Sugar Bowl, Homewood, Northstar Trip Report Long

Sugar Bowl, Half Day, Sunday February 6
Homewood, Full Day, Monday February 7
Northstar, Full Day, Tuesday February 8

First, thanks to RSA for the advice I've received; it's all good stuff (even
when you don't agree with each other)!

My plans for Utah were derailed, but my Socal buddy and I had a great 3 day
ski trip (no wives or kids) at Northshore Lake Tahoe.

Sugar Bowl bumped us to performance skis, no extra charge, on Sunday for our
half day of skiing. There were no lines, I guess everyone chose the
superbowl commercials over skiing, and I needed sunglasses. Wind was
minimal and snow conditions on the runs, especially the Pony Express and
Montgomery area, were decent; we stayed away from black diamonds due to the
lack of fresh snow and the dropping afternoon temps. Made a wrong turn on
the way back to the Jerome Hill lift and found a tight steep spot in the
Roller Pass trees. Turned out to be a good lesson; it forced me to decide
between side-slipping or finding out how tightly and quickly I could make my
turns. I side-slipped a few feet until I got tired of calling myself names
for being such a weenie, then went for the tight quick turns with only a
couple of slow motion falls. It's not that it was too steep, it was just
too tight for my skill level because of the tree vs head (no helmet)
concern. A couple more fun carefree intermediate runs then it was off to
the hotel, Bar of America and OB's restaurant in Truckee for a little
superbowl and dinner, some Ibuprofen, and a hot tub. All in all, a good day
with snow falling as the lights went out.

Homewood on Monday after breakfast at the Firesign Cafe. Definitely an
interesting ski resort! It snowed all day, but not much in terms of inches
and not dry and fluffy. Now I know what corn is! The trees at Homewood
were great; tons of potential for my young glade-hungry son and I. The runs
were torn up early and rough-going (they say they groom every night, but
....). Had a good time and would definitely go back. I'll keep it at the
top of my list for some tree skiing after a foot or more of dry snow. And,
yep, the view of the lake is great (once the clouds broke). Had a good
laugh when I passed 3 young guys discussing whether to hike to a certain
spot or to keep skiing the high traffic areas; one comment I heard was
against the hike since things were pretty good as it was, followed by a
second comment that yeah, the hike wouldn't be a lot of fun, but it would
get them where nobody else had been. Untracked snow; a powerful draw! I
definitely need a better lens color for flat light conditions; I tried to
kill myself when I left the run for the trees and went straight into a ditch
that looked like flat ground. I hit the lip, saw the ditch, screamed like a
girl, and completed the biggest full body plant (like a bug on a windshield)
I've ever witnessed. After checking my spleen and liver for damage, making
sure all limbs were still functional and making sure my neck probably wasn't
broken, we decided it was decidedly Warren Miller material; where's the
camcorder when you need one.

Northstar on some K2 Sports and fresh wax, sunglasses, left the thermals in
the car (not needed) and some fun, easy on the knees and back, decent
conditions/ carefree skiing. Lunch at the summit is always good. And when
the two very cute 25 year old brazilian girls hugged, it was time to say,
life is good. Oh yeah, back to skiing. Another fun place for trees after
some fresh dry snow. Price is tough to swallow, but they do run a tight
well oiled machine. Did get a break on the lift ticket for $54 from the
hotel and, again, we got upgraded to performance skis instead of basic
rentals for no extra charge. Nice skis sure are a little more fun than
bricks!

Can't wait til next time.