New Year's Trip 2001-2002 - Lake Tahoe
Sunday, December 30, 2001 - Tuesday, January 1, 2002 - Lake Tahoe
After leaving Death Valley, we were well on
way to Lake Tahoe with the primary mission being spending New Years with good
friends and wishing David and Betsy the best on their very recent marriage as
I previously described. After departing from the lovely town of Walker,
and with a stop at Heidi's on the way for breakfast - a traditional small town
Swiss-style eatery, we arrived at the party cabin in Tahoe to find it empty.
David and Betsy rented two cabins - a "party house" and a "dog
house". We rightly assumed that most of the action would take place at
the party house. Our first idea was that everyone was skiing, but we soon discovered
that Cookie was at the cabin and asleep, and the others had either not arrived
yet or gone off to gamble. As we had exhausted our gambling in Las Vegas, Amie
and I decided to kill a few hours geeking out - me writing up a chunk of the
text you are currently reading, and Amie learning PhotoShop so that she can
put together her web site.
People finally started in the evening and the hanging out commenced. We were
not supposed to have beds due to an overabundance of people, but sadly Greg
and Lisa had to bail out as Shay was feeling sick. This gave us the unexpected
pleasure of having a bed to sleep on in the doghouse. The big downside was that
we would not see Greg/Lisa/Shay, and Pluto (David and Betsy's affectionate pooch)
would have nobody to play with.
Hanging out entailed several activities on the first evening. I was initiated
in the evil Nintendo Gamecube game that Maneesh provided us with (and eventually
withdrew due to its addictive nature) that we affectionately called "sweaty
monkey balls". It was a 4-player party game, and we were video-game playing
geeks, so the match was complete. Several folks made a yummy dinner, Amie, Cookie
and others slaved over a jigsaw puzzle in the kitchen, and everyone joined in
a never-ending game of Trivial Pursuit towards the end of the evening. The night
was completed for some of us with a trip to the hot tub and a drive over to
our crash pad at the dog house.
Vadim: Skiing
Despite a late night, I decided that an opportunity for skiing could not be
passed up on a beautiful New Year's Day. At 7:15 am, I awoke to my backup alarm
(David and Betsy's did not go off as expected 5 minutes earlier), and we prepared
for our ski adventure. Amie decided to pass and slept in for a few more hours
before going hiking in the snow with Dusty, Cookie, and Rob.
In the meanwhile, David, Betsy and myself set off on our day of skiing. The
weather was freezing overnight, and after the rain / snow of the day before,
things were rather slippery when we first got out. Being not fully awake, I
took my first and most serious spill of the skiing day - on the steps going
to the car at the dog house. It's 3 days since as I write this, and the bruise
from the fall is still reminding me of its presence.
While renting skis, Betsy decided to be a most gracious hostess. Not wanting
to see a guest (me) be feel so clumsy after taking a spill, she joined me by
falling on an elbow on the sidewalk. Really, that wasn't necessary, but I truly
felt well cared for at that point. I was even starting to feel a little guilty
about cutting in front of Betsy in the ski rental line a few minutes prior.
;)
The second car of skiers - Dan, Jake, and Maneesh, were supposed to call earlier
in the morning, but had not. A pattern for the day was established when they
just happened to be driving up to the slopes as we returned to the car with
our skis - they stopped to meet up. After arriving at Alpine Meadows on a beautiful
December morning, we split up to get our tickets, and again just happened to
run into each other. Maneesh had to rent skis, but the other 5 of us took off
to the lift.
Everyone's skill level skiing amazed me. Betsy looked like she had been born
on skis, David was speedy gonzales on his snowboard (going through trees with
no fear), Dan carved a very clean line, Jake refused to be intimidated by small
things like steeps, moguls, or trees, and Maneesh skied his first moguls ever
(on 6 runs!). All I could do was tag along and try to keep going without slowing
down the group.
Following the streak of random encounters, just as we were trying to call for
Maneesh on the walkie-talkie, he skied right in front of our noses, joining
in for a couple of runs. The group splintered shortly before lunch with David
and Jake going one way, Betsy and Maneesh another, and Dan and myself getting
in a couple more runs before lunch. We were started to worry as more than 30
minutes passed from our designated lunch gathering time and David and Jake were
still unaccounted for. About 45 minutes late, they strolled in and told us of
their tale going off to ski the trees, going too far down, hiking back up and
taking a couple of unexpected lifts to get back to the lodge.
As Jake, Dan, Maneesh and myself took off to ski more, David and Betsy waited
at the lodge for a bit, and it paid off. They ran into Martin and Louise there,
who came a little later to join in. Weather in the afternoon degraded somewhat,
but it was still very skiable. I skied 'til the lifts stopped moving, and while
definitely out of shape, it felt good to get in a day on the snow. Several inches
of new snow had fallen overnight, and though it was much too hard to call powder,
it was still a pleasure to make many new tracks.
Martin and Louise joined us at the lodge later - Louise successfully skied
her first intermediate run, but her rental skis broke a binding en route.
The final random encounter of the day happened as I was sitting enjoying the
post-skiing glow in the lodge. Who else should come strolling by than Andrew,
the CEO of Sports Futures, where
I work in New York. Neither of us had any idea that the other would be there
- what are the odds of running into a coworker from a 7-person company in New
York City while skiing at Alpine Meadows in Lake Tahoe? Small world indeed.
Amie: Hiking
Meanwhile...
Off the for hikers went to seek out trails in the mountains surrounding this
beautiful lake. But first the hunt was on for a map of the local hiking trails.
The hikers opted to drive towards Kings Beach in search of a visitors center
to find a map. Uncertain if the town even had a visitors center, we found a
AAA office which worked just as well once they verified Dusty's membership (since
Amie had left her AAA card in the car). Driving and hiking maps in hand, we
decided to make for the closest trail head which was just outside of Tahoe City.
But we had forgotten one simple thing. It was New Years Eve in Tahoe. It took
us over double the usual time to get to Tahoe City as the main highway around
the lake was bumper to bumper. Finally, after a missed turn which resulted in
some driving which made us thankful that we took my 4-wheel drive, we made it
to the trail head. Even though the trail was ungroomed, we decided to give it
a try. The four of us made it slowly up the hill. Our progress was comical because
we kept sinking in the snow, sometimes up to our stomachs. We learned that you
had to watch for small branches in the snow because they were actually trees
that were buried and the snow was even less compacted around them leading to
serious quicksnow. It was amazing how much energy it took to dig yourself out
of the snow with every step. But each one was well worth it. As we got higher
we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the lake and the surrounding mountains.
Dusty scouted ahead and we decided to make it a short hike because the trail
did not get any better compacted further up. I decided to try an easier descent
by sledding down the hill on my ski pants. Didn't get much speed, but it worked
pretty well. I slid my way all the way down the asphalt road at the bottom.
Ouch. ;) We were all energized after playing a bit in the snow, but we were
also wet, so we decided to head back to the cabin to dry off a bit.
Back at the cabin, dry again, I curled up in the couch in front of the fire
with my book until the rest of the group started trickling in.
Back Together
The skiers returned to the party house to find that many others had arrived.
After greeting all around, the skiers soaked for several well-deserved minutes
in the hot tub before dinner. Another wonderful dinner was prepared by the kitchen
contingent, and the night of New Year's Eve with friends commenced in earnest.
There was much catching up, card games, Sweaty Monkey Balls, a couple of games
of Uno (Amie won the first! ;) and general merriment into the late hours.
David
and Betsy brought their video from the gift grab - aka wedding - which Amie
and I sadly missed. The video was the edited version, and Cookie and Dusty filled
us in on the missing gap in good humor. Following the video, several superb
toasts to David and Betsy were raised (and one inept one by yours truly). We
did plenty of toasting, but were far from running out of wine or champagne,
as you can see by the champagne collection waiting in the snow.
There
were also lots of pictures taken throughout the evening as digital cameras flashed
everywhere, and a few film ones as well. We even had a traditional style group
photo opportunity - it's rare to get such a big group together. Here
are the Tahoe photos.
As we celebrated New Years across the different time zones of the US, lots of
great wine and champagnes drunk, but the supplies were far from depleted. Rob
lead us in a sorrowful moment of silence in remembrance of Donna, who most certainly
would have been in attendance. Then Glenn presented the newlyweds with the group
gift - an MP3 player with memory galore to get them off on the right foot for
the planned driving around the country adventure.
Finally, we broke up the folks into two groups for a very close game of charades
before Amie and I retired for the night to the dog house. The others went off
for the first gambling of the season - a true completion to a New Year's celebration.
The plan was to leave by noon, but as we got up at 11:30 am, that was not going
to happen. Packing quickly, we made the sad rounds of good-byes and headed back
to Santa Rosa as Amie had to work on the 2nd and I had to fly back to New York
on the redeye that day. Upon arrival we had discovered that the packing was
a little too quick - we had mistakenly taken Tammy and Shaham's ski bag
with us to Santa Rosa. I felt horrible for denying them the right to ski, I
hope to get a chance to take them to the slopes some other time to make up for
it.
It was awesome to spend New Year's Eve with great friends - and all the best
to the newlyweds!
Hope you have a great 2002! Please email me
with comments. All the best,
-Vadim
