California Skiing

Two days ago we were sweating in the desert, and now we are skiing in the snow in the mountains. California is pretty awesome, with only an hour's drive between such different terrain!

We have been carrying around our snow ski wardrobe for the last two years. It was finally time to open up that suitcase, and see if that stuff still fit. We turned on the air-conditioner, and felt a little silly trying on snow ski pants when it was 95 degrees outside. It's hard to make good decisions about what to wear in the snow when you have been wearing shorts for a week. This morning we had our clothes laid out, because we were up early to make the 36-mile drive to the mountain. We don't often see the sun rise through the car windshield, but we did this morning.

We were at the ski rental shop by 7:30 a.m., picking up our boots, skis and poles. Mark found an on-line coupon, and equipment for both of us together came to a whopping $35. This is going to be the least expensive ski trip ever! We drove to Snow Summit Ski Resort's parking lot to get our free lift tickets, and there was almost no line at the ticket office on this Tuesday morning.

We were suited up and in the ski lift line before it opened at 9:00.

That means we were on the first ski run of the day by 9:05. Snow Summit grooms its runs every night, and we could certainly see and feel those icy ridges on the first run of the day.

As we made a trip up another chair lift, we could see the crystal blue water of Bear Lake in the valley below.

There were never any lines at the chair lifts. So all day we skied down the mountain, and jumped on the next chair to take us back to the top.

We found out that Snow Summit was busy getting ready for a special guest today. No, it wasn't a retired couple from Oklahoma. They were hosting two-time gold-medal snowboarder Shaun White. They were grooming a snowboard run that was closed to the public, making sure it was perfect for a film shoot with the Olympian.

The jump ramps looked crazy tall to us! We noticed that they were adding Snow Summit logos to the side of the snow ramps. Before the filming started there would be more flags and stickers added from another sponsor--Oakley.

We talked to one of the workers here that said it looked like Shaun could end up in the chair lift if he missed his mark coming off these ramps.

We never got to see any of the filming, but we did see plenty of the nice runs at Snow Summit. We ski blue and green runs, but we decided that California's definitions are different that those we are used to on Colorado mountains. Because they groom all the trails daily, we didn't see any moguls all day. Those bumps of snow can make a blue ski run difficult. But the only thing difficult about these blue slopes were the icy ridges, and keeping our concentration with the beautiful views around us.

Snow Summit has chairlifts, but we found several weren't running on this low-usage weekday. But we still found plenty of runs to keep us busy. We loved the smell of pine as we skied down this green trail.

There are tall trees on this mountain, including this big guy at the top of one of the chair lifts. The elevation at the top of the mountain was 8,200 feet--quite a bit higher than the 900 feet desert we came from yesterday. It's a good thing that neither of us have altitude-sickness, because we certainly didn't give our bodies time to adjust to this new height.

There were plenty of ski jumps throughout the resort that were not as extreme as the ones prepared for Shaun White. We watched as the snow boarders got some air as they popped over the top.

Mark usually would have done some jumping, but we were skiing very carefully. Our daughter-in-law just had knee surgery after a snow ski injury last month. We were both thinking of her as we skied. So this is a picture of another daring jumper--not us.

We enjoyed our skiing at Snow Summit. With high temperatures in the 60's, the icy groomed snow turned into something softer that reminded us of new snow. Their process of grooming is working to stretch the early snowfalls into March skiing. There is dirt showing off the trails, but they still have all the trails open now.

There was never a line at the chair lift, and we suddenly realized we seemed to have the trails to ourselves too.

This picture proves just how empty the runs were by the afternoon. Denisa is that happy little speck on the trail, not having to worry about dodging any other skiers today.

With no lines and no traffic on the slopes, we had tried every run at least once by early afternoon. That's when we decided to try a spin on the sister ski slope at Bear Mountain resort. Our free lift ticket was good at both ski resorts. So we drove the 2 miles to Bear Mountain, and got to see a second California mountain! 

We had heard that Bear Mountain is popular with snowboarders, and we soon saw that many of their runs were littered with snow boarding jumps and slides. It was hard for a skier to find a way down some of the slopes. But this is the ski resort where the gold medal snowboarder Shaun White grew up, so they might understandably be partial to the boarders.

When we changed mountains, we left our gloves and jackets in the car. With no wind, and 60-degree sunshine, we certainly didn't need either.

Bear Mountain's mountain tops are a little taller than Snow Summit. But even at the peak, the snow was gone where they aren't grooming and making snow. So we had to take a picture of the bear alone on Bear Mountain because we couldn't ski over to him.

We found out that most of the lifts closed at 3 p.m. and we were really tired by that time anyway. So we made our final run to the bottom before our tired legs caused us to crash. We were blessed to be injury-free for the day, not counting Denisa's clumsy fall when she hit a rough spot.  She'll wear that bruise on her hip proudly, just glad that we won't have any hospital time from our day in the snow.

This was a great day of skiing, and we appreciate the free lift tickets that made it possible. We also could camp 36 miles from the slope, so our travel time was minimal. If we had rented our equipment at the resort and paid for our lift tickets, this day of fun would have cost us around $275. We think it was even more fun because we only spent $35! That's great California skiing!