Hooked on Heavenly

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We arrived in San Francisco to be met by Jason, Sarah and Dave who had flown out from the UK. It was great to meet some people we knew and have some friendly faces. We picked up our 10 seater Ford gas-guzzler - also lovingly known as the 'Fun Bus' and made the three hour journey from San Fran to Heavenly. Luckily most of the snow had been cleared and it was not too icy - the last part of the journey was a bit nervy as it was pitch black and the road was twisting and turning. Mark turned up about 11pm and was luckily let in by Dave who heard him knocking on the door - the rest of us were fast asleep downstairs, thinking he was going to be arriving tomorrow.

The condo was in the most amazing position across from the Heavenly California lodge so it was really easy for everyone to do their own thing - starting and stopping skiing when they felt like it. The house was amazing and really well equipped - thoroughly recommended if you want to spend some time at the resort.

We all had a great 10 days skiing at Heavenly - the weather was fairly cold at about -20 Celcius (we went from about +30 on the Cooks so the first few days were freezing!). Unfortunately the snow cover is not as good this year as it has been in the past and a lot of the bowls and tree lined skiing were not available, but Jason and myself did managed to ski the Mott Canyon which was fairly steep and after skiing blues all week felt pretty extreme.

Beck unfortunately picked up Giardia along the way and for the last few days of skiing was not feeling well at all, emitting noxious rumblings from time to time! It's a really nasty bug and has taken a good couple of weeks for her to sort out.

A big thanks also has to go out to Simon for coming over from Beaver Creek. They look to be having an amazing season out there this year - a shame we did not decide to join him there - hey ho, maybe next year!

The most amazing skiing of the whole trip was probably during the last morning we were there. Managed to sneak in a couple of hours before we had to leave for the airport. The slopes were empty and the pistes were freshly goomed and the weather was really sunny and nice. Paul skied down "The Face" as the final run - which the snow cannons had been running on during the night and it was just an amazing powder filled steep run which was a great way to end the trip!

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