Lake Tahoe

I left South Beach at the end of February and flew into Houstin to catch up with Chad for his birthday and to see Kawika. From Houston I also took the bus up to Austin to see some friends there. From Texas I mad my way over to San Francsisco on which the next day promptly left for Lake Tahoe to go snow skiing. The last time I went skiing was September of 2000, and that then was the only second time I had ever gone skiing.There was five of us. William, Kevin, Alex, Michelle and myself.

Day One: After the normal who-ha of renting ski's, boots and poles We hit the slopes around 10am. I was pleaseantly suprised on how well I was skiing, considering the lapse in time since my last experience. I wasn't very good nor had the confidence all those years ago, but back then a friend took the time out to teach me some of the little things that made a world of difference. So this weekend I took my time and remembered back to all these little things that I was shown and taught and away I went. It may not have been graceful, but I was in control and was having a ball. The sun was out the air was warm, the snow conditions were perfect and there weren't many people on the slopes. Kevin had gone off to a green course to practice snowboarding while the rest of us were skiiers. I use that term loosely. Alex and Michelle are very accomplished skiiers while William and I had not skiied in years. The four of us skiied as a pack. Alex and Michelle would head off first and wait for us midway down so we could regroup and then attack the second half of the course together. The runs were wide so I meandered down taking wide turns and just enjoying the experience. We even did the Black Diamond runs We skied for four hours before breaking for lunch. I purposely withheld from having a beers over lunch so as not to have alcohol in the system as my legs were tired, in fact my thighs were buring.

After lunch we headed back up to the top. I was sharing a chair lift with Michelle and during the trip up he was scouring the runs looking for something new. He spotted one and boy did it look difficult from the chair lift. Michelle reassured me that it just looked like that from above and that it wasn't that bad. Remember Michelle is a very good skiier. We jump off the chair and the four of us ski down to the beginning of the run. At the top of the run I again made a point on how steep the run was and how narrow it was, but this time Alex reassured me that it was fine, another very good skiier. Now after having such a success in the first half of the day I thought I would be cocky and go first, to show these boys that I could actually ski. So away I went. I made the first turn, my legs were sore, I struggled through the second turn, for the love of god my legs were tired and sore, I went for the tird turn and boom down I go, face first, on my stomach. But thats not where it ends. We are on a STEEP slope and the snow is quite icy, so with the momentum I had I continued on down hill head first. Arms outstretched, legs and ski's spread eagled and boy was I moving. Under the chair lift I went for all above to see and as Im heading down I think to myself 'stay away from the trees'. With my hands I am trying to both stop myself and steer myself. As I'm digging my palms into the icy snow, its being kicked back into my face. I start to turn around and next thing I know I am going down backwards and I have lost a ski. As I'm looking back up the hill I see Alex skiing down after me yelling assurance that everything was ok. "Just keep going' he yells. I didnt have a choice, there was no stopping my from barrelling down this hill and a pace that even Alex couldn't keep up with. I try digging my last ski into the icy snow but all that did was to again rotae me around so again I has head first. Arms out stretched and snow being kicked up into my face. A wall of snow is now building up on my face. It started at the chin, it past my mouth and now my sunglasses were cover. I could not see shit, and I was still on the go. I finally came to a rest three quaters of the way down the slope. Snow all down the front of my ski jacket and a face mask made out of solid ice. Alex skiied up to me asking if I was hurt. I wiped away the wall of snow from my face and Alex said all he could see was this huge smile on my face. I sat myself up, looked back up the hill and yelled out 'did anyone get that on film'.

I didnt ski after that. My legs were tired and sore and that huge experience sort of knock the confidence out of me. I sat back at the lodge in the sun just relaxing. Needless to say I got sunburnt from sitting there.

Our humble snow cottage


with spa



William and I at the top with the Lake behing us


William and Alex


Michelle


Michelle and Alex


The group