Guess where we went for our ski trip this year!!!

Here's Linda up at the top of the Gold Coast lift which goes up toward Squaw and Emigrant Peaks.

From almost everywhere up on the mountain you have beautiful views of Lake Tahoe.

This is one of the Funitel cabins. The Funitel gondola has these 28 passenger cabins.

Eight years ago they replaced the smaller gondola cabins, which only held 6 people each,

with these much larger cabins.

Here's a comparison of the Funitel gondola with the big 110 passenger

gondola in the background.

He we are leaving the village and going up the mountain on the Funitel.

The larger 110 passenger gondola station is to the left, with the large vertical doors.

Sqauw is a HUGE area. After taking a gondola up to the upper part of the mountain,

we spend most of our time skiing to the right up on Emigrant Peak and Granite Chief.

The area at the bottom of Granite Chief is Shirley Lake and Shirley Canyon,

and the runs that go down into that area are really great!

Here's a shot from around the top of the Shirley Lake Express lift looking over at Granite Chief.

This was taken while riding up the Granite Chief lift as we approached the top.

You can see the sun lighting up the plume of snow coming off the snowboard.

The snow conditions were fantastic for our trip!!!

 

Above and below are a couple of pictures of Linda with Cory, one of the Ski Patrol Dogs.

You can see he is wearing his uniform which identifies him as a Patrol Dog.

Squaw Valley has about 7 or 8 Patrol Dogs. There are about 2 Border Collies,

like Cory, and the rest are Golden Retrievers.

When the conditions are good we love the Siberia Headwall. We've been up there

on previous trips to Sqauw when it's been snowin' & blowin', and it's truly like

Siberia must be in the winter. It's so exposed, with no trees and a north exposure,

that it's not a nice place to be unless it's a nice day.

Here's a shot of Linda at the top of the Solitude lift with Squaw Peak and the Siberia Bowl

behind her in the distance. It was a great day, so we headed over there!!!

This is a trail map at the top of the Siberia lift. This is looking south and Alpine Meadows

ski area is behind the sign and over to the left of the picture.

Here's a shot from the top of Siberia. This is looking east. The thing that looks like a

UFO that just landed is actually the top of the Headwall Express lift, with another

beautiful view of Lake Tahoe in the background.

Here we are, getting ready to head down the Siberia Bowl.

This is High Camp, at the top station of the big 110 person gondola. There is an Olympic

museum from the 1960 Winter Olympics, the pool (and a hot tub spa to the left of that

little cupola in the foreground), and an ice skating rink under the framework to the right.

Here's another view of the hot tub area. Last time we were here was about 10 years ago.

We had a great trip with Rob's sister Tudy and her son Steve. We went swimming up here

during that visit, but they were doing some work on the pool this time.

There's also a restaurant/cafeteria with an absolutely fantastic view!!!

Here's the big 110 person gondola coming into the High Camp station.

This is from inside the restaurant as the gondola docks at the top.

You can see that there are hardly any people in the gondola!

During our first 3 days of skiing, I think we had to wait about 30 seconds for a lift one time!!!

On the fourth day, at Northstar, it was a Friday and a lot more people were on the mountain.

We still only had a max of about a 5 minute wait in line once.

Here we are just above the village at the base of Squaw Valley.

This picture was taken on our last run down Squaw. This old tree must have been

hit by lightning or burned in a forest fire years ago. The wood is all weathered and has

a smooth, shiny look to it. We called it the "condom tree" because it looked like

somebody had put a huge shiny rubber coating over it!!!

We skied Squaw for 2 days,

then went to Alpine Meadows for one day, and finished up at Northstar on the last day.

Here we are driving up the road to Alpine Meadows. You can see that there is a lot of snow.

There was even a lot more base up on the mountain than down here!!!

Alpine Meadows is a beautiful area. It shares a ridgeline along it's north boudary with the

southern boundary of Squaw Valley. I believe there's a ski trail that interconnects the two.

As at Squaw, beautiful views of Lake Tahoe abound at Alpine Meadows as well.

Here the lake is reflecting the mountains, which are over on the east side in Nevada.

This is some of the great ski terrain at Alpine Meadows. This was taken from the Scott

Chair. It runs up Scott Ridge, and the rocks above guard the ski trail.

This outcropping of rocks is just above the previous picture of the ridgeline.

Against the skyline in the center of the picture is a big round rock perched on a small little

pedestal, which is on top of a large boulder. I imagine it will topple off one day in the future.

This is Northstar at Tahoe. We had never skied there before, so on our

fourth and last day, we decided to give it a try.

There were a lot more people here than had been at Squaw and Alpine on the

previous several day. It was a Friday and the weather was great, so there were

probably a lot of people paying hooky from work and school!!!

When we first arrived at the area, we initially were really worried about whether or not we'd

have a good day of skiing. There were so many skiers you could hardly walk around

village. We had to wait in line about 10 minutes to get tickets and another 5 or 10 minutes

to get on a gondola to head up the mountain.

However, once up past the base area, the mountain is divided up into several different

large parts that absorb all the people really well.

We ended up skiing "The Backside" (the green area on the right of the trail map above),

and "Lookout Mountain" (the brown area in the center). There was no waiting in the lift

lines and the trails and snow conditions were really great. We had a really wonderful

last day of skiing for our 2006 ski vacation.

There is a lodge at the very summit of the mountain at Northstar. They had a barbeque

with burgers and such out on this deck. But over on the edge of the deck they had

a "tent" erected. We went in to see what was going on in there, and it was

another restaurant. We ended up having lunch in the Summit Tent, which was

quite elegant inside.

The Summit Tent was nicely appointed inside.

After some great chili and a huge salad, we skied right up until the lifts closed,

then drove down the mountain to Sacramento to head home to Florida.

This is where we stayed, right in Tahoe City.

This shot is looking west and the lake is just to the left.

This was taken from the balcony where the hot tub was located.

Here's the view looking from the hot tub over to the lake.

On the map below, you can see Tahoe City on the northwest corner of the lake.

We stayed in the Travelodge, right in Tahoe City.

It's about 15 miles from I-80 and Truckee down to Tahoe City.

Squaw Valley is just off of Route 89 - actually just about to the left of that oval

with "89" in it, about 5 miles north of Tahoe City.

Alpine Meadows ski area is just south of Squaw Valley.

On our last day, we skied at Northstar, which is about 1/2 way between

Truckee and the north shore of Lake Tahoe, off of Route 267.

Lake Tahoe Facts

We flew in and out of Sacramento airport. If you've ever wondered what happens

to luggage lost by the airlines, here's your answer!!!

Actually, these carts (there's a second one way over to the left of the picture) and all

the bags are built around columns in the arriving baggage area of the Sacramento airport.