Saket Vora

Last weekend, I went with a group of friends up to Tahoe for skiing at Squaw Valley, the site of the 1960 Winter Olympic Games. It was my first time skiing in over five years, but still I had a great time. Our group consisted mostly of Apple colleagues, and Chrissy did an awesome job of finding a great lodging in nearby Truckee. We drove up after work on Friday (Nader drove me, Dan, and Wendy in his new Rav4) and got in after 11pm that night.

We killed some time that night exploring the cabin. It was huge, with a sauna and hot tub. It had a big kitchen (with a pasta faucet over the six burner stove) and just about every kitchen gadget you could want. Nader got the fireplace going and jammed out on the guitar a bit. John brought his Nikon D200 with a 35mm f/1.8 lens and I had a blast using it (the photos are from it)

John and Rong are regaled by Nader.

Dan shows Brook and Georgina his snowboard

The next day we drove ~30 minutes to Squaw Valley. What a different setup than the Wintergreen ski resort I’ve been to in West Virginia! A group of us went to rent our skis then took the funiculare up to a point 2/3rds up the mountain. Several lifts were available from here, including a handful of green circles. I stayed on those for the morning, getting my ‘snow legs’ back. Turning gracefully while keeping my skis parallel is still pretty hard, but I didn’t fall on the slopes or coming off the lift.

It’s so beautiful to just be up on the mountain in Tahoe. The lake was shrouded in a blanket of fog, while all the peaks of the surrounding mountains was covered in snow. It wasn’t that cold, and the sun shone through a thin layer of clouds. Feeling adventurous, Rong and I took a lift up to the top ridge to try a blue square. The lack of snowfall during the past week hurt this one, because the very beginning offered just a narrow path of good snow, with the edges being rocks and dirt. Not too good for a newbie like me! But we made it down, eventually. The group had split up to check out different runs, but we all met up around 1pm for lunch. We packed bagel sandwiches, and I kept a few Clif bars in my ski pants.

After lunch the newbies (John and I) went on another blue square, with Chrissy and J.Lo being great sports in staying with us. There’s a mental block for us — I’ll be feeling fine on blues but then comes this one hill which scares the heck out of me. I just have to man up and barrel down it. Falling a few times was good for me, cause it’s not that bad. Getting back up is harder than actually skiing.

We ended the day by taking a mile long “mountain run” to the very bottom of the mountain. This was the highlight of the day, because it was right at my skill level, long, and our group of five serendipitously started running into all the other members of our group on the way down. About 2/3rds of the way down, it started to rain a bit, and I could feel the snow start to get a little slushy. It wasn’t too much longer though until I was finally down.

We returned our gear and headed back to the cabin. We made some pizzas, broke out the drinks, and chilled for the rest of the evening. We also played ‘the Game’, a cross between Pictionary and Telephone. Everyone has a sheet of people, and you write a sentence or phrase at the top. Pass the paper to the right. That person has to draw something that represents that phrase. They then fold the first sentence over and pass it along, such that the next person just sees the drawing. That person has to write a sentence of what they think the drawing means. You keep going round with people translating between drawings and sentences, and in the end nearly always hilarity ensues as someone’s original intent gets completely transformed into something entirely different.

We all cleared out of the cabin by 11am and Nader’s car stopped in Berkeley for lunch. We went to an authentic ‘Berkeley experience’ organic co-op cafe on Telegraph Avenue. No Hare Krishnas today. Nader saw some hippies with signs saying “No to Dedicated Bus Lanes”, which made Nader say “A hippie who is against dedicated bus lanes? Just whose side are you on?!” Hah.

All in all, it was a great tip and I’m already looking forward to another trip sometime in mid to late February.