Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows

Tahoe really hates me. As you might remember in one of my earlier posts we stayed in Tahoe for two days during October, and the weather could have been better. In addition I fell on my bike, got five stitches in my chin, and chipped a tooth. Honestly I still can’t eat anything chewy, crunchy, sticky, or cold without my tooth hurting. Anyway now we are back near Tahoe in a town called Truckee. Our plan was to go skiing and enjoy the Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows bliss, but instead it rained for four days straight. As you can imagine, freezing rain is not the most enjoyable weather to ski in. Oh, also the places were closed because there were 120 mph gusts on the mountain. On the up side our hosts Leigh and Lauren had a pool table and a hot tub plus a kitchen that had lots of things that are actually used to cook. Unlike all the other Air BnBs we had rented, in this one we were just renting rooms, and we shared the house with the owners. That was advantageous in many ways. Firstly, they were nice people and we hadn’t met anyone new in ages. Secondly, they knew about the place so we could ask questions. Lastly, since they lived in the house it was made to be functional and Leigh liked cooking, so the kitchen had everything we needed. During the rainy days we made two batches of cookies, and I tried out two new recipes that I am planning to put on the cooking website I am developing. The first was a breakfast biscuit cup. Basically it is biscuit dough in a cupcake shell with sausage, bacon, egg, and cheese all baked up to golden brown, melty, cheesy, goodness. The second was a recipe for Pad Thai with sautéed chicken and tofu, along with cooked carrots, green onions, and sprouts, then garnished with roasted peanuts. I made that twice during the rainy days, and it was amazing. We played about a dozen games of pool and ate about half a million calories in cookies.

When we did go skiing it was mostly because we were leaving the next day, and I really wanted to be able to say that I had skied at Squaw and Alpine.  We started at Alpine because we heard that more lifts were open there (3 lifts out of 12). We took two runs and decided that it was not for us, mostly because it was snowing so hard that it felt like my nose was being shot with air soft

pellets. Also none of the express lifts were open, and the rest moved slower than Bolton chairs (really slow). After my mom and I went into the lodge my dad decided to get one more run in on a different lift. On the way down he went off a two foot cliff and face planted in the snow.  After he warmed and got coffee we went to Squaw. The conditions were better there. It wasn’t snowing, and the high speed lifts were running. The only problem is that at the top the snow was like wet cement. When we were done I was exhausted, so we went back to the house and I vegetated on the couch.

I will definitely remember Squaw as I will with all the other places we visit. I can’t wait to see what Sun Valley is like next and so help me if the snow isn’t better there.