Killebrew, Fire Break, Altitude...Oh My!

March 20, 2006

It's been a typical dreary, rainy, tired San Francisco Monday...my body is officially on strike after a sweet and spectacular weekend in the mountains and on the dancefloor.

This is a long blogspot, it was a big weekend, and it probably won't even be posted until tomorrow, but here goes...

FRIDAY

On Friday, I left work a little early to tackle the Bay Bridge traffic to meet up with Jojo in Emeryville and catch a ride to Tahoe. We finally hit the road around 6 pm and made good time. On the way, Wendy and company called us to rave about a little place in Placerville called Z-pie, a restaurant that serves up gourmet pot pies. So, Jojo and I stopped and grabbed some grub.

Pot pie choices:
Bea - Steak & Cabernet pot pie
Jojo- Steak Fajita pot pie

Z-pie in Placerville, just off Hwy 50

These pies were absolutely delicious, the crust was to die for, and not surprisingly, very filling. In case you're interested, they also have an online store where they can ship you frozen pies.

Anyway, back on the road, we made it to South Lake Tahoe in the standard 3.5 hours. The cabin was in full drinking-game mode, playing a sweet game with cards called "Kings".

After a couple rousing rounds of Kings, we rolled into a big van taxi and headed over to McP's for a St. Paddy's day drink.

Wendy in festive regalia



As uneventful as the night was at McP's, things were very exciting back at the cabin. Jackie, Javier and Gail had arrived at the cabin to find a couple new cabin members hanging out, namely mice. There was one mice that was transfixed by the TV long enough to be ushered outside into the freezing cold. And the other mice that shot out from under the couch and escaped any sort of demise. These events did not bode well for my ridiculous allergies.

(Aside: Two years ago, our house in SF was infested by a colony of mice that took us 3 months and a lot of traps and poison to clear out. I was already mildly allergic to these little rodents, but the infestation primed my immune system and my allergy tests last fall confirmed that I'm allergic to EVERYTHING in the environment. I am officially starting allergy starts this week...oy...)

I had offered my ski boots to Gail to try them and see if she could use my gear, and was surprised to find that one of the little mice had been storing nuts in my ski boot liner. Not surprisingly, my eyes quickly became red and damn itchy...oh dear...

SATURDAY

So, a couple prescription Allegra and very few hours of restful sleep later, I got up and got ready to head to the mountain. Nothing motivates you to get out of the cabin more than not being able to breathe right. I was also very excited to go boarding again with the gang, and Jojo and I had decided to finally head over to Killebrew Canyon at Heavenly and try it out.

We parked on the California side and took a couple of runs on the Canyon Express to meet up with almost everyone (Me, Wendy, Jojo, Chevy, Ashley, Shaun, Jackie, Javier, Gail, Pete). On the traverse over to the Nevada side, there's a spot where you can stop, take off your board, hike up over a small mountainous face in less than 10 minutes, and end up at the very top of the Milky Way bowl, the maximum vertical that you can get at Heavenly. The snow was, well...heavenly...and there were still fresh tracks to be had. From Milky Way bowl, we headed over to the Killebrew gates.



Shaun, deciding if he wants to risk his life in Killebrew

The distant view of the Nevada plains from part-way down Killebrew Canyon

Chevy took Jojo, Shaun, Jackie and I down a run called the Stateline in Killebrew, and the snow was fantastic. The downside of Killebrew, especially if you're on a snowboard, is that you need to make sure that you catch one of the trails heading back around the canyon to get back over to Mott Canyon, as there is no lift that services Killebrew. Unfortunately, I took a pretty tremendous bail trying get enough speed to catch the trail and had a magnificent faceplant-whiplash-skid-on-my-face crash. Jackie crashed after me despite clearing me as a roadblock. So, we hiked part of the trail before heading back to Mott. All in all, very worthwhile to try Killebrew, but it took a lot of energy out of me. I should go back and try it on skis...

We did a few laps of Mott Canyon, where we ran into Wendy and Ashley, who had lost Pete Rive when they headed into backcountry (Fullstone) and were full of anxiety over the fact that he was probably hiking out of the Nevada plains to Gardnerville. A quick phone call on my cell confirmed that Pete had failed to heed Wendy's advice about when to head back skier-left to Mott Canyon and ended up fully lost and far far away from Heavenly. Luckily, there were some other folks skiing backcountry and intentially had left vehicular transport at that location and drove him back to the Nevada side of Heavenly. Pete must've done something nice to deserve that kind of karma...

We met up with the rest of the crew at East Peak Lodge for a late lunch, where we were all entertained with another mouse story, this time by Joe. At the cabin, Joe was deciding whether to wear his gloves or mitts when four baby mice fell out of his mitts and onto his feet and the floor. Easy choice: gloves, it is!

The itinerary after lunch was to head up to the top of Olympic chair on the Nevada side, where there is a backcountry gate that leads you down the "Fire Break" gondola run. It's a super long, consistently steep run that if you do it right, spits you out at the Nevada gondola.

Wendy and Chevy had done this run a couple times and we were lucky to have them as our guides. The top 2/3 of the run is the best snow that you can imagine and the perfect pitch. We had a blast charging this run. The bottom third is relatively sketchy, as you navigate through the burnt out trees, boulders, streams, and random tree branches and stumps to get to the road. From there, it's a short walk to the gondola, where you ride back up the mountain for some more.


The distant view of South Lake Tahoe, from the top part of Fire Break





A Bacardi rum truck on the way to the gondola


On the gondola heading back up the mountain:







After getting back to the top, we took Maggie's through the glades to the California side and the Gunbarrel trees down to the California base. My body had taken a thorough thrashing with the day's activities, but it was phenomenal boarding.

Back at the cabin, there was some hot-tubbing, napping, girl-talk, Thai-food consumption, and a mini-euchre tournament. Will and I managed to beat Jackie and Shaun two games to one, so that was fun for me! And then Shaun and Will slaughtered me and Jackie in one game, so that was good enough for the night.

A few of us (JonZ, Pete, Wendy, Gail, Shaun and I) headed back to McP's to meet up with a friend of JonZ's. Karim and a bunch of his buddy's buddies (who were in from out of town) met up with us and we all headed over to Harvey's. Shaun Webb tackled the poker tables while the rest of us went to Cabo Wabo. Shortly thereafter, JonZ, Pete and Gail head back to the cabin, so Wendy and I stuck around with Karim and his buddies and went dancing at Altitude in Harrah's.



Karim's buddy's buddies

Around 3:30 am, Wendy and I get a ride back to our cabin from Karim and his buddies and all we can say is "Wha' Happened"?

SUNDAY

Will, JonZ and Pete woke up really early on Sunday morning to get a full day in at Kirkwood, so I may have only received about 3.5 hours of restless sleep...oh dear...

The rest of us rallied and headed to the mountain by 10 am, where we tackled the Milky Way hike, Mott Canyon, and Fire Break again. The skies were bluebird and the day was fantastic, other than my lingering hangover, full-body exhaustion, and minor whiplash.









Shaun and his harem of women


Wendy, Jojo, Gail and I hit the road back to SF by 4 pm, so that Wendy could get back for her hockey game. We made pretty good time back to the city, minus the pit-stop in Placerville for some more Z-pie.



This may have been my best weekend of boarding...ever. The snow was fun, the crew was super-fun, and I finally got to try out all the areas that I had heard of but had never been to before. Thanks to everyone for such a great time (well, minus the mice, those little critters are never a good time)!