Powder Haus Spring Guests

Max misses out on spring break this year (I guess you could say he’s been on spring break for three months now!), but it was certainly spring weather this last week as a bomb of a high pressure system engulfed the Central Sierra. The temps were incredible, more like summer than spring: last Friday it was an astonishing 83°F/28°C down in Truckee. It broke through 70°F multiple times up at the ski resort, which was not a good thing for whatever snow we had left from the Powder Week storm back in February. Lilia was on her spring break Down Under, but the three stateside Valtenbergs enjoyed a slew of guests at Powder Haus under the blue skies.

After an action packed few days for the Tahoe Junior Freeride Series IV comp over in Nevada, the three of us were very pleasantly surprised by an impromptu visit from Jarrid to start off the week: I think Lisa and Max telling him they pegged the probability of him coming to visit at 0% – coupled with the fact it was Saint Patrick’s Day – kicked him into gear. It’d been quite a few years since Jarrid had been on the snow, but he’s annoyingly adept at pretty much anything athletic and was schussing down the spring slopes of Sugar Bowl like a pro in short order. We enjoyed cocktails at the T-Club, Irish car bombs at the Old 40 Bar and Grill on Saint Patrick’s Day, and of course enjoyed plenty of good times back at Powder Haus during his short stay. Last pic below is of Jarrid’s hand following a slide on the ice down Donald Duck: he forgot to bring his ski gloves and we all figured with the warm temps he’d be fine with bare hands!

On Wednesday, after an early morning uphill session with Meaghan (and a bare knuckled, bloody slide on the ice for me on the way up!), we shot down to Reno International Airport to grab Cheryl. The last time Cheryl was on the slopes was actually almost two years ago to the day, her first visit to Powder Haus during Tahoe School Week III. So fun to see her, unsurprisingly dressed to the nines when I grabbed her from baggage claim and ready for a multi-stop trip back to the summit via Truckee’s main street, with beers at RMU and cocktails at the T-Club on the way. Fun catching up on her happenings and reminiscing about all the adventures – from Fiji to Yosemite to Australia to Nashville to New Orleans – we’ve shared with her over the years.

Given it’d been two years since Cheryl had been on the slopes she was content just spend one of her days with us skiing Sugar Bowl. The groomers were icy after the overnight freeze, but they softened up for her by 10AM and she breezed down the slopes like she’d been on them the day prior. A soak in the tub was certainly on the docket for all three of us after pushing the spring slush around in the afternoon warmth!

DL Bliss State Park is a spot I’d been wanting to visit since Paris mentioned it to me a while back. It’s a pretty small state park – as state parks go – but is home to a handful of quintessential Tahoe coves so I thought it’d be a fun spot for a hike while Cheryl took a day off from the slopes. With the park closed for the winter season we had the place to ourselves, pretty magic overlooking Calawee Cove with its submersed granite boulders and turquoise water. Cheryl and I couldn’t resist the temptation to take a dip, even though the water was so cold it felt like our lungs stopped functioning once we were in.

We took the long way home via Kings Beach with a late lunch at Whitecaps Pizza overlooking the sand. I don’t think I’d ever driven through Kings Beach prior to when we passed through on the way to Max’s recent comp at Mount Rose, will definitely have to venture down there this summer for a swim, such a great spot there on the north shore of Tahoe. We were 30-or-so minutes early to grab Max from school so finished our day with a couple of libations at our favorite summit bar overlooking the dirt of Donner Ski Ranch. California ski seasons: feast or famine.

We bid the girls goodbye early Saturday morning as they set off for San Francisco International Airport: Cheryl was due to fly back to Phoenix and Lilia was landing on a flight from Australia within an hour of each other. We managed to organize a long overdue ski day for Max and Cam after the girls left, Max’s excitement at the chance to ski with one of his oldest friends definitely helped to dull the blow of saying goodbye to Lisa once again. I skied with the two of them for a bit early in the day, but bumped into the Cullertons on the slopes and took the opportunity to leave the kids alone for the rest of the day to enjoy themselves just the two of them. Max was pumped to be able to tour Cam around the resort until close to closing, the two of them were like kindergartners as they horsed around the tub pre-dinner. Stoked we could pull it together for the two of them!

To cap off our week of guests, Kevin and his kids paid us a quick visit on Sunday night. They joined us on our Sunday burger pilgrimage to RMU and lapped the resort until closing today, not a ton of snow left for them to enjoy on the green runs but I heard Colette had a blast.

Whew! What a week of guests! A ton of fun to be able to host everyone up here on the summit… More spring temps in our immediate future, which does not bode well for the snow: Judah chair closed for the season on Saturday – the runs are now mostly dirt after the high temps last week – and there’s no longer a way to ski between the two sides of Sugar Bowl. There’s still plenty of snow up high on Disney and Lincoln, and north-facing aspects are still flush with white. I just hope the two feet in store next week is indeed snow and not non-frozen precipitation, we may get lucky with just one more storm before we’re done for the season… Fingers crossed!