Wow, what a weekend. Well, really it was a weekend+ because the ball got rolling on Thursday night at dinner. The BF and I were talking about our plans, our ride to the mountains, the incoming storm, etc, and we realize that our best bet for getting to Tahoe in a timely fashion was to leave early-ish on Friday. This causes me to text my boss at 8:30 pm (fueled by a few glasses of wine) if it was ok if I worked from "home/the road" on Friday. Because he's cool, he responds "ok by me," and the weekend was put in motion.
Our departure on Friday morning was a bit postponed due to highway 80's closure...yes, lots and lots of snow. We finally got up there about 5:30 that evening after being thoroughly entertained by the BF's roommate's (henceforth known as Matt) in-car DVD player (btw, Ironman is a fun flick). Matt drops us off in Squaw Valley at a friend of the BF's house...and this house is pretty much a perfect ski bum stereotype. It was built in 1959. There are two loudly barking dogs. The heat doesn't work, so the house is kept warm by a wood burning fireplace. A maid hasn't set foot in the place in years. Ski/snowboard equipment covers every surface. All of the guys who live there work on the mountain. And, of course, Michael Phelps would have been veeeeery happy there. Yep, he would have fit right in with those guys. So, after getting hooked up with free demo boards and grabbing some dinner, we settle into the living room on our air mattress and fall asleep to the sound of the Simpsons.
The next morning arrives with the sound of ski boots and cereal boxes, as the ski bums prepare for work. The BF and I arise a bit more slowly, make some cream of wheat, don our snowboarding gear, and head for Squaw. We have to make our first stop at the high camp demo shop because one of the ski bums forgot something, and we were assigned the task of bringing it to him. We score a free board wax out of our errand, and then set off down the mountain run to knock the rust off our snowboarding boots. By the time we've made it back up to the top, they've opened most of the back side of the mountain, so we head (without maps or a decent knowledge of the slopes) after the crowd like blind lemmings. Next thing you know, we are both buried up to our helmets in 3 ft of virgin powder. Yep, somehow, on our second run in a year, I have led us into "experts only" territory. Given, this would have been a frickin' blast if I'd had about 2 more runs on which to warm up, but unfortunately, it was trial by fire on Saturday morning. Both the BF and I worked up QUITE a sweat digging our way down that run, but that didn't stop us from doing it again...and again...and again. Yep, the Solitude lift saw quite a bit of us that morning.
We stopped for lunch/a water break and then made an aborted attempt to catch up with some friends. The rest of the day consisted of laps on KT, while we continued to hone our powder skills. At Le Chamois for apres-ski, we finally catch up with all our buddies and warm our frozen hands with bud lights and hot sake. We also find out that there is a bunch of room Matt's house, and as much fun as air mattresses are, we decide to change up our sleeping arrangements. After picking up our gear from the ski bum house, we have time for a hot tub, shower, and quick nap at the new house before six of us go to Jake's on the Lake in Tahoe City for a Valentine's Day triple date. Lobster and steak are great ways to celebrate the overly commercialized holiday, but speaking from experience, drinking lots of red wine at altitude causes a bit of pain the next morning. I'd definitely do it again though.
We wake up Sunday morning to a full-on blizzard...A) everyone decides that skiing today is a bad idea, and B) everyone decides that going home today is a bad idea. Therefore, because I am one of the 3 people in Tahoe that is supposed to work on Monday, I am put in the "unfortunate" position of breaking the news to my boss and co-worker that I won't be making it into the office. Once that unpleasantness was finished, our entire house pours out into the snow for an epic sledding session followed by a brutal snowball fight. In addition, Matt's girlfriend has a 4 month old husky puppy, and there is nothing cuter than watching a husky pup frolic in the snow. We wear ourselves out with awesomely childish antics (pictures will be added later, promise), and then everyone else settles in to watch a movie/the snowfall, while I set up my computer and try to do all the work that I need to get done by Monday. It's amazing how productive one can be when 2 ft of new snow awaits them.
We're all up early on Monday morning, and the boys head straight to the KT lift, while I send out a slew of emails from Starbucks. Obvs, I couldn't be so irresponsible as to not tie up all my loose ends before hitting the slopes. Once that's done, I stash my terrible laptop in a locker and head out into the storm of powder-covered awesomeness. I could write a novel about how much fun Monday was...so much new snow, untracked bowls, sick tree runs...the list just goes on. I'm not even that great of a snowboarder, but I still had a blast and definitely worked on my boarding skills trying to keep up with the boys. It snowed pretty hard the entire time, so white out conditions definitely played a part in upping the "adventure factor" especially on some of the high ridges. Dropping off catwalks over ledges into thigh-deep powder and then cutting fresh tracks across deserted bowls = pretty amazing. We skipped lunch and rode the entire day, finally calling it quits around 2:30ish. Best snow day of my life, period.
You'd think the adventure would have ended once we left Squaw, but the ride home was pretty intense as well. The blizzard moved in full-force, and 80 was closed. We had to take a super secret way through Donner Pass (if I told you, I'd have to kill you) with blowing snow and other craziness all around us. I'll give it to Matt. He has nerves of steel. Five and a half hours later we pull up in front of the house...happy and exhausted. Taking snow days is never a mistake.
Let's do it again next weekend?
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