actually enjoying moguls

I learned to ski when I was about ten years old. By high school I was fine with all blue runs and the occasional black run. After college (when I didn't ski much) I became comfortable with flat black runs and the occasional double black, but I still did horribly with moguls and with ungroomed powder.

I don't know what happened, but last weekend at Northstar, it was like a switch flipped, and I all of a sudden decided that mogul runs were fun. A friend of mine had rented a ski-in ski-out condo for a few weeks (so awesome!) and a bunch of us were crashing with him for the weekend. One person (who had noticeably better technique than me) would often suggest mogul runs, while another (not quite as good technique-wise but with no fear whatsoever) would always agree to them. Somehow this setup was conducive to me agreeing to try several light mogul runs. The Rapids (down the lift line on Backside) proved to be too long for me, and I cut out to Lower Burnout, but I quite enjoyed Jiboom and the bumpier parts of the Plunge. In fact, it was me who suggested a repeat of Jiboom as the last run of the day on Sunday afternoon. Fun!

summertime at lake tahoe

I'm usually too busy skiing to pay attention to the scenery when I'm at Lake Tahoe, but over Labor Day, I was in the Tahoe/Reno area, and it was gorgeous.

view of Lake Tahoe from around King's Beach:


by Spooner Lake:


Emerald Bay:


at Squaw Valley:

one day ski trip

There was a lot of snow in Tahoe early last week, plus the weather forecast for the weekend was clear, so I decided I wanted to go skiing. Since Friday and Saturday were already booked up, the only option was a one day trip on Sunday. I polled for interest and got four solid yesses (all girls this time, go figure), so it was a go.

I've done the day trip lots of times before, starting in my middle school ski bus days. The ideal schedule:
4:00am wake up
5:00am assemble at departure location
5:30am start driving to Tahoe
8:30am arrive at ski resort and gear up
9:00am hit the slopes
4:30pm meet up at lodge, snack & change
5:00pm start driving home
7:30pm grab dinner around Sacramento (depends on traffic)
10:30pm arrive back in Bay Area

Sounds perfectly reasonable, right? And, everything went off without a hitch. The snow was great (Northstar, mostly backside), we took our last run just as my legs were about to give out (sign of a good ski day), I ate a Euro Snack Belgian waffle for the first time (totally worth the four dollars), and we had a yummy dinner at Claim Jumper in Roseville. We got home somewhere between 10:30pm and 11:00pm, and I was in bed by midnight. The only downside is, in another sign of impending oldness, I'm really not all that awake today.

gone skiing

So after two days of staying up until 3am, I actually managed to wake up at 4am on the third day, to get on a bus to Tahoe. We hit the slopes at Squaw Valley at around 10am, took an hour long break for lunch, and then skied right up until the lifts closed at 4:30pm, for over five hours of solid skiing.

Until this week, I hadn't been up yet, since I'd been hearing such horrible things about the snow this year. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised. There were definitely some very bare and/or rough spots (the top of Emigrant, except a narrow stripe in the middle, and most of Solitude was horrible) but there was good skiing to be had on Shirley Lake, Red Dog, and a few other places.

Every year, I always think that I forget how to ski, but then when I get out there, I realize that not only do I remember how to do it, in fact I quite enjoy it.