everything on the hill froze solid. There was still a lot of snow up there so definitely hoping for more spring skiing to come. 68/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 286 inches of snow for the season.

Spring weather in New England is always unpredictable so I wasn’t too fazed by an unfavorable forecast for Saturday. It did start out poorly with drizzle and fog, but once the fog lifted in the afternoon leaving bright sunshine in its wake, it turned into a brilliant spring skiing day. The summit of Lincoln Peak and Castlerock never escaped the cloud cover, but the lower mountain had great soft snow under the bright sun. US Ski Team member and World Cup finals winner David Babic was on the mountain teaching a camp on mogul skills. It was a treat to watch him rip it up. The scene on the patio after skiing was spectacular and included the appearance of the shot-ski in order to celebrate Erik’s bachelor party, who we caught up with while they were enjoying the weekend at the mountain.
Sunday was an even better day with perfect sunny weather and temperatures reaching into the fifties. The snow cover was still extremely good with only a few bare patches and rocks poking through here and there. Liftline was the highlight of the day (and perhaps the season), and Stein’s, Ripcord, Lower Birdland and the Mall were all amazing. The soft spring moguls were so easy to ski that it really just made you feel great. It was a sublime ski day. 72/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 286 inches of snow for the season.

This is the phrase that was taken on as the motto of the ski lift operators manning the Gatehouse Express at Sugarbush a couple weeks ago. They proudly displayed it written on their message whiteboard next to where you load the lift. As we had more than a couple minutes waiting for that lift to open so we could get first tracks down Morningstar, we had the opportunity to ponder and discuss the meaning of this phrase that was then unknown to me. The elder in a father-son duo that was competitively determined to beat us to those first tracks on Morningstar and whom I invited to ride the chair up with us, knew of and explained the meaning. He said that the phrase was Latin for “don’t let the bastards keep you down.”

I thought that this was a fitting motto for the lifties as I’m sure they have to deal with quite a few rude customers on a daily basis. I’m making assumptions, and I don’t know if there was more to the story, i.e. issues with their employer, but I could relate to it as I talk to customers all the time in my job. Often, by the time they speak to me, they have reached a level of frustration that causes them to become less than civil. It doesn’t get to me because I understand their situation; they typically have a valid reason for being irate, but even if they don’t, I don’t let them wear me down.

My interest in the phrase and general lack of Latin knowledge led my to look it up on Wikipedia when I got back online, and there was some interesting detail there. I won’t rehash the whole article but interestingly, it says that it’s not a true translation but a mock-Latin aphorism. I still think it’s a good motto, but the Wikipedia article concludes with this:

Henry Beard in his 1991 book Latin for Even More Occasions (chapter I) offered some correct Latin for the sentiment, but did so in a section “Dopey Exhortations Are More Forceful in Latin”, which might be his comment on the merit of the expression.

Don’t let the bastards wear you down.
Noli nothis permittere te terere.

Whatever your point of view on mock-Latin aphorisms like Illegitimi non carborundum, I do feel strongly about the fact that the phrase is meaningful in whatever language you’d like to recite it (or display on your whiteboard). I repeated it in my head all the way down Morningstar that morning, skiing first tracks in fresh powder– one of the best runs I had this year. Illegitimi non carborundum.