I headed off on my second trip of the season, down to Vancouver to fly to San Francisco just as Whistler was hit by the biggest storm of the season. Leaving when there is 20cm of fresh and blue sky popping through was a little difficult but was still looking forward to going skiing somewhere new.

I arrived in San Francisco late that afternoon, so headed straight to the hotel and met up with my mum who I hadn’t seen for 4 months.

Next morning we had an early start as we headed for South Lake Tahoe. The first three hours were fairly straight and boring on the highway, until we hit the Sierra Nevada’s where the roads became more tight and twisty. It was an amazing drive through the mountains, then you come around a corner and see the amazing view of Lake Tahoe.  We arrived in town to sun and extremely warm weather, it was hitting 12 degrees and people walking around in shorts and t-shirts.

The next morning was the first day checking out what Heavenly had to offer. It was a perfect blue bird day to check out the mountain, both California and Nevada sides. Taking in the amazing views of the lake from all over the mountain. I decided a little to early in the day to tackle the face, 1500 vertical feet (455 meters) of bumps whilst still extremely icy and filled with death cookies. Still overall a fun day cruising the mountain.

Day four was again perfect blue bird conditions. As my buddy Josh, who works at Heavenly had the day off i had a guide to show me round the place and let me in on a few of the locals secret spots. We spent all morning checking out all the areas I had missed the day before. In the afternoon Josh and I hit up Heavenly’s parks. We spend our time lapping the large and medium jump lines, just enjoying the spring conditions and working on our goggle tans.

Day five as expected the weather had come in, so we  took a day off the hill and decided to spend our time driving around the lake. We visited Squaw Valley, Truckee and Norhstar. Arriving back at the hotel late that afternoon, spent the evening relaxing by the hot tub.

The next morning woke to a foot of fresh pow, so as you would expect spend the entire day tracking out the snow threw the trees. Didn’t mange to get any shots for you to see but I managed to find a stash in the trees to lap all day long, laying down fresh track after fresh track.

Our final day of riding we headed to Kirkwood. After the snow the previous day and the sun coming back out made for an amazing day of riding. We found fresh stashes all over the mountain ranging from just a couple of inches to waist deep. It was one of my best days riding for the entire season.

On the way back to San Francisco I had one stop to make in Reno for a quick meeting, which I will let you in on, in a later blog. After the stop in Reno headed for San Francisco for a couple of days checking out the city.

Till next time.

Tim