2/15/09

Day 29

Conditions: Packed powder
Location: Heavenly, CA/NV

Today was not as eventful – or epic – as yesterday, but still a lot of fun. When we woke up, there were high winds as a major storm was moving into the area. Most of the major resorts on the lake had their entire upper section closed due to high winds. Heavenly was no exception – three chairs and the gondola were closed, and more closed throughout the day

The chair that links the California side to the Nevada side was closed, so we had to pick one side to spend the entire day on. We chose California. We hit lots of trees in the morning, and found some nice snow in the Powderbowl Woods.

Lunch was an annoying as ever. Since many chairs were closed, only a few cafeterias were accessible. The one we went to was filed with campers (people who are not skiing, but sit in the lodge and read or drink), brown-baggers (hey, I don’t care if you want to save money, but I paid $40 for this lunch, so give up your damn seat), and people like us who just wanted to buy our $15 chicken sandwiches and eat. We waited in line just long enough for me to lose my patience and start bouncing cutters to the back, then we had to circle the cafeteria a few times for a seat. We finally snuggled up to another couple at a four-top.

The afternoon proved to be a lot of fun. We spent most of the time jumping rocks and trying to get video shots. Naturally, we fell on most of the attempts, but it was still enjoyable.

Highlights:

- Finding fresh stashes under the Gun barrel chair
- Getting some video shots – even if most of them will go into the fall reel.

Lowlights:

- The crowds. With fewer lifts open, everyone was funneled into three main lifts. To make matters worse, the California side is not beginner-friendly. So there were packs of beginners in way over their heads. At times, it was like dodgem cars.



Après Ski:

We had a great dinner at Christiana’s and called it an early night

Days to go: 21