Logistics

[David Woodhouse]

On Thu, 2010-02-25 at 18:49 -0700, Jim Bourne wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Feb 2010, Grant Grundler wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 09:17:15AM -0700, Jim Bourne wrote:
> >> I'd be into arranging a Calgary based trip for next year.
> >
> > Jim,
> > I can help with that if you like and would be interested in joining
> > (possibly with family depending on dates.)
> >
> > I've offered to organize this before but failed.
> >
> > Can folks propose some dates they could attend?

The schedule is quite tight for me next year, with linux.conf.au and our
school half-term being later than they were this year. I don't think I
could get away before February 26th, unless we do it in January.

There are also Intel-internal conferences in Portland in early March
(9th-17th or so this year) which I really ought to attend. Being able to
go straight from Calgary to Portland would be a bonus (more so than
having to fly straight from Munich to Portland as I am this year), but
unfortunately we don't get to find out the dates of the Intel stuff
until November, so we just have to guess when it'll be.

While I've love to make it two weeks, I don't think I can find the time
for it -- and it'll make it quite expensive too.

I was thinking of maybe coming out straight after half-term (Feb 26th -
Mar 5th), or possibly the following week (Mar 5-12). They're both a bit
of a PITA for me, to be honest -- one means I may end up having to fly
across the Atlantic from Munich again without going home, and the other
may well conflict with the time I ought to be in Portland.

How well does the weather hold up if we do it later in March? And how
expensive is January? And how many Intel people can we drag along, so
that maybe we can influence the scheduling of the Intel stuff so that it
doesn't conflict with the dates we set? :)

> > Ski resorts they'd like to reccomend in Calgary area?
> 
> I'd love the help, I live in Calgary so it's pretty easy for me to arrange
> most of the stuff and I know the area.
> 
> I think the first question is, how many resorts in a row can everyone manage
> in a single trip?
> 
> I've done a 3 day "weekend" trip with Sunshine, Lake Louise, and Kicking
> Horse resort.  It's only an hour between resorts so really it's easy to do 5
> resorts in 6 days or something.  Lots of different terrain that way too and
> the ski towns are a total blast in March!  You end up not staying in the
> same town more than two nights but if you can manage to book with the same
> hotel chain I think we could get a deal...

I'm not sure I'd want to do 5 resorts in a week -- like Grant, I think
it's nice to build up a feel for the place and know where you're going.
Although I did enjoy the time we stayed at yours and drove into the
mountains each day. Where did we go then? Nakiska, Lake Louise,
Sunshine?

Keeping it to 1 or 2 resorts may be a better idea, and I suspect the
beginners would really prefer that to be just 1 -- especially if they
want to arrange to have lessons all week. It's nicer to stay in just one
place and not have to move between hotels/apartments, too. And generally
cheaper.

That means we probably want to look for somewhere that's big enough to
keep us reasonably entertained for a week -- although as Grant says, we
can always do day trips to another resort for people who want that.

We should also make sure we cater for our snowboarder(s), who may be
feeling a little neglected :)

> > Also personally, I'd prefer to stay 2 weeks and possible split
> > the time across two resorts that are "not too far away".
> > I find with less than 2 weeks, I just don't relax.

Heh, that would be nice -- but this time of year is already enough of a
write-off for me, work-wise. Even ignoring the scheduling constraints, I
really don't think I could justify losing _another_ week of work. There
are few enough of those already between mid-December and mid-March. :)

-- 
dwmw2