Wind day!!!!!

We started out our day trying to decide if we wanted to ski or snowmobile. However, the decision was quickly made for us when we learned the mountain was closed due to high winds. Wind gust in excess of 100 MPH had the gondola and all lifts closed. No skiing today. With no opportunity to ski, we decided to join the group on a snowmobile tour up to the top of mountain.



How many ears did Davy Crockett have? 3........his left ear, his right ear, and his wild frontear. Thanks Gordon Keith, that one makes me laugh.



The snow mobile tour was nice. The views were incredible. We didn't get an opporutunity to open up our machines and play, but we still had fun. There were several snowmobile fights, a few snow angels and a lot of yellow snow.



The evening consisted of mexican food and poker. The poker game took a little longer than normal to get started due to some chip stacking challenges. We gave beth a huge pile of chips to put in to 8 equal stacks to start the tournament. After a few minuts of careful stacking Beth proclaims "you didn't give me enough chips for 8 equal stacks." HUH?

Lake Tahoe - Shoooooooooooot!

It's that time of year again for the annual Dee Dee Fest. For the 2 of you that might read this that are not in our group, the Dee Dee Fest is an annual ski trip with friends and family of Dee Dee, who is gracious enough to organize our yearly trip. This year we headed to Lake Tahoe to ski Heavenly.

Rick, Beth and I had a direct flight into Lake Tahoe. Our flight was on time and we were greated at the gate by the entire crew (Dee Dee, Ed, Stephanie, David, Tara, Caleb, Justin, Janine, Robin and Garrett) sans Lauren who had missed her connection in Dallas.

Our day 1 skiing started at Heavenly Village with a trip up the Gondola. Spectacular views of the lake. Departing the gondola, a decision must be made. Are you going to ski California...or....Are you going to ski Nevada. HMMMMMMMM. Looking left to Nevada, the are a couple of lifts about 100 yards away that you have to hike to. Looking right to California, we don't see any lifts but there is a run and a sign and it looks like we don't have to hike so we strap on our skis and head out. MISTAKE. After about 100 yards the run heads back up hill. We had to pole for what seemed like a mile, but was probably only a couple hundred yards. Evenrually we hit come slopes and coast down to the Sky Express lift.

At the top, the view of lake is unbelievable. The day is beautiful, not a cloud in ths sky and we can see for miles. We can see just about the entire lake. We head down Skyline Trail on our way to Orion. Skyline is marked as a blue run on the trail map, but is basically a cat walk and a very easy cruise. It's a nice long green marked as a blue. The snow is a little crunchy, but over all we have good powder and and great base. We stop for another view of the lake and Beth's dogs are barking. After some deliberation, we decide that she needs new boots and so we are going to head back to the gondola.

We grab Comet Express lift back up and take the 49er down to the Gondola. 49er is a great little run and something I will want to do again. At the gondola area, there is an intertube area that looks like a lot of fun. It's not a straight tubing run and looks more like waterslide with banked curves.

We didn't ski alot, but we got a feel for the mountain and the snow conditions and got our ski legs under us. We don't want to wear ourselves out on day 1, so we decide to head back down to the base area and buy Beth some new boots. Stay tuned for more........