Stuck in Flagstaff

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Hello all from the quiet town of Flagstaff, or what we've seen in the few blocks surrounding our hostel. You may ask yourself why we are in Flagstaff, which is not much of a ski town, well, here goes.

The story really starts on Dec 30, driving up to spend New Years in South Lake Tahoe. Anyone who has followed the weather has probably seen a huge green curtain covering most of the west, this storm turned a 4 hour trip into a 10+ hour slog in some of the worst driving conditions I have ever had to endure. But after many hours travelling at a snails pace up over highway 50 we arrived safely, and the reward was 4 days of amazing skiing in Kirkwood. About 3 feet fell the night of the 30th, and snow continued to fall through the weekend, making for some fantastic conditions, and a great start to the ski bum trip.

After saying goodbye to some wonderful friends and ski buddies in Tahoe, Dave and I got in my car yesterday evening with the plan of driving straight on to Taos NM. I was full of caffein and actually excited to tackle the first stint of the drive. We made it down from South Shore without any problems, and turned to head south on 95 through Nevada, where we caught up with the same storm which blanketed Tahoe with snow for days. We hit the storm (or got hit) about 9:30 or 10 pm, and by the early morning I was driving 20 mph in a near white out on a deserted road, miles from any form life. There was enought snow settled on the road to hide all the lines, as well as the rumble strip, and with no other traffic there were no tracks to follow. We eventually reached some no name town and got stopped by the local sherrif, who told us to get off the road, but neglected to tell us where we could find any shelter. Luckely, within 5 minutes of getting stopped, a plow passed us heading south, followed by two big rigs, so we finally had a caravan to follow. Many hours later we finally got out of the snow, and eventually made the 6:30 buffet breakfast in a Las Vegas casino. With a full day ahead of us we still had hopes of making it to Taos, but we drove straight into the same storm heading up towards Flagstaff. We had seen too many cars (and even a few 18 wheelers) in ditches to continue. Both of us were nervous and sleep deprived, so we decided to take a break and hopefully catch a lull in the storm tomorrow. So no turns tomorrow, but this bodes well for outrageous powder on Thurday.

I'm going to sleep now.

Eamon

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