Montezuma Bowl Video at Arapahoe Basin by Enable Agency
June 21, 2008 by rippinskiersSki At Aspen June 13-15 2008
June 15, 2008 by rippinskiersAspen is open from Friday, June 13th – Sunday, June 15th. There is so much snow left, they can re-open. Click Here to learn more about this from Aspen.
Road Gap Ski Wipeout Video
June 9, 2008 by rippinskiers
2-5 Inches of Snow Expected Today
June 5, 2008 by rippinskiers2-5 inches of snow is expected at 9000 feet and above in the western half of Colorado today. Ski weather is not leaving. You can ski at Arapahoe Basin through June 8th, 2008. This is very exciting. Arapahoe Basin is now open for nine months. How many other US many ski resorts stay open this long?
Have a great day!
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rippinskiers@earthlink.net
Arapahoe Basin Ski Video
May 27, 2008 by rippinskiersColorado Ski Area Celebrating with Blues Brews and Bar B Cue
May 27, 2008 by rippinskiers
Beaver Creek celebrated on Saturday and Sunday with their Blues, Brew, and bar b cue Memorial Day festival. The festival served bar b cue from at least eight different vendors. Each vendor offered a one dollar to four dollar sampling. It was the perfect size allowing you to sample from so many chefs. Many had their own bar b cue sauce or sauces. Meat included everything from chicken, burnt ends, sausage, and much more. So you’re probably wondering, was there any snow at Beaver Creek? There sure was and is. There is tons of snow left and Arapahoe Basin is still open. On Sunday, we traveled to the Arapahoe Basin beer festival. Backcountry Brewery in Frisco has the best selection of beer from a single brewery. Their Telemark IPA is no doubt my favorite beer in Colorado. It’s even better at the Arapahoe Basin altitude!!! I tried their Pilsner and Porter. Those too are fantastic. It has been a while since I’ve been able to declare a beer as my favorite, but the Telemark IPA is simply perfect.
On Friday and Saturday evening’s we stayed at the Arrabelle. My review of the Arrabelle in Vail Colorado is as follows. Staff was extremely friendly and helpful. They had a decent bar serving Samuel Smith beers. The location is great because you are so close to the gondola. The King Bed with a balcony room was very nice for a weekend. The bathroom was large with heated floors. The water pressure in the shower was excellent. They had an outdoor lap pool that was a nice feature. However, I would prefer an outdoor/indoor pool so I don’t freeze when I get out. There were two hot tubs. Same issue as I had to go in the cold before going inside. The hot tubs were very nice. We were there during the off season, so not much was open. The TV was excellent being a large flat screen. They had a nice gas fireplace in the room. Most importantly, it was quit being in the room. I would go back, however, if spending that type of money, I’m torn between there and the Sonnenalp. The Sonnenalp has an indoor/outdoor pool, although it’s not next to the Gondola which is a great feature.
Heli Skiing in Alaska
May 18, 2008 by rippinskiersHeli Skiing in Alaska requires airline tickets, a yahoo or mapquest map to get you there, at least five thousand dollars, and an appetite for extreme adventure. If you tube heli ski videos get you excited, and you are a great skier, then go for it. I have not yet had the opportunity to ski in Alaska, although it’s a great desire. Points North Heli Adventures Inc. offers private chartered flights at $2450 per hour. WOW! That’s a lot of cash. But what a great opportunity if you can do it. To learn more about this amazing opportunity, go to AlaskaHeliSki.com.
Finally, when you are on your Heli Ski trip, you may need to call home. So CLICK HERE to get one month VOIP service for FREE!
It Snowed in Denver Yesterday
May 11, 2008 by rippinskiersIt snowed in Denver yesterday. I had flakes on my Mountain Hardware jacket. Do you still want to go skiing? Arapahoe Basin is still open with a lot of snow. Last week, I was one of the first people to have fresh tracks on their East Wall. I felt the snow hit my knee. That’s right…this snow hit my knee and I had freshies last Saturday at Arapahoe Basin.
Happy Mothers Day!
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Microsoft drops Yahoo
May 4, 2008 by rippinskiers
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer Sun May 4, 8:14 AM ET
SAN FRANCISCO – Microsoft Corp. withdrew its $42.3 billion bid to buy Yahoo Inc. on Saturday, scrapping an attempt to snap up the tarnished Internet icon in hopes of toppling online search and advertising leader Google Inc.
The decision to walk away from the deal came after last-ditch efforts to negotiate a mutually acceptable sale price proved unsuccessful.
The talks reached a breaking point after Jerry Yang and David Filo, the co-founders of Sunnyvale-based Yahoo, flew to Seattle in the morning to meet personally with Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and Kevin Johnson, who runs the software maker’s unprofitable online services division, according to someone familiar with the talks. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified.
“Clearly a deal is not to be,” Ballmer wrote to Yang in a letter sent late Saturday.
Microsoft was willing to pay $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, up from the bid’s current value of $29.40 per share, according to Ballmer’s letter.
But Yahoo’s board demanded at least $53 billion, or $37 per share, according to Ballmer. That would have been nearly double Yahoo’s stock price of $19.18 at the time Microsoft first made its bid a little over three months ago.
And Yang, who became Yahoo’s CEO 11 months ago, wanted $38 per share in a Wednesday meeting, according to the person familiar with the discussions. That meeting was held the day after Yang and Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock called to ask Microsoft not to withdraw its bid, the person said.
In a statement Saturday, Bostock reiterated that Microsoft had undervalued his company’s assets since the takeover tug-of-war began more than three months ago.
“We remain focused on maximizing shareholder value and pursuing strategic opportunities that position Yahoo for success and leadership in its markets,” Bostock said.
The anticlimactic ending came as a surprise, given that many analysts believed Microsoft wanted to close the deal badly enough to pursue a hostile takeover — a risky maneuver that would have required an attempt to replace the Yahoo board that spurned rejected the bid.
Although he had threatened a hostile takeover attempt last month, Ballmer said he concluded that waging a so-called proxy battle was “not sensible.”
“Our discussions with you have led us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps that would make Yahoo undesirable as an acquisition,” Ballmer wrote to Yang.
But Yahoo hasn’t necessarily faded from Microsoft’s cross hairs.
The software maker conceivably could renew its bid later this year if Yahoo can’t bounce back from more than two years of financial lethargy.
Should Yahoo’s turnaround efforts flop, many analysts believe the company’s stock would sink into the mid-teens and open the door for another takeover offer that would be more difficult to rebuff.
For now, at least, Microsoft appears to believe it has enough internal weapons to chip away at Google’s dominance of the booming Internet ad market.
“We have a talented team in place and a compelling plan to grow our business through innovative new services and strategic transactions with other business partners,” Ballmer said. “While Yahoo would have accelerated our strategy, I am confident that we can continue to move forward toward our goals.”
Microsoft’s move intensifies the pressure on Yang to reverse the lackluster growth that has eroded Yahoo’s profits and depressed its stock price since 2005, making it vulnerable to an unwanted takeover.
Yang has projected that Yahoo’s revenue will rise by 25 percent in 2009 and 2010, propelled by an expanded Internet advertising network that’s using more sophisticated tools to target consumers.
But analysts haven’t raised their forecasts to anywhere near Yang’s predictions, reflecting doubts that may trigger a rebellion among Yahoo’s restive shareholders if it looks as if management isn’t delivering on its promises.
Yang, who started Yahoo with Filo in 1994 while they were graduate students at Stanford University, embraced the challenge in a Saturday statement.
“With the distraction of Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus all of our energies on executing the most important transition in our history,” he said.
As part of its efforts to fend off Microsoft, Yahoo had been exploring a possible advertising partnership with Google and a merger with the Internet operations of Time Warner Inc. It’s unclear whether Yahoo will still pursue those deals now that Microsoft has backed off.
In his letter, Ballmer said Yahoo’s talks with Google were one of the main reasons he decided to not to pursue a hostile takeover. He described the alliance as “unwise from a business perspective” because Yahoo would cede too much power to Google in the lucrative search advertising market.
Analysts are divided on just how much Microsoft needs Yahoo.
One school of thought is that a Yahoo takeover could have turned into an expensive headache that probably wouldn’t start delivering dividends for two or three years. While Microsoft grappled with a Yahoo acquisition, Google theoretically could have benefited from the distractions and grown even stronger.
Without the Yahoo takeover on its plate, Microsoft can focus more on core software business with plenty of money available to buy more nimble Internet startups that could bolster its online operations.
But other analysts believe Yahoo — with 500 million users, a prized brand and the second largest ad network behind Google’s — represented Microsoft’s best chance to remain a powerhouse as the Internet increasingly defines how and why people interact with computers.
Watch and Listen to Music From the Jazz and Heritage Festival 2008
May 2, 2008 by rippinskiersWatch and listen to music from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 2008 tomorrow via the ATT Blue Room. CLICK HERE to watch, listen to music and get the updated schedule.
Tim McGraw, Jimmy Buffet, Widespread Panic, John Cleary, Dr. John, Art Neville, PBS, Bonerama, Theresa Anderson Group and more to be shown tomorrow.
