Slide Down the Hill with Sticks on Our Feet

Well, Im feeling much better and will return to life in the real world tomorrow. Ive been resting up this weekend and I am ready to light it up for 2007 beginning tomorrow. So while I am sitting here watching some girl on Intervention on A&E cut herself, I am going to give you all a rundown of the holidays.

Tahoe was great. I had been concerned about the snow situation in Lake Tahoe because they were severely lacking in that area. I had called some folks who live up there and they said they have had some big storms but they were much too spread out to keep any of the runs covered. Well, they got a little snow the week before we were suppossed to leave so we went ahead and left the trip as scheduled. There were ten of us all together who went, so we had quite a group. The day we flew in, they were getting fifty mile per hour winds in Reno at the airport. Needless to say, the flight was rather bumpy. That afternoon while riding over to Tahoe we drove past Edgewood. Edgewood is the prestigious golf course right in the middle of town. Normally the fairways are covered in snow to the tune of three to four feet. Not so today, it looks like I should brought golf shoes instead of ski boots. The fairways are green and everything looks perfect. At this point I am thinking we made a big mistake. Well we settled in and hoped the top of the mountain looked better than town.

The next morning we headed to the slopes (wow, I just realized I am giving you all a play by play of my trip and telling you all the retarded details, so I am going to shorten this up). It snowed a lot that night. We got some good skiing in. The second day of skiing it was really windy so they closed a large part of the mountain. And it was COLD. It was below zero on top of the mountain and with the wind chill, it had to be ten below. Needless to say, all the girls were miserable and everyone was ready to go home by the end of the day. The girls decided to go the spa the next day and Eric also decided he was going to take the final day of skiing off. So Chris and I headed off for our final day of skiing ready for another arctic day. Nope. PERFECT weather. We ended up skiing in just our t-shirts and our ski jackets. Anyway, Chris and I closed out our trip with Tony (the instructor my family skis with every year) and skied gunbarrel and waterfall (the only two blacks open on the mountain) over and over and over.

As far as exciting events on the trip there were a few. We went to Vex, Tahoe's new trendy nightclub. Our casino host hooked us up to where we didnt have to wait in the ridiculous line that consisted of mostly dudes (anyone who has ever been skiing can tell you to always bring your own girls). Nice place. The tables worked me over pretty good. Ill just say I dont meaure how much I lost in hundreds. As far as funny skiing stories the only funny one that I can think of involved myself. On the second day of skiing, we went down a run that led to a small road that was flat at the bottom. Basically, if you dont have a ton of momentum you have to pole for a long way at the bottom. I HATE polling. So Tony warned us all to get as much speed as possible going down the hill to try to minimize the polling. Well, most of the group took it easy as they werent as comfortable on skis as I was. I, however, pointed the tips to the bottom. So I come off this run at about mach ten. I get to the road, only to realize the road hadnt been groomed and the big jumps that the snowboarders had built the previous days are still there. Oh shit. Ok, jumps arent bad, but I am carrying way too much speed to be hitting jumps. I hit the first and realize as I am in the air that I am going to be ok, come down get a little slippery on the landing only to hit another one while I am still off balance. YARD SALE. Poles, skis, goggles all over the yard. I land on my face and pick my head up just in time for Angela to ski past laughing her ass off at me. Apparently everyone saw me hit the jump and realized they needed to slow down. Always happy to take one for the team guys.

So thats about it. I was disappointed that we didnt get some more snow, especially since Colorado has more than enough snow for everyone. Me and some guys are going to try to get to Colorado to do one more trip before summer gets here. We'll see. I took some pics, but most of them are just of Chris laying in the snow after he fell down on Gunbarrel while learning to ski bumps. I know Ashley and Regina have some better ones so I will try to get them and maybe post some good ones.