Epic

January 23, 2010

I've taken a bigger role at work, so it's looking like the work travel levels will maintain and I will not spend as much time in Tahoe this snow season as I hoped to....so I figured it would be in the best interest of my sanity to take a day off and head to the mountains!

On Thursday, Will, Ashley, Paul and I made the trek to our new ski cabin lease in Truckee (made in under 4 hours during a snowstorm...sweet!). The cabin is great, with new folks to get to know as well. The snow was coming down, so it was looking to be a great ski day on Friday...

On Friday morning, we headed to Squaw Valley in time for the 9 AM first chair. It was a weekday, but it was busy, with lots of locals taking advantage of the snow storm and powder conditions.

The Squaw patrol was doing avalanche control around the mountain, so not all chairs were open. So, there's nothing better than starting your day with a first run of the season on KT-22, right? (Note: KT-22 is considered to be an "expert lift" and services all black steep chutes). Turns out it was as great idea because there was so much snow, I needed the steep pitch to make sure I didn't get stuck on my board.

For the first time in years, I skiied a pretty cold and long day on the hill (gotta get my money's worth for my pass!). We toured as much of the mountain as possible, hitting new lifts as soon as they opened. The snow was insane, best powder I've skiied in Tahoe. It...was...awesome.
We did a little apres-ski at Le Chamois, and then headed back to the cabin for a mellow night of chit-chat and pasta.

Will and I had to get back to SF by Saturday early evening, so we hit Squaw early on Saturday morning for breakfast so we could be on the hill with first chair again and try to avoid the traffic. We hit the hill hard, heading up the mountain and getting to some great snow on Shirley's. Paul and I did 8-9 laps of Shirley's before heading back to the front side to take Broken Arrow back to the village.





I wished I could stay, but it was an awesome 1.5 days on the hill. We headed back to SF and made the trek from Truckee in 3 hours (love being against traffic!).

I heart Squaw! And the pow!