A Brief History of Skipalooza

Back in 2004, my friend Martin and I decided we needed to make a road trip to a ski area. We chose to go to Schweitzer Ski Resort in Idaho - just outside of Sandpoint. The weather was great, we stayed on the mountain and enjoyed a very uncrowded few days. Not a lot of snow that year so a few things were unavailable, but there was more than enough to have a great time. It was so much fun, in fact, that we decided we needed to do the same thing the following year.



In 2005, we headed to Canada, in part to take advantage of the positive (for us) exchange rate. Being fiscally prudent fellows, we saw great advantage in being able to pay seventy bucks for a lift ticket that actually only cost us fifty. In return for that we visited Silver Star - near the B.C town of Vernon, and Big White just outside of Kelowna. It's beautiful country in that central part of the province and the skiing was quite nice. For a second year, snow cover was low and as a result we were unable to get to a number of areas on both mountains. That only means it's just that much more likely we'll return in the future!


It became clear that we'd established a tradition by 2006 so we launched yet another March expedition, once again planning to take advantage of the generous exchange rate. This time we went north to Kamloops B.C. to sample Sun Peaks Resort. I can only say - WOW - there is a reason it's called "Sun" Peaks. Fantastic weather as we arrived on the heels of a nasty storm. The snow was cold, dry and fast. We had a very nice condo with an on-deck hottub for muscle therapy. We skied to exhaustion - this place is definitely on the list to re-visit.

By 2007 Bush-o-nomics had eliminated any advantage of the US dollar so we found it possible to make our annual trip to a US destination. We ended up in Montana at The Big Mountain just north of Kalispell. It's since been renamed to Whitefish Mountain Resort - I'm sure the prices went up to go along with that. Day one there was driving rain. The groomers got to the mountain overnight after the rain finally stopped but what we found early the next day - in nice sun - was a beautifully groomed boiler plate beyond anything I've ever encountered. It was like skiing on the deck of an aircraft carrier - except listing at forty degrees to starboard. Eventually it warmed up enough that you could actually set an edge, but in spite of this rock-hard start it proved to be a great trip. We added two new members this year with Rich from Wenatchee and Blake from Boise. The SkiPalooza Crew was growing.

For 2008, in the face of continuing financial dominance by the Canadians, we opted for yet another domestic destination. This time it was to be my first trip to Utah, land of the fabled powder. The license plates used to say "the greatest snow on earth". I have to say - it's true. We stayed in a nice suburban condo in Cottonwood Heights - which is really just the most easterm part of Salt Lake City that's shoved into the Wasatch. We skied Brighton, Alta, The Canyons, and Snowbird. I was stunned by how nice it was.
We added my son Zeke this year. Also on the trip for our visit to Snowbird was Justin - a nephew from Salt Lake City. As of 2008 the SkiPalooza Crew was four (and one-half).


The Future
This next month we head out for SkiPalooza 2009. We've picked up two new members for this trip - my good friend David from West Seattle, and Blake's father-in-law from Pennsylvania. Because of the incredible time we had last year, we're making an unprecented return to familiar grounds and will be sampling more of the Utah powder.

Out of the Past - Part 1

Over the past few months, for reasons I don't fully understand, I've experienced a series of reconnections with people from my past. Some of them very far in the past. While I can't explain why this seems to be happening right now, I can explain how.

The proliferation of networking websites allows all of us to establish a cyber-presence that makes our existence accessible to the world. Sites like Facebook and MySpace are quite well known and seem to be the most popular, particularly with a slightly younger set than me. While I rarely use those, I do frequent a more business oriented site - LinkedIn.

This started with me connecting to mostly people I currently work with but has managed to open the doors through various organizational connections to a number of other folks. You can search by schools, for instance. One of my recent reconnections was through this means, seeing a school listed that I actually knew someone from. The other common connection is through work history, finding a company I'd worked for in the past and then searching for everyone else that has that same connection. That's how Ron Bailey came to light.

While browsing through a recent connection to me, I saw that GTE (now Verizon) was listed as a former employer. That reminded me of Ron Bailey. Ron and I had started our IT careers at nearly the same time after we graduated from the same training program at a business college in the Seattle area. While working together at GTE we became fast friends and shared a number of common interests that led us to a rewarding friendship. Over time, life's complications managed to insert a wedge between us that ultimately resulted in us drifting apart and eventually losing track of one another completely. The last time we spent any time together would have been about 1986 or so - I'm not entirely certain of the year. I'd tried uncovering his whereabouts from time to time using the trusty method of Google and had come up with nothing. Even though I worked daily with a number of people from the old GTE era, none of them had any idea either. Then came LinkedIn.

I pulled up all the Ron Baileys on LinkedIn and emailed each of them describing our connection from GTE. A couple of days later an email arrived and sure enough, I'd found him. It turns out we had been working two blocks apart for the past five years of so. Or at least a number of years.
Clearly a lot has changed in the intervening time but it was terrific to find we still recognized one another in spite of the passage of time. We've managed to get together a couple of times to visit and I look forward to many more opportunities to do so. There is a whole world of experiences in our past to share, and a whole world yet to come. Welcome back to my world Ron Bailey!! It's good to have you back.