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Published: December 5th 2006
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Duckie, Paddington, and Avis
Enjoying the day in the mountains above Lake Tahoe. Well, to start this was a bittersweet trip... I had planned to go home but there was too much snow on Hwy 70 in Missouri, so I stayed out in California. To make the best of it I decided to try snowboarding at Heavenly Ski Resort (http://www.skiheavenly.com) above South Lake Tahoe.
Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in the U.S. (11th in the world) and has a water clarity of about 100 ft. It is very beautiful the way it is situated in the mountains at an elevation of 6,225 ft. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_tahoe
Lake Tahoe and Heavenly are in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Nevada_%28US%29), which also includes Yosemite National Park to the south.
Before ending work on Friday, I went on Priceline and booked an SUV at the Oakland Airport. After work, I took BART, and then AirBart, and then the rental car shuttle... over an hour in transit... and after such a long day already, way too much chocolate from the Ferry Building, and the long time in transit, I felt out of sorts and bordline ill as I waited in the Hertz line.
However, the guy at the counter was great. He asked where
I was going and when I told him he brightened up because he had been out to Heavenly earlier in the week. He asked if I was driving up that night and I said "Yeah". He said "Awesome." That lifted my spirits a bit. The vehicle -- a 4WD Nissan Xterra. 😊 I think I'm now satisfying what little cravings I have for a new car by driving all of these rentals (it does cost a lot less, to be sure).
On the way up I stopped at one of the numerous Target stores lining Hwy 80 and bought some insulated underwear, snowboarding gloves, a hat, wool socks, bottled water, other essentials, and the recently released U218 Singles CD.
Along the way I called various people but, most importantly, got to talk to Shawn (one of my brothers-in-law) for about an hour. We haven't had a chance to talk much lately and it was good to catch up. We have a lot to look forward to this month.
After the 3.5 hour drive (excluding the 1 hour Target visit) I arrived at the Holiday Inn Express in South Lake Tahoe around 1 AM and began preparing for
Another dead tree
Something intriguing about them, though. the next day until finally heading to bed around 3 AM.
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In the morning I got out of bed and read a quick 10-step list on the Internet on how to snowboard. Not really a bad idea... whether someone takes lessons or not, I've heard the first day is going to be painful... and I did get banged up.
To get going I spent over an hour getting everything rented and waiting in line for the lift ticket. Heavenly was packed with people. And only four or five of the lifts were open. I hopped on the gondola and took the probably 15 minute ride to one of the main ski areas.
One of the most amazing things about Heavenly is the view... it has a very clear view of Lake Tahoe. I've been out to Squaw Valley a few times and it is more at a distance (still a good view and a wonderful ski resort).
I started out learning to "skate" with my snowboard on flat ground (this is where the front foot is clipped or strapped in and the back foot pushes the board along). Then I tried going down a
gentle slope to simulate hopping off of a lift. After that, I took a lift up to a moderately difficult (i.e. non-beginner) run. Not the best choice, but I didn't see any bunny slopes around.
Snowboarding was much, much more difficult than I had thought it would be. It is somewhat like surfing, but lots of different challenges. Initially, I had trouble simple standing up on the board. Then I had trouble keeping the correct edge of the board up (when the edge facing downhill digs in a little bit... you can imagine). Another challenge in learning was that the runs were very crowded... more than I've ever had to deal with before the times I've gone skiing (I missed Engelberg in the Swiss Alps last April where I had massive runs virtually to myself with fresh powder).
I fell lots and lots of times. It hurt... sometimes a lot on the packed snow. But by the end of the day I was getting the hang of it to where I would only fall once or twice down a run. I learned to control the board a lot better with my ankles/feet (which I think aren't used as
Going up the Gondola
I think this gondola goes from around 6500' to about 9500'... at any rate, there was about a 20 degree drop in temperature. extensively in skiing).
And, actually, it is pretty cool when I'm not falling... especially the way you can just slide down the hill and stop and go with ease. It was a different kind of control than skiing... a different way/feeling of moving about.
After starting to hurt bad enough and getting exhausted, I called it a day and took the gondola back down the mountain.
That night I washed my clothes and then hit the sack around 9 PM and slept 12 hours. 😊
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The next day I thought about it and decided not to go back up. I was very sore and had a headache. The headache was, I think, partially due to the altitude, but also because of the beating I took snowboarding. This was the most banged up I have been in awhile, and I didn't think it wise to push it further.
The main lesson I learned on this trip is to never, ever, go skiing/snowboarding in the early season (or really, before the holidays). The snow is not as good, the crowds are larger, and it costs about the same or more than in March/April.
At
any rate, the great thing about not going up again was that I got to drive back in the daylight and see more of the beautiful mountain terrain. I also had time to stop in Napa to visit Aunt Nancy, Aunt AG, Cousin Celeste, and Bob. We all went out to a good Chinese restaurant for dinner.
After that I drove back to Oakland, dropped off the car, and took a cab this time back to San Francisco. 😊
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Celeste J.
non-member comment
WOW!!
That's really cool! I am sad that I missed the snow in Columbia too, but it sounds like your weekend was about twenty times more exciting than mine!