Riding the slopes

Squaw Valley

I went, I saw and I did not conquer, but I did survive on the bunny slopes of Squaw Valley.

The itinerary started with a 4:30 AM bus ride departing from a 16th street pick up location. The bus was huge, had a toilet and fit maybe 50 people. In the morning, the natives were pretty well behaved and quiet. The trip to Squaw took around 4 hours because we did not have to stop in the East Bay to pick up peeps. At around 7:30 AM, we were woken up to snowboarding videos of daring snowboard stunts. For breakfast we had a choice of Sara Lee bagel or Otis Spunkmeyer muffin, yogurt and juice. We got up there in record time because we arrived at around 8 AM.

Since we needed to rent snowboards, we strolled over to the rental building. This is were it got somewhat confusing because you really need to know the layout of the resort. We wasted a bunch of time at the rental place because of fumbling with the lockers. Those lockers eat tons of quarters! (See lessons learned below)

After orienting ourselves a bit, we headed for the cable car to ride up to High Camp for our group lesson. As expected, I was always one of the last people. One of the hardest things for me to do with a snow board is to just slide with it, scooting with one foot out of the bindings. The board is just so heavy, and my free foot doesn't have enough power to keep everything under control. Definitely need to practice that move more! Then I also dislike having to step up a slope. Very tiring!

My favorite move is heel slipping. Don't like toe slipping because it's quite dangerous. You've got your back to the base of the mountain so you don't really know who's behind you. I fell the most doing this toe slipping move. My lower back will pay for it tomorrow.

Actually, my feet were killing me during the group lesson because I was wearing boots that were a tad too small for me. After lunch, my feet were starting to feel numb at which point I gave in and had to go back to the rental to exchange it for larger boots. How good that felt afterward when I had the correct size boots on!

In the afternoon, we spent some time practicing what we learned on the bunny slopes at Papoose. This was valuable time spent because I learned how to move with the board a bit better without the pressure of an instructor or other students nearby. My last little move down the slopes was successful in my book because I slid down the mountain on my board, did a little turn and stayed on my feet throughout! That was truly my achievement of the day.

When we returned to the bus at around 4 PM, apres ski was waiting. It consisted of cookies, lukewarm cocoa, fruit and yogurt. Then we all piled back on the bus. My only complaint with the bus is that they should have put signs on the windows indicating which city it was returning to. It was confusing because there were 4 tour buses that looked identical.

The Bay Area Ski Bus coordinator showed us "Iron Man" on the video screens. It was an ok movie, but much too aggressive and gadgety for my tastes. I would have preferred to see Dodge Ball. They were going to show the Dark Knight too, but the coordinator guy slipped up. He must have fallen asleep. No tip for him! The driver was very professional and efficient, so he earned the most tips. We got back to the city around 8 PM, way ahead of schedule.

Overall, it was a good little diversion on the weekend. Now I really need to go to sleep because I'm tired from the day long affair. If you're considering a ski trip to Tahoe, I would definitely recommend going with the Bay Area Ski Bus because of its convenience.

Lessons learned:
1. Bring enough quarters for the lockers
2. At the rental place at Squaw, there's no need to buy something (e.g. a non-tasty and expensive cookie like I did) to make change because there is a change machine in the arcade
3. Every time you open the locker, you need to insert money, so get what you need before you lock the door
4. Bring noise cancelling headphones if you want to sleep on the bus when coming back
5. Perhaps rent equipment before hand to get on the slopes faster
6. Purchase snow boarding socks
7. The Papoose area of Squaw Valley is the true bunny slope area
8. Purchase neck gaiter to protect face from snowy wind
9. Buy a CamelBak perhaps for water on the slopes
10. Get a size 7 snowboarding boot! Size 6 will kill my feet