So far the year is off to a great start: I’ve spent 2/3 of it skiing! Last night I got back from a UVa Outdoors Club trip to Snowshow, where we spent 2 days skiing. We had pretty good conditions. A light snowfall the first morning made for excellent snow. The second day was equally good, with a fantastic clear sky and warm weather. The resort was somewhat busy, with many families wrapping up a week long Christmas/New Years vacation.
As is typical, the slopes became somewhat icy towards the end of the day. I have been embracing the ice, attempting to learn to ski it better. I’m starting to figure it out.
We also met a few interesting people on the trip. I rode up the lift with a ski patrol guy and chatted with him about how to get involved with that. I also saw a guy skinning up below one of the lifts and talked with him for a while. Turns out he was in Alaska last year doing some ski touring and had a few interesting stories, including an exciting exit from the glacier (sans gear) due to storms.
I returned to Charlottesville to a flurry of emails from my advisor regarding a Green Bank Telescope proposal we’d submitted. We’d been offered observing time in late Dec / early Jan, but hadn’t heard anything conclusive about it. Turns out, while I was in Snowshoe we had been added to the schedule for that night. There’s no cell phone service out there so I had no way of finding out. Fortunately my advisor got it sorted out and our observing run has been rescheduled. Ironically, the cabin I was sleeping in was probably ~2 miles from the telescope.
Now that I’m back in town, my gear has all been put away and I’m working on getting into a routine for spring semester. First up though, are qualifying exams. I’ll be spending the next two weeks studying for those (and probably a bit of working on my thesis). Got my work cut out for me!
Last night Aleya and I went to Brookside Gardens to see their Christmas light display. It was fun to see the families and kids running around looking at the lights. I also got a few good shots, which I’ve added to the flickr set Christmas 2008 on Flickr
I spent the day after Christmas doing one of the most fun things: hiking!
We competed with the early morning shoppers and left town at 7:30am, with a group of 7 hikers. We drove to Virginia for two hours in a somewhat impressive rainstorm.
It was still raining at the trailhead, so we re-evaluated our hike. Most of us decided to go on, but Mom and Peter opted to head back due to footwear concerns. We started up the trail to Sandy Cave at 9:45am in a bit of a drizzle. It tapered off fairly quickly, and we continued uphill into the fog.
We gained almost 1200ft to the ridge as we crossed into Kentucky, before heading down the other side. As we approached Sand Cave, the rain began again. We put on our raincoats among the rhododendron bushes and hiked down the final stretch. We were greeted with a nice waterfall to the side of the cave. The football field sized cave stretched out behind the waterfall. We hiked up the sand hill and enjoyed lunch in the back of the cool cave.
The rain had ended by the time we left the cave. We hiked back around the waterfall, and gained the ridge again. Farther along the ridge, we detoued up to White Rocks. Back in the clouds, the view from the rocky outcrop was hidden. After about an hour and a half of descending, we returned to the car, with 9 miles of hiking under our belts.
View the rest of the pictures: Sand Cave & White Rocks on Flickr
I’m ostensably on vacation. However, still working to finish my MS thesis for RIT, I’ve spent the past few hours working on the introduction and scientific background. It’s coming together nicely, but work remains. It’s an understatement to say that writing a book about one’s research is a difficult undertaking. I suppose I’ve made things more difficult by trying to do it while enrolled in classes. Typically, people are free to focus on research for at least a portion of their graduate studies. I only have one more semester of classes left, and I’m looking forward to being able to focus on research.
I spent yesterday morning hiking in Shenandoah National Park. It was a chilly day and we spent most of it hiking in the fog. We did a 7.8 mile loop called “Doyle River Falls and Jones Run” at mile 81 on Skyline Drive. We opted to do the steep trails last, so we ended up doing the loop backwards vs what was recommended in the guide. This meant we did our first few miles on the Appalachian Trail in the fog and mist. It was cool to see the forest in this state. We had the trail practically to ourselves. We saw one solo backpacker on the way in, and a couple people at Lower Doyle. Finally, our our way out, we came across two folks loaded down with a serious amount of gear. Not sure where they were going, but it looked like they’d be gone for a while
There were a few very nice waterfalls, with lots of water running over them. I even saw a couple places with some potential for ice climbs (if it ever got cold enough). In fact, looking at the “Southern Fried Ice” guidebook, both falls are listed! Here’s to hoping for cold weather!
The rest of the pictures from the hike are online: Doyle River Falls Hiking on Flickr
Winter is finally here (again!). I spent a beautiful Sunday out in West Virginia, skiing at Snowshoe. It was fairly warm as far as skiing goes, pushing 40F in the afternoon. It was my second time skiing on the East coast, and it was true to the stereotype of icy fast conditions. It was great to get out though. I went with the UVa Outing club and met a bunch of new skiiers and boaders. I’ll definitely be going again.
Snowshoe is a good mountain. It’s got a decent amout of terrain and good lift service. There’s lots of snowmaking capability which is good for keeping runs open. Meant the snow was a bit grainy, but certainly better than no snow at all! My skis haven’t been tuned in a while so the edges aren’t very sharp. Made for some exciting runs! I might’ve prefered ice skates on a couple of them 
As I noted two days ago, I’m in the midst of finals week. It’s been pouring rain all day, and I’ve spent it inside studying for my exams. Tomorrow is the final in my Radio Astronomy course. It’s open notes, so I’ve been going over the semester and making sure I remember what we did and where it is. As of now, I’ve got about 20 hours left until that final. I’ve reached the review of Lorentz transformations. Time for a mental break to do some grading.
Had my first final exam of the semester yesterday morning. The multi-part essay test for the Extragalactic Astrophysics test was lengthy, but just about doable in the alotted 3 hours. The semester is winding down (in theory.. more like the last minute crunch to finish everything), and I’m looking forward to the end.
I spent part of today working on my last homework assignment. Bit of slow progress, but at least it’s progress! The afternoon was spent grading 1/4 of the final exams for one of the undergraduate classes. My next final is Friday evening, so I’m also busy preparing for that.
Goings have been slow on the research front, with most of my time and energy consumed with TA work and homework. My last final is Saturday, then I’m hoping for a ski day, and then probably solid week of research. Looking forward to it!
Now you can count down the days until Christmas using pretty pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope!
Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar 2008 - The Big Picture - Boston.com.
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2 assignments and 3 finals left before Christmas break. Classes have been interesting this semester, but I can’t wait to be done. The finals are fairly dispersed, one on Monday, then Friday and Saturday. Should give me plenty of time in between to study, and maybe even take a day to do some skiing!
Some friend and I have brewed a Christmas Ale, and we’ll be bottling that tonight. I’m looking forward to giving it a try. Probably a couple weeks in the bottle and it’ll be good to go.
But I’d better get crackin’ on these homework assignments…
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