Winter 2021
Well, they pulled it off. The ski resorts opened and remained open despite a state-wide lockdown to start the season. Unfortunately, snow reports were never anything to write home about and new terrain opened slowly; when it finally would there were still plenty of rocks to unintentionally customize skis on. Thankfully, La Niña kept things colder than usual and what little snow fell stuck around enough to hold us over until the next storm.
Just when the mountain started to fill in at the end of the holidays, my driving job at Squaw got the kibosh due to lack of funding. I was still ski instructing, but far fewer lessons than normal were going out so there wasn’t much work for me to do. In all honesty, it wasn't the worst thing in the world. I now had nothing but time to ski, drink beer and, well, not much else. On Tuesdays I took clinics with one of the best instructors in the country, eventually getting certified to teach telemark skiing which has improved my technical skill by several orders of magnitude. Style points have also climbed to an all time high. In the middle of January I started an EMT class down in Reno, and if nothing else, I’ve learned that hybrid learning doesn’t work so well.
The more time I spend in Tahoe, the more it seems to suck me in. I know, story as old as time. Making it work up year has been especially tough as housing prices have increased 50% in 2020 while availability has all but disappeared. It feels like every other day I hear about a local getting the boot. I love the community of North Lake Tahoe, but it would seem that it will be forever harder to live up here. This paired with with unexpectedly low income, aversion to indoor living and a very clearly altered climate has made me pretty darn antsy all season. Having a home base is great and all, but I miss the freedom of camping somewhere new each night.
This winter I’ve been able to justify it by busting-ass to improve my skiing and work on my EMT certification. Part-way through the winter, I solidified plans to attempt the Pacific Northwest Trail this summer, which has given me something to daydream about and scratches my itch for new gear. There’s no feeling quite like pre-hike jitters!
As one of the long range weather forecasters I follow recently said, “winter is dead”. We’ve still got plenty of spring skiing to do, but those pesky rocks poke through the snow a little more each day. Even though this winter wasn’t the most eventful, I got to ski just about constantly, spent a lot of quality time with new friends and had a blast laying low in the Sierra Nevada.
Despite my reservations about being in one place for too long, I find myself excited to come back next winter. I’ll be working Ski Patrol at Mt. Rose, the highest resort around the lake with some pretty darn cool terrain and plenty of avalanche blasting. Having something meaningful to occupy my winter months will help keep me fulfilled, and better yet, give me an excuse to run away in the summer.
Before COVID, I had figured my time in Tahoe was over and I would move on to somewhere new. Yet here I am, running into people I know in town and getting riled up over local government issues. It’s starting to feel like maybe, just maybe, I’ve got the makings of home out here.
Spring 2021
Ski, (occasionally) Rinse, Repeat