Beamtime

So real work as a PhD student has finally begun. I had my first beamtime this weekend and it was 8 shifts (64 hours) of experimental time from friday afternoon till monday morning at 7am continuously. Thanks to mostly luck, I had people who would come and make sure things were going well at night so I could get some sleep, but significantly less than normal. We managed to align and measure around 50 bones automatically. While less than we had planned a decent feat. It was also nice to make the first real measurable dent into my project as the first year is now over, so it's time to get grinding.
I have never as fully appreciated the differences between engineering/physics project and real biological projects. With many of the engineering (specifically image processing/analysis) ones, it is nice to be done quickly, but there is lots of room for tweaking, and fixing little bugs later. You can really for the most part write code whenever it pleases you and as long as you work hard enough, it will work out. The biology projects really demand a huge tracks of dedicated time to do experiments and everything has to work perfectly or you could set your research project back years (destroying samples for example, many of the samples are unique or at least several decades in the making)
The setup I had at the Swiss Light Source

Jake Visits

This weekend Jake (a friend from BU) visited me on part of his whirlwind euro-tour. We luckily had great weather to we made it to Uetliberg

Luckily my shirt hid sweat better than his. On sunday we got a railpass and hopped a train to where the mountains looked good, on the way we were advised by some swiss to go to Fafleralp since there was a glacier there we could hike to, and lots of different places to explore and come down. So we took their advice and the site actually turned out to be a UNESCO site.
Fafleralp Hike at EveryTrail

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And on monday we made it to the Zurich Film Fesival and saw an entertaining but perhaps not soo well thought out french-canadian movie about a kid whose life was ruined by pluto's deplanetification. A pretty decent weekend.

Sola DUO

I had heard about Sola DUO from a friend in my running group and he basically kept reiterating how amazing it was, and how really only the craziest of the crazies even attempt it. Naturally I was a little intrigued (It is no real ultramarathon, but a solid leap away from marathon on the crazy scale)
So it is a little tricky to explain. It is a team event with two people and one bike. The team must stay together at all times, and they trade off who rides the bike. I had wanted to do it, but my partner backed out, and I ended up finding someone else in the same pool and we happened to be almost exactly the same strength runner.

The run was basically invented because after running Sola (a hood to coast like relay race around the zurich area) a bunch of guys were like this is way to complicated with the logistics of getting everyone to the right start spot and making sure everyone is one time, and knows who they are handing-off to and picking up from. So they simply decided the event could be done with just 2 people and a bike. Where one person rides and recovers (navigates as well) while the other runs, and they just trade off.

It is a brilliant idea, and it was really a blast. You feel really well connected to the outcome and involved in every detail of the strategy. Plus you see the same people the whole time (basically), and everything gets a bit shaken up at every hill climb. Plus having someone ride next to you the whole time really keeps you motivated, and we ran faster than either of us alone could do a single marathon.

Plus it is fun to run in the middle of nowhere and ungodly hours, the world is so calm and silent, and having people leaving the bars look at you with utter astonishment, and again when the newspaper delivery men see everyone and just stare and cheer you on.

SOLA Duo . 50 miles St. Gallen to Zurich at EveryTrail

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Circling Lake Constance

I had heard about the ride (Bodensee Radmarathon = Lake Constance Bike Marathon) from a friend of mine and it sounded too cool to skip (3 countries, along the shore, 3rd biggest lake in central europe, sweet tshirts), but I waited until I knew how the weather was going to be before I committed to riding 220km. Plus you got a gold medal is you survived the whole thing and finished in under 12 hours.

The ride itself was great, the support every 30-40km was great with plenty of free snacks and drinks and little places to eat lunch. They even had banana flavored energy drink.
The route was relatively flat and avoided traffic areas pretty well, which was nice because around kilometer 200, I was semi-delirious and probably would not have been too safe in a high traffic area.

I also learned that the term radmarathon (biking marathon) cannot be thrown around willy-nilly. It is officially a ride over 200km so my earlier stunt in Emmental at 110km doesnt count (and after doing this, I am thinking that it definitely shouldnt)

Bodensee (Lake Constance) Radmarathon at EveryTrail

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LSG Adventure

So my running group has a Vereinsreise (group trip) every year and this year it was rafting down the Reuss river from Bremgarten to Siggental (just south of where I work). The trip was quite a bit of fun, with almost no effort required. I don't have any pictures and no-one else on the trip has bothered to upload any, but the weather was great, and it was even warm enough (with wind, just barely) to swim. We had a few bruskis on an island, and had a big bbq at the end.

Inferno Half-Marathon

So, thinking I had the hang of this mountain running thing after Belchen was clearly, one of the most horribly wrong thoughts I have ever had.
So I was supposed to go sailing but because of the iffy weather, our plans got cancelled the night before. Not wanting to blow a good saturday I looked at laufkalender.ch and found a pretty good looking half-marathon mountain run, going up some trail near interlaken. I read 2200m of vertical climbing but for some reason it didn't strike me as too big of a number (had it said 7000 feet, I may have been more apprehensive)



It was brutal. The first half was a pretty typical berglauf, with some climbs and some flats, and it was easy to keep moving along. After that it basically just turned into straight up climbing. Easily black-diamond slopes for those skiing-inclined. The air also started to get noticably thinner. My lungs really started cranking/burning (we did get to 9,700ft after all). So basically it was two races, the first was a normal mountain run, and the second was a death-march to the summit.
The weather also was pretty unpleasant (certainly could have been much worse) with heavy cloud cover and a pretty persistent thick misting rain. Although I was soaked anyway with sweat, so it was hard to tell exactly how bad the rain was.
The support, however, was mindblowing. Stations what seemed like every kilometer, with plenty of food, gu, tea, isotonic drink (2 types), and near the end boullion and cola. They even had a new long energy isostar gel, that had solid objects that tasted like oatmeal from birchermuesli, it seemed to work pretty well (my delicious chocolate gu is still in my pack). Plus the freebies included a running waterbottle holder (nice), and the shirt is pretty sweet

Inferno Schilthorn Half-Marathon

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First Mountain Run

After getting back to Switzerland and being pretty lethargic for a couple of days (I blame jetlag), I decided to try my first "berglauf" or mountain run. It was called Belchen (perhaps gaspen would have been more appropriate), and it was in Olten (a city I have been through maybe 50 times, but never actually gotten off and looked around). Plus I didn't remember any huge hills near Olten (again my memory proving how poorly it sometimes operates). The run went up around 2400 feet in 8 miles or so. It had some pretty steep sections that occasionally caused me to walk, but it was doable. I was completely exhausted at the end. The scenery would have been much prettier had the weather been nice, but as it was, it wasn't too bad.
One of the things I really liked about this run, and I assume berglaufs in general, is after the start the field automatically sorts out into nice groups, and you really stay together till the end of the race. It helps you stay motivated, and keep your pace since you know the people around you are probably suffering just as badly as you are. It can also be motivating when an old man in a sweat drenched button-up dress shirt passes you.

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Wonderland Trail : Sunrise to Mowich

For the yearly backpacking trip we had thought about for a few years trying to do part of the wonderland trail. This year after much debate we finally made it. We didn't have time to make advance reservations so we basically took the route the ranger gave us from availability.

A picture of a motley group meeting up at our garage at 530am on the day of the hike.



The scenery was fantastic right of the bat. My dad even decided to hike the first few miles with us.

The route was quite difficult with day 1 from Sunrise to Mystic Lake, being much longer than expected. We were pretty beat by the time we got to camp but still managed to get a quick swim and much needed wash in. Some of us literally fell into camp, and didn't come out until the next day.

Day 2 was a nice recovery day walking from Mystic Lake to Carbon River at only 4.9 miles. It was downhill so it beat up our legs a bit, but didn't take much time and allowed us to have a relaxing afternoon to play, wash, and enjoy the river.
This isn't carbon river, actually a bit smaller, but you get the idea of how raging they are. The louder sounds in the background our boulders rolling along the bottom of the river.

Here is one of the many waterfalls we saw, this one perfect for cooling off in, and next to it the picture of the carbon river bridge.



Day 3 was a bit more brutal from Mystic Lake to Mowich Lake via Spray Park. The ranger suggested it and said it was a bit more difficult but drastically underestimated the actual difficulty. The first climb in the morning was around 3100 vertical feet in just over 3.5 miles. Some of it was even over glacier



Full version is 48megapixels

It was beautiful and after the climb it was basically all downhill. A highlight being one of the waterfalls at the bottom


Mowich lake was beautiful


, but the campsites there were horrible. A big gravel parking lot with a few kitty litter boxes to put tents it might be the best description.
We choose a late night pick up getting home at 3am over a night camping there.

All in all a fantastic trip

Wonderland Trail : Sunrise to Mowich

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Alpine Death Ride

After seeing my bike my landlord decided we should go riding together culminating eventually in this "death ride", maybe it isn't quite as bad as the californian version, but more than tough enough for me.

So we caught the train from Zurich heading south at 630am to "beat the rush", and avoid cycling through the hottest hours of the day. Both of which didnt turn out to be necessary, but as the train ride was a good 2 hours, it gave us time to relax, digest, and mentally prepare for the inevitable.
Susten:
Susten was the first pass we climbed, it wasnt easy, but since our legs were fresh, and the sky was pretty clear, the climb flew by. At the top


Grimsel:
Grimsel was a long tough (15 miles, 6200 vertical feet) climb up from Innertkirchen. It was never really very steep, but it just kept on going, with 3 false summits. I had also eaten through my gummybears at that point so my energy was dipping


Eating lunch at Grimselhöhe was one of the most satisfying things I even done even though it was only simple pasta with tomato sauce


Furka:
In comparison to grimsel, furka wasnt so bad, but we were already wiped so it crawled by. The road was pretty constant except for one evily steep stretch in the middle, and the false summit. Coming down there was a perfectly swiss scene of cows crossing the mountain road and blocking traffic


Finally between Andermatt and Göschenen there was a memorial at Teufelsbrücke (Devil's Bridge) to the russian soldiers who died there coming up from the south to attack napoleans forces in northern switzerland.

Susten, Grimsel, and Furka Pass Ride

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Verbier First Alpine Ride

So I was reading lance's twitter and he said he climbed Verbier and it was a great post-flight climb. So, I, having nothing better to do, decided to go try it out for myself, then I could bask in glory as I watch stage 15 of the Tour de France and they all suffer through it.
I also was able to enjoy one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten. It was called Provencale, and it had gruyére cheeze, goat cheese, cucumbers, olives. The restaurant was called Fer à Cheval, definitely worth the sweat. Plus the decent was wonderful, I nearly overtook cars.

Verbier Climb

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Fast forward to July 19th, I managed to make it out to Verbier again to watch the finish, my photos are pretty terrible (I forgot my memory card); although, my view wasnt really much better. The energy though at the stage was incredible. So many people, 10s of thousands, had all descended on this little town of around 3000 to see the riders come through. It was fantastic. And to watch the riders crawl by one at a time was pretty fun as well.

Another Ireland Trip

Since my aunt and uncle (mom's brother and sister) and several of their kids were going to ireland, and had extra-room at their house, I decided to make the trip, again, myself, and it was a fantastic idea. The weather was not as good as when we went in march, but still decent. We climbed Croagh Patrick again, and got to meet with a little more distant family. We also managed to make it out to Knock where several miracles happened. Most importantly, I was able to extert my peer-pressure forces to get my cousin to order a beer, and essential aspect of any ireland trip

Training Camp in South Tyrol

The running group I am in in Brugg does a weekly training camp every year. Apparently the last several years were in Spain, but this year they decided on Latsch, Italy (South Tyrol, Bolzano region). This is actually a pretty curious part of italy as they speak german as a first language, and seem to be a bit reluctant to speak in italian. Also the swiss people I was with, noted the accent was pretty distinct (quite something coming from people who germans cannot even understand)
So the point of the trip was to bond, run, and drink; all goals were clearly met. We started out each morning with a hearty meal and then proceeded to a morning run of sorts.
Here is the view from the patio of the Gallus Pension where we stayed


Saturday, we ended up doing a pretty solid hill-climb, and ended up going up around 2000 feet.


That night we went out to the nearby town, explored, had a nice dinner, and then went to a nearby bavarian-themed beer garden where we enjoyed the rest of the evening.

Sunday we had a nice easy run out.



This is just the pictures and the routes for the two bigger runs we did in Latsch or more importantly the hills around it, thus is our near walking speed average pace justified.

LSG Trainingcamp in South Tyrol

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Morning and evenings are wonderful the heat of the day is pretty brutal and can lead to barbaric thirsts. All in all, a great trip

And a photo of us all at the end

Schluchsee Lauf : The race around Lake Schluch

This weekend I volunteered at the Aargauer Meisterschaft working at the Food stand, and learning just how many ways you can order food in swiss german, and how confusingly similar (or exactly the same) many of them are. Kalbs-bratwurst and Halbe bratwurst sound just about the same when a swiss person says it (one is with beef, the other means half of), and so on. Basically ever person chose to order a different way. I was also put in charge of making hotdogs because 'as an american, I was by birth a hotdog expert', which is, I guess, not the worst thing in the world.

But on to the schluchsee lauf. This was s run in the black forest in germany around the largest lake in that region. It was around 11.5 miles and was absolutely fantastic. A good amount of hills, trees, lakeside, and fans. I would do the run again tomorrow. Also the food was pretty good, and the scenery was of course fantastic.

Schluchsee Lauf : The race around Lake Schluch

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Zürich Marathon

So this sunday I ran my second marathon. Unfortunately my training was much much lighter this year, and the weather was a bit warm for me, so my time wasn't very good, but nonetheless I enjoyed it. The first 8km (5mi) of the course was through a tunnel (roundtrip), which while initially interesting, and undeniably swiss was certainly a far cry from the hills of Hopkinton. Additionally tunnels have very much their own climate and thus whilst it was still cold outside, the tunnel was very very warm, causing everyone to sweat profusely. I particularly noticed my heart rate being unusually high for the pace. After the tunnel the course went along Lake Zürich down to a small town called Meilen and then back to the city center. There were a number of bands and sources of entertainment along the way, and the support was excellent. Quite a bit sparser than boston, but probably a good thing so you weren't encouraged to overdrink or eat. Sadly no popsicles, wellselley girls, or beer, and a much smaller expo with no particulaly good deals besides finnish toe-socks.





And as always the free video of my finish (I get in the frame around second 24)

Prague

After erin had seen the gorgeous fiscal blackhole that is switzerland we traveled to Prague, to enjoy the legendary cheapness. We thus begun in an appropriate manner taking an overnight bus (cheaper than a train or plane). We soon learned that perhaps less toxic on the wallet, taking an overnight bus is not good for sleeping, being in a good mode, or even seeing much. After no less than 4 or 5 stops we arrived in a cold damp Prague at 5am. As I had told the hostel we would not arrive until around 8 we had 3 hours to kill. Using all of our muscles but the one that counts we ended up sitting/sleeping/dying on a bench in the main train station, after getting ripped by by over $6 on an already overpriced $3 pastry (czech crowns take some time to get used to). It was the least talkative I had seen erin in my life. Likely due to the fact that the intense negativity trapped inside her, could not be expressed with a classy vocabulary.

We arrived at the Lida Guest House met Jan and Jirka and immediately proceeded to go to our beds and pass out until past 11am. We then met with rebecca grabbed lunch at Josefina cafe and explored the area near our hostel and the lesser known castle in Prague. The weather was still a bit dismal, but pleasant enough. We also managed to see the Communism museum, which was interesting as my czech historical knowledge is non-existent, but could have done much better.

On saturday I woke up a bit early to do a morning run before beginning with the day. I ran south along the river, apparently pretty close to the actual marathon course. The views were nice, and I saw many of the lower price prague hostels (if being 8km from the city is still considered prague). Then rebecca and I headed out to see one of the several defenstrations sites where a wedding (?) was taking place, then to the park north of the city, where previously a stalin statue was placed, but it was rather quickly taken down after the velvet revolution. We then went through prague castle and the Charles bridge both fantastic sites that live up to the hype, but do not really bear repeating. Then, we stumbled upon the cheapest starbucks in europe. A fantastic suprise with a bagel and cream cheese for around $3.

We then ate at U Bubevincze (sp), a fantastic restaurant with wonderfully tasty dark beer, that reminded me a little bit of rootbeer (not in flavor as much as feel, aparently made with caramel). Our trip was topped off with a silent black light theater productions of alice from alice in wonderland growing up. None of us really could say that we understood the show with some of us having much stronger opinions on that topic than others. I would venture a guess that most audiences would probably be better off going to see an opera or a show at another theater. That being said, it was certainly very very different from anything I have seen before, so were that the only criterion, then it would be worth the visit. After asking my czech coworker about it, he said in his 6 years of living in prague he never once went, and was pretty sure czechs don't go, it is just something for tourists.

The last day we lounged around a bit in the morning and then went to the English bookstore (really nice, and had a great selection of cheap books) and to the easter markets and jewish quarter.

The train back was a bit of a mess since there was construction in Austria, so the normally direct night train was now a train, bus, and then another train. I walked into one of the first class compartments to find 3 quebeckers studying in lausanne and geneva speaking in french, and we all chatted for several hours until we arrived in Linz. Where despite incredible disorganization and confusion everyone seemed to manage to get on the correct train with a place to sleep. I was quite excited when I got on the train and into Austria since I could once again utilize my german and feel at least a little bit comfortable in the country. I found the Czech republic to be a little bit uncomfortable from my lack of language skills. When I can't read or even begin to communicate in the native tongue, I just don't feel quite right. I don't like being an ugly american tourist.

Prague Weekend

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Rome

This weekend, I went to rome utilizing the first actual night train of my life (high school doesn't count), I got a sleeper car and the top bunk. I was a bit terrified at the prospect of getting robbed or not sleeping or sleeping and falling out of my bunk and falling 7 feet or so. After two tylenol pm's my fears were settled and I slept soundly until Florence, where the first batch of riders got out. From that point on I was able to just enjoy the italian countryside until rome. To my suprise the trip came with a nice little breakfast of coffee and a muffin which made the trip a bit more pleasant.

After arriving in rome, I made my way over to the Santa Maria della Vittoria (sean's parish in Rome), a wonderfully beautiful church very close to the train station. I started heading towards my hotel looking for somewhere to eat by listening in to see how many foreigners were eating there until I heard none. There I was able to get a cappucino and delicious sandwich for 3.50eu, a steal for anyone who has ever resided in swiss.

Upon finding the hotel and meeting up with rebecca we were informed that the reservation I had made had been cancelled. The website Venere.com had cancelled it, but decided it was not worthwhile to inform me. According to my booking website, I am still staying there. Apparently it is not an entirely uncommon practice for hotels to get better offers and then give up your room, not cool. We were able to easily find another hotel, that was a bit more expensive but turned out to be quite nice

We then decided it would be best to try and get the Sunday mass tickets from the vatican which required waiting in numerous poorly labeled lines. We eventually got to the front and met the swiss guardmen (from St. Gallen) and were able to pick up the tickets. The group behind us had DRIVEN (with a car) from poland (~24 hours of driving), but had not reserved tickets so after waiting in the line for about an hour they were told tough luck.

The vatican day mass was beautiful with thousands or tens of thousands in St. Peter's Square enjoying it. Much of the ceremony was in italian, a language that despite my attempts over the last several days, I have been unable to master enough to comprehend what was going on. Apparently we even mad it onto swiss TV, twice; but til now I have been unable to find the clip.

We went out to several bars in rome, where I proceeded to do as I always do and horribly emasculate myself with Spritzes (white wine, aperol, spritzy stuff, delicious) and a number of milkshakish/pina colada combos, polished off with chasing rum with pear juice. I also managed to lose/misplace/have stolen 40eu, but my sugar high was too strong to truly miss it.

We ate at quite a few delicious restaurants, and saw many of the sights by wandering around on foot. The most notable to me at least was the little island in the river just south of the main city. Laying on it shores with an ice/cream/coffee beverage and just enjoying the sun without being hassled was delightful.

All in all a wonderful trip, I can't wait to get back, but there are many many places I need to see first.

Easter in Rome

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Vollmondwanderung (Full Moon Hike)

Tonight was the Full moon hike of the running group in Brugg. It was quite cold but luckily perfectly clear weather. The moon took awhile to come out, but we had brough plenty of lights so that was no problem. The hike lead up to Hapsburg with a couple of stops along the way for some swiss history learning. With fantastic tales about poisoning, and the like. Once we got to the top a big camp fire was waiting with plenty of cervelat (bratwurst), speckbrot (bacon bread, who thought that up), and gluhwein (hot spiced wine). Unfortunately we had to cook the cervelat ourselves over the fire using a wooden stick. I say unfortunately because everytime in my life I have tried to cook hotdogs on a stick, I have ended up with a black crusty shell, and a cold gross center. This time I was a bit luckier in getting a well cooked center, but the surface was definitely quite well burnt. With enough mustard any failures in cooking can, however, be corrected.
After eating and drinking we continued along our walk back to Hausen where we enjoyed a coffee and then took the bus back to Brugg. All in all a fantastic night with really friendly people. I also got a bit of education on the usage of the formal and informal 'you' in german. So in mountains or forests (while outdoors/adventuring), at certain restaurants, at certain festivals it is perfectly acceptable to speak with complete strangers using the informal. While not entirely that long ago people used to speak to their grandparents with the formal. I cannot even imagine.

Lenzerheide Redux

Today I went skiing at lenzerheide with a couple friends. We managed to catch the 630 train from zurich and were skiing by 930 or so. The weather was amazingly good as was the snow and temperature, consequently my face and especially my lips are throughly burned.
After the first run we managed to lose one of the guys who started with us. We had a series of (mis)communications, texts, and moving around before, evidently, he lost his phone and the lift-attendant found it. Needless to say we never saw him again, but did manage to get his phone.
We had lunch at the Alp Lavoz lodge and enjoyed the half-price food making it quite reasonable to eat but not drink on the mountain (Aelpermacaroni : macaroni with cheese, ham, potato, and apple sauce was only $8)
We set out in the afternoon and it was going well but the runs had become quite mogulled out. So we managed to ski from one side of the valley to the other using a nice ski-route going under the road. The other side was nearly empty and even more beautiful. The top gondola actually treks a little bit onto the other side of the mountain so you can see fantastic views of the alps without ski-lifts, tracks, and houses interrupting. There was also a 100m or so unlit tunnel you had to ski through which was really cool.
After skiing a few of us went to dinner at Papa Joe's. I ordered and split "The Big One" a 3/4 lb burger with coconut, bananas, cheedar cheese, and the usual fixings. One of the guys with us was from sweden and upon seeing it asked what size that would burger would be in america, a normal, a small? We do have a little bit of a bad rap with food.

All in all a fantastic day

Lenzerheide Skiing

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And the ski track
http://www.mountaindynamics.com/en/sdmap.php?tid=3173

Geneva Auto Show

Today I treked over to Geneva to see the Auto Show there. It was much much bigger than the portland autoshow, and tons of car companies I had never heard of before. Additionally they put almost all the non-car companies (oil, rims, tires, brakes, and other generally boring components) in one room so it could be avoided if one so wished.
One of the more surprising aspects was that many of the car companies hired students from the Geneva area to work the booths, which while good for the students wasn't so good for the car show goer as they didnt know much about the brand, the specs, or anything that couldn't be learned by reading a little pamphlet.
The most interesting exhibit I saw was the Tesla Motors display which fortunately was manned by actual employees who were quite knowledgable and clearly loved what they were doing and throughly believed they were going to change the world.
Seeing this company and speaking with them was really helpful in identifying one the elements that I think has caused so many american companies to be successful. The belief or in many cases the delusion that if one works hard enough they can change to world. I mean specifically with tech companies. The dream of Gates was to have a pc on every desk in the country which at the time was recklessly optimistic if not completely crazy. I am not sure, but I guess it seems that here people are much likely to opt for the well-thought out, predictable, safe business plan. In many cases I guess that is probably better, but not nearly as fun and very little chance of flipping the world on its head

Grimmialp Ski Touring Weekend

I signed up for a Skitour course as I had met a decent number of people who do it regularly and I knew nothing about the sport. The course was fantastic. Our guide had been a guide on an Antarctica expedition for the highest mountain there the week-before so by comparison ski touring here was rather simple. The people were great, the lodge was nice and comfortable (except for the beds), and the weather was fantastic. If only I weren't so burned.

Grimmialp Ski Touring Weekend

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Why People Move to Switzerland

I was supposed to go to Davos, but I missed my train at 6am, and so deciding not to waste such an early morning, I hopped a train to Bern saw a cool poster and went to Zermatt. Absolutely fantastic decision. The skiing was tremendous. The place is mind blowingly large and lies on an international border (italy-swiss) so you can ski back and forth freely. I didnt have my passport so I was a little worried, but it would be pretty ridiculous to get checked half-way through a run or on a chair lift.
Also the place has a train-lift or berg-bahn which takes you from the train station to the middle of the mountain. It is really cool, and much nicer than a gondola. Plenty of room to relax and change.

Zermatt - Why people move to switzerland

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Kuehtai

On sunday we skied at Kuehtai. A nice resort west of Innsbruck. The resort wasnt nearly as high, but had even more snow and was perfectly clear and sunny. Right of the bat it was fantastic. We did quite a bit of off-piste adventuring. Off-piste was never really my thing, and I had a couple of rough patches (quite literally with rocks scratching my pretty skis), but we had a few godly runs on untouched deep powder. It killed the thighs, and required hiking, but was absolutely worth it.
Food here was great, but nothing compared to the glacier. Now I feel like I have 'really' skied in europe and can relax this week just basking in my success.

Kühtai Skiing

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Stubaier Glacier

On saturday we went skiing at Stubaier near Innsbruck. The resort was nice and quite high (the highest point was over 10k feet). The elevation's effect was much larger than I would have thought. I was out of breath several times from simply hiking to the lift or even skiing. Hopefully this can pop my EPO up enough to be a killer cyclist at Atomiade. The day started out a little too overcast, but got better rapidly. By lunch time the sun was completely out and nearly cloudfree. Lunch itself was fantastic. Not only was it rather reasonbly priced (8.60eu for Tirolian Groestl). This consisted of potatoes, bacon, beef, and a few veggies and spices cooked in a pan with a fried egg thrown on top. It was absolutely delicious, and provide more than enough energy to rip up the slopes the rest of the day. Including the final run-out back to the parking lot. This was a '10km' (my gps watch said more like 5 but who knows) run that was minimally prepared. I felt like an adventurer doing it.

Skiing at Stubaier Glacier

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Off to Innsbruck / Week Recap

This week served to be much more productive at work. I was able to start re-writing everything to work in one tight, neat, organized interface.
I also was able to start getting back into a better workout routine. Starting with my first indoor LSG training. Which despite the promised 'fun', started out in a not so fun manner. The warmup and even the mat-work was great and certainly beneficial, but after that we played what I can only call Chutes and Ladders from hell. The board resembled more or less the c-a-l board, but on each spot was a number between 1-6 and these number corresponded to what fun activity that spot demanded. The activities were jump rope 90x (I couldnt jump rope when I was younger and it has only gotten worse with time, much worse), crawl and jump through a military style course 3x (maybe this is fun for little people, but my body doesnt do that at all), run across a balance beam 3x (another activity i cant do at all, and there was always a traffic jam behind me), and a few others that were not so torturing.
After that we played Zielball or something like that, and it was basically dodgeball with some weird rule modifications that I was not able to get my head around.
The night was redeemed when we played basketball, a sport I enjoy in theory, but given everyone in the states is so much better than myself at it, I have never been able to really enjoy playing it. However playing here, especially with a running group was great. I certainly was not the best player (I am truly terrible), but I was certainly top-half.

On thursday I went to dinner and a movie with Deniz and Adrianna (the other PhD students who started Sept 1 with me). We say Slumdog Millionare which was fantastic. It was the most excited I have been in a movie in awhile. I was really drawn in. I wish it was a true story, but oh well.
As for this weekend I am heading to Innsbruck with Jesus (a guy I met in the running group who works for Alstom) For what should be a great time skiing and enjoying apres-ski. The weather right now is rainy in swiss, so hopefully austria can do better.

Flumserberg Skiing

In order to be sure I would never have to answer 'I dont know' to the question how is the skiing in europe, I went to flumserberg this weekend with the meetup group. I sadly forgot my camera in all the rush, but I did have my gps so you can see what was done here
The day was good, a bit overcast and windy, but the snow was good, and nowhere near as busy as Meadows or even Ski-bowl. There were no lift lines anywhere.

It served as a nice sunday activity and was only an hour or so from zurich. It is probably not the best skiing around, but it is close and not too expensive (except food which is outrageous).

My first week back at work was a little bit slow. I had a poster presentation and a quick powerpoint for my lausanne boss. After that it took awhile to get back into the swing of things. I have realized how quickly I forget things. I got a few swimming trips in, and a nice run. Hopefully next week will be more full-speed