Day 20: Northstar at Tahoe

I decide to check out my "Epic Mix" account this morning.  It keeps track of all skiing that I do at any of the resorts that my (super awesome) Epic Pass works at.  It logs vertical feet, which lifts I have been on and when, and other fun (and almost creeperish) stats about my skiing.  After checking tonight, I am proud to say that I have skied more than 5 miles at Heavenly and Northstar at Tahoe during my stay here.  I plan to do some more soon!  It also gives me awards for achievements such as skiing in two states in one day, skiing a lift a certain number of times, skiing a certain distance, skiing on certain days (like Aussie day that is apparently today and the Chinese new year that was the 23rd apparently) and other things.  It has kind of made skiing into a real life video game.  Sick!!!

Anyway, I decide to ski a half day at Northstar today.  I am feelin pretty tired and sore when I wake up and am not too psyched about beating myself up more.  The problem I have with skiing is no matter how tired I am, if I am faced with two ways down the hill, one being easy and one being hard, no matter what I feel the need to take the most difficult way possible.  Even if I am really too tired or sore to be doing it.  Therefore, a half day is sufficient and Northstar is perfect since if I stay on one side of the mountain, I will be forced to do reasonably easy runs.

I show up about 12:30 and get out of my truck. I am hot in my gear. I decide that my windbreaker over my T shirt is ample to keep me warm.  I get on a gondola that will take me to the main ski area. I end up on a super easy route to get to the lodge. This is an improvement over yesterday. I spend some time wandering around looking for a trail map.  I look through the entire lodge and locker area.  I then spot a sign in the lift line: "trail maps available here".  Clever, keep them in the lift line.  I have never seen this before but I like it.  I grab a map and hop on the lift.  I get to the top and am freezing.  I ski back to the parking lot and get my coat.  This coldness will not do at all. I get back on the gondola.  These people working at the gondola lift probably think I am weird. The gondola is for people who have just arrived and want to get to the rest of the mountain.  It isn't exactly a lift you ride multiple times in a day this close together just for fun.  Oh well, they might see me one more time in their life.  Whateves!

I have never seen slow zone signs like this and thought they were cool :)

I have a few nice runs but am feeling the last 4 days of skiing.  My knees and shins have had it.  I end up falling on a powdery black diamond route.  The fall slams my shin into my boot.  Ow.  I have only been here a few hours but decide to call it quits. The weather is not great anyway.  It is kind of raining.  Maybe I will take tomorrow off. I head back to the parking lot and take off my gear. I decide to check out the village at Northstar.  I like their logo so I decide if I buy anything from Tahoe it will be from here.  I find their gift shop and spend a while wandering around.  I finally decide to buy a shirt. I put it down on the checkout counter and the lady tells me it is buy one get one half off.  I only want one shirt so I stare at her somewhat blankly. I only want one shirt. She looks at me and I go and grab another shirt.  Excellent marketing strategy. I wander around the village some more and get some hot chocolate before heading back toward the hotel.

Pretty! :)

Northstar Village

I stop at a few fire stations along the way.  The first one does not have patches on hand. I find out that the fire stations in North Tahoe on the Cali side all have the same patch.  I already have one of their patches!  The fire fighters are really nice and show me around their station and tell me to go to another station up the road.  I realize I have already been to that station and have gotten a patch there.  I head on down the road and stop at a Lake Tahoe station on the Nevada side.  I had stopped at a nearby station the night before that did not have any.  The battalion chief had given me his email and had asked me to contact him about patches.  He had responded to my e mail and sent me to this address. I walk into the fire station.  I ask for a patch. The firefighter says they don't have any.  WTF?!?! I told him a chief had sent me here.  He points to the fire admin building next door.  Oh.  I head over and ask them for a patch.  "Oh, you must be Anna".  Ok, this is the right place!  I get a patch finally.

I head back to the hotel.  I call my friend Diana on the way.  She is going to com visit me later in my trip so we catch up some and start talking about the trip.  I lose reception.  I wait to call her back until I am done driving.  We finally make contact again and talk for about 20 minutes.  Then my stupid phone cuts out and she can not hear a thing I am saying but I can hear her.  Great.  I thought I had fixed that.  Piece of shit phone.  It does everything.  Except function as a phone.  I text her and tell her there is nothing I can do.  Luckily, she had to get going anyway and we had talked about all the important stuff already.

I then get ready to go out.  I had heard there is a bar giving out free lift tickets to Kirkwood Mountain on Thursdays so I figure it is worth checking out.  I walk in and sit at the bar. The people next to me are asking about Northstar.  I decide to interject into the conversation since I had been there today and no one else around had.  "Yes, it was great!"  I end up hanging out with a couple of Doctors from Pennsylvania and an Australian guy.  We talk about skiing and Alaska.  And then talk about skiing some more.  The doctors head off around 11 and I stay and talk to the Australian guy for a while. We analyze the beams in the building and then I ask him about his opinion on the the world economy (since he had studied economics).  We have some interesting conversations.  His last day of skiing is tomorrow so I give him my number and tell him to let me know where he is at tomorrow. A skiing buddy would be nice.  Even if I was planning to take tomorrow off.  Seize the moment, eh?  About 1:30, I head back up the mountain to my hotel. I failed to win any lift tickets, but I did get a sticker and had a good time. The road up the mountain has no lights and is really quite dark.  Fun!  I use my bright lights and my sweet after market driving lights to light the way and make it back.

Anyway, I have no idea what I will be doing tomorrow. Maybe skiing.  I was planning to get T Rex an oil change and submit some job application stuff. (I got an email from a job I applied to asking for supporting documents...) but that can wait another day!