Our trip to ski at Lake Tahoe went fairly well. We had good snow with some wind thrown in for good measure. There were a few hassles dealing with the management at the Forest Inn Suites and with the buses going to the resorts. We didn't have any serious injuries, only some banged up ribs (Earl Tiedt) and bruised elbow (Teena Still). Some other people also picked up bruises, etc. but nothing too bad. A couple of people got sick, including our trip leader. As far as the gambling went, several of our group came out ahead several hundred bucks. I lost about $25. The biggest money loser dropped about $300. Overall, our group won more than lost. One man in our group had his wallet pickpocketed. The casinos were fairly crowded at times and way too smoky for me. I came away with a nice head cold as a result.

The first two days we skied at Heavenly. The run where Sonny Bono died was actually a fairly tame intermediate trail. According to a ski patroller, he broke his neck and died instantly. They found him about 6 hours later in a tree well. The trees where he had been skiing were not difficult and were very widely spaced. The lift lines were tolerable and most of the out of control maniacs were people in our group (well, at least one of them was). The views of the lake were outstanding. The second day the wind came and shut down the top lifts for most of the day. Wind gusts were over 60 mph. At about noon they opened the Sky Express lift to the top, allowing access to the Nevada side. The people I had been skiing with decided to take a lunch break then so I went over and skied Mott's Canyon (a double black area) by myself. I stayed within sight of the lift to be safe and had to pass on the other, more dangerous runs since I was alone. As it turned out the top lift on the Nevada side was shut down all day so I would've had to work my way back to the California side to get back up there.

On Wednesday, we took the Tahoe Queen paddleboat across the lake to ski at Squaw Valley. The weather was perfect (40 degrees, clear skies, no wind). The views around the lake were awesome. We hit the lifts at about 10:45 and I skied until the lifts closed. Squaw is now one of my favorite mountains. They had lots of runs there that I didn't even consider skiing due to their difficulty. The boat ride back was a lot of fun. We ate supper and then partied and danced to the live band. The next day four of us took the bus back to Squaw. It picked us up on time but the dispatcher had overbooked it and we didn't get on the lifts until after 10:30. It was a little windy up top and was snowing with some fog thrown in for good measure. The top part of the mountain was near whiteout conditions, although it didn't seem to bother the locals. After a couple of runs, my ski partners bailed out and headed for the bar/cafe to get warmed up. I did 6 or 7 runs in the Granite Chief area and had a blast. After that I hooked up with my friends and we headed over to the Squaw Creek section, which was more sheltered. I got in some great powder runs towards the end of the day after Caren Caffrey, Bob Seeley, and Brent Langford had headed for the bar. My last lift ride at 4:00 was not fun. I got stuck on a little double chair in the wind that was barely running at half speed due to the wind. It was still a great day, although my partners didn't think so. Of course, you rarely get good snow in the bar or cafeteria.

On Thursday we were scheduled to go to Kirkwood. We awoke to reports of 2 feet of fresh snow and the skies were blue towards Kirkwood. The regular bus shuttle left on time at 7:30, but we were supposed ot have a special bus just for our group. We never did get a straight story from the Kirkwood people, despite Bob's best efforts. As far as I know, someone at Kirkwood cancelled our bus without telling us. At about 8:30 all of us had decided to bail out and go ski Heavenly. Naturally, the 8:30 bus to Heavenly was late and didn't show up until after 9:30. At about that time the Kirkwood shuttle arrived. The driver said they hadn't been notified by Kirkwood until 8:30. He gave us a ride to Heavenly since the other bus was almost full. We were also told that the road to Kirkwood had been closed. When I asked the other Kirkwood bus driver the next day he said the first bus had made it through. I was in full grump mode and tried my best to avoid talking to people so as not to spread my horrendous mood. There are few things more frustrating while on a ski trip than having a potentially epic blue sky powder day in front of you and being stuck in the lobby waiting for a bus. I was most unhappy. We didn't get on the lifts at Heavenly until 10:30, thanks to a monstrous lift line and only the tram and a triple chair running. It was still our best ski day with almost 2 feet of fresh powder, even though it was of the Sierra Cement variety. We ended up doing tree runs in knee to thigh deep snow for several hours. In the afternoon, Bob, Caren, and I headed into Mott's Canyon for three runs. The first two times that Bob fell and dropped a ski I was uphill and was able to help him dig around and find it. The third time I was well below them and couldn't help. By the time I got down to the lift they had already roped off the entrance gates. At about 4:00 I talked to the ski patroller who had swept that area. He said he hadn't seen anybody. After my last run (a great powder run through steep trees under a lift that wasn't working) I went down to the bus and found Bob and Caren with only three skis between them. His lost ski (new for this year) probably won't be found until the snow starts to melt in a month or two.

Our last day we took the regular shuttle bus over to Kirkwood. It took a while to get there. The weather was great and the snow was soft. There were a lot of other people there as well. Sections of the mountain got crowded at times. I skied with the group (aka "The Wild Bunch") until they stopped for lunch. I kept skiing and had some fantastic runs. I never did get up the nerve to drop off the cornice at the top of the wall off of the Wagon Wheel lift. One slip and you'd go for a very long ride. I did ski some fairly steep stuff and had a great, but tiring, day.

We met in the lobby at 6:15AM on Sunday to catch the bus to Reno. Our flights to San Francisco and on to Houston were on time and uneventful.

All in all, it was a good week with great skiing and more than a few hassles. I seriously doubt that we'll ever go back to the Forest Inn Suites. The buses were unreliable, for the most part, as well. Next time I'll have to learn how to play Blackjack better before I go. :)

Only 12 days until I go skiing at Lake Louise! Think SNOW!!!