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Skiing, puking, and skiing in Tahoe

I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,422
9,465
MTB New England
aka "Take it to Slopemonkey, n00b!"

MBC and I went to Lake Tahoe last week for skiing. I had never been outside Vermont for skiing, so I was really looking forward to experiencing "big mountain" skiing. Having been watching the Tahoe snow reports most of the winter, we knew the conditions were the worst they've had in quite some time. Still, a week skiing poor conditions still beats work. We booked a reservation at BrianHCM's "cabin" (the place is bigger than our house). Our vacation crew consisted of myself and MBC, her dad and stepmother, and MBC's cousin Rachel and husband Keith.

We got into Reno around 9:00 PM local time Friday (midnight to us). We booked a Yukon XL, which was just big enough to hold six adults and all our gear and luggage.
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,422
9,465
MTB New England
Day 1: The plan was to meet up with BrianHCM to ski Homewood followed by a nice dinner out. Unfortuantely those plans had to get changed. We met up with Brian around 11:00 and headed to Homewood. I woke up feeling a little sick, but decided to press on anyway. We got to the mountain and bought half day lift tickets. We were all geared up and ready to ski when I really started to feel like hell. I decided to sit in the car while the rest of the group skied, hoping I'd feel better. Apparently I picked up a stomach bug. I just sat in the car and puked (thank god for that plastic grocery bag!). Everyone else had a nice day of skiing. I didn't tell MBC how bad I felt because I knew she'd stop skiing if I did, so I just kept quiet (it was my own damn falut for not staying at the cabin). Brian decided to head home after skiing since I was in no condition to go out. He hadn't skied in like eight years and had a blast, so I'm glad he at least did get to ski. I went to bed at 4:00PM after puking a couple more times.

MBC and Rachel puttering around town Saturday morning.


My view of Homewood all day.
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,422
9,465
MTB New England
Day 2: Alpine Meadows

I was feeling much better in the morning and was looking forward to hitting Alpine Meadows. A good portion of the mountain was closed due to lack of snow, but we enjoyed the trails that were open. The bowls were a lot of fun, and I was not expecting the skiing to be so wide open. I'm used to skiing on trails, but out west you can ski wherever there isn't a "closed section" sign. The snow conditions also weren't as bad as I expected. Their "lousy conditions" were still better than most days at Mt Snow, VT. I felt totally in my element on their hard packed powder.

Keith at the Alpine Meadows summit:


Gotta love these views.


Looking up the main face of Alpine Meadows from the lodge. This is about as crowded a lift line as we saw all week. :)


Rachel the telemarker.


I was digging these nature views.


After a great day of skiing, we were done around 3:00 and were back at the cabin to watch the Super Bowl from the 2nd quarter on. More stomach illness was in my future and little did I know this would be the first and last beer I'd have in Tahoe.
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,422
9,465
MTB New England
Day 3: Kirkwood

We made the 90 minute drive to Kirkwood Monday morning. The drive through the high, winding roads made me and MBC a little nauseous (I know, total wusses). We felt plenty well enough to ski though. As with Alpine Meadows, a good portion of the mountain was closed. What was open though was a total blast. Kirkwood is steep and technical. We thoroughly enjoyed the ravines and the bowls. However, me, MBC and her dad all started to feel a little altitude sickness (the summit's at 10K feet). MBC and I called it quits for the day after lunch. The combination of car induced motion sickness and the altitude kicked our asses. MBC bounced back after we left the mountain, but I just felt worse as the day went on. We stopped in South Tahoe for shopping and dinner (the Pearl Izumi outlet was cool, but the deals were nothing special). I still felt terrible and didn't touch my dinner. I was just happy to make the drive back to the cabin having not puked.

A bare Kirkwood from the base.


Baboon action pic (all of the pics of me skiing are on other cameras).


The view from the top of Kirkwood.


MBC enjoying the Spring temps (40-50 degrees).


MBC and Rachel.


Pretty views driving down from Kirkwood.


MBC enjoyed driving our rented short bus. :D
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,422
9,465
MTB New England
Day 3: Mt Rose

Mt Rose is smaller than what we had skied so far. Much to our disappointment, their "Chutes" section was completely closed due to lack of snow (all steep diamond trails). As with the other places we had skied so far, Mt Rose was all hard packed powder. Since that's what we usually ski anyway, we enjoyed what was open. We did get a little bored after a few hours since we had to keep skiing the same trails over and over. We ended our ski day around 1:00 and went into Reno to shop. The Sierra Trading Post store was rather disappointing.

Mt Rose trail guide.


Heh heh


This is pretty much everything that was open. The trails to the far left of this pic is the Chutes section that was closed.


MBC on the bumps.


MBC again.
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,422
9,465
MTB New England
Day 4: Squaw Valley

Biggest disappointment of the trip. I had high hopes for Squaw, but the snow conditions were absoltely horrible even by Vermont standards. We were lucky to find a few trails that were hard packed powder. Everything else was ice...the kind of skiing that makes your feet hurt. We had planned on spending two days at Squaw. Fortunately we did not buy two day passes. The conditions there just plain SUCKED. I can see how Squaw would kick all kinds of ass if they had snow. The place is gargantuan and has some terrain that would really be a blast to ski if there was snow.

This would be the third night in a row I didn't eat dinner due to an upset stomach, although I did manage to eat some soup during the day.

It started to snow late in the morning, but an inch wasn't enough to help all that much.


The village at the base was pretty cool. They have a bunch of shops and restaurants. MBC and I bought some sweatshirts on sale (we can thank their low tourist turnout this year for sales!).
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,422
9,465
MTB New England
Days 5 and 6:

We had planned on skiing Heavenly on day five (Thursday), but really didn't feel like driving the hour to ski another half open mountain. So, we decided to hit Alpine Meadows again since that had been our favorite place thus far. Wise choice, since it would be the most we skied in one day the entire trip. We skied almost the entire day. Finally my stomach was back to 100%...first time all week.

Our plan Friday (day six...last day of the trip) was to hit Homewood again, since it seemed to have the best conditions and I wasn't able to ski there earlier in the week. We woke up to heavy rain though, and Homewood's elevation isn't all that high. We decided to skip skiing since we knew it'd suck. We went out for a nice breakfast, then packed up and headed back to Reno. We had lunch and dinner in Reno, and had fun gambling a little. I wouldn't want to spend anymore time than that in Reno though. We were up at 4:30 the next morning and caught our flight back home.

So despite the poor skiing conditions by their standards, we had an absolute blast. We got a ton of skiing in and our legs held up just fine (none of us except Keith are used to skiiing that much in one wek). Between my stomach bug, car sickness, altitude sickness, lack of eating and all the calories burned skiing, that resulted to a seven pound weight loss for me (woo hoo! :D ). We're comtemplating a return trip next year, since better ski conditions would mean a completely different experience. Most importantly, the six of us got back home not wanting to kill each other (it was close though!). :D
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,434
20,235
Sleazattle
I Are Baboon said:
Being sick probably cost me a total of a day and a half of skiing. I still skied plenty. I was more bummed that I couldn't really enjoy the evenings (dining out, shopping, having some beers, etc). Not to mention, my being sick stressed out MBC.
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You should have just made it a game so it would have been fun for everyone. Puking for distance, accuracy and sheer volume.
 
jonnynails

jonnynails

Monkey
Apr 26, 2006
990
0
Just another day in the Ghetto...
Nice pics and break down of the trip:thumb:

Man, I feel your pain with being ill on a trip like that! The fiance and I went to North Lake the week between Christmas and New Years and stayed just outside Tahoe City (your 2nd pic looks like you guys were in Tahoe City). I got sick with a bad sinus infection on my way there and didn't feel like going out until it dumped 2 foot one night. So I figured I better man up. We hit Northstar, Squaw, and Alpine. Too bad squaw was in bad shape for you guys, because it is by far the best mountain in Tahoe. Tons of natural features to launch off of and cliff lines with chutes etc...! Next trip check out Northstar if the snow is good. Awesome tree sking there. Heavenly is worth it to for the tree sking. I liked Sierra at Tahoe as well - lots of pillow lines.

The day after we hit Alpine I came down with the flu on top of a sinus infection so I was done. Had to fly home to Charlotte, NC two days later with all that mess in my head :plthumbsdown: . I'm just now (middle of February) returning to some what normal. My infection got so bad I was on antibiotics for 30 days straight. On top of it we just had to cancel a trip to Colorado next weekend :nopity: .

At any rate I hope you guys go back to Tahoe and get good conditions next time. There is nothing like the deep powder they get there. I know you think you have skied powder on the east coast, but trust me you really haven't. You'll see what I mean sometime when you are in it up to your stomach:cheers:
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,422
9,465
MTB New England
jonnynails said:
Nice pics and break down of the trip:thumb:

Man, I feel your pain with being ill on a trip like that! The fiance and I went to North Lake the week between Christmas and New Years and stayed just outside Tahoe City (your 2nd pic looks like you guys were in Tahoe City). I got sick with a bad sinus infection on my way there and didn't feel like going out until it dumped 2 foot one night. So I figured I better man up. We hit Northstar, Squaw, and Alpine. Too bad squaw was in bad shape for you guys, because it is by far the best mountain in Tahoe. Tons of natural features to launch off of and cliff lines with chutes etc...! Next trip check out Northstar if the snow is good. Awesome tree sking there. Heavenly is worth it to for the tree sking. I liked Sierra at Tahoe as well - lots of pillow lines.

The day after we hit Alpine I came down with the flu on top of a sinus infection so I was done. Had to fly home to Charlotte, NC two days later with all that mess in my head :plthumbsdown: . I'm just now (middle of February) returning to some what normal. My infection got so bad I was on antibiotics for 30 days straight. On top of it we just had to cancel a trip to Colorado next weekend :nopity: .

At any rate I hope you guys go back to Tahoe and get good conditions next time. There is nothing like the deep powder they get there. I know you think you have skied powder on the east coast, but trust me you really haven't. You'll see what I mean sometime when you are in it up to your stomach:cheers:
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Ugh, sounds like you were a lot sicker than I was. Sorry to hear about that. We are thinking about going back next year because it'd be a completely different experience with prime conditions. There'd be twice the open terrain with better snow, plus we didn't ski Heavenly, Northstar or Sierra. As I mentioned earlier, I had only skied in Vermont until this trip, so I still have not experienced that deep powder.

We did stay in North Tahoe...two miles from that Albertson's (I got tired of going into that damn store).
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,434
20,235
Sleazattle
What altitude were y'all sleeping at. Sorry if Babs already mentioned it. I can't read more than 7 words in a row.
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,434
20,235
Sleazattle
When I went to Jackson Wy and the Tetons this summer I felt the worst at 6000. It didn't seem enough for my body to acclimate but enough to feel like crap. I felt great at 8000 and higher.
 
I Are Baboon

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,422
9,465
MTB New England
McGRP01 said:
I've skied Heavenly and Squaw and had no problems at 10,000+. Just lucky I guess...
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I heard about 1 in 3 people feel any affects of the high altitude. I probably would have been ok, but factor in the motion sickness from driving and the stomach bug and I never stood a chance. :p (not to mention the wuss factor)
 
B

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
Damn, and I thought Utah was having a crappy season.

Looks like you had fun though, and that's all that matters... :thumb:
 
douglas

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
I Are Baboon said:
Around 6,000 feet. I read that altitude sickness usually begins around 8,000 feet (the places we skied all go higher than that).
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then dont go to Breckenridge, base is 9600 - I definitely felt it / it was pretty easy to get winded but I didnt fell sick or anything like that.
 
jonnynails

jonnynails

Monkey
Apr 26, 2006
990
0
Just another day in the Ghetto...
I Are Baboon said:
Ugh, sounds like you were a lot sicker than I was. Sorry to hear about that. We are thinking about going back next year because it'd be a completely different experience with prime conditions. There'd be twice the open terrain with better snow, plus we didn't ski Heavenly, Northstar or Sierra. As I mentioned earlier, I had only skied in Vermont until this trip, so I still have not experienced that deep powder.

We did stay in North Tahoe...two miles from that Albertson's (I got tired of going into that damn store).
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I would definitely give it another shot. I wish you had gotten better conditions, because it is such a different world from the ice, I mean east:biggrin: They usually get dumped on the most in March. My first trip out there we had prime conditions and I wanted to move there!!

You could also look into Utah. There are a lot of resorts close to Salt Lake and the powder is very light, but it is higher altitude. My first trip to nowbird scared the crap out of me - super steep and 20-70+ foot cliffs everywhere that are in bounds. I got caught in a whiteout during a storm on our last day and it scared me to death. Couldn't see your hand in front of your face and had to weave between cliffs to get to mid mountain before you could see.

Where do you ski in VT? I've been to Killington, Okemo, and Stowe.

MtnBikerChk said:
I'm not going back out there with out some acetazolamide (for altititude) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetazolamide and the scopolamine patch (for motion).

HA.
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Did you sleep by the lake? If so, I'm surprised that 6,000 ft bothered you. I read somewhere that a lot of people have trouble over 8,000?? I'm fine at Tahoe, but at Snowbird (Utah) we slept at 8,500 and my fiance had altitude sickness and I was dealing with my asthma more then usual. When we went to Park City (sleeping at 7,000) we were both fine.

On a side note:
Snowbird is a crazy place and everyone should go at least once. When they get a snowstorm they fire these huge artilery canons into the mountain in the morning to control avalanche risks. It's nuts to hear this loud boom and then a whistle of the shell flying over your condo hitting the mountain!!!!! Ski patrol also carrys bags of dynamite with depth charges and blows them up to start slides so that skiers don't. Ski patrol is a serious job out there. It is so steep and the snow so light that they have avalanches all the time. The canyon road gets shut down because it will get buried in 70 feet of snow from an avalanche sliding across the road. I'm rambling now, but anyone who skis/boards should go there sometime.
 
amydalayna

amydalayna

Turbo Monkey
Aug 16, 2005
1,507
0
south lake tahoe, ca
sorry you missed out on all of the goods.

it's like they scene in endless summer where they talk about the places they visit and everyone says 'you should have been here last week'.

except you should have been here THIS week. best so far.

better luck next time.
 
narlus

narlus

Eastcoast Softcore
Staff member
Nov 7, 2001
24,658
63
behind the viewfinder
jonnynails said:
Too bad squaw was in bad shape for you guys, because it is by far the best mountain in Tahoe. Tons of natural features to launch off of and cliff lines with chutes etc...!
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i know squat about skiing out west (and increasingly, out east), but i can say that my day of skiiing @ squaw in '01 was by far the best day i've ever had skiing in my life.

yeah, hit up that mountain w/ loads of fresh powder (the mountain had about 4' of fresh stuff; it had been raining in SF during my work conference but snowing in the sierras), you'll love it. looks like you had pretty decent conditions anyway (at least alpine meadows and kirkwood looked pretty good).

did you leave brian w/ an upper decker? :weee: :D


on the altitude sickness, i am usually fine but the 1st night i spent in brian head felt like my heart was gonna beat out of my chest...flew from boston to vegas w/ friends for a bachelor party, drank on the plane, when we landed, and on the 3.5 hr drive out there, then settled in, got some food and more beer. our cabin was over 9,000 feet, and i thought i was gonna die. :plthumbsdown:
 
jonnynails

jonnynails

Monkey
Apr 26, 2006
990
0
Just another day in the Ghetto...
narlus said:
on the altitude sickness, i am usually fine but the 1st night i spent in brian head felt like my heart was gonna beat out of my chest...flew from boston to vegas w/ friends for a bachelor party, drank on the plane, when we landed, and on the 3.5 hr drive out there, then settled in, got some food and more beer. our cabin was over 9,000 feet, and i thought i was gonna die. :plthumbsdown:
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Yeah, drinking and then sleeping at 9,000 when you are a flatlander like us is bad news. We plan our vacations now to make sure we at least sleep below 7,500.
 
S

skinny mike

Turbo Monkey
Jan 24, 2005
6,415
0
McGRP01 said:
I've skied Heavenly and Squaw and had no problems at 10,000+. Just lucky I guess...
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same here. when i was out at breck last season i never experienced any sort of altitude sickness. hell, i remember running up the stairs in the hotel just to see if i would get winded more easily, but i felt nothing.
 
kidwoo

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
Aug 25, 2003
42,146
13,340
Squirtin ketchup n' mustard on charred flesh
You skied at alpine and kirkwood.......the mountains at which I have passes and have been skiing several times a week (well alpine at least)......and no contact.:disgust:

all right.........I see how it is






:D


And yeah, I just went bell to bell at kirkwood yesterday and JUST got back from a morning at alpine.......very different from last week unfortunately. Call me next time and I'll make it snow if I know you're here.
 
jonnynails

jonnynails

Monkey
Apr 26, 2006
990
0
Just another day in the Ghetto...
MtnBikerChk said:
Mt Snow.

It didn't bother us until we got to Kirkwood (10,000' at the top). I started noticing that after a run through the bumps I was short of breath. It was probably an hour later that we were both naseous.
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Oh yeah, I get short of breath up top as well. Usually gets better the longer I'm there. Have you guys had as terrible a winter as we have here? Ski resorts had to close down for most of January and one of them is at 5,900 at the top.
 
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