Blammo!

Last week was a weird one; vacation was the plan and Tahoe was the place. Northern California has had unusually warm weather over the past 2 months, even hitting the upper 70's at the beginning of this month. We had made plans to ski at Tahoe quite some time ago, so we weren't expecting much when we arrived last Sunday.

As pictured, it was spring conditions: mid 50's, no snow, bright sunshine. There was some mention of a system coming in on Tuesday, and that evening, there were a few snowflakes in the air. Next morning, we woke to this:

The snow went on, without stop day and night, for nearly four days. On Friday, we measured a bit over 40 inches in our driveway; Squaw Valley later said they received 8 feet of snow! Roads were shut down or enforced with chain requirements, which I actually had to install and use for the first time ever. But it was worth it for ski nirvana, I have never skied snow so deep, with mid-thigh depth being the norm on my wider skis. Waist deep sections were not unusual; I learned a lot about skiing on this trip. I also learned a lot about shoveling snow.

Half our skiing was done at Northstar, and half at Squaw. We were joined by Bionica's sister and boyfriend, who flew into Reno and joined us over the three-day weekend. Surprisingly, there were no lift lines despite the holiday; we think that the prior warm weather caused people to make other plans. Their loss. Even the traffic back home was light.

Thanks Tahoe. Let's do it again next year...