Lake Tahoe - Kirkwood

Yet another item to check off since I got to CA. A group of us from Lockheed and a Yahooligan went to Lake Tahoe skiing. It was a blast. The morning started out with 4 of us meeting at Chad's to drive to the Sports Basement and catch the Bay Area Ski Bus there. We got there and went to check in and the guy said I had the wrong pick up location. Chad and Paul signed up a few days before I did so that location filled up before I signed up. So while I was wondering what the heck to do Sven noticed he was at the wrong location as well. Chad was nice enough to let us take his car to the right location and thankfully our bus left a half hour later. But we got there 30 minutes earlier since our driver didn't take a wrong turn

I haven't skied since 1993 and I found out quick that skiing a few times at Powder Ridge doesn't prepare one for skiing Tahoe. My skiing abilities were basically ski down hill until I was going to fast and then hit the snow plow to slow down with no ability to turn. Well these abilities don't bode so well on a real mountain. We hit an easy first run to get the snow plow feel back. Under normal circumstances I would've taken a few more runs down the hill to maybe figure out how to ski for real, but I was with Sven who is pretty awesome at snowboarding so I didn't want him to get board so we hit a few runs that led us to the other side of the mountain for some much longer and steeper runs. Every run we hit was a little steeper and longer but the snow plow was working just fine and there weren't a lot of big turns so I was fine. Then we hit one of the longest runs on the mountain, not to mention it was really steep. As we were riding up the lift I started getting nervous as this lift just kept going up and up and it got real windy and at the top our faces were getting pelted with snow/ice. It was at this point I wish I would've ponied up $40 for a pair of goggles. The Oakley's weren't cutting it. We hit the end of the lift and I stood up to get off and the chair hit the back of my knees and I sat back down. Now I'm 5 feet in the air starting to head back down the mountain so I jump off and lost a ski.

So I get my composure back and I'm ready to start down the hill. At this point it's learn to ski or ride down on my arse. I spent more time on my in the snow then I did on top of it. I was fortunate Sven was with me and every time I'd lose my ski's after a fall he'd get them and jump back up the hill to give them to me. He wasn't much of a skier but he was trying to give me tips and he noticed a skier shifting his weight to the outside leg on turns. I had been putting all my weight on my inside leg and i couldn't get my other ski around so this was a huge tip. A couple tries and falls later I had it down. Sven said it was really impressive how I improved by the minute. The rest of the day was awesome until the last run which I tried a black diamond. I think I would've been fine but I couldn't see a thing, it was a friggen blizzard and total whiteout conditions. After falling about 6 times I rode on my arse until we got far enough down that the trees blocked a lot of the wind and snow so I could see. After the run we called it a day.

Click here for some pics of from the day.