Advertisement
Published: June 15th 2009
We traveled to Lake Tahoe for what we thought would be a great weekend of skiing.
We arrived in South Lake Tahoe around 10 am from a long and early start to the morning from the Bay area. Plus it did not help that we were out late the night before - living it up like we were still in our early 20's.
The weather forecast all week predicted snow / rain but mostly a snow mix for the weekend and I was quite excited for my first taste and what would probably be several falls on the Western ski slopes. After arriving in South Lake, it was raining and ~55 degrees farenheit - way to warm for snow to start. So instead of experiencing my first skiing trip on the slush and rain, we decided to head to get lunch and a few drinks.
We went to the Applebees on the "strip" largely because it was so close to our hotel and we could walk back if we had too much to drink while it was raining out. After arriving at the restaurant, it was a single girls' dream...tons of attractive, single men sitting at a bar
watching the NCAA tournament and we were the only two in the entire restaurant of over 20 guys!
We barely had our coats off and our first of many drinks were sent to our table. By the end of "lunch" we had 4 rounds sent to us. I would mention the truth about how many rounds were really sent to us, but my mom is probably gonna read this one day! So, I'll stick with 4. We did not have to pay for anything. This was even better than skiing and probably falling every couple of hundred feet. After a few hours, we walked / stumbled back to the hotel for an afternoon of recovering.
The afternoon lead to evening and we were soon to find that the weather was changing over to sleet. By midnight it was slushy snow and we headed to bed after trying our luck at one of the many casinos in Nevada. We could see the Nevada line from our hotel room.
We woke up early on Sunday morning expecting to head back to the Bay area to find a winter wonderland. It was so incredibly beautiful with the snow, but then
realizing I did not pack snow boots, how was I gonna leave the hotel room? I managed because it was time to ski!
Heavenly Ski resort is at the base of South Lake Tahoe with numerous trails and what seemed like never an end to a new trail to explore. It had been a LONG time since I skiied on real snow and a real mountain so I was a little nervous. After the first bunny hill, I remembered all the years I went skiing with friends and was the daredevil with no fear. Unfortunatly, those days are past when I don't have responsibilities. Damn!
Skiing on fresh powder is amazing. I have skiied on the East coast of the US and the West coast is much better. Or at least it was after fresh powder. The storm dumped over two feet at the base of the mountain and they were predicting more at the higher elevations (ie, where we were going to be skiing). The snow on the trees was so beautiful and the powder was unreal. I would ski over to an area on the trail that looked untouched and it was just surreal to be
Sunda morning #2
I think one of those is our car...the first one to touch the fresh powder. The snow does not give too much, but it is more a feeling that you are the first one to touch this.
Skiing is like riding a bike, you never forget how to do it. It took me a quarter of one run to remember what I was doing to get the hang of it. We skiied from 10:30 till at least 1pm before heading to one of the many lodges to replenish our system.
The lodge was packed and rightfully so, it was amazing skiing and you need to get some carbs to refuel your body. We shared a table with a nice couple vacationing in the US from Scotland. They were in their early 50's and it seemed like they have skiied all over the world after talking to them. They mentioned that skiing at Heavenly on this day was the best they ever skiied in the 20 years of skiing. Hopefully one day, I will have the opportunity to take 6 weeks off to explore the best skiing of the season!
By the end of the day, 4pm, I was exhausted. We counted up the number
of runs we think we made and it came to over 25 in less than 6 hours (with a break). We decided to pack it in and head back to the Bay area since we had a several hour drive back and countless hours in the traffic.
While sitting in the car, I started to feel the muscles that I hardly ever use. My sister informed me that it was NOT the muscles that I don't use, it was the fact that I am old and I can't tear down the mountain like I used to with out any aches. For the next three days, I limped around and felt like a car just hit me. I was so sore, but it was all worth it for the memories and great skiing that Heavenly provided to me. Thank you!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.047s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.021s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
