The hills are alive

(written by Richard)
Every year the guys who work on the PKL experimental facility take a ski trip together. My first trip with this bunch was back in January of 1993, while I was doing my Post-Doc on PKL. This year, 15 years later, I went again. And because the same guys are still working on PKL, the same guys went on the ski trip, and so I already knew everyone.

What was new for me was the ski resort. Since 1995 they have been going to a resort called Großarl. It's a great resort in Austria, south of Salzburg. The weather was great, the snow was great, the beer was great. (Yes, they sell beer in Beergardens on the slopes. But it doesn't seem to cause a problem.) I had been skiing once since my last trip with the PKL group back in 1994, but skiing is like riding a bike, and I recalled immediately how I skied last time. And that is partly a problem, because I have changed since the last time I skied. The problem is that my brain wanted to ski the same way as last time, but back then I weighed less and was stronger with more endurance. It took me a couple of falls to find the new limits. The second day I was in the groove again, and I had a great time.


Evenings were spent in restaurants that the group goes to every year. The food was great. The first night we ate a restaurant where the proprietor is a hunter, and the specialties are made from his kills. He is also a great kidder. He brought out some games for the people who had never been there before, i.e. me. The first game involved a pipe with a small ball in the bowl of the pipe. The goal was to blow in the pipe and get the ball to float up into a wire ring above the bowl. The ball has a small metal hook protruding from it, and if you get the hook to hang from the wire ring, you win. It took me a while, but my eventual success is documented in the photo.


This game of skill and chance was a set-up for the next game. It was presented as a similar game to the first. Again, it involved a pipe, but this time a pinwheel was attached to the far side of a small wooden box at the end of the pipe. The box had holes in the top, and the challenge was to close the right combination of holes with your fingers so that the air flowed through the box and made the pinwheel spin. With my first attempt, I learned the real purpose of the box. With the first blow, baby powder came shooting out of the slot and covered my face. The result on me was a mustache that matched the beard on my chin. It was filled with baby powder, and had a small slit in the side facing the person blowing.

Other jokes followed. I was told that, for being such a good sport, I would receive a free stein of beer. A nice ceramic stein was set in front of me, and I thanked the proprietor and assured him that there were no hard feelings. But when I went to pick up the stein, it seemed glued to the table top. With my second attempt, I could pick up the stein, but with difficulty. The problem was that the stein only had a thin shell of ceramic on the outside and was solid lead on the inside. It must have weighed 20 pounds.

On the second night we ate at a place that specialized in Lamb. And it was delicious, of course. But before the meal, we piled into a couple of four-wheel-drive vans, and drove up the mountain. At the top, we piled out, and a sled was brought out for each of us. It was night by now, but we could make out a narrow path through the woods that was dimly lit by distant lights. We all jumped on our sleds and went for a wild ride through the woods at break-neck speeds. Nobody was hurt... this time. And we all had a great time.

I'm looking forward to next year's trip. Until then, I have a few reports on PKL experiments to write.