January 23, 2008

Sorry for the time between posts. We took a short trip to Lake Tahoe. It turns out that it is impossible for me to take a trip to the lower 48 without catching some strange disease. In a way, I was glad that Kris caught it too. I was wondering if there was something wrong with my immune system as she seems to not get sick on these trips. At least this disease was strong enough to get her too. I am almost feeling human again.

Lake Tahoe was fun. We met Rich and Jim and Joyce for a four day weekend. We rented a condo near the north end of the lake in Incline Village. We skied on Friday at Squaw Valley. We were getting excited as we rode the first lift. We saw lots of lightly tracked snow all over the mountain. We quickly found out that it looked smooth and soft, but it was really frozen in place, covered with a touch of rain overnight. The groomed runs were very nice, but the ungroomed was pure hell. We kept trying, hoping the sun and warm weather would soften things up. It didn’t happen, but we had fun exploring a large ski resort again.

On Saturday, we went to a smaller place to avoid the weekend crowds. Homewood is an undiscovered gem of a place. We again had crappy conditions off the groomed snow. This was particularly frustrating since the trees and terrain looked like a spectacular playground. I kept watching the late afternoon sun bake down in a back area and finally decided to take a chance. It was a narrow window of opportunity as the whole mountain froze into a block of ice as soon as the sun fell behind the ridgeline, but for two spectacular runs, we had soft snow in widely spaced trees. We were tree skiing again, something we really don’t get to do up here.

Sunday was the best day. We skied with Jim all day at Mt. Rose. The conditions were nice, probably due to their higher elevation. We tried their double diamond chutes and found it to be early season conditions. What this means is that the entry to the chutes, which are really just steep narrow gullies, were as much rock as snow. It was the most challenging skiing I have ever done. I hit a couple rocks, but managed to avoid most of them. Once we got into the chutes a few turns, things widened out and filled in so it was just steep terrain.

The best part of the mountain, though, was the trees. We hiked over a ridge to some great windblown snow tucked in the trees. Near the ridgeline, the snow drifts were large and varied, looking like aliens or goblins mixed in with the trees. The run was short, but we did manage to find a few other pockets of nice snow hidden in the trees to either side of the intermediate runs that crisscrossed the back side of the mountain. One stretch of snow took us 3 trips to find. When we finally found it, we were rewarded with about 10 turns in soft untracked snow. By this point I was starting to get sick and could feel the fatigue building quickly. We didn’t make it to the last chair, but it was close.

I wasn’t feeling well at all on Monday and nothing seemed to be going right. The web site for Northstar indicated single digit temperatures so we bundled up and headed up the road. We drove all the way in to the resort just to see why we would choose free parking so far away. They had a pay lot in close, but it was $30 per day. Apparently the real estate is so valuable that they couldn’t hold any back for parking. So we reluctantly headed to the free lot, accepting the fate of having to take a bus ride. In the ten minutes we spent getting our boots on, no buses arrived. By the time we were ready, several bus loads of people were standing there in the lot. One bus showed up and quickly filled. We decided to hike. It was a long walk in the warm sun. Once we got into the village area, we followed the signs for the lifts and tickets, only to find that the ticket window was closed, probably one they only use on weekends. I had to walk back a few hundred feet to another ticket window area and wait in line. I was really irritated. When we got up the mountain and I realized that it was no where near single digit temperatures, I was ready to scream. We checked the map and decided to dump some layers in a locker at the top of the mountain. Their map was wrong. There are no lockers at the top of the mountain. I ended up skiing with my pockets stuffed with extra layers. I was not happy to be at Northstar. Their greedy development has not been matched by customer service.

The skiing wasn’t bad. The mountain is a great place for intermediates with long cruising runs from top to bottom. The ungroomed snow was mostly unbearable lumpy ice, but we spent most of the day skiing groomers with Joyce and Rich. I was feeling bad anyway. At the end of the day, Jim, Kris and I broke away for a few expert runs. We were ready to call it quits when we all noticed the nice bumps under the lift we were riding. We decided to take the bump run, the best run of the day. It was one of the longest bump runs I have ever skied. The combination of exhaustion, sickness, and wicked bumps was a real challenge. It was great fun, although I am sure I didn’t look like I was having fun since I was ready to collapse every time we stopped for a breather.

The return trip was miserable. I could barely get out of bed on Tuesday. We got to Reno a couple hours ahead of our flight so we stopped at a casino for breakfast. I could barely eat. Even worse, I could barely gamble. The flight from Reno to Seattle was OK, but the descent almost crushed my inner ears. Then we had our mandatory technical difficulties on the last leg. The plane was overweight so they offered free tickets for volunteers. Then we had to wait for a pilot. Finally, we taxied, only to return with an engine problem. We were about an hour and a half late. Our reasonable arrival at home turned into a late night.

I managed to go to work the rest of the week, but life was complicated by tons of forms and a drug test for my new job. Kris was starting to get sick as well, so we just wanted to slug each night. Kris even left work early on Friday. I think I have completed all the forms now so I am just waiting for the background checks to be completed before giving my two weeks notice at my current job. It is difficult to maintain efforts at planning when you don’t plan to be around long.

Now this was another long weekend with the state holiday for MLK day. I skied for a couple hours on Saturday at Alpenglow. Kris wasn’t feeling well so I went by myself. The snow was nice, but there was an icy crust underneath that knocked me down on the first run. I made a half dozen runs and returned home to make chicken soup. We watched the football games on Sunday. We took a couple hour drive along the Knik River on Monday, but it was mostly a grey and wet day.

With the holiday, the vacation, and the year end holidays, I haven’t worked a full week since mid-December.