(4/16/04 - 4/18/04)
In April 2004 Garth Eliason, Brady Nilsen, Mike Chow and I met for our annual trip. This year we went to Lake Tahoe area, skiing Squaw, Heavenly, and Kirkwood. Here are some pictures from the long weekend.
The first day, Friday April 16, Brady and I went skiing at Sqaw. That's Brady in the parking lot with both our sets of skis leaned up against my Sentra.
This picture taken from the Gondola as we start up the mountain looking back at the parking lot.
Below is a HUGE panorama from the Olympic Pavillion (skating rink/pool/restaurants at the top of the tram). Click on the picture below for an enormous version. That's Brady over looking the ice rink.
This is a panorama from the top of Granite Chief.
On our way down from Granite Chief, Brady and I cut through some rocks (where there was only enough snow for one ski, you had to lift your other ski in the air for a short time). The guy stuck on the rocks below tried to follow us, and got in some trouble. I took some photos as he suffered the humiliation. :-) Click on the photos to see ENORMOUS blowups of the scene. In this first picture, you can see him clinging to the rock. If he lets go, he will slide down over the rock. (Wouldn't be fatal, but would probably hurt.)
Here is a zoomed out shot to see his predicament from a long way away, and to see the cliff he is at. Brady and I skied over this a few minutes before (shooting down through the thin ribbon of snow to the troubled guy's left).
His buddy here extends a ski pole out and he grabs on for dear life.
Here he scrambles to safety finally. Notice he lost a ski along the way, and it is in the lower right center of the picture below the rock.
Continuing on, here is Brady on a cornice at the top of Granite Chief.
This isn't anybody we know, but this is the same cornice as the picture above with a guy jumping off of it. In this picture if you zoom in you can see he is fully airborne dropping in.
Brady before taking the KT-22 lift up.
This is a picture from the top of KT-22.
Brady in a chute below the summit of KT-22.
Random picture looking down at Sqaw Village, that's Brady in the bottom of the picture.
The next morning we get up in our hotel (Harrah's in South Lake Tahoe). This is a view of Gunbarrel (a famous ski run at Heavenly) from the hotel window.
Looking a little more to the left out the same hotel window, that's the Gondola line.
Here we are a few hours later on the Heavenly Gondola, that's Mike on the left, Garth on the right.
Picture from the Gondola back at the lake. The closer of the two humongous buildings on the right of the picture is Harrah's which is our Hotel.
This is a panorama from a little below the top of Sky chair. Click on it for a huge version.
Picture a little lower down on Sky chair.
Here is a panorama from the top of Gunbarrel. We skied Gunbarrel after I took this, and the conditions were pretty bad, solid ice with dust on it.
Here the four of us are at lunch, toasting with kamikaze (a traditional drink for us). From left to right it is Brian (me), Brady, Garth, Mike.
Brady sporting a MailFrontier "I Know Nothing" T-Shirt I gave him this trip.
Here is a panorama taken from inside the gondola on the ride home at the end of the day. Click on it for an ENORMOUS version.
Another picture from the gondola on the ride home at the end of the day.
The next day (Sunday, last day), we get up and drive to Kirkwood. Since I'm going directly home afterwards, we take two cars. That's Mike's car up ahead. This picture is taken on HW 88 heading South towards Kirkwood.
This is a panorama from the parking lot, click on it for a HUGE version.
Here is Brady at the top of "The Wall", the most famous run at Kirkwod.
Here is a picture of all of us at the top of "The Wall" at Kirkwood. The picture is actually a composite of two pictures, nobody was around to take it so we glued two pictures together to get us all in one picture. From left to right: Brady, Mike, Garth, Brian (me).
I hung back at the top of "The Wall" to take this picture of Brady as he descends. You can sort of get a feel for how huge "The Wall" is from this picture.
At lunchtime, here we are on the deck. This is a panorama with the ski hill in the background.
Brian (on left) and Brady.
