Skiing at Sierra-at-Tahoe

2018-02-19

With a long bout of warm weather, it didn't look like there was gonna be much snow during Winter Break. However, a few days before the holiday weekend, we checked the weather forecast, and it was supposed to snow Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Unfortunately, Hubby said he couldn't take any time off during Winter Break, so we weren't planning to go skiing.

Sunday

Sunday evening I was home eating dinner with the kids while Hubby was at band practice. In the middle of dinner around 7:30pm, I got a text from him that he just realized he has the next day (Monday) off as a holiday, and he was asking me whether we want to go ski. Seriously? Haha. I asked the boys, and their response was "YEAH!! Totally yes!" Hah, of course a rhetorical question for them. Eh, why not, hah. We figured most people would have gone back Sunday so hopefully Monday shouldn't be too crowded. So we planned to drive up 5:00am Monday morning, ski, then drive back Monday afternoon. 

I told the boys to hurry up and finish dinner, then go pack their hydration packs and get their ski clothes out. At least we didn't have to pack overnight clothes and luggage. I put together ziploc bags of nuts, oranges, and carrots as snacks for the boys to pack into their backpacks. Even Little J excitedly packed his little backpack. He said to me, "Mama, I packed nuts in case I get hungry." Then he went off and got a plastic case of band-aids to put in his backpack. He held his index finger up and solemnly told me while nodding his head, "Mama, I packed some band-aids in case I get hurt." Hahaha.. I have no idea where he got that thought from, but I told him that was a very good idea indeed.

After multiple times throughout the evening yelling at Oldest J to stop reading and put his book down to help pack, the boys finally got all their backpacks packed. Ski gloves, balaclavas, snacks, water, and hand warmers all went into their backpacks. Ski pants, fleece thermals, ski socks, ski jackets were all laid out and ready for the morning to wear. I packed my own backpack, prepared some hard-boiled eggs and waffles for breakfast, packed bottles of aloe vera juice for lunch, and packed apples, chips and coconut juice for the afternoon drive home.  The rest of the items had to wait until Hubby came home with the SUV to load: skis, poles, ski boots, ski helmets, blankets, portable massager, extra clothes, etc.

I herded the boys off to brush and shower while I washed up all the dishes and cleaned up the house, then got them all in bed by 9:45pm.  Hubby came home after 10:00pm and packed up all his ski stuff.  We loaded up everything into the SUV, and by the time we finished brushing, showering, and hit our beds, it was 11:30pm.

Monday

My phone vibrated on the nightstand way too early at 4:30am, haha. After getting dressed, I woke up the older boys so they could get dressed. Once they headed off to the car, I picked up Little J with his precious blanket and carried him out to the car. He woke up right away, though, and happily smiled with glee as he realized that we're going skiing. We left the house at 5:00am.

Hubby drove a couple hours before we swapped, after which I drove the rest of the way. There was no traffic, but when we neared the summit at Tahoe, it was lightly snowing, and chain control was in effect. We were sooo glad that we didn't need to pull over in the freezing cold and snow to put chains on, and the handling of the car even on the snow was stable and solid. An SUV with all-season tires was a good investment for trips such as these! The boys woke up by then, and we all ate breakfast in the car. We arrived at Sierra in record time, less than 3.5 hours, and parked in the fifth slot down from the lodge.  

It was a mystical sight, with specks of snow gently floating down onto soft mounds of fluffy snow amidst white-capped trees. The patio outside Solstice Eatery was completely covered with snow, with no tables or chairs out. We ended up putting our stuff inside the eatery. The boys were eager to ski, and we headed over to Easy Rider Express. The snow was so soft and fluffy that Little J had a hard time skiing on the flat area, so Oldest J used his ski pole to tow Little J over to the lift. We skied down Broadway, and the snow actually squeaked under our skis, haha. After only one Broadway run, Little J wanted to go to Sugar-n-Spice, so off we went to Grand View Express to ride all the way to the top of the mountain for the 2.5 mile run. He skied down just fine until we got to the 3 sections that were stepper, and he wanted me to hold his hand.  I held his hand while he skied by my side, but it's a bit difficult because he's short and his arm is short, so he ended up angling his body toward me, or I have to lean over which makes it difficult to control the speed and direction. We made it down OK, though, and after that run, he was wiped out.

When we got to the table, he complained he was hungry, so he unzipped his backpack and took out the nuts to munch on.  After sitting outside a while, I noticed his hands getting cold, but he was still eating and didn't want to put his mittens back on.  I tried rubbing his hands and folding my hands around his to warm them up. After a short while, he suddenly exclaimed, "Mama, I have heat pack in my backpack!"  He then grabbed his backpack, unzipped it, and got the heat pack (little hand warmer packets) out, which I had completely forgotten about, haha.  Some time later, Hubby and the older boys skied in. West Bowl was closed, so evidently they ended up skiing Lower Main a 4-5 times. They boys were exhausted after that, and Hubby described how Middle J was flopping this way and that when skiing down Lower Main.

This time Hubby had packed some cups of instant noodles, so he went inside the eatery to fill them up with hot water and bought chicken tenders and pizza for the boys to eat.  The hot soupy noodles definitely felt very good in the freezing cold :P 

After lunch, we all went on Broadway. It was not crowded at all, and the lines were all pretty short. I was hoping to ski with the older boys, but Little J was very fussy and refused to go with Hubby. He kept clinging onto me, so I resigned myself to an afternoon of snow ploughing with Little J, hah.  After skiing down Broadway, we saw Hubby heading to Grand View Express, and Little J wanted to follow him to go on Sugar-n-Spice again.  We skied over to Grand View Express as well, and saw Hubby with the boys towards the beginning of the line, while we ended up at the back.  They couldn't hear us calling or yelling at them, probably because of the hats and helmets they were wearing.  So, we went up by ourselves. Little J skied down fine until we got to the first steep section, and again wanted me to hold him.  This time one of the ski resort workers who was monitoring the steep section suggested I hold Little J in the middle between my skis instead of on the side.  Boy, that worked much better. I should have tried that sooner!  It was much easier to maintain balance, speed, and control that way. After skiing down Sugar-n-Spice, Little J was wiped out again, so back we headed to the table to rest, eat, and drink some more.

At 1:30pm, the snow started falling down more heavily. The sun had disappeared, and the wind was picking up.  Since the boys had skied Lower Main again, they were tired, and Hubby was tired from the prior day of biking up 2000ft of elevation. So, we decided to call it an early day to avoid the weather taking a turn for the worse and to avoid traffic.  We packed up things and left at 2:00pm. There was some traffic already, chain control was still in effect, and by then the wind was quite strong, blowing so hard that the falling snow was flying horizontally.  After the initial section, the rest of the traffic was not too bad. We had to make a few stops for pee-pee (of course). We made it back to San Jose before 6:30pm, ate dinner at Com Tam Thien Huong, and got back home before 8:00pm.


Pictures & Videos

Following are pictures and videos of our ski trip.


Unfortunately, my battery ran out while recording the video, so it's a short one :/