Yes we all know what's driving these trips, which is why I bolded the four times in my comment.
Like Patrick, Liz and I are suckers for new experiences, even if they are offbeat to many people. We have an obvious analogy in the eclipse trips. I currently have a "streak" of 12 consecutive total solar eclipses, likely to continue for 6 more barring unforeseen circumstances. Four of the 13 currently active Saros cycles are what I call "hard cases," requiring expensive travel to remote areas of the world and/or bad climatology prompting many chasers to pay up further for chartered flights above the clouds.
Many of the eclipse chasers take these remote trips and come home after a short time. Liz and I are more inclined to investigate tourism opportunities, especially in areas so remote we are unlikely to return. Next April in NW Australia is a good example of both an ends-of-the-earth location and a total of almost 3 weeks we will spend in Western Australia.
Rarely do I think an eclipse trip is taking away from other opportunities. The debatable example might be missing Iron Blosam Week in 2016 due to the Indonesia eclipse. But right after we got home we drove to Utah for a week and got two 18-inch storms, so I didn't feel too deprived.
My criticism of Patrick's streak over the years is that it crowds out higher quality and often new ski experiences given finite $$$ and vacation time available. Patrick will protest that his former work and family schedules made summer travel easier. But you'll never convince me that if he had really wanted to ski the Alps, interior BC or come to Iron Blosam during Ontario spring break with his avid skiing daughter, he couldn't have made that happen. But no, it was more important to spend those $$$ and vacation days in South America in August/September. To this day Patrick's daughter (now age ~25) has only skied outside the East on two "streak trips," June/July 2010 at Mammoth and August 2015 in Zermatt.
Patrick is now retired and so has fewer time constraints than during the first decade of the streak. But he's still coaching at the Ottawa molehills and thus can't travel between Christmas and the end of March. So it's still tough for him to expand the quantity and quality of "new ski experiences." Thus the upcoming repeat trip to Australia (between second and third tier Northeast in quality by James' criteria) in September/October.
Like Patrick, Liz and I are suckers for new experiences, even if they are offbeat to many people. We have an obvious analogy in the eclipse trips. I currently have a "streak" of 12 consecutive total solar eclipses, likely to continue for 6 more barring unforeseen circumstances. Four of the 13 currently active Saros cycles are what I call "hard cases," requiring expensive travel to remote areas of the world and/or bad climatology prompting many chasers to pay up further for chartered flights above the clouds.
Many of the eclipse chasers take these remote trips and come home after a short time. Liz and I are more inclined to investigate tourism opportunities, especially in areas so remote we are unlikely to return. Next April in NW Australia is a good example of both an ends-of-the-earth location and a total of almost 3 weeks we will spend in Western Australia.
Rarely do I think an eclipse trip is taking away from other opportunities. The debatable example might be missing Iron Blosam Week in 2016 due to the Indonesia eclipse. But right after we got home we drove to Utah for a week and got two 18-inch storms, so I didn't feel too deprived.
My criticism of Patrick's streak over the years is that it crowds out higher quality and often new ski experiences given finite $$$ and vacation time available. Patrick will protest that his former work and family schedules made summer travel easier. But you'll never convince me that if he had really wanted to ski the Alps, interior BC or come to Iron Blosam during Ontario spring break with his avid skiing daughter, he couldn't have made that happen. But no, it was more important to spend those $$$ and vacation days in South America in August/September. To this day Patrick's daughter (now age ~25) has only skied outside the East on two "streak trips," June/July 2010 at Mammoth and August 2015 in Zermatt.
Patrick is now retired and so has fewer time constraints than during the first decade of the streak. But he's still coaching at the Ottawa molehills and thus can't travel between Christmas and the end of March. So it's still tough for him to expand the quantity and quality of "new ski experiences." Thus the upcoming repeat trip to Australia (between second and third tier Northeast in quality by James' criteria) in September/October.
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