It's become an annual tradition to go up to 7 Springs MLK Day weekend to ski with with a bunch of friends from the Hill. This year we organized the trip with the Sodermans, Violas, Romans, and Hogans, plus the Potter-Shones and Reubens came up to 7 Springs too, so all told we had 7 families at 7 Springs.
Usually we worry a little bit about snow leading up to a mid-Atlantic ski trip, but this year there was plenty of snow in early January, and the long range forecast was even calling for 10 inches on Saturday followed by bitter cold from a polar vortex. The forecast ended up shifting a bit, and we drove up a little early on Friday to beat the wintery mix that started falling as we neared the slopes. Everyone made it up safe and sound, and we started off the trip with our usual dinner at the Pizza Place accompanied by some stronger than we realized IPAs ;-)
The nice thing about the trip this year is that as 12 year olds, Owen and the boys are adults in the eyes of 7 Springs, which means they cost a bit more, but we can really just turn them loose to explore the hotel and ski on their own. Nora even joined them for lots of the hotel adventuring, including the pool when they were able to convince the attendant that Hayden was an accompanying adult!
Snow was falling most of the day on Saturday while we were skiing, and the conditions were pretty great for a solid day on the slopes. We put Nora in lessons, and I skied with the boys for a bit before turning them loose. Toward the end of the day, right as we were getting ready to go pick up Nora, we ran into her on Lost Girl with her group, and they let us join them on the lift for their last few runs. She was in level 6/7 and they ended up just having one double group with all the highest level kids in ski school together. Nora told her instructor Nick in the morning that her name was Pizza, and it stuck. She declared Nick's nickname was Pepperoni and they became quite the pair.
Around dinner time, the temperature rose above freezing, so the 10 inches of snow that had been forecast ended up falling as rain for several hours, then freezing rain until dawn before the polar vortex hit finally turning it into snow along with plummeting temperatures. The freezing rain left the slopes super icy on Sunday, and along with the cold, the kids mostly decided to call it a day after a couple runs in the morning, but the adults managed to get a decent day of skiing in.
Since the government shutdown was showing no end in sight, we decided to go ahead and extend our stay until Tuesday, to give us a full day of skiing on Monday. The temperature was a 2 below 0 on Tuesday when we hit the slopes, but the crowds were gone and the conditions were great. We managed to bundle up with enough layers to stay warm, being sure to take plenty of hot chocolate breaks at Tahoe Lodge. Luckily Owen and Hayden had the same idea about taking plenty of breaks to stay warm, and we ran into them at the Lodge and skied together for awhile. Most of us called it a day early afternoon, but Owen and Hayden decided they needed a little more time on the slopes, and bundled back up to go night skiing after dinner. Once again, thank goodness we can send them out on their own!
Now that we have our ski legs back, it's time to look forward to Breckenridge!
(click here for all our pictures, and click here for all the group pictures, password: ski)
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