Hi all -- I just had to bump this topic up, because of where I just came from. We just got back from a four-day ski trip to Mammoth Mountain (in the Sierra Nevadas), and you wanna talk about flakes falling? Holy moly, they got over four FEET of snow while we were there! No exaggeration, I swear. The first flakes started falling right when we arrived, and it never stopped for the entire time. And it's still snowing up there! They are anticipating getting between 8 and 10 feet of snow by the time this massive storm is over. I grew up in Connecticut and experienced some pretty major blizzards in my time, but nothing to match this.
The skiing was indescribable. The snow was falling at such a fast rate that you could ski down a slope on pure virgin powder, take the lift up and then ski down the same slope on...pure virgin powder, the only tracks being from those few skiers within eyeshot ahead of you. Unfortunately, it was also f-f-f-freezing, and the wind at times was so strong it actually blew me right over a couple of times. But, while it was snowing heavily the entire time, the wind wasn't always blowing, so there were long periods of just ideal skiing, best I've ever experienced.
We were leery about leaving this morning, as the storm was actually getting worse. (I just saw on the website that the mountain has now closed most of it's lifts due to severe storm conditions.) We'd been taking the shuttle to and from the slopes all week, so our car was literally buried - and I mean, nothing visible but a huge round mound of white! It took us over an hour just to dig it out. We barely made it out of there -- the roads were closed to all traffic unless you had chains or 4WD w/ snow tires. But we were in my brand new Honda CRV :) , which has all-wheel drive and all-weather tires, and I'm happy to say it did fantastic!!
It was difficult at times to realize we were having such a wonderful family vacation during this period in which our planet suffered such catastrophic loss. But we were very grateful to be together, and doing something that we love. And now we're quite happy to be home.
I've got some catching up to do in my reading here, but I'll dive back in soon. :)
