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Good luck, farewell Finney

The staff of 4 Points would like to wish a fond farewell to Ryan Finney, our favorite SmartWool employee and lover of French philosophy. Good luck in your new life in Boulder and visit Steamboat often.

Student steers soundboard

The Derek Trucks Band played the last show of its Western states tour in Gondola Square on Saturday. Trucks awed the world with his guitar playing, just as he has at every show since he was a pony-tailed adolescent.

As he played, members of the audience whispered about every show they'd seen him in, including when he played with the Allman Brothers and The Grateful Dead. Meanwhile, Steamboat Springs High School junior Drew Ganyer sat Zen-like at the back of the stage working the soundboard.

Ganyer has been working for Morgan Systems, the company that does sound for all the Gondola Square free concerts. The soundman who was supposed to be on stage Saturday wasn't able to make the show, and Ganyer filled in for him.

Ganyer will be in the booth again this weekend doing the lights and sound for the Steamboat Dance Theatre show.

The great beyond

While the rest of us were wandering around Lincoln Avenue looking for some form of entertainment, Tom Sharp and his wife, Sandy, were wandering around New Zealand rubbing elbows with the likes of mountain climber Sir Edmund Hillary.

Sharp wrote in an e-mail: "A friend of Jim's had met Sir Edmund Hillary about 40 years ago, accompanied by his cousin, the then-VP of World Book who sponsored Hillary's expedition to search for the illusive Yeti in Nepal. Through the persistence of Jim's e-mails, we found ourselves ... having afternoon tea with Sir Edmund Hillary and Lady June at their home in Auckland. For those of you who don't remember, Edmund Hillary was the first to summit Mt. Everest in 1953, followed by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, and both became legends.

"There we are, the six of us sitting in Hillary's living room, exchanging pleasantries and talking about Nepal, the Sherpa people, our trek to Gokyo-ri in 2003, his foundation, the search for Yeti and other topics. Hillary is about 85 years old, and somewhat hard of hearing, but is still 6-foot-3 with a large, firm handshake and size 15 shoes. A big man with a gregarious laugh, and remarkably unpretentious."