Category Archive

I look ridiculous.  I have the worst sunburn I have had since probably high school…  We went to Kirkwood yesterday to usher out the 2008 ski season, as it was closing day there.  All I’ve been wishing for this Spring was a warm t-shirt wearing day with slushy ego snow.  I finally got that day yesterday, and I think it might have been my favorite day all ski season.

The snow was pure, unadulterated, slushy ego snow goodness.  I can’t put in enough adjectives to describe how great the snow was.  I wore my Guns (i.e. powder skis), my fat boys, and man, they tore up the slush.  I felt like I could ski anything.  And that was a good thing, because I was skiing with my brother (who is an AMAZING) skier, and his other amazing skier friend, and friends of the friend…  Adding up to me skiing with five really great men skiers.  I felt like one of those chicks in a Warren Miller flick.  Except that I wasn’t skiing all the more extreme stuff they were doing in an effort to go fast and keep up with them.  But it was so fun.  They really made me step it up, and the ego snow meant I could step it up and feel a bit like a rock star for a day.

I took the 4:05 chair up on the last day of the season.  For you non-skiers, chair lifts usually close at 4, so that was like icing on the cake when I got a bonus run in.  There were like 40 people just hanging out at the top of Cornice Express after that last chair of the day, with everyone wanting to be the last one down.  I took my time on that last run, enjoying the view and reflecting on how much fun I had on the slopes this year.

And since I was so involved in the awesome skiing, I didn’t even think to reapply my sunscreen, and I have the WORST raccoon eyes sunburn I think I’ve ever had, with a lovely red neck to go with it.  My nose is so blistered that when I itched it last night in my sleep, the blister broke open.  So not good.  I think I aged the skin on my face 5 years yesterday, BUT IT WAS SO WORTH IT.  My soul actually got younger!!!

Anyway, gotta run.  I’ll post on these darn earth quakes later today!

It’s coming!  Buckle down the hatches!  Dust off the powder skis!  Boss, I think I’m going to be “sick” on Friday.

Courtesy of Weather.com:

Just back from the gym, where I did my killer ski prep workout, a workout of 200+ box jumps that I’ve been doing at least once a week for about a year now.  I thought those of you itching to strap on the skis might be interested, so here it goes:

What you need:  a one foot box and a two foot box and two five pound weights

Warm up: holding 10 pound weights in each hand, step up and down onto the 1 foot box for 2 min.

Do each of the below 3 times:

• Using the 2 foot box, do 10 jumps up, and then just step down after each.  This is all mind over matter, as a 2 foot box is really high for me to jump.  Once I was thinking “I hope I don’t fall”, and I missed the top of the box and totally biffed it.  Keep focused and think with each jump that you WILL make it.
• Using the 1 foot box, start from the top of the box and jump down, focusing on a soft landing and dropping into a deep squat.  Step up with alternating feet backwards to resume starting position.  Do this 10 times.
• Using the 1 foot box, stand to the left hand side of the box.  Squat down, and then jump sideways onto the top of the box.  Then jump down onto the right hand side of the box, focusing on a soft landing.  Go back and forth like this for 20 reps.
• Using the 1 foot box, start behind the box and jump up, turning so that you land on top of the box with your feet pointing to the left.  Then jump down, pivoting again so that you land behind the box with your feet facing forward.  Then jump up and turn to face the right when you land on top of the box.  Use your core to help with the rotation.  Repeat this 20 times.
• Now step away from the box, squat down and then jump as high as you can, swinging your arms and pretending to make a jump shot with a basketball.  Focus on a soft landing, and drop into a deep squat after each.  Repeat this 10 times.
• Now with the 2 foot box and five pound weights in each hand, start with your arms in a shoulder press starting position, step up with the right foot SLOWLY, and as you stand on the top, swing your left foot behind you for a gluteal flex, and then swing that leg forward into a knee bend (bring knee to hip height).  As your knee reaches your hip, do a shoulder press.  Repeat for 10 standing lunges on each side.  This really works your balance, and is a killer shoulder workout, mainly due to holding the weights in the starting position for so long.

I started off this workout doing it twice through with 6 reps per exercise, but have moved it up to three times through with 10 reps per exercise, and it takes me about 40 minutes.  By the end of 40 minutes, I am completely exhausted and drenched in sweat.  I envision myself tearing up the moguls as I do this (though Lord knows the moguls will probably tear me up, but oh well). 

Anyway, let me know if any of you try this.  I love this workout!

JB and I have each just purchased two season ski passes this year — one for Mt. Rose (which is 15 minutes from our house) and Kirkwood (which is 1.5 hours away, but has the best snow).  Needless to say, we are HEAVILY invested in this year’s ski season, and I will be so depressed if we have a repeat of last year’s horrible snow!!!  I’ll be calling on all of you to do a snow dance in a few months here…

Thanks to JB’s parents, my hubby and I were able to get away for a quick ski vacation to Mammoth Mountain, California this weekend.

Mammoth is a short 3 hour drive South of our house. It was definitely spring skiing conditions, but for the most part, the conditions were relatively good. I was wearing my new FAT skis (the Solomon 1080 Guns), which power through the slush really well. They don’t do so great on ice, however, which is what I managed to find a lot of on Saturday.

Side note: One man that rode up with us asked me “how do you like your pocket rockets?” I hestitated a bit, but figured he was talking about my skis, so I started talking about my skis’ performance. JB later told me that the previous generation of my skis were called the Pocket Rockets. I was just hoping he wasn’t asking me something inappropriate!

We hit the slopes hard, and that mountain ate us up and spit us out. By the end of Saturday, both of our legs were so sore that walking to the car was even a challenge.

We went out to a lovely fancy dinner on Saturday night, complete with crab cakes, scallops, steak and a fine wine. Afterwards, we went to the Village to check out some bars. We walked into one bar to find a bunch of LA type girls — all dressed to the hilt in their stiletto shoes and completely dolled up. I took one look, and thought that there is no way those woman attacked the mountain like I had today, as I defintely was looking tired, and there was no way in HELL my aching feet were fitting into anything but my Merrel after sport Mocs. We ended up at a cafe eating a Nutella crepe and sipping coffee instead, which was much more my speed.

Our first run on Sunday, we were loading the chair and the man next to me stumbled and then fell. He grabbed on to the chair, as it was still moving, and it dragged him underneath the chair like 10 feet. I was yelling “let go!!!” He then let go, and landed in one huge puddle. Poor guy… But honestly, I’ve never seen an adult flub getting on the chair so badly.

Sunday’s conditions were a lot better, and I finally found some ego snow, and pounded out a ton of bumps runs. We did one run called the Poop Chute, and another that I said should be renamed Thighs of Steel because it was such a thigh burner.

It was a truly wonderful weekend. It was our first trip away together without Little Miss since she was born, and we did get a chance to reconnect again. We lived like we did the first two years we knew each other — sleeping in a bit, eating a nice breakfast, skiing hard, then hot tubbing with some beers. Ah, truly the life.

I took today off to recover and to hang out with JB’s parents before they leave. I leave you with some pictures from our trip.

I sure hope I didn’t jinx the rest of the ski season, but I bought some rocking FAT powder skis this weekend. I got the Salomon 1080 Guns, also known as the blue surf boards. Hopefully that means I’ll be surfing the powder like a pro in no time… That is, if we get more powder this ski season!

Oh, and JB convinced me to put backcountry (fritche) bindings on them. So I guess I’m getting outfitted for backcountry skiing. Lord help me!

And can I tell you how sad I am that the Mt. Rose Chutes aren’t open yet?! I was dreaming of the Chutes last week, and they are still not open… Sounds like it will be a far chance that they’ll be open at all this year.

A storm hit us yesterday that put a foot of snow at our house in the foothills of the mountains, and a storm total of 79 inches of snow at Kirkwood and 54 inches of snow at Mt. Rose (15 minutes from our house).

The entire valley is blanketed in snow, and it’s absolutely beautiful. I keep looking out the window wistfully at Mt. Rose, which just looks amazing. I’m sure many local people will be calling in sick this week to take advantage of the conditions. Not me, I’ll be skiing with all the people on the weekend because I’ve already missed too much work lately due to real illness and not the pow-pow sickness.

My buddy Robert took some awesome video at Alpine Meadows this past weekend, when the storm first started to hit. Imagine another foot or two on top of what you’re seeing in this video!!!

We finally got snow around here, after a winter of extreme dry, putting us at less than 50% of average snow pack. I only skied one half day in January, and the rest of the time, I waited for it to snow.

Thankfully, area resorts got about 20 inches out of this past weekend’s storm. I made it up to Mt. Rose yesterday, and the conditions were really good, at least considering what the base was before the storm.

Tomorrow, my work is treating us employees to a “morale day” at Squaw Valley, USA. They are busing us up to the resort, paying for our tickets and our lunch, and busing us home. That is one definite way to boost my morale.

I used to ski occasionally for my last job, but I had to entertain clients on the slopes, which often meant spending a lot of time on the bunny slopes. Tomorrow, it’s all about my morale and bonding with co-workers… At least the ones that will ski the stuff I like to ski!

Ciao!

This weekend was all about the Spring skiing — getting in those last turns before hanging up the skis for the season.

We started the weekend off on Saturday at Sierra-at-Tahoe. We were actually on our way to Folsom for Jane and Luke’s birthday party, but we decided to ski on our way to their house. It was close to 60 degrees on the slopes, and there were people skiing and boarding in shorts, t-shirts, and even two brave souls wearing only swim suits.

I wasn’t nearly that brave… I am not sure it’s bravery or just a cry for attention, as I’d be deathly afraid to fall if I was showing that much skin. Anyway, they had groomed most of the mountain — really, all but two hills.

The groomers were fun. The snow was so slushy that you could practically go straight down the hill and not have to worry about speed. The moguls were also fun because it was ego snow, letting you carve turns on a dime.

On the second chair ride up the mountain, I got a bloody nose.

A chairlift IS NOT the place to get a bloody nose, especially when you don’t have any tissue! I rode the entire way up with my head back, which is a strange sensation on a chairlift. I had to sit out the next run as I lay on a table at the Grandview Station (named for its view of Lake Tahoe). While trying to get my nose to stop bleeding, I was entertained by a rescue dog named Rush — a three year old Golden Retriever that was just too cute. Luckily, the blood and gore stopped and I was able to enjoy the rest of the day.

We were two hours late to the birthday party, which seems to be our trademark. Remember that I’m married to the man that cannot be rushed. Luckily, we hadn’t missed the festivities, as we showed up just in time for dinner, and to see Luke dive into his birthday cupcake. He had icing and cake all over his face, up his nostrils, and even on his feet!

I joined my nephew Jack and his friend in the bounce house. But bounce houses are all just fun and games until someone gets hurt… As I was bouncing with Jack’s friend, Jack managed to have his knee make contact with his nose, and he came out of the bounce house with a bloody nose. I came out of the bounce house looking like the bad aunt. I’ve now banned myself from the bounce house, sadly…

We crashed at my brother and sister-in-law’s house on Saturday, which enabled us to stay and watch the boys play with all of the new birthday toys. On Saturday morning, we woke up and headed to Squaw, stopping for strawberries at a roadside stand on our way.

One of my favorite things about California is the roadside strawberry stands. Those strawberries are a taste of heaven on earth, I tell you!!!

Anyway… Destination Squaw Valley USA. Sights set on the hot tub at high camp. It was much cooler on Sunday, and the wind had kicked up. We spent most of our time at the top of the mountain around the Granite Chief area. As the day wore on, the wind picked up, and it even caused a power outage at Squaw.

You’d think that a power outage would be really bad… When I hear that, I think of people stranded on lifts and gondolas. But in actuality, it caused about a 5 minute delay as they fired up the generators all across the mountain, and the lifts continued to turn.

However, the hot tub was still closed due to the power outage. They also shut the tram down, but were giving people rides down the mountain in snow cats. Hubby and I followed the snow cat for a few minutes, carving it up on the fresh corduroy, but the snow cat was too slow for us, so we passed it and shooshed our way down to the bottom of the mountain.

We enjoyed dinner at the Pizza & Pasta restaurant in the Squaw village, where they served up a 32 ounce beer for the hubby and a yummy brick oven baked pizza. It was a nice way to end the day, and most likely the ski season.

On Sunday morning, we woke up to gale-force winds outside our house. Usually strong winds in the valley mean super strong winds in the mountains.

“I don’t think we should ski today. The snow will probably be crap, and there we’ll only ski one chair due to wind holds,” I told JB. Although that statement was true, I think in reality, I had just spend two lazy days at home recovering from my gum surgery, and I was starting to like that lifestyle a bit.

JB insisted that we turn on RSN, a local network that shows ski conditions, and we saw a broadcast from Kirkwood, our potential destination.

“It’s not even windy there, and it’s snowing!” JB proclaimed, getting out of bed and starting to get ready for skiing.

I made us breakfast, and then afterwards, the bed was calling me. I cozied up under the covers and told JB I wasn’t going skiing.

I’ve never done this, so he was a bit shocked, but he kept up with his preparations for skiing.

And as I was laying there, I started thinking that I could either stay home, take a nap and do house chores, or I could hang out with JB all day and ski.

Within a blink of an eye, I bounded out of bed and was ready to go skiing. And you know what, JB was right. The wind really wasn’t bad up there on the mountain, and in fact, there was at least 4 inches of new snow on the ground.

Yes, we skied in a snow storm, but we made a lot of fresh tracks throughout the day. It was true ‘dust on crust’ conditions, as the snow underneath the new powder was icy and hard.

It felt good to get out of the house, and remarkably, my mouth didn’t hurt. However, at work on Monday, my mouth is aching and throbbing.

I can’t help but think that I should head back to the mountain for some relief.

Too bad I don’t have enough vacation days for that.

Well, I am being forced to ski for work for the next two days… I know, it’s rough, but someone has to do it. I’ll be taking photos of clients on the slopes, and I’ll try to grab some good scenic shots for this website so that you can all live vicariously through me.

And really, don’t be too envious… Almost every other day of the work year I’m stuck in front of my two monitors plugging away at websites.

I seriously think I’m running the risk of getting burned out on skiing this year.

Today was an amazing day at work. I skied with clients at Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe. The weather was great, and the conditions were pretty good.

I did my inagural run on the infamous Chutes, an area that used to be out of bounds and illegal to ski up until this season. They are double diamond terrain for the most part, and have really boosted the level of terrain available at Mt. Rose. I’m happy to report that I beat two out of the three men I was skiing with down the Chutes.

I also got the chance to ski an area formerly known as Unemployment Bowl. It used to be an area that employees of the ski area longed to ski in, but were threatened with losing their job if they were caught doing it. Now, Unemployment Bowl is known as Wild Card. You have to hike to get to it, which means that it hasn’t been tracked out by a ton of skiers.

It was a monumental day, I tell you. I’m loving it!

I tried to get to work on Friday. I really did. They shut down the highway in between Carson City and Reno, so all I was able to do was drive to the North end of town, and then turn around and come back home.

And, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), our home computer died earlier in the week, so I couldn’t do a lick of work. I took the computer into Geeks of Nevada (no joke), and then enjoyed my first real snow day since I was in high school. I managed to catch up on my scrap booking, which was 1.5 years overdue.

We got about two feet of snow between Friday and Saturday. The headline on the Saturday paper (that was retrieved only as JB shoveled the driveway to uncover it) said NORTHERN NEVADANS URGED TO STAY HOME.

So what is the logical thing to do when there is such a headline in the paper?

Head to the mountains for some powder skiing!

POW POW!!!

I even called my brothers, saying ‘Pow Pow’ when they answered the phone.

Unfortunately, the highway to Kirkwood, where we hold season passes, was closed due to avalanche risk.

Avalanche, smavalanche.

We headed to Heavenly to pay an ungodly amount to ski, but yes, the powder was oh so Heavenly. And, thanks to the media scaring people into staying home, there was hardly a soul out on the roads, which weren’t even that bad to begin with.

Saturday night after skiing, we came home, strapped on our snow shoes, and took the dogs out for a walk. Even with snow shoes, we were sinking about a foot into the snow, making the neighborhood walk quite a workout.

There is another storm headed towards us right now, expected to hit tonight and dump another 6-12 inches on us.

Perhaps I’ll be working from home again tomorrow. This time, I’ll be sure to have my work laptop with me!

We’re buckling down for another storm here. It’s supposed to hit around midnight, and dump almost a foot of snow here in the valleys, and another 8-10 feet in the mountains. Looks like there is more powder skiing in my immediate future.

Lord help me.

The funny thing is that I used to really hate the snow when I lived in Michigan. Sure, the first snow of the year is always exciting, but it snowed so much there, and was so cold and grey that I just hated it. It effected my moods. I can’t go very long without the sun. Michigan was three to four long months of cold, grey and snowy weather. Blek.

Although our 10 day outlook is calling a lot more for snow and clouds, I’m OK with it. You see, when it snows here, we dive right into skiing or snow shoeing. Plus, better snow at the ski areas means more visitors coming to our area, which is good for my job security.

So, let it snow, weather man! I’m up for it now!

That is Tucker romping in the snow in our back yard this past Saturday. Wow, do we have a lot of snow. (Side note: You can see the infamous shed in the background. Didn’t JB do a good job on it?!)

JB and I spent every day of the three day weekend skiing in thigh deep powder, and loving every minute of it.

OK, my legs didn’t really love every minute of it… WOW, am I sore!

We went to Mt. Rose on Friday, arriving just after they re-opened the highway (it had been shut down due to the numerous feet of snow that fell the night before). We skied Heavenly on Saturday, and Kirkwood on Sunday. It was our own Tahoe Powder Tour.

If you know me, you know that I’m a bit of a wuss in powder due to my knee injury that occured in powder about three years ago. I think this weekend, I was able to put some of my demons to rest, and actually start to get the hang of powder skiing.

Just don’t fall, because getting up is a bitch.

We were just like an old married couple on New Year’s Eve. We were so tired from skiing in the powder that we opted to stay in, drink some wine, watch a movie, and get to bed early so that we could hit the slopes again on New Year’s Day.

The movie, by the way, Garden State, pretty much sucked. We also watched Napoleon Dynamite on Saturday, and it was mildly entertaining.

So that is my random recap of the holiday weekend. I’ll be limping my way into work tomorrow, ready to recover from my weekend warrior ways.