Skiing at Sierra-at-Tahoe

2017-04-01

Hubby and I were both scrambling to get our gear ready for this ski trip, haha.  

I visited Helm of Sun Valley and spent another 2 hours having them refit and adjust the boots since they were so tight my feet went numb on the last ski trip. The bootfitter told me not to go walking around in my ski boots.  Since they are fitted for skiing, the boots will be extremely uncomfortable to walk or stand around in. He also told me I was buckling my boots all wrong, haha. I was buckling them from bottom up, and the guy shook his head with a sigh. The idea is I need to have my heel locked in and sitting in the boot's heel "pocket", so that my entire foot will be pulled back and not have my toes smashed into the front of the boot.  To do this, I'm supposed to buckle up the top buckles first, flex my leg forward into the ski stance position several times to get my heel all the way back, then tighten the top buckles as tight as they will go without actually hurting.  This way, my heel is completely locked in and my foot can't slide around. Next I'm supposed to buckle the bottom buckles. The bottom buckles don't need to be very tight, only just enough to keep the shell closed, otherwise they could squeeze my foot too much and cause it to go numb. He also made micro adjustments with a screw in the back to loosen the calf area, and rolled out the liner so that I don't need to ski several days to "pack it out". After a bunch of other micro adjustments, I was completely bewildered and wondering how any normal person would be able to do all these adjustments. The guy told me that's why we should go to bootfitters, since ski boots are essentially a highly specialized device, haha.

Since Hubby damaged his ski bindings after running over them with his car on the last ski trip, he asked the folks at Helm what his options were.  Basically, his skis are 16 years old already, and bindings would need to be replaced.  New bindings run around $200.  The guy looked at his boots also, and said the soles on his boots are completely worn, down to the screw.  Either need to see if replacement soles can be found for his very old boots, or should get a new pair of boots.  New skis, even with 30% off at Helm, started at $700 and on up.  Thursday before the ski trip Hubby drove around to Sports Basement in Sunnyvale and in Campbell looking at skis.  There weren't too many options for his size.  There was a pair that was close to $800 including bindings, which he put on hold.  It then dawned on me that we had my brother's skis sitting in our garage, so I checked to see if Hubby's boots fit my brother's skis, and they did :P I texted my brother, and he said sure, in fact Hubby can keep the skis since my brother can't even find his boots anymore and he's not really skiing anymore either.  My bro asked me when we're coming to pick the skis up, and I was like, huh?  Aren't his skis sitting in our garage already? I sent him a picture of the skis, and he said nope, not his.  Texted my other brother, and he said nope, not his either.  Finally figured out from my friend DK that they belong to my friend VL, haha.  DK remembered on our last ski trip before we had kids that my Hubby had forgotten his skis that trip, and the second day VL was too tired to ski, so VL let Hubby borrow her skis. DK adjusted VL's ski bindings for Hubby's boots.. that's why they fit, haha.  CRS.  Hubby and I had no recollection whatsoever about it :/ So, we borrowed VL's skis again for this trip, haha :P

The E family couldn't ski Saturday, but they were planning to drive up to Tahoe Saturday afternoon and ski Sunday with us. So, this time, I used points from Chase to book a 4BR townhome to share at Aston Lakeland Village Resort. Friday afternoon I spent almost an hour putting labels on everyone's skis, poles, and helmets.  Hopefully that'll deter people from taking our stuff! Luckily we were getting better at packing so didn't take quite as long as before to finish.  

Saturday

Saturday morning we left at 4:37am.  The drive was smooth, and we got there in record time at just a little over 3 hours (7:45am). We were able to park right near the entrance of Lot B. It took us 25 minutes this time instead of 30 minutes to get everyone all geared up. We had made online purchases for Sierra Season Passes for next season at a discounted early price, and the passes are good for the remainder of this season as well.  We stopped by the Season Pass Office to take pictures and get our passes.  By the time we got our passes, had all the boys go to the restroom, and got our skis on, it was close to 9:00am, haha.  We never got a chance to take a family ski picture the entire season, so this time I made sure we took a picture before everyone scattered.  

Hubby took the older J's to go on the blue runs, and I took little J on Broadway.  Weather was beautiful.  Sunny and warm.  The snow was a bit icy initially in the shady areas, but after a while the sun softened the snow, and the skiing was great.  This time, I decided not to use the straps for Little J, leaving only the ski tip connector on, and just let Little J ski on his own.  Getting there early was great. Hardly any people, so no lines and no crowds on the slopes.  Little J did great skiing on his own!  We kept looping on Broadway for over an hour, and finally Little J started getting tired. He leaned all the way back when sitting on the chair lift. I asked him if he's tired, and he said, "Yees.." I asked him if he wanted to go rest, and he said, "Nooo..." I asked him if he still wanted to ski, and he said "Yeees..." Hahaha.  So we went for 2 more runs, after which Little J finally threw in the towel. He told me he's hungry and wants to eat pizza, so I took him to the tables outside Solstice Eatery and let Hubby know.  I grabbed Little J to go to the restroom, and somehow while walking around one of his mittens fell off.  We retraced our steps and went to the Lost and Found office, but no luck, sigh :/  Went back to the table, and shortly after Hubby and the older J's joined us since they were all hungry too.

After eating lunch, Hubby and I swapped. I took the older J's skiing while Hubby took care of Little J. The boys were tired and didn't want to ski West Bowl, so took them on Sugar-N-Spice and just did short blues like Short Swing. After a couple runs, middle J was tired, so dropped him off with Hubby. The snow was starting to get slushy due to the hot sun, and "sucking" at our skis in certain areas so it was getting tiring. I went with Oldest J on one more run before swapping again with Hubby.  By around 2:30pm, the boys were all tired, so we packed up and headed for the townhome.

Traffic wasn't too bad.  We got there in less than half an hour. The townhome was much bigger than I expected. The ground floor had 3 bedrooms (1K, 2Q, 2Q beds) and a washer and dryer as well. The second level had a full kitchen, living room, and a 4th bedroom with 1K bed. The third level had a loft with 1Q and 1T bed.  It was big enough to fit 3 families, haha. The resort also had swimming pools, sauna, and tennis courts, and was just steps away from the shore of Lake Tahoe. After showering and starting the laundry, all of us were hungry.  It was only 6:00pm, and the E family were supposed to arrive in South Lake Tahoe around 7:30pm. We were too hungry to wait for them to eat dinner, so we went out to Off The Hook Sushi & Seafood Restaurant nearby. Everyone enjoyed the food (or maybe we were just too hungry, haha). We finished dinner in an astounding 30 minutes! Yup, everyone was definitely starving. After that we picked up some ice cream from the local Safeway and headed back to the townhome. We all relaxed in the living room, watching ice figure skating and playing board games with the boys, followed by the ice cream.

The E family were also too hungry and ended up eating sushi in Placerville, so by the time they got to the townhome it was past 9pm. The kids went totally wild, running up and down the 3 floors and wreaking havoc in all the rooms. By the time everyone got settled in and calmed down enough to go to bed, it was 10:30pm. 

Sunday

Sunday morning, Hubby and I woke up around 6:45am and started packing up and loading the car. The resort provided complimentary continental breakfast, but we had to be there in person to eat it and couldn't take food back to our townhome. Since we already packed some food from home for breakfast, we decided to skip the resort's breakfast and just eat in the car to save time. 

Amazingly, we got to Sierra at 8:30am and were ready to ski before 9:00am! Since Little J lost his mitten, I visited the Lost and Found again, but no luck. Went to the store with him to buy a new pair, but they didn't have anything that tiny, hah. Since it was so warm and sunny, we could get away without the mittens, so finally just took Little J up on Broadway to ski without any mittens. It was another beautiful day for skiing, and Little J was enjoying it immensely, singing and humming while skiing and waiting in the line. On one of the runs, the older J's met up with me and Little J partway down Broadway, and then headed off to Grandview lift. I was wondering where Hubby was, and didn't catch sigh of him until a good 5 minutes later, hah. Evidently he had somehow "lost" the boys again :/  We headed over to the Solstice Eatery tables, and saw my brother-in-law and the E's sitting at a table outside. We joined them, and oldest E offered part of his pizza to Little J since he was already full. Little J wasted no time in chomping down that pizza. After a while, Hubby and the older J's joined us as well, and everyone ate lunch. My sister-in-law came over gushing about buying a barely-used pair of demo skis including bindings for only $276 from the Sierra shop. It was only used as a demo ski for one season and still in excellent condition. She immediately took it up for a test run and later told us that she couldn't believe how much difference the skis made. Now she could turn so easily and handle the intermediate trails with no problem. I told my Hubby maybe he should go check out the demo skis as well, but he said he didn't have time.

After lunch, Hubby and I swapped. Little J still wanted to ski some more, so Hubby took him on Broadway. Oldest E wanted to join the older J's on the blue runs, so I took them all over to Grandview lift. Given the boys' propensity to fly ahead and end up lost or on separate trails, I drilled them to ensure they knew their parents' phone numbers. Then, I instructed them that Middle J should go first since he knows the blue trails and is slower, followed by the next slowest Oldest E, followed by Oldest J, then me. Next I told them that they have to wait for everyone at the trail turn offs before Corkscrew, before Beaver, at the West Bowl lift, before Escape, and before Broadway. And, off we went! Surprisingly, they were pretty good at following the instructions and waiting at the right places. They handled the blue runs with no problems, each of them maybe falling once or twice, but then popping back up with ease. Geesh, wish I could get back up so easily! Good thing I don't fall anymore, haha. After going down Escape, they wanted to go back over to Grandview lift to repeat the run again, but Oldest E needed to take a restroom break first. At the top of Broadway, Oldest J didn't wait and went ahead, followed by Oldest E. Middle J was trailing behind me due to him being much slower on the flat parts. When he finally got to the top of Broadway, I saw that Oldest E had fallen and lost one of his poles, so I told Middle J I would go down and help him, and that Oldest E needed to go to the restroom at Solstice Eatery. I skied down, grabbed Oldest E's pole and gave it to him. He and Oldest J then skied the rest of the way down to Solstice Eatery and went to the restroom. I waited and waited and waited for Middle J, but didn't see any sign of him on Broadway, no sign of him near Solstice Eatery, and no sign of him on the path to Grandview. I waited until Oldest E and J came back, and still no sign of Middle J. I thought perhaps Middle J didn't hear me when I told him we'd stop for a restroom break and might have gone straight to Grandview lift. So, I told Oldest E and Oldest J to head over to Grandview lift, and off they went. 

As I started skiing down, I got a phone call. "Hello? Is this Regina? Your son Justin fell and injured his knee on Broadway." Sigh, oh no :( Oldest E and Oldest J were already out of sight going to Grandview lift, but they were supposed to wait there. So, I went back up on Easy Rider express lift to get to the top of Broadway, then skied partway down where I saw Middle J sitting on the snow with a Sierra ski patrol guy. Middle J said his right knee hurt, and he couldn't stand or walk. Somehow he fell when skiing down Broadway and then his knee hurt too much. The ski patrol guy called a toboggan over to carry Middle J to the First Aid office, and I skied behind them. I texted Hubby, but he was busy holding Little J who was napping. I then called my sister-in-law and asked her if she could head over to Grandview lift to pick up Oldest E and Oldest J, and she said she would head over there right away. In the First Aid office, we took off Middle J's ski jacket and ski pants so that the medic could examine his knee. The medic exclaimed, "You're wearing so many layers you're melting! You know this is spring skiing. You don't need so many layers otherwise you're gonna suffer from heat exhaustion." Hehe. Guess we went overboard on bundling them up :P The medic examined Middle J, and said there's no visible injury, and there doesn't appear to be anything wrong. I figured Middle J was probably too wiped out from all the blue runs and just needed to rest. The medic gave him an ice pack and let him rest for a while. After 15 minutes and some paperwork, Middle J said he's feeling better and was able to stand and walk. So, I grabbed his skis, poles, jacket, and ski pants, leaving my skis and poles there, and then walked with Middle J back over to Solstice Eatery. We found Hubby sitting inside the building with Little J sleeping on his shoulder. After dropping off Middle J, I walked all the way back to the First Aid office to retrieve my skis. I called my sister-in-law, and she said they're at the West Bowl lift. The boys wanted to go on another Beaver run. Rather than trudging with my skis and poles back up several flights of stairs or back up the slope to Solstice Eatery, I decided to hop on Grandview lift which was right across from the First Aid office, and then ski back down to Solstice Eatery. Woohoo! I flew down Sugar-N-Spice and Broadway at top speed.  Sooo nice not having to slow down or wait for the kids heehee :D 

When I made my way back to Hubby's table, he asked me, "What took you so long?" Haha. I just grinned and said, "Why would I want to trudge uphill or up stairs with my skis and poles when I can just ski back down instead?" Little J was still napping, and Middle J had taken some "pain killers" in the form of Ruffles cheese potato chips, haha. Hubby transferred the sleeping boy to me, and then went out to go ski. It just happened my sister-in-law and the boys came back at that moment. She was done, but the boys still wanted to ski more, so Hubby went with them. Little J woke up around 20 minutes later, and we passed the time with Middle J and Little J taking turns playing Hill Climb Racing on my phone. 

Around 3:30pm, Hubby and the boys finally came back, and we started packing up. After multiple restroom trips, we were finally on our way at 4:00pm. 10 minutes later, Middle J had to go pee again, and we had to pull over on the side of the winding road for him to pee in a bottle. We left a bit late this time, so we hit some traffic on the way back. We took a gas and restroom break in Elk Grove. Little J was fussy and wanted me to hold him and sit next to him, so I ended up being squeezed between the car seat and booster seat in the back again :/ It was gonna be pretty late if we drove home to eat dinner, so we ended up stopping at Com Tam Thien Huong to eat with the E family before heading home. 

Still rather eventful, but definitely an improvement over the previous trips, haha :)

Pictures & Videos

Following are some pictures that my sister-in-law and I took, and a couple videos of the boys skiing.







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