First snow of 2010

The Tahoe Women's Services ski day was offering Sugar Bowl ski tickets for $25, good only on Jan 10 2010. It was such a good deal, I could not resist.

This morning, I arrived at Sugar Bowl Judah Lodge at about 9:30am. Since I had a short 2009 ski season, so I decided to start on Pioneer Trail, a green slope. While I felt I had graduated from green slopes, I also had a short 2009 ski season. It was better to bruise my ego than risk injury:)

On the flat part of the run, I had difficult finding my form. I was having a lot of difficulty sliding my inside ski, but as the slope got slightly steeper, muscle memory kicked in and I was able to ski better.

My confidence boosted by a good green run, I went up to Trail blazer, a blue run. Here I really felt I got my form back. I was able to go down this slope without stopping and felt I had really good control.

I would like to add that the snow condition was pretty good. There was a little ice, but mostly skier packed snow.

After a few more runs on trail blazer, I decided to push it further by trying a short black run. I went back on Pioneer Trail, but instead of skiing it all the way down, I turned right at Donner's Way, a black slope.

Donner's way was probably as steep as the easy black slope on Kirkwood, so I felt very comfortable. Unfortunately, it was a really short black and I had to ski through mostly green trail to get there. I went down Donner's way twice before deciding to move to village lodge ski lifts.

At village lodge, I went up Christmas Tree Express and started skiing Mistletoe and Ridge run. Both these slopes were steep enough to make things interesting for me, but gentle enough where I could work on my form and technique. I would also add at this time, the snow had melted slightly and all the iciness I was experiencing earlier was gone!

After another 4-5 runs, I took a break for lunch.

After lunch, I felt pretty good and decided to try an even more difficult slope. I headed to Disney express, with the intention of skiing one of the black slopes there.

At the lift, I asked an employee which was the easiest black slope she would recommend. She told me to try Crow's Traverse, the easiest way down, but also a blue slope. I decided to follow her advice on the first run. Crow's Traverse was a longer run, with parts of it steeper than Mistletoe and Ridge run, so that was more fun. But the snow condition here was more icy, probably because the slope was away from the sun.

I decided I did not like the snow on Disney Express and went back to Christmas Tree Express. Worked another 4-5 run when I decided to take a break. I was still having a little jet lag and did not sleep well the night before. I could use a snooze.

After an hour break, I went back on Mistletoe and found my form was messed up again! My skills were clearly not very stable. Looking at the time, I figured I would ski back at Judah lodge. On the way back to the lift, my trail merge with Pioneer Trail and I saw Donner's way. Figuring I could use a short cut, I went down that way.

Suddenly, the slope looked really difficult. I was tentative skiing down Donner's way, wondering what had changed between the morning's run and this run.

I decided to try Donner's way again, and deliberately tried to start at the same location as the last run. I felt my concerns were mostly mental. When I psyched myself up, I was able to do a fairly clean run down Donner's way.

The lifts were closing at 4:30pm and it was about 4:15pm when I got down. I decided I wanted to do one more run before calling it a day. Feeling a little tired and not wanting to risk injury, I decided to do Trail Blazer one more time.

It was a good start to the season. I was happy to get my snow legs under me and felt I had regained most of last season's form. This was going to be a busy year and I hoped I would ski a few more times before the 2010 season is over.

In case you are wondering about the trails I mentioned, Sugar Bowl trail map can be found here.