Mt. Shasta Skiing - February 26, 2007

As it was time for our yearly Mt. Shasta ski trip, Dan and I drove up to our Dad's house in Cottonwood (South of Redding) on February 25th so we could hang out prior to skiing the next day. The weather was predicted to be pretty bad with cold temperatures, low visibility and lots of snow expected to fall. We decided to take our chances and drive to Mt. Shasta Ski Park on the 26th to see if we could brave the weather and get some runs in.

Dan, Dad, Tisha and I arrived on the slopes at 9:45am and sure enough, it was cold (low 30s), the visibility could have been better and it was snowing. However, the fact that it had been snowing for quite a while meant that there was tons of fresh powder to ski on. So, we bundled up and hit the slopes. Even though it snowed most of the day, it was just a light dusting, so it wasn't that annoying. The visibility was only a problem high on the mountain, so we stayed off of the top chair lift most of the day. The real payoff for braving the elements was awesome snow conditions as we had a fresh layer of powder each time we skiied down the mountain. All told, we made 20 runs in just over 5 hours and on several of them, we had the run just to ourselves - another benefit of questionable weather.

We had a total blast and were ready to do it again the next day (at least Dan and I were ready, not the old fogies :-) We got up on the 27th and started driving to the ski park, but as we got closer, it started snowing really hard and the visibility was getting less and less. We decided to turn around since the weather had really taken a turn for the worse and we didn't think it would have been a good day to be on the slopes. Instead, we spent the day hanging out at Dad's house, playing games and watching it hail and snow outside - I think we made the right decision. All in all, it was a fun trip and time well spent.

Oh, did I mention that the only one to take a fall on the hill was Dad? He did a very similar move to what Dan did last year - he fell while he was standing still. Who said skiing was the hard part :-) Until next time...