More Toys

It has been awhile since my last post, but with starting a new job and learning all about RFID and an amazing Wifi system that actually works in the Corporate world, it has been fun. Need Wifi for more than 10 people at a time, then you have to look at Meru. Amazing stuff.

It is ham radio contest season and that keeps me travelling to North Bay more than usual. It was great to catch up to my dad (who is over 80 and hasn't slowed down yet--note to self--don't slow down). Look for the guy travelling at light speed in the North Bay Canadian Tire. Say hi to Ken.

If you are not a Ham, you can skip this part. Hams have always had to come up with methods to get ropes high up trees. We have used Slingshots, Potato Cannons (great fun if you have never tried it), fishing rods and more. Well since I have taken up model airplane flying (helicopters, planes and quad flyers), I just knew I could merge the 2 hobbies.

We needed to get a rope over a 80ft tree at the Corbeil Contest Club last weekend. In true McGiver fashion, I just knew I could use my quad flier (basically a camera platform with 4 lifting motors) to lift a weight on the end of a 12lb fishing line and drop it in place. Then, I could drop the weight in the right place.

Well, it worked and worked well. Took only a few minutes which is much better after 3 0r 4 slingshot tries and everyone else saying "let me try". In the picture, you can see the bottom of the bird with the release mechanism (the Quad is upside down for the picture).

I will try to grab some video this weekend so you can see just how well it works!

This weekend is CQWW. The largest ham radio contest going. Didn't you know--you can make a contest out of anything. Just ask the belt-sander racing guys.

Who would have thought it

The other day I received a postcard (folded) from Google. How cool is that?

Opening it up, there was some instructions on how to check your payment history for Google AdSense. Wait, I didn't buy any adds.

So, I log into my account with the directions they have provided. Low and behold, there is a balance (positive). OK, how much can it really be? I was thinking it might be about 10 cents or so. Something really not worth the effort of course.

I had to jump through some hoops first. (Great... with my patience, I can see where this is going). First, I had to swear on a stack of bibles that I am NOT a US Citizen (for tax withholding reasons). That wasn't too painful.

Next, verify my phone number. Apparently I say, go ahead, and they automatically call me with a PIN number, then I type in the PIN number. I click on 'OK - Call me' button and the phone rings in milliseconds. How is that possible that they can dial my Vonage phone that fast. Seriously, it was less than 1 second by my calibrated brain.

Good news... I am up $10 US and the check is in the mail.

Made it back - all is well

Actually, it wasn't an issue actually. Other than my butt being sore from 10 hours on the flight home, it was great.

After getting a full nights sleep on Friday night and a quick breakfast, Randy and I decided to meet so that we could get in a few more runs in the morning. Just like everyday that week, we woke up to a beautiful clear sky and no wind (Thursday was windy).

I had not been to the West side of the valley at all, so we headed that way as that was were the Sun was. 1 chairlift ride up and then we picked up the Roca Jack lift to the top. This is a 5 person poma lift that you sit/stand side by side with 4 of your other best friends. It isn't like a normal lift, as it just goes up and comes back like a large gondola. But, it is FAST. You can get air (jump) on your way up. Some pretty good hang time to boot.

Once up at the top, Randy decided that he wanted to climb higher. We are already over 3000 meters, but the goal was to get a good view of Aconcagua, which we did. Shedding clothes, up we climbed maybe another 200 vertical meters (it felt like Everest).

Now, this is a stretch for me. Before I left, with about 3 weeks notice, I was worried that I would not be able to survive and be functional at that altitude. Exercise helped, but so did my good friend Dr. Penny Kendal-Reed a great Naturopath. Some key additions to my vitamins seems to have really made the difference. In fact, it was funny watching TV and seeing her working with the stars at the Toronto Film Festival.

We then skied down as low as possible. There is a wide crusing run that you can really fly on and it ends at about 2800M ASL. The chairlift back to the hotel crosses the road (switch backs) in many places. As you ski down, you actually ski over the road on the structures designed to save the road in case of an avalanche.

We also tried to fit in one last trip to Tio Bobs for lunch. With a bus that was leaving at 1pm SHARP, it had to be quick. After making the trip back up, we found out they didn't start serving food until 12:30. 1 beer (Randy) and 1 water (Mike), later, we flew back down (even found some powder), packed and had a Portillo Burger in the cafiteria.

Saturday is 'change over' day at the hotel. It took us almost 20 minutes to get out of the parking lot. Much worse than a Friday afternoon on a long weekend going north on the Don Valley Parkway. Even if you throw in rain or snow and maybe a mudslide (that has happened on the DVP).

One of the things I tried while I was on this trip was some HF ham radio. I have been a Ham operator for longer than I have had my drivers license. I decided to try a Flex SDR-3000 on 20M while I was away. It is amazing what the mountains do when you are surrounded on all sides by them. I could not hear a thing as the radio waves did not seem to make it into the valley, which was too bad. It was a good experiment anyway.

The Alpine Canada team is all top notch. I had a blast working with them and getting to know all the racers. There were lots of race cancellations going on in South America that week. We hit all our targets and got the job done. I really have to thank Alpine Canada for inviting me down there.

The photo gallery has been updated with some new pictures from Saturday. Gallery Link

The always cool "Map This" really shows were we are.

There are 2 movies worth watching. 1 shows how we discuss a wiring issue in both English and Spanish (sometimes it is as confusing in just English). them.

And, the view from Tio Bobs

Wow.. what a place

At dinner tonight, 3 of us came up with the same opinion of this place at the same time. Portillo is like a cruise ship. You are in the middle of the Andes mountains, with Argentina literally feet away. You have an assigned seating time and an assigned table. Your waiters know you all be name (although mine is apparently trying to hunt me down to sign my dinner receipt).

The skiing is pretty amazing. It isn't Lake Louise in terms of the amount of skiable acreage, but it does have lots of places that you can traverse to and hike if you wish. It is spring here in Chile and I just had on of those amazing ski days. We ran 4 ski races this morning and finished by 1:30pm. That was about perfect considering it was -17C at 9am and once the sun cleared the mountain it was well above 0c about 10:30am.

This was a FIS race (pre world cup), but we had racers from the World Cup. I got to listen to the like of Robby Dixon, John Kucera, Frank Borque, Manny and others rib each other about who was going to beat who. Even the forerunners were World Cup ranked.

I then spent the afternoon at Tio Bob's (again). A bunch of us just sat around and watched the sun move to the west. What a place for an office.

Tomorrow I hope to get out in the morning for 1 final day of spring skiing. We leave for Santiago at 1pm, with a flight at 7pm. I arrive back in Toronto early Sunday morning.

Sometimes you just have to admire the view

It isn't often that you get to have a quiet day at a FIS ski race. Today, was one of those days.

After sorting out our final wiring issues this morning, we had a wonderful lunch in the hotel.

The afternoon stated by meeting Randy (the TD) at the lift. He wanted a few pictures for a business card he had in mind. 2 Lifts later (including the weirdest and fast 4 person poma lift you will ever try), we were standing in untracked powder. It snowed 5 days ago and we are still making first tracks. We are above 10,000 ft, there isn't a cloud in the sky and there is no wind.

Randy was even kind enough to capture some pictures of me skiing. Yes, it does happen.... with poles even.

Next, we had to detour to Tio Bobs for a beverage at 10,338 feet. For about an hour, we just enjoyed the view and watched those that climbed much higher than us who are still skiing untracked powder.

You will notice that my good friend James was here just about a month ago.

Day 2 here in Chile

It is a good thing that we get here days ahead of the race. After all, how difficult can it be to hook up 6 wires and start a race. The hill management (all great people) tell us the wiring is fine.

As Dick and I start working on the configuration, we find the wiring is ok, but has issues that most people would not notice. The morning is spent visually inspecting the splices in the cables which show up as sore thumbs with the Megger test equipment that is on loan from Precision Timing in Canada (thanks Ted).

The course area does get hit with avalanches from time to time. We have to dig in 2 places to check the splices, as there is 'cross talk' between the cables. This requires moving meters of snow. The first one is down 2 meters and in 1 meter.

Still chasing a problem, the 2nd looks to be at the finish area. We dig down over 2 meters, move some rocks that have been put there by an avalanche and then open the cover to the wiring vault.

Have a look at the gallery for today.

You can see the view of the actual course, and another shot of the road. This is the only road into Argentina. The trucks line up for days to get over the mountains, and this is just the start of it.

The weather for today looks great again.

What happened to the Big Dipper

I have arrived in Portillo Chile to assist with the timing at an Alpine Canada FIS race. Last night, after 20 hours or travel, I walked out of the hotel (at 9350ft or 2850 m ASL), looked at the clear sky and couldn't find the Big Dipper. Doh... Oh, that is the Southern Cross.

Then, this morning, after waking up at 5am, and walking from the Octagon over here to the main lodge (where the Internet is somewhat better), I noticed the moon was in the North. Doh, again, I am at 33 degrees South Latitude.

Yesterday (make that Sunday), I left the cottage where the weather was amazing (for the first time all summer), drove home and packed. It was sunny and +25C in Toronto. I was on the midnight flight out of Toronto to Santiago Chile. 10 hours in the back. Good thing the guy beside me decided to bolt for another seat, as that got me 2 seats to myself.

Arriving in Santiago, where it was (spring) and about +13C and drizzling was a shock. I met up with Garry from Alpine Canada, Dick (part of our World Cup timing team), Richard (a GPS guru that is GPS mapping the runs the Canadian athletes take, and Randy who will be the TD for the event.

We find out that it has snowed for the last 3 days up here and that the roads are closed. The road is also the only truck road to Argentina (remember that when you look at the pictures). When the road is closed, the trucks line up for miles in the valley waiting for the road to open.

Our driver tells us that we might not get up for days (I also find out later that they were looking into a Helicopter to get us up to the resort-I am clearly travelling with the right bunch). So, he tours as around Santiago (6 million people) and then drops us at a small 'mall' where we see many of the same stores that you find in Canada. I'm surprised to see a Brooks Brothers, Starbucks (no surprise there), North Face, TGI Fridays, and more.

Lunch is at a local restaurant (check out the one menu item). I passed on that choice. It also starts with a Piisco Sour (sp?). Something like a Margarita. Wow, that hit me like a ton of bricks. We also toured around and a long stop at a Chilean Wine store.

We meet up again with our driver at 3pm (he stayed with the vehicle to keep an eye on things). We find out that the road should open at 5pm and that we need to be at the road block by then.

The road is the main truck road into Argentina. 2 lanes (sometimes). The drive reminds me of parts of Texas with Cactus all over the place. We start to see large truck lines, all of them pulled over waiting for the road to open.

Right on time, we arrive at the roadblock. The Chilien Police are there is apparently this is also the last check if you are driving into Argentina. He drives right up to the front, gets out, talks to the Police and tells us we have to wait for 10 to 15 minutes. 2 minutes later, we get the go ahead and are the first to bug out up the mountain. Pretty damn cool. You don't want to be behind all those trucks.

28 switch backs later (I think). I took 2 pictures. 1 looking up and 1 looking down. You get the idea. If you are thinking of cycling this down, you will need more than 1 set of brakes. We are now at the top of the world.

Paul Kristophic (PK), meets us at the door. Rooms are handed out. Dinner is at 8:30 (they do eat late around here). I'm asleep by 10pm (sometimes waking with a start as the air is a little thin). Tuesday, at 5am I decide to walk over to the main lodge and hog some Internet so that I can upload some pics and write this blog.

Some cool links:

Some of my pictures have GPS data inbedded in them. You can click here and see some of the pics from this trip in Google Earth. (Dad, it works for you too....).

The entire gallery is here.

Today, we get the lay of the land with towering peaks above us.