I'd rather be skiing right now. Maybe Tuesday...

We posted a while back that we were in Tignes taking some lessons from the Telemark Ski Company in Tignes, France. Thought I'd post a couple videos they have on youtube for some Sunday morning viewing pleasure. 

(Note: While I'm struggling to figure out how to turn with 2 independent feet, this is what my instructors were doing in their free time.)




Graham living the life in Italy.

Tax season? Ugh...

I knew getting married was going to complicate the tax forms this year, but shesh, I had no idea. It's not really that getting married complicated it so much, it's getting married to someone who is employed overseas and doesn't receive a W-2.

First of all, I'd like to say thanks to Intuit for making a great product called TurboTax. It has been surprisingly helpful in our situation. While our situation is by no means unique -- there are over 6.5 million Americans who live and work overseas -- if you asked Macy's, Dockers, Meijer or any other company who won't sell to foreign IP addresses, you'd never know it. Even the State of Virginia (OF ALL STATES!!) really doesn't handle non-military residents very well.  TurboTax has been refreshingly helpful in all regards.

That said, I've done plenty of homework looking to see if I have to report Meg's income. Yes, apparently I do. :( Looks like the risk of being audited may rise too, so I better be honest. Turns out if you are a U.S. citizen, made money overseas (to include interest from foreign bank accounts) and spent more than 35 days in the U.S. (TOTAL), then you have a federal tax liability. So between the wedding in 2008 (that was 30+ days right there), and home leave in 2009, we'll be stuck filing for both years.

However, life gets complicated if we actually wind up at a "nice" place in the future. "Nice" meaning less R&Rs or it's on our tab entirely to go back to the States. The distance between Windsor, Canada and Detroit, Michigan may be less than 1 km, but according to the IRS, it's a world apart. According to the IRS, foreign salaries can be tax exempt (to a limit) as long as you're overseas for 330 days in a year. Overseas for 329 days? Too bad. So counting days (and documenting days too in the event of an audit) may be another fun reality in the future.

Boy, that's EXACTLY what I wanted to be doing on a Saturday. :)

My first peek at a peak.

After much anticipation, we were finally at Gudauri when their new fifth lift was open and taking riders. Boy I wish I had taken my snowboard with me to Gudauri for the school ski trip. Either that, or I wish I had a clue when it comes to telemark skiing in steep and deep powder. I'm getting better, but probably not fast enough to really handle it this season.

There are parts of the rest of the mountain that have soft snow, but most of it is kinda crusty with some bare patches. Not up here on lift 5. Gorgeous views, good snow -- even on the groomed piece -- and thin crowds all make this part well worth it. You really feel on top of the world up here, at 3307m it's 300m above the previous max height in Gudauri, which before still looked pretty high up from the base. You're nearly a full kilometer above the base of the mountain. It's pretty awesome.dhjsklkghjlkghjl (Sorry, had to wipe the drool of my keyboard.)

I should mention: the summit on the right side of the above photo is Mt. Kazbegi at 5033m (16512 ft).



In other news, the school ski trip was pretty fun. Any time I can blow off two days of work to go skiing is a good time. Plus most of the kids were well behaved and made life easy for the chaperons. We stayed at the fancy "Sport Hotel" which is at the very base of the lift. While it is super convenient and there are other activities for folks who don't want to ski, there's no way I would pay to go to this place without a HUGE discount like we got this week. There are nicer rooms in Gudauri and the bar isn't so awesome to justify the costs.

Either way, a pretty awesome skiing week. Saturday (see previous post), then Wednesday, Thursday for me (add Tuesday for Meg) and we're going up again on Sunday. Why? Because we can and who needs a reason better than that?

White Out in Gudauri

After work last Friday, we drove straight up to a hotel in Gudauri and had a quiet night before waking up and going skiing in the morning. In the morning, we were able to see that conditions had generally improved from a few weeks ago with snow covering most of the bare patches.

It looked a little hazy in the morning, but I figured it would burn off as the day went on. Boy was I wrong. The "haze" was actually a cloud that started snowing as we got onto the lift. Getting on the second lift wasn't bad, but getting off it was clear things were going to be rough. Here is a photo of Meg about 200m down off the lift. Please note that neither of us could actually see the "groomed" trail between the two of us. Talk about sketchy.

it did eventually get better, but the light remained super flat throughout the day. Nothing like improving technique by forcing you to learn how to ride over bumps!

BTW: My telemark boots FINALLY showed up and I was able to get to work. I'm muscling turns a bit more than I should, but getting better. Of course, despite the fact that my quads are already pooped by lunch from tele, Meg wanted to go skin up the mountain. (Not a bad idea considering the lighting conditions.) But geez, talk about burning me up. An hour up hill with quads screaming the whole time for a 10 minute ride down.



In the end.. we're both enjoying it -- a big change for Meg over last year. Plus, its extra fitness that will probably translate into better hill running in the spring.