Cabin Fever
This season a group of friends and I all got a cabin in Tahoe. On Friday we started our lease and Keith and I went up to take possession of the place. It was there and we got in without incident. We went to the supermarket and got a few communal items for the place and waited for everyone else that would be up that weekend to show up. First up was Ken, the hard-booter. Then came Ian and his guests. We chilled out, admired the cabin, and then eventually packed it in for the night so we could get up early and go hit the snow. And Then There Was Snow
We got up early and tried to get to Northstar early, but we were stymied by Caltrans as they decided to make us use chains on CA-267 between Kings Beach and Northstar. The pisser of it was that chains were totally unnecessary. That added so much time that we got there a little late. Keith went on up the hill and Ian and I got our season passes. We all met up on the hill at some point, but before that I did some ridding on my own. For some reason I was more nervous than when I went to New Zealand about getting on the board again after a break. This time was much better though. I got on and rode without a problem. I had so much better board control than I’ve ever had before and turns just seemed to come very naturally. The lessons I got in NZ from Alain and Mani helped so much that I was able to give pointers to others in our group and hopefully help them get better. I was even able to hit black runs without any trepidation. Turning on steeps is now easy for me even if I’m not yet very fast at it. Over all it was a fantastic day of riding and the snow was really good. Zee Quads, Zey Burn!
Sunday found us getting to Squaw before the first lift. I was pretty tired from the day before, but I strapped in and rode all the same. We were there early enough and there were so few people we got about 7 or 8 long runs in the first hour. I was hitting the step sections over at Lake Shirley all morning. At some point Keith and Ken went to ride another area and I needed a break. I then soloed on Shirley and Solitude runs for a while before I met up with them again. By then my quads (thighs) were burning on the steep sections. So much so that I was slowing down and not being as effective as I could have been. The solution to that is to crouch lower, but that just burns it more. After a bit Keith, Ken and I headed over to Gold Coast and just rode the more mellow runs which were easier on the muscles until we rode all the way down to the village. For a half day we got a lot of riding in. It was pretty much a full day for us. We then headed back to the cabin, cleaned, shoveled the front deck (way more work than we wanted to do), showered and hit the road early. I’m glad we got the cabin, I can’t wait to get up there again, but first I have to move to my new apartment. More on that later.