Jenn & Colin (#FoleyBoyd): February 2013

Finally after living in California for over two years, we booked a weekend trip to ski/snowboard up at Lake Tahoe. This is yet another weekend road trip for Colin and I. They’re just too easy to come by while living in arguably the most outdoorsy diverse state in the U.S. While trying to save money at our buddy’s place, we ended up booking a weekend rental in South Lake Tahoe. We used the site vbro.com and it ended up being a really great experience. Colin and I had a low key Valentine’s Day celebration on Thursday night, packed up everything we’ll need for a weekend in the snow, and went over to Cole and Dan’s house to spend the night since our estimated time of departure was 4:30 AM the next morning.

We drove the 10 plus hours up to our rented house in two cars and made it up North around 5:00PM, after purchasing way too much food at a Costco. Our weekend consisted of playing games, drinking beers, hitting up two mountains, and unsuccessfully getting the hot tub hot enough to enjoy. Our first day skiing was at Heavenly Resort. The views were stunning on this mountain. I’ve been trying to learn how to snowboard the past couple of years. I decided to ski these mountains because I hadn’t skied since college. As soon as I put the skis on and got off the first lift, I knew that I would never snowboard again. I kept stopping and staring out into the mountains around Lake Tahoe just trying to burn the image into my memory. Surprisingly, this ski resort was not as crowded as expected. After experiencing the crowds and wait time at Big Bear and Mammoth, this was very enjoyable. The snow fall was minimal before we got there, but the conditions were still great. It was sunny and no wind, which I feel is the best conditions to hit the slopes.

Colin and I at Heavenly Resort

The group at Heavenly. Colin, Kelly, Dan, Cynthia, and Cole.

We ended up going to bed pretty early that night. We were all exhausted from skiing/snowboarding all day and we had another early morning ahead. The next day we all dragged our sore/hungover selves out of bed and headed out to another resort a half hour away to enjoy Kirkwood. The drive to this mountain was very beautiful, like usual on our drives. This mountain was absolutely amazing and might be my favorite ski resort to date. The lift lines were oddly empty and the runs were really long. The trails were wide open, it seemed as if there were no marked trails and you could just freestyle the mountain if you pleased. It’s really nice to have a run alone and not worry about people crashing into you or getting mad at you if you take a break to relax and take in the view. The conditions were again perfect with the sun shining and no wind. The weekend was very enjoyable and I wish to ski in Tahoe again in the future. I would recommend skiing Heavenly and snowboarding Kirkwood if you have a choice. Heavenly can have some really flat areas. Also, any skill level can have a really fun day at both of these mountains, but Kirkwood is definitely great for those expert skier/snowboarders out there. I can’t wait to go back!