My Deer Valley Office

Above: West Wing (My Office), Empire Lodge, Deer Valley, Utah 19 December 2024.

I returned to ski at Deer Valley today after a week away in southern Utah and yesterday skiing with Espresso at Park City Mountain. I was a solitary skier.

I was glad to see more Deer Valley ski terrain open since I had last skied there. New runs I skied included Fairview, Navigator, Bandana and Silver Buck. Deer Valley does a fantastic job getting the resort up and running using manmade snow during early season low natural snow conditions such as we're experiencing this year.

Empire Lodge had opened during my absence, so I was eager to spend my mid AM coffee break in "my office" with a scenic view in the west wing of the lodge. Much, to my surprise however, the view of Empire Lift ski terrain had been mostly occluded by the erection of permanent structures outside my "office" window (see image). Alone in the west wing office area, I seethed silently as I sipped my coffee. Why wasn't my permission sought for before this atrocity was committed? I am now going to have to consider relocating my Deer Valley office.

There were hardly any skiers in the Empire Lodge, but the facility was fully staffed with mostly H1b visa people. I talked to Adrian, from Jamaica, who works in South Carolina in the summers and Deer Valley in the winter. I observe Adrian and his cohorts working diligently while smiling cheerfully. Office view destroyed or not, it is rewarding to see these young people come from afar to "do the work that most Americans won't do." I see the same cohort of hard working third country nationals working on cruise ships. They are getting training in customer service, building their English-speaking capability and otherwise gaining great experience to move up in the hospitality industry... if not many other disciplines as well. When the US gets its immigration situation sorted out, these H1b visa types should be placed at head of the queue when they apply for citizenship.

I rode up the Carpenter Lift with a couple of periodic participants in our LSDM Romeo group presentations. The three of us were in awe with yesterday's LSDM presentation by the retired head of the Las Vegas FBI office. I noted that one of my key takeaways from the presentation was how Obama was very successful in seeding career positions in the FBI and DOJ with political hacks. Trump's appointed heads to the DOJ and FBI are going to have a difficult time removing these political operatives and replacing them with qualified, crime fighting agents. Our speaker said that the new FBI should round up twenty or thirty old timers like himself to help manage the transition of the FBI from a political tool of the president to a credible national police force. One of my fellow lift riders said Pam Bondi, DJT's DOJ appointee, was weak and no Bill Barr. I believe DJT has earned the right to pick his own team. I like the disruptive potential of the proposed new team along with their comparative youth, but didn't relay the point as the lift had reached the summit.

It was a glorious day of skiing. 30 degrees. Sunshine. Redone edges on my Stockli AX skis. Low attendance. Great grooming. Fifteen runs. Sometimes, you get into a zone and just want to ski more runs than you had originally intended to ski. Today was one of those days.