Day 2

Continued from Part 1…. Saturday morning we ventured to the highest altitude resort in Tahoe, Mount Rose. Most resorts were reporting 23 feet of fresh snow in January. Mount Rose got 30 feet. It was apparent from when we first pulled into the lot that this resort was a “local” mountain. They still have the hang-tag lift tickets and everything. The traditional crowd and vibe was just the icing on the cake (the cake being the conditions and terrain). Most of the locals that we met were from Reno, which made sense, since Reno was entirely visible from the top of the “Northwest” lift. Mount Rose is like the Two Face character from Batman. On one side of the resort there are a series of gnarly chutes that stay buttery soft from being in the shade all day long. On the other side of the mountain, you have Slide Bowl, which is wide open groomers with a party at the bottom.

Yeah, there was a full blown biergarten at the bottom of Slide Bowl with $2 beers and $2 brats. In New York prices that is basically negative 10 dollars for all you can eat and drink. The DJ was alternating between polka and trap tunes. As if the high altitude beers and jams weren’t enough, Mount Rose held a stein race open to all of those bold enough to compete. As far as midday ski breaks go, it was basically heaven. Our boy Mike Pierce was the master of ceremony; rocking lederhosen, filling steins and calling out the races. Vibe was so nice and family friendly that we almost felt like Tahoe adoptees.

After two solid days of riding north lake, we packed up our board bags and headed to south lake. The scenery along the way was bananas. It was all I could do to keep my eyes on the road. We hit a nice horseshoe bend right before dusk and pulled off to take a couple of snaps. Mind you, we had to climb over a 10 foot bank of snow to get these images. Worth it. Also try not to judge base layer outfits too much.

Saturday evening we arrived in south lake. We checked into Hotel Becket. This recently reno’ed boutique gem was exactly what we were looking for after two straight days shredding the gnar. For those seeking a raucous nightclubby scene, it is probably not the spot to choose. If you are looking for mellow lodging that is uber-proximate to the Heavenly gondola, you can’t do much better. After checking in we wandered around Heavenly Village for a bit before ultimately dining at the new pub-restaurant at the Becket. When I say new, I mean it was literally the first night that they were actually open since the renovation. The staff were a handful of locals that looked like agency models wearing flannel. For apps, we had the wings and the fried pickles. Both were delicious. Hard to mess up fried food. But very good, just the same. Main course-wise I went for the chicken sando and a locally brewed IPA that was on tap. I was not disappointed. With food in our bellies and smiles on our faces, we retired for some much needed sleep.

Introduction:

To a lot of people it probably seems silly to leave NYC in the dead of winter to visit somewhere that is possibly just as cold, if not colder. Most of my friends here in the city  go somewhere warm to take a break from the cold during the winter months. Those are my friends who: all winter long wear Canada Goose jackets (even when it is like 40+ degrees) and only go to bars that have fireplaces. Don’t get me wrong, I like bars with fireplaces too. But I also think that there are better ways to enjoy the winter than holing up and ordering Seamless between the months of October and April. I like winter sports. Maybe it is because I grew up in Salt Lake, where the outdoors are very accessible. Whatever the reason, I enjoy flying down a mountain on a piece laminated wood just as much now as when I was a youngster in SLC. It is just my luck that my lady friend does too.

Snowboarding trips can pose some challenging logistics for New Yorkers. There are no “real” mountains (sorry, Appalachians/Catskills) for a couple of thousand miles. Even for those riders who don’t necessarily care about riding big mountains, Vermont is still a 5 hour drive, only to deal with the prevalent “east coast hard pack” snow conditions (AKA, ice).

Ever since Jetblue added a direct flight from JFK to Reno, I have been jonesing to book a Tahoe trip. Flying for 5 hours to real mountains and good snow > driving for 5 hours to ride small icy hills. “Why not just do Denver?” you may ask. Because depending on when you land and which resort you are going to, you may end up doing 4+ in the air and then another 4 in the car. If you want to go to more than one resort.. forget about it. Not the ideal way to spend a long weekend, IMO. Then there is Salt Lake. It is awesome and will most likely always be my “home” mountain. But because of that, it rarely seems like much of a getaway. So last weekend B and I finally made the Tahoe trip happen. This is the story.

Day 1

I guess that I should actually start with day -1. Thursday evening after work I took the E train from midtown to the Airtrain and met B at JFK. B works from home a lot of the time, so she was able to grab an UBER XL and meet me at Terminal 5 with all of our gear. She is gangster. I watched a couple of movies on the flight, she mostly worked. Free in-flight WiFi is a gift and a curse. When we landed in Reno, we picked up a rental jeep at the airport and drove for about 30 minutes to North Lake Tahoe’s Hyatt Regency at Incline Village, where we would stay for the first two nights.

After checking in, we sipped our complimentary glasses of champs while chatting up the weather to David, the bell hop on duty. In this case, “weather” meant the 20+ day snow storm that had just come through the Sierra Nevada range leaving a very deep blanket of fresh snow for us to explore over the next four days. Even though the Hyatt isn’t ski in/ski out, it made sense for us to stay there since we would be riding two different resorts at north lake. Both were a quick drive from Incline Village.

It wasn’t difficult to wake up before the sun on Friday, since we were still on New York time. In the daylight we caught our first breathtaking glimpses of the lake in the winter. The sun was just cresting the eastern ridge as we made our way to Squaw Valley. We rolled into the parking lot about 30 minutes before the lifts started running. The meadow at the base of the mountain was still socked in with overnight river fog. It felt otherworldly.

B and I picked up our lift tickets and met up with our North Face Mountain Guide, Karl near the base of Squaw’s funitel. We were lucky enough to grab one of the first cars and arrived at the mid-mountain lifts before anyone else. Powder was abundant and the corduroy groomers squeaked against the ptex. All of this, plus bluebird skies to boot got my blood going. Conditions were dreamy and so was the terrain.

Having Karl to show us the mountain was a game changer. Squaw is huge. Trying to learn this mountain on my own would have taken 3 or 4 days of riding. We ended up riding all of the mid-mountain lifts, the funitel and the tram. My favorite terrain was the Headwall zone. There were wide open steep turns and pow in the trees, all packed into a single run.

We rode until the lifts closed, then hit Le Chamois for apres. It has basically everything you need after a long day of riding: pizza, beer, fire pit, classic rock. We made our way back to the Hyatt in time for sundown and went straight into the outdoor hot tub. As we watched the steam rise up toward the stars at the end of our first day, B and I were already questioning to each other what exactly it was that we loved so much about NYC.