Morning on the Mountain

21-18-2027 (at Deer Valley this AM) 04 January 2024.
Image is from my home office circa 5:45 PM.

Great ski day at Deer Valley (DV) today. Availed of DV's 8:00 AM early start. Two or three inches of overnight snow and light snow throughout the time I skied. 18 runs. Overall fabulous snow conditions with not the best lighting. On limited visibility ski days like this, skiing runs with defined tree lines is a good idea.

I skied three Carpenter runs before shifting to do three runs at Mountaineer and four runs at Flagstaff. Off Carpenter, I was alone on Dew Drop twice. Dew Drop is a composite run. Start on Solid Muldoon, cross Success to Dew Drop, ski onto a section of Last Chance before taking Little Kate back to Carpenter. Greens and blues (steep blues at the top of Solid and down Little Kate at the end). Tunnels. Trees. Kinda like an F1 road track compared to a NASCAR oval. I also skied Last Chance off of Carpenter. For some reason, few ski this option early, so I skied first trax all of the time I was there.

At 10:00 AM, after skiing for two hours, I took a break at Empire Lodge. Dagget and Bernie-niece were there, and we chatted about LSDM speakers for ten minutes until friends I was expecting arrived. Dagget is setting up LSDM talks for individuals seeking to replace Kera Birkeland who resigned, citing family reasons, from her seat in the Utah State Legislature.

I met my friend Espresso's scions, Chronicle (daughter) and Latham (son-in-law), and their two little boys, B and b, at Empire Lodge at 10:15 AM. We skied three or four runs off of Flagstaff then moved over to Mountaineer via Judge Lift and Crown Point Lift. Those boys, B and b, about eight and five, are fearless skiers. They can - and do - ski anything, and their intrepid parents follow right behind them. When they're skiing something tricky, I meet them further down the mountain when they reenter the groomed run where I am skiing. Note: Chronicle derives her moniker from her editorship of her college newspaper.

I enjoyed my lift rides with Latham. He's a DC based lawyer with eponymous named Los Angeles headquartered firm. We talked about the Ski Patroller strike at PCMR, where he and his family had been skiing during the inter-holiday week. He acknowledged that the situation at PCMR hadn't been the best. One time the family was at Tombstone base and Tombstone Lift was closed. The only way out was via Over-and-Out ski lift where lines were backed up all the way to the Timberline Lift (a bad situation for those who don't know the terrain!). The other way out from Tombstone area is via the Red Pine trail at the top of the Tombstone Lift, but as I said, Latham reported that the Tombstone lift was closed. Not a good look for the ski resort operator.

Speaking about the PCMR ski patroller strike, Latham said, "Look, my natural inclination is pro-union. Vail could have done a much better job with a back-up plan to handle a strike situation. As it is, Vail's approach was reactionary." I haven't skied at PCMR for two weeks, so I don't have firsthand knowledge of Vail's supposed holiday SNAFU, but Latham's comment about Vail lacking in preparation for a strike situation seemed reasonable to me.

I asked Latham if DC was in the throes of apprehension about the arrival of a new presidential administration. There is apprehension he said. He noted that most of his customers were corporations - he works with national real estate firms, REITS, and RE private equity companies. He didn't expect any disruption to his own business flow.

I said I was happy to see businesspeople occupy some of the more senior positions in the new Trump administration: Trump, Musk, Burgum, Sacks, and Ramaswamy are all successful, high achieving businesspeople. People with business experience would know how to cut costs. Using those skills to reduce US government expenditures makes sense to me. The US government now spends 40% more than it takes in in tax revenue. The rest is borrowed. That borrowing trend, which gives rise to ever growing indebtedness, is not sustainable.

Latham said the Pub squabble on H-1B visas could mar DJT's start. I agreed. I said there is no question but what we need more talent to come into the US. I am 100% behind the Musk faction which wants to amp up the H-1B visa program. Also, I am on the side of those who believe that a Green Card should be attached to the diploma of any foreign student obtaining a technical PhD from a US university. Latham agreed. I said that DJT, Musk et al must pull out all the stops to educate immigration resistant MAGAs to the need for more H-1B talent.

Latham, the loquacious eight-year-old B, and Mwah (sic) rode up the Crown Point Lift together. B pointed out some ski poles that had been dropped from the lift. I said to B, "if you ski down from the top of the lift and bring me back those ski poles, I'll give you $100. The area is out of bounds, and you might lose your ski pass, but then, you might walk away with $100." The ordinarily talkative B was mum. Finally, his dad said, "B has been taught not to break rules."

Jokingly, I throw out challenges to friends like the one I gave to B all of the time. I don't expect anyone to take me up on the challenges because in assessing the likelihood of their acceptance I set an amount of reward that I'm sure they won't take. I have one friend who once took me up on a crazy challenge and I have since avoided giving him new opportunities. I realized that making a double entendre challenge like that to an eight-year-old might have been confusing for him. I was very impressed about how B's dad put closure to the crazy challenge discussion. These boys are well parented.

I departed company with my young family ski companions at noon. After their lunch at Snow Park Lodge, Latham intended to ski over to the new East Village base. I haven't been over there yet. I'll wait for a slow low attendance day to do it. Leaving DV, I looked forward to a hot shower, lunch with TIMDT and a nap. SDT, 04 January 2025