USA trip, day 10 - 2nd February

Once more we woke to clear blue skies. I strapped up my wrist and we headed for the slopes.

We did our favourite runs and again did the Little Dipper black run. They have been making snow here and the moguls (bumps) are getting higher, and more difficult to negotiate. Also, some of the better trails are starting to wear a bit thin in places; a symptom of the sunny days we're experiencing here. Also, a lot of the trails are icy, as the groomed surface gets scraped off during the day.

A lot of the trails here are closed - mostly blacks and double blacks - on account of the poor snow cover. The main trails still open are only being kept open thanks to the snow-making facilities here. But even these are deteriorating. All of the west coast USA ski resorts have been hit in the same way - a high pressure and low pressure system are blocking storms off from the Pacific. Instead, these storms are hitting further north and giving resorts, such as Whistler in Canadian, record snow falls. Virtually no snow has fallen around Tahoe this year.

After a leisurely lunch and pint at the base lodge, we returned to the hotel early, and took a look around the Heavenly resort near the hotel. Not much to say, except that the shops here are a bit more upmarket, whereas the others on the California side seem only to sell trashy tourist tat and t-shirts.

The film for tonight was The Return, featuring Sarah Michelle-Gellar. OK.

USA trip, day 9 - 1st February

We both seem to have shaken off our bug. Woke again to yet another perfect blue sky. We skied most of the resort today and did the Little Dipper mogul field twice – I fell properly today on one of those runs, then again when I lost concentration in an icy area on one of the moderate difficulty trails. It wasn’t until later I realised I sprained my wrist during the fall – bloody sore! And any comments referring to my sex life will be edited! We had lunch at a restaurant that overlooks the Gunbarrel trail and Lake Tahoe – pretty spectacular!

We did a bit more shopping – George to get some Van Heusen shirts at ridiculously cheap prices, and me to get a supporting bandage for my wrist.

This evening’s film was A Good Year with Albert Finney and Russell Crowe – worth seeing.

USA trip, day 8 - 31st January

Another day of clear blue skies and there is still no new snow to replenish the pistes. George had a bad night, complaining of breathlessness – sounds familiar. I’m feeling a bit better today. Not much to say about the skiing, except that we did the fully fledged mogul field of Little Dipper, again somewhat gracelessly. We both fell today. Mine was more of a topple, and George lost his ski edge on an ice sheet at the end of the day. It had to happen sooner or later.

We watched The Illusionist for our film this evening – quite entertaining.

USA trip, day 7 - 30th January

We decided to take a day off. I was feeling off colour again (over the last couple of days, I’ve found myself gasping for breath – I’m pretty sure I picked up a chest infection from the guy sat next to me on the plane from Chicago). The lift passes for the ski areas only cover 10 of the 11 days we’re here; more cloud is forecast for today, so we might as well make it today. Amazingly, neither of us has fallen over when skiing, yet.

We drove a short distance around the lake, and away from the sprawl of South Lake Tahoe. It takes forever to drive from one end of town to the other, and is an appalling example of unregulated development in a beauty spot. I guess we can start to look forward to this if, as promised, the UK government opts to relax planning restrictions in greenbelt areas.

We parked the car off the main road near a recreational area called Baldwin Beach, and walked through the trees to the lake shore. In one area, where I could here a distant bird flock, I managed to pish in a considerable flock of birds. It was made up mostly of Pygmy Nuthatches, a couple of Down Woodpeckers, Mountain Chickadees, a Bewick’s Wren, Bushtits and I could hear, but not see, a Red-breasted Nuthatch.

The lake shore was deserted of people and beautiful in the calm cloudless sky (so much for the weather forecast). I had hoped to see Bald Eagles, which congregate near here in winter apparently, but had no luck. We did see a beautiful drake Hooded Merganser on the lake, along with Buffleheads, a couple of Common Goldeneyes, and the inevitable California Gulls.

After this, we went to a small shopping mall full of factory outlets. There were some real bargains there, especially with the pound so strong against the dollar. We returned via a supermarket – it doesn’t matter where I am in the world, I love to see the food that people buy. However, we were there for much more important reasons – our gin stocks were getting dangerously low back in the hotel room.

George was feeling under the weather in the evening, so I got a meal to go for the room, and we watched a subscription film again – Infamous. It had an interesting cast, including excellent performance from Toby Jones (as Truman Capote), Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig and Juliet Stephenson. The trailer hailed Gwyneth Paltrow as one of the leading actors, yet she sang a song at the beginning (admittedly very well) and that’s all. This was an excellent film, but it doesn’t seem to have got any Oscar nominations. Perhaps Capote’s success last year screwed things up for Infamous.

USA trip, day 6 - 29th January

Today, it was back to brilliant sunshine. We started out from the Stagecoach Lodge which we could also reach by car. The chair-lift is a bit faster here than at Boulder, and allowed us to get to our favourite run, Olympic, in double quick time.

It’s a strange thing skiing; today, in the brilliant sunshine, I felt as if I couldn’t do a thing wrong. I was concentrating on tipping my skis over as far as I dared as I made turns. The new shaped skis (or carvers as they are known) allow you to turn the skis by using their broad tips and narrow waist and pressure from the feet. The faster you go, the more you need to tilt your skis on their edges. When you get it right, you experience a fantastic feeling of accelerating out of each turn and this is known as carving. Inexperienced skiers tend not to edge their skis much, and slide around turns as their skis lose grip. People who are proficient at carving leave perfectly parallel crisp tracks on the snow and seem to expend the minimum of effort in a beautiful rhythmic dance down the slope.

The freezing fog from yesterday left the trees coated in a beautiful white frost, which melted slowly through the day. The birds seem quite active today. I have seen Clark’s Nutcracker just about every day, and heard Mountain Chickadee too. Today, they seemed to be everywhere. Its noticeable here that the Clark’s Nutcrackers and chickadees don’t seem to hang around the eateries on the mountain, compared to the ski areas around Banff in Canada, where they take food off peoples’ plates. Here they seem to feed naturally. Apart from a pair of Ravens, we’ve seen nothing else. So much for my hope of running into a Williamson’s Sapsucker, which ought to be present. Perhaps they descend to lower altitudes in winter?

We skied all over the mountain, including down to California Lodge which involved negotiating some areas where the snow was running bare. A lot of people were coming down a trail called the Gunbarrel, which is a long, steep and bumpy “double black” run that’s way beyond my capabilities. Some were wearing t-shirts only on top, a sign of how mild it gets at midday.

Back in the hotel room, I flicked through endless crap TV channels. One show, hosted by local ski personality Glen Plake (distinctive for his foot-high multi-coloured mohican hairstyle), was definitely made on a tight budget. The show featured all kinds of drossy ski and snowboard video clips. Though interestingly, he showed some footage from last winter's “Gunbarrel Challenge”, in which hundreds of contestants try to negotiate the Gunbarrel Trail above California Lodge 25 times in the shortest possible time. They must have thighs of steel. The close of his show was a group of punters in a bar somewhere in SoLaTa (work it out) whooping at video clips of people having terrible ski/snowboard accidents. The more horrendous the accident, the louder they whooped and that decided the eventual winning “accident”.

USA trip, day 5 - 28th January

It was overcast, breezy with a lot of wind-chill. We again used Boulder Lodge as our start (and finish) point. I was feeling off colour and with the weather conditions, not enjoying my skiing. It’s strange, but you get days when you don’t feel you can do anything right, and this was one of those days for me. Because it was overcast, I found it difficult to pick my line on the slopes, because I was feeling off colour, my technique was going to pot. George seemed to be bombing along just fine. Unfortunately, the Olympic run wasn’t open today to bolster my fragile confidence.

We took refuge in one of the mountain lodges where lots of people had the same idea. We were joined at our table by a couple from Glasgow and another couple from Michigan. We had an interesting chat – the couple from Michigan were apologising for George Bush, and the woman from Glasgow admitted that she’d had a couple of “off days” too. They answered the mystery of the beads in the trees. Apparently it stems from New Orleans Mardi Gras, where participants in the parade throw these beads into the watching crowds. These beads appear in all kinds of unexpected places across the country to advertise the event. They couldn’t help explain the bra in the tree however, although the woman from Michigan did say how much she’d enjoyed going to Mardi Gras when she was a young single woman.

We gave up early in the afternoon. The wind was getting up a bit more and blowing freezing fog onto the trees. This didn’t do much for the visibility, and it was pretty cold on the slower chair-lifts too.

We used the swimming pool in the hotel which is nicely landscaped around huge rock formations, complete with a waterfall and a (very) hot tub. Had cocktails in the bar, then went to the buffet again.

Casino hall at the Montbleu

USA trip, day 4 - 27th January

A view over South Lake Tahoe - Mont Bleu is the big building furthest to the right.

We drove to the Boulder Resort in Nevada this morning where we took slow chairs up the hill. We eventually found our way to the Olympic trail which is a beautifully groomed piste, and was a great place to practice carved turns. We did a black diamond run (one of the few that’s open) called Little Dipper which is slightly bumpy, steepish and icy. We survived, although this won’t go down as one of the most elegant executions of this run.

In general, we’ve found the blue runs at Heavenly to be pretty straightforward and well within the capability of all except beginners. Compare this to Lake Louise in Canada, where blue runs are much tougher; often steep, icy and occasionally even with moguls.

We’ve been noticing that some of the trees next to the chairlifts are adorned with coloured shiny beads, mostly silver and purple in colour. What’s that all about? One of the trees also had a bra in the trees; WHAT’S THAT ALL ABOUT?

It got quite crowded by late morning, the piste became quite churned up, so we went back to the quieter Boulder area where we could enjoy our skiing more.

After a “eat all you can” buffet supper at the hotel ($20 each at weekend, cheaper during the week), we watched a movie in the room – SAW III – a nice piece of family viewing to help you get off to sleep!