Steez, Trees & Fat Skis

Skiing Squaw on Friday, February 18, 2011

The morning did not disappoint! It was still storming a bit, high winds, and Squaw’s ski patrol was busy with avalanche safety. The website said it would be a down low day, so I finished shoveling out the Eurovan, moving it for the plow guy, then Parker and I headed for the hill. Once geared up we rode Red Dog up for some powdery turns. As Parker plunged the Red Dog liftline toward Far East base, I veered right and found a route down to Squaw Creek lift. On the way down I skied my first pillow line at the base of a chute. This will be great terrain to learn since I had taken just one run in this trail pod prior. Once back atop Squaw Creek, I pointed them toward Far East and a few turns into my run I came across Parker. Funny, no one else was around, and the potential to be separated from view by trees and gullies was high, but there he was, shooting across my line! We followed one another down into Poulson’s Gully and found lots of untracked, treed runs spilling out at the top of the Papoose lift, above Far East base. As of this point, the Funitel to Gold Coast still had not opened to the skiing public yet, so Parker and I continued to lap Far East and sample the tree routes into Poulson’s. 

I had scheduled lunch with Dave Schaefer and Paul from House of Air in San Francisco. HOA is an indoor trampoline park with 67 tramp beds, everything from a bounce house for little ones to adult Dodgeball leagues and a Matrix for aerobatics. Ever since I visited their facility in early November, we’ve been talking about bringing an HOA facility to Tahoe. Following lunch at The Arc at Gold Coast, we headed down Mountain Run and took a detour into Spring Bowl. Big mistake. The bowl was four feet of fresh untracked with zero visibility resulting in a stall out on a flat that required slogging out through the same 4 feet of snow, only wind-packed on top. After a slow-mo fall that plunged my right ski under at a 30-degree angle I finally made it out, slogged under Cornice II and Headwall Express lifts to find a groomed patch linking me back to Mountain Run. Whew! Dave and Paul encountered the same. Only Parker took a right line and had enough pitch to make it down to the groomer. 

Following this episode, we unanimously agreed that Far East was going to be the better skiing for the balance of the day, so onward we aimed, traversing the lower mountain, maintaining a high line, then skiing down through the Red Dog complex to the base of Far East. Once up to the top of the gully, we chose similar routes as before, steep treed runs flanking Poulson’s. Parker filmed most of this afternoon adventure with his GoPro helmet mounted. We lapped Far East for three runs before Dave and Paul had to leave for their trip back to San Francisco. Parker and I went back up for another. This time, Parker took a tree slot with a branch that was low enough to clip the camera from the dome of his helmet. After some digging, Parker found the camera still recording as he cleared the snow from the lens and exclaimed his find. 

On our last run down, I took a slightly different line. Somehow I lost my balance over a rise, fell forward down the steep terrain into the powder and as I did, the tail of my ski caught on some snow or a tree trunk and stretched my calf to e-string tension. Thankfully my knee brace prevented hyperextension, so with just a pulled calf muscle, a few days off the snow and I’ll be good to go again. Parker continued to ski for another hour while I plunked myself on the sofa with a baggie full of snow to aide my ills. By this time, the storm was cycling again and dumping at a rate of nearly two inches an hour. Tomorrow was going to be yet another incredible powder day, at least for Parker!
Meanwhile, I’ll catch up on this blog.