***3:50 am
– The alarm goes off and 15 minutes later I have finished a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal, grabbed my stuff, and I’m out the door and on the road.
***4:55 am
– I arrive at a Jane’s house in Berkeley where Owen will meet us 5 minutes later so that we can carpool to the Sierra.
***5:15 am
– We’re on the road with Owen driving. Jane and I manage to doze off and on until the sun comes up. Everyone is awake by the time we get to the Sierra foothills. Jane drives the last portion of the trip.
***7:45 am
– We arrive at the Norden turnoff to Sugar Bowl, fairly certain that we’ll be in the first wave of Saturday skiers from the Bay Area. Guess what? There is no big crowd and we’re the 10th car to park there. We gather stuff together and walk to the lodge.
“Not even a double-macchiato can keep me from falling asleep”
***8:00 am
– For the next 45 minutes or so we grab breakfast, get lift tickets, and join up with Kari and Matt who have driven up separately. Oddly, they arrive after we do even though they left earlier.
***9:00 am
– or a bit earlier, the lifts start running and we’re off. It is a beautiful morning and even though it is still icy we can tell that it is going to be warm. We ski a few runs together and then split up since our group includes some snowboarders and some telemark skiers, and skill levels ranging from novice to advanced. Since I’m still a beginner on tele skis I spend a lot of time on beginner runs with some intermediate terrain thrown in to make my life more exciting.
***12:00 noon
– Most of us meet for lunch on the mountain and Chris, who lives in Truckee, shows up. I ski with Chris and Owen briefly and Owen makes a key observation: I’m twisting my body in the direction of the turn when I try to telemark. Duh! Now I see the problem and I actually sort of get this turn to work.
***2:00 pm
– I take a break from skiing at one of the lodges to soak up the warmth of the early-spring (by weather if not by the calendar) Sierra sun. Not even a double-macchiato can keep me from falling asleep for 10 minutes.
***3:00 pm
– Most of us meet briefly and make final plans to meet again at around 4:30 when lifts close. I try some intermediate terrain and survive in pretty good form – with the exception of one crazy fall. I can’t describe exactly what happened but the universe seemed to take at least one and a half complete turns around me and today I’m a bit sore. Back to skiing though I, for one, am starting to get tired.
***4:15 pm
– I take one last run and then stop at the lodge. By 4:30 we have all arrived so we meet at the lodge for few minutes before loading up and heading to Chris’s place for a glass of wine and some snacks. We meet his son-in-law Mark.
***5:30 pm
– We head back toward Truckee for Mexican food. Dinner takes forever, but is great.
***9:00 pm
– We’re finally on the road back to the Bay Area. Owen immediately falls asleep in the back seat and doesn’t wake up until we get to Berkeley. I drive to the outskirts of the Sacramento area before I’m too tired to drive. Jane takes over and pilots us back to Berkeley.
***12:05 am
– I’m back in my car for the drive back to the South Bay. Home by 1:00 am.
***1:30 am
– Zzzzzz…
—–
March 7, 2004
Posted by gdanmitchell |
Commentary |
Comments Off on That was a long day!
Dan's Outside 
That was a long day!
***3:50 am
– The alarm goes off and 15 minutes later I have finished a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal, grabbed my stuff, and I’m out the door and on the road.
***4:55 am
– I arrive at a Jane’s house in Berkeley where Owen will meet us 5 minutes later so that we can carpool to the Sierra.
***5:15 am
– We’re on the road with Owen driving. Jane and I manage to doze off and on until the sun comes up. Everyone is awake by the time we get to the Sierra foothills. Jane drives the last portion of the trip.
***7:45 am
– We arrive at the Norden turnoff to Sugar Bowl, fairly certain that we’ll be in the first wave of Saturday skiers from the Bay Area. Guess what? There is no big crowd and we’re the 10th car to park there. We gather stuff together and walk to the lodge.
***8:00 am
– For the next 45 minutes or so we grab breakfast, get lift tickets, and join up with Kari and Matt who have driven up separately. Oddly, they arrive after we do even though they left earlier.
***9:00 am
– or a bit earlier, the lifts start running and we’re off. It is a beautiful morning and even though it is still icy we can tell that it is going to be warm. We ski a few runs together and then split up since our group includes some snowboarders and some telemark skiers, and skill levels ranging from novice to advanced. Since I’m still a beginner on tele skis I spend a lot of time on beginner runs with some intermediate terrain thrown in to make my life more exciting.
***12:00 noon
– Most of us meet for lunch on the mountain and Chris, who lives in Truckee, shows up. I ski with Chris and Owen briefly and Owen makes a key observation: I’m twisting my body in the direction of the turn when I try to telemark. Duh! Now I see the problem and I actually sort of get this turn to work.
***2:00 pm
– I take a break from skiing at one of the lodges to soak up the warmth of the early-spring (by weather if not by the calendar) Sierra sun. Not even a double-macchiato can keep me from falling asleep for 10 minutes.
***3:00 pm
– Most of us meet briefly and make final plans to meet again at around 4:30 when lifts close. I try some intermediate terrain and survive in pretty good form – with the exception of one crazy fall. I can’t describe exactly what happened but the universe seemed to take at least one and a half complete turns around me and today I’m a bit sore. Back to skiing though I, for one, am starting to get tired.
***4:15 pm
– I take one last run and then stop at the lodge. By 4:30 we have all arrived so we meet at the lodge for few minutes before loading up and heading to Chris’s place for a glass of wine and some snacks. We meet his son-in-law Mark.
***5:30 pm
– We head back toward Truckee for Mexican food. Dinner takes forever, but is great.
***9:00 pm
– We’re finally on the road back to the Bay Area. Owen immediately falls asleep in the back seat and doesn’t wake up until we get to Berkeley. I drive to the outskirts of the Sacramento area before I’m too tired to drive. Jane takes over and pilots us back to Berkeley.
***12:05 am
– I’m back in my car for the drive back to the South Bay. Home by 1:00 am.
***1:30 am
– Zzzzzz…
—–
Share this:
March 7, 2004 Posted by gdanmitchell | Commentary | Comments Off on That was a long day!