2/14/09

Day 28

Conditions: Snowgasmic: 6-10 inches overnight, More than a foot in the past 24 hours.
Location: Heavenly, CA/NV

After traveling yesterday and getting five, hearty hours of sleep, we woke up to fresh snow. We were expecting heavy crowds for the holiday weekend, but for some reason there were only a few people on the mountain.

We started off on Sky Express Lift riding the Sky Ways glades. It was powder turn after powder turn, floating through the champagne snow. There is no flow experience like snowboarding in powder. Everything else dissolves; the only important thing is this turn, right now. (And maybe the next, if you’re looking ahead like you should be.)


Powder=flow

We found great snow all morning, and finally went in for lunch around one. After lunch, we took a few runs. Then the fun began.

We went through a gate. On a ski hill, a gate means that you are doing something extreme. We go through gates all the time, so – truth be told – we didn’t exactly read this one. I do remember that it was red and had a skull and crossbones on it. The sign included a bunch of warnings with the phrase “you can die” in bold letters at the end. Like I said, no big deal.

As soon as we entered the gate we noticed something: there were no tracks in this run. We were thrilled. We busted down about 1,000 feet having the time of our lives. The snow was like silk, and there was no sign anyone had found this place before. It was like a dream, and we started to worry. But, what was the worst that could happen? Probably we would have to hike out or something.


The run of our lives, in more ways than one

We continued on, literally having the best run ever. It was turn after turn of white rooms and untouched powder. Finally, just when we were wondering where the hell we were, we got to an area of burned trees. Dirk was convinced that this was the run called The Burn, and if we kept going left we would reach a chair. This worried me. Earlier in the day, I studied the ski map diligently, and I knew that to get from The Burn to any chair, we had to ski to the right – this was because The Burn was on the ski area boundary. (Yes, we should have put two and two together here, but we had no idea that the gate we exited had been a gate to leave the resort. We were riding in a totally unpatrolled, unmodified area.)

Things started to get rocky. We were worried, but not that much. The riding was still great, and Dirk really seemed to know where he was going. The sinking feeling didn’t really start until we reached a river.

When we reached the river, we could see a lot of tracks on the other side. So, we thought that a real run was on the other side. (Little did we know we were not even on a run.) We hatched an elaborate plan to get over the river on our boards by using a snowbridge. It seemed safer than taking off our boards. It worked, and we both made it over unscathed.


I celebrate after crossing the river, but more fun is on the way. And, where the hell are we?

We kept riding – we didn’t have any choice. But, we were getting scared. There were no chairlifts or other people in sight. People who have been lost in the backcountry know it’s scary for many reasons. For one, if you cannot ride out, you can end up with a hike that lasts several hours (and in some cases you might not have that much daylight left). Also, there is no help, even if you need it, and you could end up spending the night in the woods if you get hurt. We were hitting rocks and logs at every turn; the snow just wasn’t as thick at this point on the mountain. (Later, we talked to someone in the Burton Shop who told us most locals do ski that area, but only later in the season where the bottom area is covered more.)

Soon, we started seeing other tracks, so we felt better. Finally, finally, we hit a travers and eventually saw a few condos. We came out onto a road near the gondola – 3,000 feet below where we entered the gate (according to the train map).

We were so far from the California side of the mountain, where our condo was, we had to take a bus back (the chairlifts were closed because it was so late).

It was the best run ever.

Highlights:

- Everything. It was the best day ever. I lived more this day than most days of my life combined.

Lowlights:

- There are many ways to hit a tree. We found two more today: you can be knocked down by a wayward branch you do not see (Dirk), or you can turn around a tree too fast and be clothes-lined (me). We both ended up with bruises, but mine was much more hardcore. These both happened in the morning, but we powered through. Who wants to stop on a powder day?

Après Ski:

We ate at New York Pizza – a place right out of Chef Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. It was extraordinarily bad, but the beer was good. Then, we watched The Island and went to bed early.

Days to go: 22