I wake up this morning and am feeling great! A day off was a good idea. I don't feel like driving all over so I decide to go to Heavenly. I get my ski gear on. I notice that my beautiful new snow pants are not looking so beautiful or brand new any more. I have managed to rip a zipper off of them, tear the bottoms (I should stop wandering around villages in them I guess.... but changing is way too much work), and cover the entire part from my knee down in mud (if only it would stay below freezing this would not be a problem....) At least my jacket is still lookin pretty good, aside from a few dirt stains received from touching my filthy truck. Anyway, I head to the ski hill. The Stagecoach parking lot which I want to go to is full so I head to the Boulder lot. It is a pretty tight parking lot and I spend a while trying to maneuver my truck into the damn parking place. There is a guy directing traffic who is currently idle. He has a fun time watching me try to park. At least I don't hit anything.
The weather today is awesome! Sunny and around 40. Almost too warm for me but still enjoyable. Time to work on my goggle tan!
I get my boots and skis and go to wait for the shuttle. I am joined by a girl whose hair is perfectly curled and is not wearing any head gear of any kind, two guys who look somewhat like skiers, and a couple who are both wearing skinny jeans; the girl is wearing a giant fuzzy hat. Yikes, have these people ever been to a ski hill before? After eavesdropping on their conversation for a while I conclude the answer is no. Oh well, to each their own I guess. Throughout the day I see some other interesting attire. I see a guy in a "shag fur" pink jacket and a lady in all spandex. Crazy.
Anyway, I get to Stagecoach and start making my way around the mountain. On the first lift I end up having a conversation with the guy next to me about Alaska. Whenever I tell people I am from Alaska they always want to know why I am down here skiing. Alaska has gotten lots of snow and the lower 48 has not been so fortunate. I ask them if they like skiing in -20 degree (F) weather. They understand. I then continue to tell them how gorgeous Alaska is. I think I may have convinced a few people to visit. The tourist industry in Alaska should really start paying me for my advertising.
The bases of the lifts are all packed. There are people moving around every which way. I accidentally cut off a guy and make an apologetic face. "Well excuseeee me" he says as he proceeds to give me a dirty look. Chill the fuck out buddy. I am sure you have done the same thing to other people. It's fucking packed and its not like I have done any harm to you in any way. I didn't even touch you or your skis. And hey, you're on a ski hill. Be happy you could be doing much more unpleasant things. I do a run and am trying to get into the lift line when some random guy accidentally skis right over my skis. He says sorry and I tell him no worries. See, was that really that hard? Later in the day I accidentally end up on top of some guy's skis. He glares at me and I apologize. He continues to glare at me until he gets on the lift. Jeeze. People need to chill out. On the up side, toward the end of the day, a small airplane flew overhead accompanying a glider aircraft thing. I am happy to report that every single person around me stopped what they were doing to look at the aircraft. Kind of cool. At least I was not the only one completely distracted by the airplane.
One super cool thing about Heavenly and Northstar (and the other Epic Pass mountains in Colorado) is that they have professional photographers set up around the mountain. They will take you picture for free and you can put it on facebook and such. They want you to buy the actual prints but I don't really need to do that. Anyway, I ski up to one guy. "Will you take my picture??" "Uh, I don't have a camera." I play along with him until he finally feels the need to tell me he was joking. I know! I was just playing along. Both photographers asked me if I was by myself. Yes, I am. They then feel the need to tell me that it is ok and skiing alone can be better. Sweet, but I really don't mind skiing alone. I mean friends are awesome but there are a lot of good reasons to ski alone. Anyway, I get some cool pictures :) Too bad my brother, Zacharry, isn't here. He would be off of "Taking cool pictures of Anna while skiing" duty. I am sure he would appreciate that. Every time we go skiing I demand photos.
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| Yup, pretty sweet, huh? |
Anyway, the skiing was pretty great. I manage to make it around all of the open parts of the mountain. Most of the groomers are pretty nice. They are really fast too. A couple of times I got a little out of control. A few of the groomers were pretty icy but most of them were good. I also managed to find a nice run with some tracked up powder. It was nice and soft still. Most of the untracked powder had gotten really crusty, gross, and downright unenjoyable. I think this is what they call "Sierra Cement". The lift up to this area was made in 1972. It is a little two seater and the seats are actually made of wood. Cool!
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| 1972 Vintage lift! |
I find myself in the terrain park at one point. I do a few jumps. Nothing awesome or fancy but I get some good air. I feel really cool after that. I also find myself on some icy mougles. Mougles with nice snow are kind of fun. Icy ones suck. My skis sound horrid as they scrape down the mougles. My last run, I try to make my way back to the Boulder lodge. (The upper lift there is still not working. There is only one lift operating out of that lodge and you can't get to the rest of the mountain from it.) I turn down a path marked "boulder chute, blue run". This can't be bad. It is all Sierra Cement and completely awful. I can not maneuver at all. I struggle down it and find myself completely alone and with no recognizable runs below me. I see a snowmachine trail and decide to follow it. This trail is really awful too. It is mostly bare ground and the snow that is there is ice chunks. Poor skis. I follow the awful trail for a while, snowplowing most of the way because it is too awful to ski normally. I finally see a run in front of me with people on it. Excellent! I follow the run (which is insanely icy and not fun) down to the Boulder lodge and my truck.
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| I turned on my GPS tracker on my phone. It updated my location ever half hour. The grey part is the mountain :) |
I drive back to my hotel (thing). The parking lot is completely full aside from a tiny spot that there is no way in hell I am fitting T Rex into. So I make a parking spot. I wander back to my room and get ready for the hot tub. I wander out and proceed to watch the sunset. The sky goes from yellow to orange to pink to greenish and then finally to dusk. Really quite spectacular. I am not sure if the sunsets are really that much more amazing here than other places or if I am just noticing them more. Regardless, it was great. I was kind of sad that I did not have my camera. About half way through this sunset experience, I get company. I hear the door open, smile, and panic. Shit, there are people, what do I do?!?! I decide to ignore them and continue watching my sunset. They ignore me too so I guess we are all happy. They probably think I am rude but whatever, I highly doubt I will ever see them again. If I do, I doubt even less that they will remember me.
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| Nice clear day! |
Anyway, I am headed to Northstar again tomorrow. I am going to stop at a beach on the way back and watch the sunset and take sweet pictures. If I can sit still that long! :)
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| My artistic shot for the day. I was quite concerned I was going to drop my phone. I need a strap for it or something. |
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