Had a good first taste of snow this season. Arrived to find bluebird conditions, which was magical. It is always a sight to see the way the light makes everything twinkle as if the miniature crystals are being powered independently.
We headed up with plans to get in a couple days of skiing/boarding, but quickly got sucked into just playing in the snow along the way, stopping here and there to have snowball fights, build snow men, make snow angels and all that other fun stuff that makes you feel about 5 years old.
We ended up staying at a really cool lodge near Donner Lake on our way to Sugar Bowl known as the Clair Tapaan Lodge. The lodge has been around since the 30's and felt its age. It was reminiscent of The Shining, without the grandeur.
Founded by the Sierra Club it attracted a unique clientele from around the world. The kind that doesn't mind dorm living and doing chores. It was certainly novel and a great time overall. We spent the night playing checkers, chess, and cards while drinking rum by the fire in the common room. Decorated with early skis, snowshoes, and Tibetan prayer flags you got the feeling that you were not in California. It even had a pretty cool hot tub that kept us happy and limber. The rum helped with that too.
The next morning we ended up getting stuck in the snow as it had been snowing all night and I made the mistake of parking on a slope that iced up that night. Not fun as it took us about an hour to dig out and get our chains on.
As you can see it was a bit wet and just barely cold enough to produce snow. Throughout the day we got everything from almost sleet like snow to huge flakes that the boys described as like feathers falling from the clouds. We made it to Sugar Bowl and ended up having an excellent day. There was a surprising amount of snow for so early in the season and I enjoyed hitting some of the deep patches here and there.
It got windy at times and we would get blasts of snow that felt like we were in a blizzard. The boys were wearing old skool ski masks that covered their whole faces and I was buttoned up like a mountain man so it was all good. We were having a blast.
Here is a picture of me after my last run with some snow caked on my beard that I've been growing since September. Keeps my face warm on those speedy descents. We are headed back up again this weekend and will be doing our snow dance in hopes of good conditions.
