We had to say something about the Aspen part of Chicago ----> Aspen and back, didn't we? Well, sit back and relax. Here it goes...
Preface: We were here to talk about cosmology with clusters of galaxies , one of our favorite topics :). That part went pretty well, but who cares. Here's the rest of the story.
Aspen is a pretty small town. It's located at 7,900 ft. (~2400m), at the base of the north slope of Aspen Mountain, which peaks at 11,212 ft (3418m). To north of town is the Roaring Fork River, and then a smaller range of mountains. The south facing slope of that range is peppered with the vacation homes of the filthy rich. The south side of each house is just a few big windows facing to the south, over the river, towards the sun and the ski slopes.
Aspen has three populations of people: the filthy rich, the locals, and the occasional physicist (see picutre above). The rich and famous frequent your favorite minaturized versions of the large retailers in New York and Chicago (Macy's/Marshall Fields, Saks, etc.). Some of the locals are the ones who run the hotels, drive the shuttles, and run the stores. Those we had the pleasure of meeting often are from the midwest, younger people that have shunned (at least temporarily) the flatness of America's breadbasket for America's Alps. The remaining locals are an interesting mix of cowboys and midwesterners, hospitable and fearless.
We spent most of our time with other humble physicists, for whom Aspen (well, really the National Science Foundation) has built the Aspen Center for Physics, which hosts monthly conferences for the full range of physicists (condensed matter, atomic, bio, nuclear, partilce, astro, and string theorists...well, string theorists don't really count, but you get the idea). The daily meetings at the conference we were at ran from 8-11am, and then 4:30-7:30 at night, conveniently spaced for scientific collaboration on ski slopes.
Now for the fun part, the "collaboration". Aspen has 4 major ski areas, Snowmass, Aspen, Aspen Highlands, and Buttermilk. We hit Aspen, mostly because it was the closest, but also because it's not Buttermilk, which didn't look very challenging. We got the group rate for lift tickets($50) and rentals ($25), which was something like 40% of the regular rate.
The longest run is 3 miles, pretty hard to ski down without stopping a few times. The peak is at 11,212 ft. That's where Keren is in the picture above. We rode a gondola up to this point. Keren skis every other year or so, so she was confident. I, on the other hand, hadn't skiied in 13 years. I was more than a bit nervous about wiping out and falling 3 miles downhill. Sorry to disappoint, but we did pretty well going down. There aren't "easy runs", mostly blue squares, some black diamonds, and a few double blacks.
Here we are in action (click on the images to see more): That's me to the right, and Keren on the bottom. These were pretty easy runs. I felt pretty stylish in my blue jeans, black Carhart jacket, and Michigan hat.
Toward mid afternoon, clouds and snow rolled in. Making it hard to dodge obstacles in the hill. About that time, we took "Blondie's" a black diamond. Keren is working her way down it below. That was my one crash of the day. I got going to fast, tried to turn too sharply, my boot popped out of the binding, and "poof", a cloud of snow. Thankfully, nobody was there to see it. I like to say it was an equipment malfunction, and that even the best skier would have surely crashed...there, now I feel better.
There's not enough room here to show all the pictures, but we did have some spectacular views on the way down. Below, the lovely foreground view is my wife on "Ruthie's Run". Behind her is the view. You can see Aspen's tiny, unorganzied airport in the valley below, a dignified site that recently devoted a post to. The last picture comes from about 1/3 of the way down Aspen Mountain, where you can see how the city is neatly nestled in the Roaring Fork Valley.
We spent about 5 hours on the hill, skipping lunch and a few talks. We could have skipped the whole day of talks, but one of those talks was mine, and it just didn't seem right to miss my own talk. Take a a look at the Aspen Mountatin trailmap, where you can get a feel for how large the moutain is, both from the picture on the front cover, and from the map inside. We spent most of our day on Ruthie's Run, Dipsy Doodle, all the different Copper runs, Deer Park, and Buckhorn (not in that order).
We weren't as sore as we could have been the next day. My toenails hurt the most -- a week later, both my big toes are black and blue. They remind me of my dad's toenails after being stepped on by so many cows. It's worth it though, because I was reminded of how much fun I used to have skiing, and my ski buddy made it all the more enjoyable. We're talking about how we have to visit Caberfae more often, near my parents' place in Cadillac, MI. Most of the rest of the trip sucked, but we already talked about that.
