Yo! Gibbon!

Ski Russia - Krasnaya Polyana

2008-09-22T12:25:14+01:00

I've just found this article from the Guardian about skiing in Russian in a resort called Krasnaya Polyana. It's from last season (why didn't I catch it earlier??), but I'm sure it's still pretty accurate.

If you don't want to bother reading the whole article, here are the highlights:

"And then there's the powder. Phenomenally light; it forms here so well thanks to the moist air and Krasnaya's proximity to the sea, attracting pros and those in the know. And it can last through April and even into May, making the resort a good late season option."

"There's endless steep terrain, chutes, spines, cliffs and probably the best tree runs in the world. It's a relief to get away from the sanitised European and North American resorts to something more raw and unpredictable."

"Raw and unpredictable certainly describes the resort's lift, four consecutive rickety two-man chairs, which emit worrying metallic grunts and intermittently run backwards, taking a whole hour to reach the top, at 2,228m. It's a long, frosty journey (cold and uncomfortable enough for the Russians to ski with a foam cushion tied to their bottoms), but the views of pines and peaks compensate.

I might just have to change my travel plans for the 08-09 season. Anyone else for a spot of adventure? And if not adventure, the trip might be worth it to see some Russians with foam tied to their bottoms.

Tough Guy Productions

2008-09-21T16:05:59+01:00

Whether you're already a free-heeler, or just thinking about getting into telemarking, Harmless might be a ski movie that you want to see. It's from Tough Guy Productions which is a one man band that is Stephane Riendeau. I'm not 100% sure about the reggae soundtrack, but his skiing more than makes up for it. Enjoy:

Chalet Pro - Calling all ski chalets

2008-09-12T19:41:14+01:00

We just went live with phase 2 of our pet internet project! Chaletpro.com is now accepting registrations for chalet and other mountain properties to be listed in its directory. So, if you've got some property in the mountains that you want to rent out to the snow ridin' public you know where to go!

Once we've got a critical mass of properties listed on the site we'll be opening up our doors to the general public. Wish us luck, and if you know anyone with a chalet please point them in our direction.

The Fine Line - avalanche awareness

2008-09-12T13:52:33+01:00

For any of you who spend time outside the ski area boundary you'll know about the thrill of free skiing, but you'll also be acutely aware of the risks. It's something that I personally try to put to the back of my mind when I'm in the mountains. I'm more of an snow_ostrich (than a snow_gibbon) when it comes to talk of avalanches - I'd prefer to put my head in the snow.

I'm sure there are lots of people just like me out there, and that's probably why the folks at Rocky Mountain Sherpas have produce a new film with the Canadian Avalanche Foundation. It's called The Fine Line

So far only the teaser has been released, but the end game is one feature film and 4 avalanche training films.

The film both looks amazing and informative. I'm going to take my head out of the snow when it finally comes out.

Clearing your OS X DNS cache

2008-09-02T23:36:35+01:00

It took a while to work it out, but it's simple as: dscacheutil -flushcache

Getting your contacts onto your new iPhone

2008-07-24T18:04:43+01:00

You've got your new shiny iPhone 3G. Now you want to transfer your contacts (and their phone numbers) from your old phone onto your new one. Here's one way that I found the migration to be really easy.

Go to http://www.mobyko.com and create a free account. Mobyko is a free service that allows you to backup your phones data online.

After you've logged into Mobyko and backed up your data, follow the following steps:

click 'help' in the bottom left hand corner

follow the "FAQs click here" link

under the section called "creating your account, click on the last link: "I know my phone has SyncML but it's not on the list"

towards the bottom of the page there is a link to "these settings". Click it.

finally, make a note of your username and password

On your iPhone go to the App Store and search for "Funambol". Download and install the application (it's free).
Click "Settings" > "Account". Enter the username and password that you made a note of, and set the server to be 'http://sync.mobyko.com/'
Go back to the main Funambol page and click "Sync All".
Hey Presto, all your contacts are on your iPhone, as well as being safely backed up on Mobyko.

My First Launch

2008-07-14T20:32:30+01:00

I've just launched my first website! Well, it's not exactly the first website I've launched (being a veteran of the first dotcom bubble), but it's the first one that's all mine!

It's called ChaletPro and it's a site designed for chalet owners who are looking for a way to get their chalet online and in front of the snow-ridin' public. So if you want to advertise your chalet please check it out.

It's written in Django - a rather wonderful web framework written in python. If you're interested in rapid webapp development I'd recommend that you check it out.