Tahoe 2012

Ski North Lake Tahoe with the Lewis Ski Club

Squaw Valley, Alpine Meadows, Northstar at Tahoe.

Lewis Ski Club North Lake Tahoe Trip Summary

With warm weather 40+ degrees in the forecast, 34 brave souls ventured a trip to Lake Tahoe, California from Feb. 11-18, 2012. We had ski friends from out of town (NY, NJ, and MO) and the rest flew out of Cleveland Hopkins. We were expecting spring skiing conditions, lack of snow, and were willing to make the best of it. However, the snow was so much better than we expected!!

We checked into the Silver Legacy Casino for the week and prepared for our first day of skiing at Northstar on Sunday. We boarded the bus from Northstar early in the morning and started looking at maps and deciding which runs to do 1st on the bus. When we arrived, Tom went and got lift tickets for everyone while they got ready. Ski Butler Rental came out to Northstar for those that needed rentals and they provided great services. Allen Porter had great things to say about how professional and awesome they were. A few of us, Tom , Lorraine , Dale, Cathe, and Marrianne, opted for a mountain tour from Northstar. Our tour guide, Cheryl, was pleasant and showed us some excellent runs. The cool thing was that if you are with the tour guide, you get to go in the express lines and get in front of everyone. Furthermore, Tom and Dave arranged for a $10 food voucher for everyone so lunch was taken care of. (Lunch was yummy, by the way!) All in all it was an excellent day. As we were leaving, we overheard some rumors of possible white gold the next day.

Sure enough, we had about 6-8 inches of white gold Monday at Squaw Valley. As we approached the ski resort, we were giddy with getting some fresh snow for the skis and boards. The powder was most excellent and we floated down from the peak. It al- most reminded of our experience with Powder Mountain in Utah last year. The part that was cool was when you are skiing on the groom runs and you hear the grinding of the skis/board on hard pack snow. As soon as you hit the powder, the crunch goes silent and you feel like you are floating on the fluffy snow. Ahh!! Truly magical. :o)

A bunch of us (Tom, Lorraine, Dale, Dave and Gary) learned what they meant when the sign said”expert only”. We took a ride on Granite Chief lift at Squaw Valley and getting down was quite an adventure. However, we made it down OK and decided that was not quite as enjoyable. We also heard other adventures (Sue Lan, Jim and Karen, Joe Z and John F) had an excellent time in all of the blacks and double black off trail at Squaw Valley. We live to ski another day!!

The 3rd resort we went to was Alpine Meadows. It was the coldest day of the trip. Alpine was smaller than Northstar and Squaw but was very nice, just the same. We had many excellent runs and were quite satisfied!!

Silver Legacy is connected to Circus Circus and El Dorado. We took advantage of the proximity and dine in a variety of cuisines from, Café Sedona, Brew Brothers, Tivoli Garden, Pho Mein, and Flavors the Buffets. We had our midweek party at the Eldorado Buffett. All the food was fabulous. I think everyone gained a few pounds!

As usual there were parting gifts and a prize raffle for the group. We had a picture party a few weeks after the trip to party HEARTY again. IT was another wonderful trip with excellent skiing/boarding, great food, making new friends and hanging out with old friends. Let’s do it again soon!!

Tom and Dave, trip coordinators.