Tahoe School Week II

When we returned to the States last August Lance quickly had us block off a week on our calendar for the second chapter of Tahoe School Week: during COVID when the kids were home schooling we spent a week in the mountains, skiing each morning and completing schoolwork each afternoon. We figured there was no point being holed up at home when the kids could do their schoolwork from anywhere! Everyone had such a blast back in 2021 we were all keen to do it again, so last weekend we jetted up to Tahoe for a week in the snow. It was spring conditions for the first few days – I was skiing in mountain biking gloves it was so warm last Monday – and a great way to enjoy having our two families back together. The eight of us celebrated Lisa’s birthday on the slopes fast groomers and lunchtime beers, can’t ask for more than blue skies and corduroy slopes to celebrate another year passing by!

Amy and Lisa bid the dads and kids goodbye to head back to Sonoma County for the work week, just before the spring conditions disappeared and a cold front moved in from the northwest. It was decidedly frigid: when we hopped on the gondola at Squaw on Wednesday morning the mercury read 5°F/-15°C. It was some of the coldest temps I’d skied anywhere, let alone in California. The first day of the cold front didn’t come with the best skiing conditions, as the spring temps from prior days coupled with a cold snap caused everything to ice over. Hot laps on groomers only while we waited for fresh snow…

Wednesday delivered us a few inches of cold snow, but not quite enough to call it a powder day. The icy crust from the day prior was only a couple of inches below the dusting of new snow, making for another freezing day sticking mostly to groomers on Squaw’s upper mountain. The wind started to kick up in the afternoon, closing down the upper mountain lifts one by one, so we headed to the lower mountain to the relative shelter of the trees along the Squaw Creek chair. A fun day, but it was a record for me on clothing layers: three merino wool thermals up top, then a wool jumper/sweater, polar fleece, down jacket and finally my shell jacket. Seven layers. I was toasty, but by no means overdressed! I wish I still had the circulation of a kid.

Stoke abounded on Thursday morning as we all peered out the windows of the cabin to see at least a foot of blower pow sitting on the decks and banisters outside. The frigid temps coupled with the storm’s trajectory from the northwest made for some excellent snow by Tahoe conditions: cold and light with very low moisture content. Everyone was amped to get amongst it. We arrived at Alpine Meadows before 9AM and waited for the lifts to open as the operations team dug out the chairs and monitored the winds. And then we waited some more… And waited… Waited… After three hours of sitting in the lodge playing charades and watching the kids boot race on the carpet we made the executive decision to drive over the ridge to Squaw, where most of the lower mountain lifts had opened about an hour prior (I won’t get too deep into my frustrations with the corporate mentality of the operations crew at Alpine this season, when time and time again the mountain has been closed while surrounding resorts have lifts spinning…). It was well worth the effort of driving over, as we spent the afternoon lapping cold smoke in the trees and bowls off Squaw Creek. Incredible conditions that had us on the slopes until lift closing.

The storm continued to dump light powder on us into the end of the week. Midweek skiing coupled with the freeways closed made for zero crowds, it an exceptional last day on the slopes back at Alpine Meadows on Friday. With 43 inches/110 centimeters of cold, fresh snow on the slopes the kids had to dial way back onto their tails just to keep their tips near the surface, turning only on the steepest of faces to slow themselves down. Little Max came zipping through the trees in chest-deep pow a few times (made me a little nervous that someone was going to get buried!). The kids were absolutely frothing with such good snow, only stopping to refresh their quads given so much backseat skiing in the often thigh-deep powder. I had a great time showing Lilia and Max Promised Land and Gentian Gully – portions of Alpine Meadows that are only worth skiing when there’s a lot of really cold snow that’s recently fallen – and some of the trees off Scott were untracked almost to the end of the day. February 24, 2023 will go down as a day for the ages.

All good things must come to an end, and after seven straight days on the slopes we finally had to head back to Sonoma County. Well, that was the plan: the visibility and heavy snow resulted in a huge wreck on the freeway heading west last Friday afternoon, and 16 minutes before we arrived at the freeway entrance in Truckee the road closed again. When it opened four hours later I thanked my lucky stars then we hadn’t been stuck on the road, and was also grateful to be able to hunker down in the Munselle cabin for one more night with Lance and the girls.

Such an awesome week, so much fun to have another family to ski with and to see all four kids progressing so well with their skiing. The kids aren’t going to want to spend a week on independent study with their dads for too much longer, but for now I hope we can at least do a third and hopefully fourth chapter of Tahoe School Week in years to come!