July 7th: Santa Caterina to Fondo

One of my goals today was to make it to Hotel Gran Baita on the Mendola pass so we could have an easy ride to Bolzano the next day. One look at my past trip report from 2007, however, made me realize that I'd made a mistake. In 2007, we'd started from Ponte di Legno (otherwise known as bed-bug town) rather than Santa Caterina. This group wasn't nearly as strong as the 2007 group, so we had very little chance of making it. Looking at my 2011 trip report, it looked like Phil and I made it to Fondo that year from Santa Caterina, so I made Fondo a more realistic goal. The value of having taken good notes in the past was made clear with this simple observation.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

I'd never had a good-weather climb over the Gavia, and though it looked like this would change as we set off that morning under blue skies, things soon reverted to form as the road rose above 2000m in elevation. Storm clouds emerged, and soon I felt rain drops on my skin, though they were occasional and not too frequent. I stopped to put on clothing and more clothing as I approached the summit. One interesting event was that the Vespa touring club had somehow decided to climb the Gavia on the same day. Vespas are severely under-powered, and some were even carrying 2. The small engines made distressing noises as they were subject to stresses not designed for. They moved so slowly that I could even capture footage of them as they passed me!

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Arturo would later tell me that one of them stalled out in front of me and they had to descend in order to get the engine restarted. Gavia from the north eases up from the 8% grade to a very very manageable 3-4% near the summit. But unfortunately, so did the rain. I got caught in one rain shower but could see that the weather eased up at the summit so made a maximal effort and found myself on the summit proper where after putting on everything I owned, I ate a Banana, some chocolate, and walked into the Rifugio Bonetta, which featured poster sized photos of Andy Hampsten winning the Giro on the Stelvio/Gavia, as well as Jobst Brandt climbing the Gavia back in the 1960s when it was unpaved. (The Gavia was unpaved until 1996)

From Tour of the Alps 2014

It took my companions a while to get to the summit, which surprised me until I realized that for the first time during this tour I felt well-fed, so I was no longer functioning on a nutrition-led penalty! When they did arrive, they mocked a sprint for the finish and then immediately headed into the Rifugio for a hot chocolate. While talking to them, I realized that the weather was about to take a turn for the worst, so I told Arturo and Hina that "I had a bad feeling and was going to start the descent right away." Indeed, apparently right after I left a fog rolled in, trapping Hina and Arturo for almost half an hour.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The Gavia descent on the North side starts off easy, but then quickly degenerates into several steep grades, a long tunnel, and then approaches 16% as you get near the bottom. I got to the bottom, found a park with a kiosk serving pizza, got bored waiting for my companions and bought a Pizza and ate it before either Hina and Arturo showed up, complaining that I didn't wait at any of the "obvious" intersections. They too, had a pizza lunch, and then we wasted no time climbing to Passo Tonale, easiest the ugliest and least scenic of the passes in Italy, dominated mostly by a ski resort with no redeeming values other than a cable car that would offer a tired cyclist a free ride to the top.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

At the summit, Arturo paid a quick visit to the mausoleum of the war heroes, and complained that he didn't think we could make even Fondo that day. I pointed out that the route was mostly downhill past Tonale, and the short climb to Fondo was less than 300m. Tonale's easy descent gave us terminal velocity almost throughout the descent, interrupted only by the occasional annoying Italian motorist, and one stop for water.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

At the town of Piano, I spotted the bike path sign and pulled off the main road to join the bike path through the valley which was made for easy traffic free riding which I had enjoyed 3 and 7 years ago. It appears that I'd missed that sign on the prior journey or the path had gotten extended as the bike path went on forever until just past the town of Male where I got nervous and got us back onto the main road towards Cles.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We were now in the apple-growing part of Italy, with signs telling us what sort of apple was growing in the area. The air was filled with the scent of apples, and the sun appeared, occasionally mixed with rain. Both Arturo and Hina were flagging, but an appropriate dosing of chocolate and ice cream soon had them starting the climb to Fondo, where we arrived at the information center and discovered that the hotel in town couldn't take 3 more guests.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

I recalled a B&B that Phil and I stayed at in 2011, and so asked for that B&B and confirmed that yes they did have room for the 3 of us. The price was good, we just had to walk to town for dinner. Since Arturo knew Spanish, which was sort of related to Italian, he did the bulk of discussions with the B&B hostess as to where to go for dinner, but it all turned out to be moot. It rained while we were going to the "good pizzeria in town", so we ended up defaulting to the hotel, where the service was uncommonly quick --- until we realized that they'd probably made a half-pension dinner for the huge group in the room next door, and we were getting the left-overs. It was pretty good left overs, so we were still satisfied and went to bed hoping that it wouldn't rain until we got to Bolzano the next day for our rest day.

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July 6th: Il Fourn to Santa Caterina

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The morning greeted us with sunshine, tempered by the altitude at 1800m. The forecast, however, indicated only passable weather the next day, and then rain on Tuesday. Since the Gavia doesn't have good weather even on the best of days, we needed to get over the Gavia by Monday. The others were also starting to ask for a rest day, which was best done at Bolzano. I'd always passed up Umbrail pass before in favor of the long approach from the East on the Stelvio, but the time savings would enable us to get over the Gavia on schedule with ease, and I would get to explore a new road, so I proposed doing Umbrail pass. Hina was a bit disappointed, but Arturo perked up when I mentioned that we might get to do the Stelvio again on the return.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The climb up to Offen pass was as beautiful as I'd seen it, and a fairly easy grade from before. The descent down to Santa Maria with the intersection with Umbrail pass had a mild headwind, but nothing like what I'd experienced in the past, though I was glad not to lose further altitude as Umbrail was a high pass, at 2501m. It's only short in comparison with the Stelvio and Gavia, which are its immediate neighbors.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

At the intersection, we filled up our water bottles and headed up the past, which almost immediately started to weave along the mountain top, with hair pin after hair pin greeting us as we gained altitude rapidly.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Because of the hairpin turns, the grade was consistent, and the smooth surface made for easy riding. I'd never climbed Umbrail before, and I was delighted by it. It's every bit as pretty as the Stelvio, and near the summit, you get great views of the back side of the Stelvio summit. Furthermore, the bus schedule on the pass only has 2 visits by the post bus a day, which ensured that Arturo wouldn't meet his nemesis today. The climb was only interrupted by a hotel 4km up the pass, which also provides a very convenient place for a water stop with an external tap.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

From the climb, I descended at full speed into the Bormio/Livigno intersection, having full faith that Hina and Arturo, having never been down the pass before would stop to take photos.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

By the time everyone had regrouped, it was time for lunch in Bormio. Hina expressed that she was getting sick of supermarket lunches, so we at a sit down lunch at a mediocre restaurant at the intersection of various passes in Bormio, after which we found an ATM issuing Euros for Hina and then headed up towards Santa Caterina on the Gavia. The ride up on this side of the pass is easy, unlike the southern approach. We rolled through a series of towns with lots of water fountains after which the grade steepened a bit but never enough to make us feel like it was hard work, compared with Umbrail pass.
Arriving at the ski town of Santa Catarina at 5:00pm, I wondered if it was too early to stop, but Arturo said, "This is a nice town. Let's stop here." Indeed, the sun had come out and for a ski resort town, Santa Caterina looked gorgeous. I'd stayed at the Park Hotel 3 years prior, but with the benefit of TripAdvisor, Arturo found the best hotel in town was Hotel Nordik. A visit to the tourist information center revealed that they cost only 5 Euros more than the alternatives, so we booked it.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

This was a good choice, because the food at the Nordik wasn't just good, it was plentiful! I got double helpings of the pasta and soup, and even samplings of other dishes. The salad bar was a buffet, and the only thing not up to par was the dessert. I finally felt as though I'd gotten enough food for the first time during the tour.

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July 5th: Filisur to Il Fourn

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The next morning saw overcast skies but dry roads, so no thoughts were given at all to the train station as we headed down back to the Albulapass road. The road to Bergun, which had been my goal the day before rose up through several gorges, and was as pretty a climb as any. We wouldn't have made it to Bergun without riding into a heavy rain, so it was a good thing we'd stopped in Filisur.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Bergun was as pretty as I remembered, a little town with water fountains, restaurants, and a cobblestone center. We were too early for meals, so after shopping at the local supermarket for our staples, we continued riding up the mountain. Albula pass spans a National Park, so as we climbed past the Glacier Express train line where it entered the tunnel, the area bore less and less sign of civilization. The sun started peaking in through the clouds, lifting our spirits, and giving the scenery by the road a magical light.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

By noon, I'd gotten confident about the weather, and we stopped to book a room at Il Fourn, the National Park hotel near Offenpass I'd passed up several times in previous tours but had always thought would be a good stop. On a weekday, I'd wait until we'd ridden to it and then check if it had rooms, but on a Saturday, a reservation would give us more confidence and also had the benefit of allowing us to ride longer. They only had a 3 person room without an en suite bathroom, but we were all ok with having to use corridor bathrooms and showers, so we confirmed the reservation. We told them that we'd be arriving by bicycle and gave them a conservative arrival time of 6:00pm.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Albulapass' summit and descent were easy, especially since while the top of Albulapass was 2315m, the button of it was nearly 1700m, meaning that the elevation loss was minimal. It was nevertheless a fun descent, with long sightlines, no blind corners, and relatively little traffic despite the weekend. Once in LaPunt, we filled up our water bottles and rolled down towards Zernez on the main road, once again eschewing the bike path in exchange for speed. On the road, we felt many rain drops, but it never actually rained even as we entered Zernez after a series of quick descents along the road.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

A quick stop at the Coop supermarket for another supermarket lunch followed, and it was finally warm enough for ice cream. Arturo noted that while Zernez was at 1400m, Il Fourn was at 1800m, which meant a short 400m climb. I smiled but didn't tell him about the retro-grade after Ova Spin. The climb was steep and reached 1800m quickly at the Ova Spin bus stop, but then immediately dropped 200m to meet with the Livigno tunnel intersection before climbing again to Il Fourn, so when Arturo got to that intersection where I was waiting, he said, "You knew about this, right?" I nodded. This retro-grade is rarely marked on maps, as motorcyclists and car drivers would barely have noticed.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Regardless of the terrain, we arrived at Il Fourn at 5:00pm amidst sunshine, causing the check-in reservation agent to comment that we must have been furiously pedaling to get there. The price of lodging was fair but apparently they didn't serve half pension for short stays, so we were forced to dine using the a la carte menu, which was outrageously priced. Nevertheless, the reappearance of the sun put us in such good spirits that we went for a longish hike after dinner to explore the park further, taking advantage of the long summer days.

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Review: Motorrad ReiseKarten Alpen

This trip was the first where I used the Motorrad ReiseKarten Alpen in the field exclusively. It was a great experience. First, I separated the pages I thought would be useful from the folder. This made a light, compact, and waterproof package, especially sitting in the saddlebag. Every day, I would extract, 1, 2, or 3 pages from the package that we planned to ride through, and then have just those pages available in the handlebar bag that wasn't waterproof. The lamination on the map sections itself isn't perfect: we had one map section that was used extensively over several rainy days, and it was clear that the lamination had began separating from the map. However, the map was never unusable, and it looks like it could survive another tour.

The back of the maps turned out to be useful in terms of booking and finding lodging during the trip. We were able to call Il Fourn based on the phone number available, and make a reservation during the day on Albulapass. The only improvement that could be made there is to have country codes printed on the map to make international dialing easier. However, in the age of smart phones a country code lookup on Google was neither bothersome nor difficult.

The biggest disappointment in the map is in the data. Many towns are missing elevation information. Galleria were not noted on the map, and in some cases, a tunnel mysteriously appear but wasn't marked on the map. This is all data which is secondary to a motorcyclist but quite important to a bicyclist. Just before I left Switzerland I saw a recent edition of Motorrad Atlas Alpenlander in 1:250,000 scale which might have better data, but I was in a hurry and did not have a chance to peruse the map in more detail.

Regardless, however, I consider myself very satisfied with the map collection, and saw many motorcyclists using it, so the collection pretty much sets the standard for touring maps in the Alps.

July 4th: Disentis to Filisur

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We woke up in the morning to discover that the forecast was indeed correct. By breakfast, while the valley Chur was situated in was dry and sunny, one look up towards Lukmanier pass and you could see that rain was already happening. This was a day to do long, flattish miles. We visited the monastery quickly after breakfast, and then took off down the main highway towards Ilanz, eschewing bike paths because those add needless climbs while the road is relatively traffic free and descents fast. Hina and I took turns pace-lining each other, which Arturo didn't take part in since he'd done no club riding prior to the tour and didn't have the confidence to stay close to another rider at speed. I made a note to rectify this later in the tour.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We made a left turn to ride into Ilanz, where we followed the signs to Versam to get out of town after stopping at a grocery store to pick up some bananas and chocolate. The side road between Ilanz and Versams comes recommended by the OCD, and is actually part of the official bike path to Chur. It first takes you through small towns, but then becomes rural and takes you through a series of gorges. It's like getting to ride in a schlutz, except that the scale is big enough for roads and bicycles. What car traffic there is on the road is fairly trivial, and we had no problems riding side by side into tunnels, for instance.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

With that adventure out of the way, the road drops you along a terminal-velocity descent into Bonaduz, where we arrived just before the supermarket closed to have a supermarket lunch. From there, we could ride up to Thusis and then Tiefencastel, or we could head over to Chur to climb up to the ski resort of Lenzerheide. The map showed a distressing number of tunnels towards Thusis, though I should have remembered the bike path that Phil, Lisa and I used in 2010 from Thusis to Chur. Nonetheless, the Lenzerheide ride in 2007 was quite good, so I opted for the known good road.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

This was a mistake, because the Swiss, like many Europeans, have a much more balanced approach to work-life approach than Americans. This meant that despite it being 1:00pm by the time we started up the climb to Lenzerheide, there was already an active stream of cars traversing the road, weekend warriors escaping the city towards the Swiss National Parks. This added pressure to the ride which I didn't need, since Friday nights are already tough for finding lodging. By the time we made it up to Lenzerheide, our nerves were frazzled from too much traffic interaction, but strangely enough, the traffic died away quickly on the descent, indicating that most of the traffic was to the ski resort, and not to places beyond. At the intersection where we could turn away from Tiefencastel, we took the road towards the Albulapass, and dropped down to Alvaneu following the signs. It had clouded over during the climb, but rain was still restricted to small drops. There weren't any hotels in Alvaneu along the Albula highway, but a Tripadvisor search revealed some highly rated hotels in Filisur, which had a train station. That was attractive, since if the weather turned sour, the train station would make for a good bailout.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Filisur turned out to be a pretty mountain town, but the best rated hotel turned out to be next to the train station which was unusually located at the highest elevation in town. The climb was fine, but we arrived just as rain drops started to pelt. Hina and Arturo noted that they were very close to 100km today, and chose to do a few loops around the train station parking lot to reach 100km. I declined to participate in gratituous riding, preferring to enjoy the little cottage the hotel gave us for the night as it was the only 3 person "room" they had available. The dinner was quite good, and we were pleased to have done so much riding and avoided the rain. The forecast the next day was mixed, but with the train station next to us, even pouring rain wouldn't be able to stop us from making progress.

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July 3rd: Handegg to Disentis/Muster

We woke up the next day to sunny skies, which lifted our moods and got us ready for our first substantial day of climbing. The climb up to Grimsel hospice actually gave us to sunny skies.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Near the hospice, a staff member from the hotel caught up to us and told us the hotel had billed us incorrectly, and we owed them more money than they'd thought. We paid it and they graciously invited us to a cup of coffee at the hospice, but that would have added gratituous climbing to a day that promised a lot of climbing already, so we declined.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The top of Grimsel pass saw a shimmering lake, as well as a good view of the Furka pass, clearly taller than the Grimsel, with a descent into Gletsch between us and the pass proper. The descent to Gletsch was as fun as usual, long straight stretches separated by consistently engineered Swiss hairpin turns. At the bottom, you could look up and see from whence you came, knowing that you're not nearly close to done with climbing for the day yet.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Climbing the Furka pass is initially a gentle experience, until you cross the railroad tracks and just before the Hotel Belvedere the road suddenly turns up at a 12% grade. The day was warming up and we no longer had to wear leg and arm warmers at that point. Past the Rhone glacier, which is a shadow of its former self, the grade eases up a bit and then levels off until the pass summit sign.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Pass the summit, the grade is easy until you hit the hairpin past Hotel Tiefenbach, where hairpin after hairpin greets you as you work your way down to Realp and Hospental. That day, headwinds greeted us, but that meant that some turns gave you sidewinds instead, necessitating a judicious speed reduction. Once in Hospental, we searched in vain for the supermarket, which was probably closed, and settled instead for a restaurant at the foot of the St. Gotthard pass.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The plan was to ride St. Gotthard and then head over to Biasca and then either climb Lukmanier pass or ride down to Bellinzona. Italian-speaking Switzerland frequently has better weather than the northern sections. However, a perusal of the weather apps on the phones indicated that this usual situation was in the process of being reversed. Chur was projected to have better weather than Bellinzona, so we changed our plans to ride the Oberalp pass instead. This type of weather information on-the-go was unavailable until relatively recently, and we were more than happy to take advantage of it.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

I'd remembered Oberalp pass as being an exceedingly easy pass, but that was based on memories of climbing it early in the morning when fresh. Despite the relatively easy 8% grade, it's still 600m from bottom to top, and a bit of a drag in the warm afternoon sun. By the time we reached the summit with the lake and cafe, Arturo had proclaimed that he was pretty darn tired. It turned out that he had bonked without realizing it, since an ice cream later he was ready to roll on.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

I'd remembered the beautiful ride between Ilanz and Versams from the 2005 tour (later replicated in the 2007 tour), and hoped to make Ilanz to start the next day fairly early, but it was already 6pm and so we found a hotel using TripAdvisor, which had a 3 person room and a half pension, as well as being a short walk from the famous monastery in the town. The monastery was closed in the evening, but we were hopeful for the next morning.

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July 2nd: Rosenlaui to Handegg

We woke up in the morning to gloomy skies, confirming the decision yesterday to not rush the day. With that in mind, Arturo and Hina went to the Rosenlaui schlutz after breakfast, reporting that it was indeed wilder and more natural than the Aare schlutz visited 2 days ago. After that, we headed down to Meiringen to see the Sherlock Holmes museum and for Hina and Arturo to mail stuff. The activities of the past 2 days along with the weather had convinced Hina that her summer dresses were superfluous, as well as various heavy electronics. I had failed to convince her that she did not need both her Kindle and her iPad, however. Arturo mailed off his old jacket now that he had a spiffy new one.

The Sherlock Holmes museum wasn't open until after 1:30pm, so we decided to skip it for this tour and headed up the Kirchet pass to eat at the Lammi restaurant. Unfortunately, the owners of the Lammi had decided to close for the day until 4:30pm, so we were out of luck there as well. Instead, we rolled down to the hotel Alpina at the foot of the Grimsel pass and had lunch before heading up the pass.

At Gutannen, we stopped at the grocery store for some bananas, chocolate, and some rest. "For some reason this climb feels much harder than the previous couple of days!" said Arturo. "That's because you're carrying  a load today and you were riding unloaded yesterday!" "Oh, that makes sense!" A group of Koreans came down the mountain on the cleanest mountain bikes I'd ever seen, indicating that their bikes had seen less dirt riding than our road bikes had. One of them dropped by Arturo's bike and played with his GPS before Arturo could stop him, screwing up Arturo's settings for a while, though not actually causing him to lose data.

As we rode up the mountain the clouds got lower and lower and the light sprinkles became more and more substantial, until at the hotel Handegg, we could see the fog and rain up ahead, causing us to stop for the night. At the hotel lobby my heart sank when I saw that they were hosting a conference, but it turned out that the conference wasn't big enough to occupy the entire hotel, and there was plenty of room for us.

I'd last stayed at the hotel on my first trip to the alps in 2003. Back then, we didn't have time to explore the facilities, but this time not only were the prices comparatively lower, we had time to visit the spa, sit in the hot tub, and try the sauna. Since Handegg had wifi, I could also call home and make sure that all was well. The food was comparatively good, though not stunning like Andrea's cooking. I told Arturo and Hina to keep their expectations low for the rest of the trip, since not everything could be like Rosenlaui, though Handegg was pretty good, and better than I remembered.

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July 1st: Rosenlaui

I'd originally planned to start the ride in Sarnen, ride up to Flueli-Ranft and Melchsee-Frutt and then hike over to Engstlenalp to get to Rosenlaui. This would have mirrored the 2007 Tour, which this tour was promised to do. Since that didn't turn out, but the day was supposed to be beautiful, I elected to do this ride backwards. This actually had several advantages:

• We could do the ride unloaded.
• The ride up the Gental was actually less steep and an easier climb than the climb to Melchsee-Frutt. It also promised less traffic.
• The route-finding would be easier, since there aren't as many different trails from Englestalp as there are from Tannalp.

Balanced against this was that the descent from Tannalp would be much more challenging than the Gental descent, and that once in Sarnen, we would once again have to hop on a train or climb the Brunig pass to get back into the Meiringen valley.

I discovered after breakfast that I'd somehow lost one of my gloves yesterday, so I too, was going to be stuck buying gloves at exorbitant Swiss prices unless I recovered it. On the way down, I stopped by Hotel Zwirgi just in case I'd dropped it there the evening before, but no luck. We rode down to Lammi and turned right, heading to InnertKirchen, where we stopped at the intersection of the Grimsel and Sustens highways to use the restroom, fill up our water bottles, and then headed up the Sustens highway.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The day was indeed gorgeous, and the climb up the Gental, while at 12%, was certainly much gentler than the climb up from Sarnen would be. Because it had been cold recently, the sun never warmed up the road very much, which meant that maximal effort riding still wouldn't over-heat you much, and water use was minimal. Nevertheless, by the end of the hanging valley, I was almost out of water, and it was time to put on sunscreen for the first time on the trip.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We asked some descending cyclists if they saw water anywhere on the descent, and they said no, but that we weren't very far from the top. Nevertheless, they generously gave us some water, after which we climbed not more than 10m before we saw a water fountain, so we filled up our bottles and kept going. All through the trip Arturo would have trouble with post-buses, and once again, another one caught him just as he was climbing. We nevertheless all made it to the Hotel Engstlenalpl, where the bike path went on for about 50 meters before turning into a dirt trail. We rode on a little bit more, to the electrified cattle fence, undid the hook, and I immediately switched to running shoes for the hiking portion of the trip.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

To say that this route has haunted my memories since 2007 is an under-statement. The beauty of the surrounds, the excitement of doing a ridge crossing on foot while traversing terrain too difficult to ride, interrupted by gates, cattle fences, and steep climbs was overwhelming in 2007, and no less fun even when familiar, 7 years later. The joy of emerging into the Tannalp hostel fire road when done with the hiking portions is not to be under-stated.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

At the lake around Tannalp, we stopped for pictures. Arturo said, "Hey Piaw, I think I've been here before. I recognize that monstrosity!" There was a ginormous ski hotel that did look out of place. But after discussing it and pulling out a map, we realized that there was no way Arturo could have been here before. It's just that rich developers with bad taste all have similarly bad tastes, so one monstrous hotel looks very much like another.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We stopped at the ski station, where there was a grocery store across the street and a water fountain. We ate at the same exact place 7 years ago, and had a passable supermarket lunch. The weather alternated between cool and cold, depending on whether the sun was behind clouds, and we ate quickly, put on everything we owned, and then started the descent down to Stockalp. The descent was steep enough that it made me glad that we didn't have to climb it this year. Past Stockalp, we found the bike path from 7 years ago, and then descended to Flueli-Ranft and then Sarnen just in time to see the train pull into the train station as I was trying to buy tickets.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Doing the math, we realized that we would miss the last bus up to Rosenlaui by the time we got to Meiringen. That made getting rest more important than ever, so Hina and I ate ice cream while Arturo sat down and started posting photos onto Facebook. When I booked the lodging for Rosenlaui I did not anticipate that we would need to ride up the mountain 3 times on 3 days, but given that it would be unloaded I was unconcerned. Then I realized that Tuesday nights are the music nights at Rosenlaui, so we'd have to ride up to it in an hour to avoid missing the start. As a result, the ride up this last time would be a mad dash. Arturo said, "Do we have serious plans tomorrow?" "Well, the forecast is pretty awful, so I wouldn't be in a hurry." "That means I don't have to do any energy management, right?" "What? You've been holding back yourself?" "That means I'll see you folks at dinner after my shower," he smiled.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We arrived in Meiringen and went back up the road towards Grosse Scheidegg. It was overcast and soon we could feel drops of rain on a day which otherwise had been perfectly dry. "You have got to be kidding me," yelled Arturo as he shifted into low gear and started up the road. Well, the ride back to Rosenlaui was a mad dash, but we all made it in time since the music event meant that dinner starts later than usual. We had an entertaining meal, and went to bed knowing that the next day wouldn't have any mad dashes in it.

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June 30th: Rosenlaui

I'd originally intended for 3 nights in Rosenlaui to enable some hiking as a break from cycling there. Air Canada had derailed those plans, leading me to want to use these nights at Rosenlaui to launch some bike rides. Secondarily, for whatever reason, the bike box did not contain the fenders I thought I'd packed in Sunnyvale, so I thought I'd use the bike ride to Grindelwald to get some fenders at a bike shop I knew there. Furthermore, Hina was missing long fingered gloves, and Arturo's jacket was so well-used that it was no longer waterproof, and both would benefit from a visit to Grindelwald.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

The bike ride over Grosse Scheidegg to Grindelwald is world famous for many reasons. First of all, it is gorgeous, even in the conditions we did it in. At the top on a clear day you would get superlative views of the Eiger, the Monch and the Jungfrau. Secondarily, just up the road from Rosenlaui, the road becomes car-free, with only the post-bus and residents allowed to drive up the road and down the other side into Grindelwald. Finally, it is a relatively steep grade, though with unloaded bike not much of a challenge. We heard ice fall on the climb, which was surprising to me, as I'd previously only heard it on warm summer afternoons.

Unfortunately, views of the mountains were not to be had at the summit, as a low fog came in and we had rain. It was so cold that I ran into the restaurant at the top to put on my clothes and have a hot chocolate. The following chilly descent convinced Hina that the long fingered gloves she bought in Zurich were worth the exorbitant Swiss prices.

In Grindelwald, I bought a rear fender for my bike from a shop that serviced mountain bikes, while Arturo had his rear derailleur cable capped for free at the same shop. Hina bought some glove liners for her long fingered gloves. Arturo bought some long-fingered bike gloves, and then I took him to the Mont-Bell store where he tried on the same wind/rain jacket that Cynthia bought in the 2010 tour. He loved it, and bought it, while telling me, "Piaw, you're an evil evil salesperson, and you don't even work at the store!"

We zipped down to Interlaken on the fast descent, ignoring the side-trip to Lauterbrunnen valley, and arrived at the Interlaken Ost train station just as the sun was coming out. The huge Coop supermarket there had a dining area with hot food, so we ate a quick lunch before proceeding towards Isetwald in search of the bike path over to Meiringen. 

From Tour of the Alps 2014

I hadn't done the bike path for 7 years, having in recent years taken the route on the paved road along the Brienzersee instead, or eschewing the ride altogether. But I had fond memories of the ride from before, and the dirt path had several attractions that made up for the slower going than the paved road, not least of which was the Gleissbach falls.

The adventure was fun and lots of stops were made, but by the time we got back to Meiringen it was quite late and we had to choose between the Sherlock Holmes museum and Reichenbach falls. We chose the Reichenbach falls since we were sure we would take the post bus up to Rosenlaui the next day, and the most convenient way to see the falls was by bicycle. It had been sunny all the way to Meiringen but by the time we made it to Meiringen we were feeling the occasional drop of rain. The fun thing about traveling with Arturo is that he's very good at spotting hidden Swiss military emplacements, including pill boxes, hidden hangers, and other such devices. All through the trip he would point them out to us. It's amazing what a wealthy country manages to do when it decides that military installations like those are a major priority. Somewhere there's a mountain with launch hangers that wouldn't be out of place in a SHIELD story. After a grand tour of the military installations of Meiringen, we made a quick visit to the Reichenbach falls, which featured beautiful views of Meiringen valley.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

We returned to Rosenlaui valley to find that yes there was a short period during which there was sun in the valley, and Amy had taken advantage of that to do the Hornseeli route, which had all the features I described from my 2008 visit. She enjoyed it and I was glad that she got in a good day of hiking despite the awful fog and rain we had experienced at the top of Grosse Scheidegg. We ate well and took a short evening walk before turning in for what was supposed to be a beautiful day tomorrow.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

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Prologue: June 26-June 29, 2014

Hina Naseer, Arturo Crespo and I planned the Tour of the Alps to start well after the official start of summer in order to get better weather. To that end, Hina and I flew separately to Zurich on July 26th, arriving on the 27th. Arturo had gotten a cheap business class ticket to Amsterdam and planned to train from there to Sarnen on the 29th.

At the Zurich airport, I discovered that my luggage, along with the everyone else who had flown from San Francisco via Air Canada, had been left behind in Toronto at the transfer point. While an annoyance, I'd anticipated this in my trip planning, and so had not expected the tour to start until the 29th. I stayed with Shauna Eggers and Steve Moran, who joined me in 2012 on the BVI trip. Also staying there was Amy Platt, who was on sabbatical and traveling quite a bit.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Amy happy volunteered to walk me around Zurich so I didn't fall asleep and then succumb to jet-lag. I went for a swim at the local pool, took Steve and Shauna out to dinner. The result was what I thought was the easiest jet-lag I recovery I ever had. I slept a full 7 hours, interrupted only by getting up to go to the bathroom halfway through the night. I even tested the HDM Z1, which I hadn't had a chance to do at home, and found it to be more than acceptable.

The 28th, however, was stressful, because I was waiting for the baggage to show up. What I should have done was to just go to the airport first thing in the morning to search for my baggage and pick it up. Instead, I stupidly believed the airport employee and waited for deliver. By 2, I was a bundle of nerves and after helping Hina with her bike, and headed off to the airport. However, at the train station, I checked the website and found that my bike had been picked up by the baggage service. I fatefully made the decision to turn back.

Unfortunately, despite promises of the baggage service, my bike never showed up. I had a disastrous sleep experience that night. Booth Hina and Arturo had their bikes, so Arturo decided to join us in Zurich  instead of Sarnen, which was looking very unlikely, and meet us in Zurich.

On the 29th, I woke up early, called the airport baggage service, and asked if there was any way they could deliver the bike by 10am. They said that it was impossible, but I could go pick up the bike myself. I went to the airport, grabbed the bike, and came back, which took about an hour and a half. At 9:30, I hurriedly reassmbled my bike, repacked my saddlebag, and headed off to the train station with Hina and Arturo, with a pack lunch graciously prepared by Shauna at the last minute.

At the train station, we bought train tickets, with me producing my passport to buy a half-tax card. When traveling with bicycles, the half-tax card gets paid off very quickly because the bicycle counts as another person for short trips, and costs 12CHF on long trips. I'd originally intended to avoid trains as much as possible, but starting with a Zurich to Meiringen trip effectively meant that just another couple of train journeys would pay it off. Since Arturo also had a half-tax card, having one myself would eliminate any hesitation on using trains to make the tour better. This would turn out to be a good decision later on in the trip.

We arrived in Meiringen at 1:00pm, and immediately rode off to the Lammi restaurant for a great meal to start the trip with.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

Arturo was skeptical that a restaurant could be as great, but when the soup arrived he took a sip and all skepticism vanished. I told him that there was a chance we could eat here again later in the trip on the return, as the return of the 2007 tour ended with a trip over Sustens pass.

We then visited the Aare Schlutz, something I'd ridden past several times in the past but never got around to visiting. Since it was rainy, the schlutz had lots of water, making conditions to visit it ideal.

By the time we were done with the schlutz, it was nearly 4:30, so we decided to ride up to Rosenlaui. I'd ridden up there several times and hence was familiar with the route. But fully loaded and unprepared for the climb, both Hina and Arturo had a harder time. Even worse, Arturo kept running into the post bus that owned the road and every time he had an encounter he would be forced to stop. His schedule had prevented him from extensively training in preparation for the trip, so he had not learned how to start on a hill. Each stop then forced him to walk to the next flat spot in order to start riding again.

From Tour of the Alps 2014

All was forgotten, however, once we reached Rosenlaui, where Amy was joining us for two nights. Lovely Rosenlaui is now the default starting point for many of my trips in Europe: we book the rooms at Rosenlaui before buying tickets based on availability at Rosenlaui. The descriptions at the hotel's website don't do the location justice, and most unadventurous types are turned away by the lack of en-suite bathrooms. Christine and Andreas turn away large tour groups and tourist buses. This suits me just fine: as a result, the place is devoid of all the usual tourist groups, and the food is superlative. You still need a reservation far in advance in order to secure a room, but nearly everyone is a serious hiker, as the hikes in the region are rugged and difficult, with no infrastructure other than the post bus. The net result is that Rosenlaui is one of the few places in Switzerland where you can hike for hours without seeing another person.

I slept well that night, having had exercise, great food, and other worries eliminated not just through the events of the day, but also because Rosenlaui has no cell signal and hence protects you from distractions.

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Long Term Review: Dell Venue 8 Pro

After field-testing the Dell Venue 8 Pro, I committed to it for this year's Tour of the Alps by buying a 64GB microSD card and bringing it as my only tablet/reading device for the tour. It was easy to justify because not only could it process photos, it could also upload rides to Strava, Garmin Connect, and Facebook.

Overall, the device was fast for most activities. Strava, Facebook, reading, and watching movies are all I/O bound activities, and the I/O available on the device is more than sufficient for those activities. Unfortunately, importing 25MB RAW files from the camera to the device is also an I/O bound activity, and writing to the microSD card is SLOW. The net result is that using Lightroom was unsatisfyingly slow. You would wait hours for the import to happen. That's OK, since you can leave the tablet on overnight and let it work.

The big problem happens when you try to edit the pictures. First of all, the atom processor is about 1/8th the power of my desktop, so you'd expect Lightroom to chug a bit. Well, a bit isn't a good description. It chugs a lot, and unfortunately, I think it has more to do with the I/O architecture than with the processor. Watching the task manager's monitoring output confirms that while the CPU does peg occasionally (especially during export), most of the time, the CPU is actually idle, leading me to believe that it's the reading and writing to the microSD card that's the real bottleneck. It could be that loading everything into onboard storage would work better, but unfortunately, I didn't buy enough onboard storage to test that scenario.

Nevertheless, I did manage at least one Facebook post a day, and the results of the photo manipulation demonstrate that even for Facebook posts, Lightroom is light-years ahead of its competition.

Now, the biggest disappointment is the active stylus. Being an old-fashioned desktop application, Lightroom is remarkably resistant to touch input for cropping and delicate manipulation such as my favorite ND grad filter tool. The hope was that the active stylus would help there. Unfortunately, this hope was dashed. First of all, the stylus uses a AAAA battery, which is impossible to replace anywhere in Europe while touring. This is exacerbated by a hardware bug: putting the stylus near the tablet would cause the battery to drain. This is an unacceptable bug. But even when the stylus was working, it wasn't very responsive, leading me to believe that the I/O problems plagued by low-end tablets swamp any technology Dell was able to apply. So while I dreamed of being able to write blog posts, etc while touring, it just didn't happen because I was too frustrated by the touch keyboard for more than the occasional Facebook status message.

Is this enough to get me to not recommend the Venue 8 Pro? No. It simply does everything else too well, and even my Lightroom frustrations weren't enough to keep me from using it, simply because the output is just so much better than anything else out there. What it does mean, however, is that I'm waiting for someone to package the Surface Pro's technology into an 8 inch tablet with a passive stylus (or even better, into a Phablet form factor --- I'm happy to trade off screen size to ditch an entire gadget on the trip and use the weight budget for a portable keyboard). If/when that happens, I'd be more than willing to pay a premium for the upgrade. Sadly, however, I'm guessing that it's going to be a long wait.

All in all, however, the technology is impressive. Just 3 years ago, I was happy to forgo any tablet solution in favor of having an honest to goodness Kindle for reading purposes. This year, the Kindle stayed home, and it looks like it will stay home for the foreseeable future in favor of this multi-purpose, useful device. I can see my frustrations disappearing with just a few more Moore's cycles.

Review: Super Powereds: Year 1

Super Powereds: Year 1 is Drew Hayes' novel about a college program for super heroes. You could think of it as being "Harry Potter" for super heroes, though having read a couple of Harry Potter novels I'd venture to say that the material here is more interesting and less cliched than the Harry Potter novels.

The premise of the novel is that the world of super-humans is divided into Supers, who have full control over their powers, and Powereds, who have no control over their powers and hence are victims of their powers, rather than super heroes. The result is that even the super-humans are divided into tiers, with some powers obviously more valuable than others.

The shtick behind this novel is that there was an experimental process that turns Powereds into Supers, and then enroll them into a college meant for training Super Heroes. A world where Super Heroes exists have been thought out, and much like The Incredibles, the need for hero licensing has much to do with insurance. I'm glad the rationale wasn't waved away, but I wished Hayes had spent more time thinking and come up with more interesting answers.

The novel started as a serialized web-series, so each chapter is short, and the book is easy reading in a breezy fashion. Character development suffers as a result, but nevertheless, the length of the material ensures that some of what Hayes throws at you will stick, so you do learn to care about the characters.

All in all, the novel is a fun summer read that's not too involved and technical, and definitely was what I needed while cycle touring. Recommended. I've checked out Year 2 from the Kindle Lending Library.

Review: HDM Z1 CPAP

Two weeks before my 2014 Tour of the Alps, my doctor told me about the HDM Z1. Now, I've been very happy with my ResMed S9. It's quiet, durable, and works well for sailing. However, even with the portable 30W power supply the entire package weighed 40oz, discounting the hose and the CPAP mask. For a cycle tour with big mountains, this was not ideal, and the HDM Z1 at half the weight of the ResMed S9 was very appealing.

There are a few issues with this machine compared with the S9:

• It is much louder. After comparing this machine with the S9, Arturo found that the S9 was almost silent in comparison. Subjectively, I rate the difference between the machines at 5dB. The HDM Z1 was so loud my wife refused to let me test it. One interesting thing is that adding the HME to the tube makes the machine quieter, which indicates that the increased noise isn't just due to the louder air pump, but also to do with the resonant frequency of the output into the hose.
• For at home use, there's no elegantly integrated humidifier like the S9. Instead, you buy a Fisher & Paykel humidifier, or you use a HME. HMEs are consumables, and each one is good for only 7 days, which at $6/pop is significant over the usual 2 year depreciation period of a CPAP machine. Since you'll almost certainly need to travel with HMEs, the HMEs add some bulk but not significant weight to the final package.
• The ResMed S9 is an auto-PAP, adjusting pressure according to how much you need to avoid apnea events. The Z1, however, is a fixed pressure CPAP, so you only get to set one setting, and live with it for the entire trip. My 95% pressure was 9, so that's what I used. I initially didn't think there was much difference for me, but at the end of the trip, I switched back to the S9 and immediately felt more refreshed after a night's sleep, indicating that the auto PAP algorithm on the ResMed is more effective and provides better sleep.
• There are reports as to the robustness of the machine, with some users reporting failure after 4 weeks of use. HDM offers a 2 year warranty, but that's of no use to you while you're traveling if your machine fails! My trip was only 3 weeks, so I decided it was worth the risk.

Was this enough to offset the 20oz difference between the ResMed and the HDM Z1? No, so if you've been hankering to an independent bicycle tour and the weight/bulk of carrying a CPAP was putting you off, stop reading and just buy it now.

The machine itself is interesting. it comes with the machine, which weighs in at 10oz, and a power supply, which also weighs in at 10oz. I was wondering why the power supply hadn't gone in for more weight reduction, but that's probably because the machine is rated for higher pressure than I use, and so the power supply has to handle that, rather than my relatively low pressure rating. It comes with an adapter for use with the standard CPAP hose. The adapter basically splits the hose so the pressure measuring system can be separated from the output of the pump. You could just leave the adapter in place all the time, but I wouldn't recommend it while traveling, since the tongue of the adapter is in a particularly highly leveraged place, which would cause it to break off.

The machine comes with a micro-SD slot, but I didn't have time to buy a micro SD card to put in the machine, so did not test the software or get details about my apnea events while using the machine. Given that the primary symptom of my apnea is incredibly loud snoring and my roommates did not kill me while I slept, however, I think we can safely say that the machine works.

You can buy a Powershell battery for the Z1, which is basically an integrated battery for camping and other off-the-grid uses. The battery is also incredibly light at 200g, with the downside being that you can only charge the battery with Powershell, so you can't charge multiple batteries at once, for instance. Since the Tour of the Alps is a hotel-based credit card tour, I opted out of buying one and did not test it.

The biggest feature of the machine, however, is the weight and size. It's truly remarkable, and done (as far as I can see) without exotic materials like carbon fiber, titanium, or magnesium, which means that there's ample room for even lighter, more premium versions. The cost of the machine is around $600, which is affordable and much cheaper than a planet ticket to Europe these days. The cost/weight reduction ratio is much better than the typical weight reduction measures on bicycles, so this represents an exceedingly good deal for cycle tourists who carry their own baggage.

All in all, I'm very impressed, and would highly recommend this product.

Startup Engineering Management Gets a 2nd Edition

Startup Engineering Management has been doing so well that I added what I learned over the last few years to it and gave it a 2nd Edition. It's a book that's attracted a surprising following, indicating that there's interest in the no-nonsense, non-political approach to management that I espouse for startups.

This new edition includes a whole new chapter on process analysis, sections on justifying hardware selection based on the great reception my Wharton talk got, and also a foreword by Harper Reed, who endorsed the book early in its life.

Along with the new edition, the price has gone up from $21.95 to $24.95 for the digital edition, and the paper version has also risen to match the price with An Engineer's Guide to Silicon Valley Startup. If you've bought Startup Engineering Management in digital edition since April 23rd, 2014, you've already received a free upgrade to the 2nd Edition in the mail.

If you bought a digital copy earlier, the upgrade price is $5, and what you need to do is e-mail me the original receipt from Paypal or Google checkout. Once I've verified the purchase, you'll get an invoice via paypal and an upgrade. Thank you all for your support!

Tour of the Alps 2014

This is the tour report for my 2014 Tour of the Alps. Hina Naseer and Arturo Crespo joined me for the trip, which took us through Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Lichtenstein.  The trip was 1687.12 km (1048 miles) and 32969. 6m (108168 feet) of climb in 22 riding days, of which we had 3 days interrupted by weather and 1 day interrupted by a crash. We had 1 flat tire and1 mechanical due to a derailleur cable coming loose. My bike got lost in transit on the way to Zurich costing us a full day and a half of riding.

We'll start with all the GPS tracks (in GPX format) for the tour.

• GPS Tracks

Photos

Trip Report

• Prologue: June 26-June 29, Zurich to Rosenlaui
• June 30th: Rosenlaui
• July 1st: Rosenlaui
• July 2nd: Rosenlaui to Handegg
• July 3rd: Handegg to Disentis
• July 4th: Disentis to Filisur
• July 5th: Filisur to Il Fourn
• July 6th: Il Fourn to Santa Caterina
• July 7th: Santa Caterina to Fondo
• July 8th: Fondo to Bolzano
• July 9th: Bolzano to Vigo di Fassa
• July 10th: Vigo di Fassa to Pescul
• July 11th: Pescul to Cortina D'Ampezzo
• July 12th: Cortina D'Ampezzo to Bruneck
• July 13th: Bruneck to Schlanders
• July 14th: Schlanders to Valdidentro
• July 15th: Valdidentro to Pontresina
• July 16th: Pontresina to Ramonsch
• July 17th: Ramosch to Bludenz
• July 18th: Bludenz to Hotel Posthaus, Urigen
• July 19th: Hotel Posthaus, Urigen to Reuti
• July 20th: Reuti to Zurich
• July 21st: Epilogue & Conclusion

Equipment Reviews

• HDM Z1 CPAP
• Motorrad ReiseKarten Alpen
• GSC 10
• Michelin Pro Race 3 (Tour Review)
• Garmin Edge 800 Review
• T-Mobile International Postpaid Plan
• New Trent C90 Charger
• DuraAce 7700 Freehub Review

Review: A Fighting Chance

A Fighting Chance is Elizabeth Warren's account of her life, from her humble beginnings to becoming a Harvard Professor and then United States Senator. The cynical would consider this the start of her bid for the 2016 presidential nomination, much like The Audacity of Hope was for Obama.

Here's the thing: I'm an unabashed Elizabeth Warren fan, ever since she wrote The Two Income Trap with her daughter. I would support her nomination for presidency, and I certainly think that she's a far better choice than Clinton would be, and I voted for Clinton during the primaries in 2008.

The book's well-written, as you would expect from a Harvard Professor. My wife, who doesn't usually read books that I checkout from the library, picked it up and kept reading despite herself. Warren is funny, self-deprecating, intelligent, and very good at writing for a general audience. For instance, she mentions how she won the home economics prize in high school, but leaves out the process she went through to get tenure. The latter would have been more interesting to me, but much less interesting for the general public.

The book also covers her work on the TARP oversight panel as well as all the hidden games that went on with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. These were by far the most interesting parts of the book to me, exposing how bank lobbyists succeed in getting what's good for the financial industry passed by congress again and again, while ignoring the needs of people who aren't as well heeled. She estimates the amount of money the banks spent opposing first the CFPB, and then scuttling her appointment as the director at well over $500M, or half a billion. If it is true that you can best judge a person by the qualities of her enemies, then Elizabeth Warren is truly one of the best people you'll find anywhere.

The last third of the book is about her own run for senate, and while interesting, it's all relatively recent news, so you might already know it. In any case, it is fun to relive that election especially with Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" shenanigans. I definitely hope the GOP keep up the good work on that front this November.

Anyway, it's a surprisingly fun read, well written, humble, and very much worth your time. Elizabeth Warren for president!

Review: Frozen Planet

I picked up Frozen Planet because there was a deal, and someone told me that his kid couldn't stop watching it. As a parent, you never get to watch anything from start to finish, unless it's Blue's Clues, Curious George, or a video of trains, so I was intrigued by the idea that I could actually watch a BBC Nature Program with Bowen.

I'd love to say that Bowen watched all the episodes from start to finish with fascination, but the reality was, he fixated quickly on polar nears, and only wanted to watch the parts about Polar Bears. There's several very cute sequences where the mommy polar bear is leading her two cubs to the frozen ice, and Bowen asked, "Where's daddy polar bear?"

Series like Frozen Planet or Planet Earth frequently get mentioned as "nature porn." This utterly demeans the people who work on these shows, because not only are these shows much much harder to shoot than porn and require a much tougher budget, but the education value and the entertainment value is much denser. As a nature photographer, I'm far more appreciative of the effort it takes to capture the footage found in these shows than most people, and on top of that, video is an order of magnitude harder to capture and edit than even photographs.

What I love about the series is that while it covers all the usual photogenic species like Killer Whales, Polar Bears, Seals, and Penguins, it also doesn't neglect the less photogenic species like the 14 year Wolly bear moths. Many of the capture is done using time lapse photography and looks beautiful. The series also doesn't shy away from predator violence, though the cuts do frequently come after the prey is taken down and before the dining. It certainly wasn't overtly distressful to my toddler to watch those.

The last two episodes of the show cover people's lifestyles on the poles of the planet, as well as the impact humanity is having on the frigid landscape. Unfortunately, the BBC succumbs to their national origins and strongly depicts the British expeditions to the South Pole while sidelining Amundsen's and Nansen's much more successful bids.

Nevertheless, for sheer breath-taking beauty and amazing footage (the footage of baby cubs in a den with the mother blew me away), this is definitely a series to buy and watch in Blu-Ray 1080p video. Do not compromise on video quality. This is what you bought a high definition set for, and there's no reason to settle for less.

Highly recommended.

Review: God of War 3

If you're an old fogie like me and grew up with D&D in the mid-80s, you'll remember the publication (or your discovery) of Deities and Demigods. Now, purportedly the purpose of listing all the deities is to provide the DM with background for the mythos behind his game, rather than providing the deities as monsters to kill. But if so, why provide stats?

Anyway, God of War 3 does something very similar to Deities and Demigods. Many of the deities from the Greek mythos are lovingly brought to life and animated on a computer, precisely so you can hack and slash at them and kill them. The protagonist, Kratos, is amazingly one note, alternately growling and grunting, though he does get more than a few lines. In any case, you wouldn't be playing God of War (any of the series) for the story. It's a bare skeleton on which to hang set-pieces.

The mode of play in God of War is the brawler. You have a choice of 4 primary weapons with which to beat up your opponents. I write these words casually, but having played Devil May Cry, I'm amazed at how much more accessible God of War is. The controls are just right, and the complexity of the game is such that even a neophyte can pick this up and play. The same could not be said of Devil May Cry, which I gave up on pretty quickly.

I've come to the conclusion that the Sony LA studios (which includes Santa Monica as well as Naughty Dog) are delivering video games as an experience, rather than the "we'll make tough games" which is what my impression of the older-style video games are. The difficult part of doing these types of game well is pacing, variety, and player experience management. If you get pacing wrong, the game doesn't flow and feel like a cinematic experience. If you concentrate too much on one type of game play, then the game feels repetitive, and again doesn't feel cinematic. If you make the game so hard that the player dies often, then you frequently break flow for the player, and the game no longer provides a roller-coaster ride experience. That Sony Santa Monica and Naughty Dog both manage to deliver these experiences consistently is the main reason I think Sony's stock is under-rated.

What sort of variety does God of War grant you, other than the basic brawling game play? To begin with, the game grants you several set pieces that give you scale. It opens with a fight sequence on the back of a Titan, and the camera pans, zooms in and out all throughout the experience, which is exciting, cinematic, and very satisfying to play through. Not all the boss fights are so dramatic, but by and large they are very well done. The game provides several mini games in the form of finishing moves that are guided by Quick-Time events. These are much hated by game journalists and reviewers, but God of War does them correctly, and actually enjoyed them, as opposed to the ones found in Tomb Raider. And yes, there's a sex QTE mini-game (the camera pans away, so even though it's a rated M game, it doesn't venture into interactive porn). The environmental puzzles provided by the game are also fun, and interesting enough, scaling from the trivial to the intensely difficult by the end of the game. Finally, there are also several flight sequences where you navigate an asteroid field as the Millennium Falcon. Oops. Wait, no, Kratos sprouts wings and has to fly through obstacles. These aren't as much fun, but they do break up the sequences nicely.

The cut scenes are rendered beautifully and look like they're rendered by the game engine. So much so that during the first flight sequence I thought I was in a cut-scene rather than in-game, and died because I didn't realize I could control the character!

 What are my criticisms of the game? Well, it's rated M, which means lots of blood and gore. Definitely not for the pre-teen. The finale fight was kinda anti-climatic, after everything you'd been through. The story, as previously mentioned, serves merely as a justification for killing everything in sight. The use of Greek mythos, however, is fairly true to the source, though unfortunately with the M rating, you couldn't really use this game to introduce your child to it.

All in all, I think it's a fun game, though not for the faint of heart. I enjoyed it. For me, it came just a notch below the Tomb Raider Reboot, and just above Drake's Fortune. Recommended.

Vitamin D, Sunscreen, and Race

On my first bike tour, I went to Washington State, intending to cycle down to California. All through the tour through the rainy state, I got jokes about the weather, like "This isn't tan, this is rust!" But one piece of advice that came through consistently was the need to wear sunscreen. I even got advice such as, "You can get sun-burned even on a cloudy day in Washington." My recent review of Solbar SPF 30 sunscreen drew similar comments such as, "You need to reapply sunscreen no matter what."

Here's the deal. I'm Asian in origin, and was born and grew up in South East Asia. Most advice about sunscreen is based on research on white people. So very little of it applies if you're not white! For instance, when UK researchers exposed a group of South Asians to varying amounts of UV equivalent to peak summer sun exposure in Manchester UK, they concluded:

The authors noted that in this follow-up study, even with a three-fold increase in UV exposure, those of South Asian ethnicity are not able to make sufficient vitamin D at northern latitudes wearing casual clothing. Those receiving the larger doses of UV radiation were left with an average vitamin D blood level of only 15 ng/mL.

In case you're wondering, you're supposed to get 30ng/ml blood level to have "sufficient" vitamin D, and there's evidence that more is better, by quite a bit!

OK you think, that's Manchester England, not exactly famous for sunny times. But what about California? Surely you get sufficient sun exposure in California, right? Well, no. Not if you take the usual advice and wear sunscreen. In 2006, my doctor checked for vitamin D in my blood and concluded that I was suffering from vitamin D deficiency. This was despite being a cyclist and spending tons of time outside. The culprit: sunscreen. I took vitamin D supplements and stopped using sunscreen in the morning and evening hours.

OK, what if you're from more northern parts of the continent? My wife, who's northern Chinese and very pale, was also diagnosed last year with vitamin D deficiency. The same study concludes:

Based on the studies by these authors it will be difficult, if not impossible, for those with darker skin to achieve a natural vitamin D level from sun exposure alone, particularly if they do not commit to getting full-body sun exposure.

 So no, if you're Asian, or basically any color except white, ask your doctor for a vitamin D check the next time you have an annual. I bet you'll be shocked at the results. And no, if you're Asian you cannot possibly get sun burn on a cloudy day. No way, no how. That's white person talk.

Finally, if you're a whitey, you might want to take Mike Samuel's advice from the 2007 tour:

If you're the only fair-skinned whitey in the group, carry the sunscreen