Tahoe School Week III

When the powers that be decided to force the planet into remote schooling back in 2020/2021, we figured if we were going to be remote we might as well make the most of it and spend some of the winter in the mountains. The experience spawned Tahoe School Week, which we repeated with the Munselles again last year for Tahoe School Week II. Unfortunately our typical partners in crime have passes to a different resort this season, so for the third rendition of Tahoe School week it was mostly me and the kids for a week in the Sierras with a mid-trip cameo from Mum and Cheryl.

The Sierras had received plenty of snow by mid-February, but some warmer temps before our arrival made for groomers-only hot laps for the first couple of days. A series of storms moved into the mountains starting on Lisa and Cheryl’s second night and basically only stopped for a span of about six hours on Sunday. The Sunday gap made for an exceptional bluebird powder day for Lisa and Cheryl’s second day on the slopes. It was great to host Cheryl at the cabin for a few days: Lisa and I have shared so many amazing adventures with her, it was fitting that she be our second guest at Powder Haus for Lisa’s birthday weekend. We all enjoyed looking back the photos and reminiscing about Banff 15 years ago for Lisa’s thirtieth birthday when Cheryl joined us in Canada on one of our many trips with her.

The girls took a day off for an easy morning followed by some shopping in Truckee on day four. Max and I weren’t about to let seven inches of fresh snow pass us by, so had a boys day on the mountain while the girls window shopped. It was a fun day, but Max really needed some wide underfoot planks to combat the high moisture content snow. The little guy’s quads were mush by early afternoon! It was a great day nonetheless, always a good time when you can ski back to the car through the parking lot.

Lisa and Cheryl left us on day five: Cheryl had to get back to Arizona and Lisa was feeling the pull of the corporate world after being gone for a week in Colorado and then a few days in the Sierras. The storms kept coming though, delivering the tail end of more than four feet of fresh snow during our week in the mountains. Day five was a cracker of a day, with ankle deep powder covering the mountains and the long weekend crowds all back at the grind in the Bay Area. The kids and I skied fresh tracks through the trees off Crow’s Peak all morning with Dan Ransenberg and then enjoyed more trees and untracked lines down Lincoln in the afternoon. A great day, lots of smiles all round…

Mother Nature saved the best for last with almost a foot of cold smoke for our last day in the mountains. We woke to a blanket of beautiful white cloaking the deck and surrounding forest, took me a little bit to dig out the car before we were on the seventh chair up Jerome for some amazing first tacks. It was some great snow, so light that Wild Man was scoring face shots during the first few runs of the day. So much stoke! The three of us skied hard all morning on Judah, Jerome and Lincoln until everything was tracked out and the sun started peeking through the clouds to turn everything to mashed potatoes. No better way to finish off the week than with such good snow. There’s something about Tahoe School Week and the week of Presidents’ Day: third time with some incredible conditions!