Decided to return to the two places I'd skied last week, since I didn't have my camera with me. Hit up Donner Summit first. The slope had refreshed due to Saturday's snow. Sadly, even with it having frozen overnight by the time I was skiing at 11 am, the snow was junky. I banged out 2 laps of 5 turns and called it. Then I headed back to Tahoe Meadows up near Mt. Rose. I arrived and was skinning shortly after 1:30. I pulled quite a fail within the first few minutes of the skin by following somebody else's track and subsequently found myself ankle deep in water. Since I didn't have extra socks, I manned up and completed the meager 20-minute skin with my feet sloshing around in my socks and boots: not fun. Even though there were several skin tracks and a few boot-packs out to the spot I'd skied the week before, when I finally reached the slope it was free of tracks. I skied a line, then dropped my pack, stashed a Saint Archer Pale Ale in the snow, and boot-packed back up for seconds. I cream-cheese 8'd my tracks and then booted up for thirds, this time starting a new line, which I eventually cream cheese 8'd. For my fifth, and final, lap, I skied a nice line through the trees. The snow which started out a bit heavier than it had been a week earlier, ended up being quasi-corn and worth the extra laps. I celebrated the afternoon with a beer, a sandwich, and a lazy snooze in the sun. My skin back to the truck took abotut 15-minutes and it was good to get the boots off and my wet and cold feet into some warm socks.
“The best place in the world to ski is where you’re skiing that day.” — Warren Miller
