2009 Ski Season: Day 9

Great Expectations
Originally uploaded by dmourati

Location: Sierra-at-Tahoe
Conditions: Powder

A storm dropped 10+ inches of fresh at Sierra. We were watching the weather reports carefully and knew the storm was coming so we signed up for the Sunday trip to coincide with the best snow conditions.

It was an awesome powder day all over the mountain. West bowl was a bit crowded in the morning due to a race being held at Sierra. We did a few laps on West bowl, then headed to the front side for some more action. Castle was rocking and the Gates looked very promising. We headed to the backside to explore a bit.

Jodi and I were cruising along in a progressive terrain park when I spotted some tracks off to the left hand side leading to the powder. I shouted to her that we would meet at the bottom and I followed the tracks to the promised land. We're talking 2+ feet of untracked snow as far as the eye could see. Some of it was pretty flat but it was still fun to ski the powpow. I had a few wipeouts from going too fast and hitting snow drifts. Tired, I kept skiing all along in the powder. I eventually came to the lift but I realized it was NOT RUNNING. Shit, I thought, I had better find the other lift. I kept skiing along, following the trail out when I came to a clearing with a ton of tracks heading to my right. Then, I spotted two snowmobiles heading right for me. One snowmobile came right up to me. The driver had on a Sierra Tahoe jacket on. I removed my goggles to talk to him.

D: "Hey, am I at least going in the right direction?"
Snowmobiler: "This entire area is closed."
D: "Shit, really? I was in the terrain park on the back side and I saw some tracks going off to the side."
Snowmobiler: "There's always going to be tracks."
D: "Where's the other lift?
Snowmobiler: "They closed both backside lifts."
D: "Oh no."
Snowmobiler: "I knew some people would wander back here, so I've just been hanging out here."
D: "I have to tell you, that was some of the best skiing I've had all season."
Snowmobiler: "Yea, I bet."
D: "How do I get out of here."
Snowmobiler: "Well, I can offer you a tow."
throws me a line off the back of the snowmobile
Snowmobiler: "Best thing to do is to put your ski poles through the loop and hang on."
D: rides up the mountain, towed by a snowmobile, smiling ear to ear
Snowmobiler: "Have fun."
D: Thanks for the lift!

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