What I learned this weekend: Tahoe isn't always sunny and doesn't always have awesome snow.

What I also learned this weekend: I can have an awesome time in Tahoe even if the sun and snow aren't perfect.

Yes, I spent another weekend skiing at Kirkwood! The weather ended up being the biggest surprise of the weekend. There was yet another storm heading towards California for the weekend. We were expecting to drive up in a snow storm and ski the the first and probably the second day in snow. So you can imagine how surprised we were when we drove under clear skies and on dry roads.

I had gathered all of the skiers and snowboarders I knew at IBM who were up for braving the weather for the weekend. To keep myself distracted from thinking too much about my new job at work, I spent too much time at work last week reseaching rentals and motels, and emailing and chatting with everyone trying to coordinate the trip. I ended up with the following cast: Tom from Kirkwood Weekend #1, Vijay who I met at Kirkwood Weekend #1, Vijay's friend Jessica, Desiree who finally had a germ-free and visitor-free weekend, and Kevin who got me up to Tahoe for the first time and infected me with the skiing bug.

Afer my little chain drama with my Mazda on my last trip, I decided that renting an SUV would be the way to go. There were six of us in two SUVs, so I wasn't expecting us to leave at the meeting time of 4:45 AM on Saturday. However, because of some delays, we didn't leave until after 5:30. Let me just say this: Do not be late and keep me waiting, especially when you are keeping me from the slopes. And if you do, I am not going to be the most understanding if you forget something, especially when I haven't had my coffee yet.

So anyway. Saturday turned out to be sunny and warm. There was no new snow, and it was a tad icy. But we had lots of fun.  We stuck mostly to Cornice Express and the Ruet, and of course we gave the backside the required try before once again deciding it wasn't worth it and going back to Cornice. I guess this was spring skiing. I skied without my hat and jacket unzipped, which isn't quite skiing in a t-shirt, but getting there. The snow was heavy and cakey in some places, and icy and chattery in others.  But really not that bad--I have just lucked out and had perfect snow up to this point.

I talked Vijay, Jessica, and Tom into "hiking" up to the little "cornice" off of cornice express on our very first run. There was much falling, laughing, and getting skis stuck in the snow. And of course I took pictures. Then we decided that maybe this was going to be a groomed run day.

There weren't too many interesting runs that we could tackle, but we took it easy and tired to focus more on our technique and not just on trying to get down the hill. And I think I did improve a bit over the weekend. By the end of the weekend, I was feeling really confident and happy with how I was skiing. And I think I was looking pretty good.

Our accomodations were at the Best Tahoe West Inn, which was closer to the state line, and so I saw more of South Lake Tahoe. But for dinner, it was back to Freshies. Once again it was a group of people who didn't really know one another before the weekend. We were beyond tired (average amount of sleep Friday night for the group was ~2.2 hours), but the food, wine, and ice cream kept us awake enough to talk and share stories and gossip about people we all happened to know. Then it was off to the hot tub before passing out.

On Sunday, the storm that was supposed to arrive Friday finally showed up. As the day went on, the weather got worse and the snow got better. And me in my winter-white outfit became more and more difficult to see. Vijay and I took off on our own and packed in a lot skiing. We exhausted ourselves. I ended the day with my best run of the weekend.

I am meeting the best people on these ski weekends. I am getting to know new fun people, and growing closer to my existing friends. I can't tell you how happy I am that I am finally skiing again after all of these years and with such fun people.

As usual, more pictures are posted on Flickr.

And Tom just sent me a link to this picture too: