White break and cross training

After last week's fat ass in the snow, we left the Bay Area on Tuesday night for Lake Tahoe. The weather was perfect on Wednesday and we knew about a storm coming so it was the day not to be missed this week. We skied with our friends at Northstar. The resort was quite crowded in the morning at the base of the mountain but the domain large enough to find less busy runs and shorter lines on the other side of the mountain.

The storm reached Lake Tahoe as expected on Thursday and we took the opportunity to snowshoe, which was a first for me. The snow was super soft and a few feet deep, providing a wonderful experience as well as a great workout, without impact in such conditions.

We spent Friday inside while the weather websites were reporting wind gusts up to 156 mph over the ridges. I did some work, edited our 4th issue of The Orbit, my Toastmasters Club's newsletter and a few other projects on the computer. The workout of the day consisted in one hour on the elliptical, another first for me!

Even more unusual, I spent this hour watching CNBC which I found super stressful, especially this past Friday before the closing bell. It was all about mixed signals, with the markets going up despite the experts' incredulity... If it is not a real recovery of the economy, then it sounds like another bubble is forming...

Alex, Greg, our friends and I were back on the slopes for downhill skiing at Mt. Rose on Saturday morning. Exceptional snow conditions attracted quite a few people in the morning yet not much wait at the ski lifts especially in the afternoon once all the powder around the mountains got "broken" and the local skiers satiated...

We skied in the cloud in the morning and it was very cold (around 5F) but, thankfully, in the sun the whole afternoon. Then, around 2PM, Greg saw my name on the large display at the start of Northwest Magnum, in a message indicating I was the lucky winner of a 2010-2011 unlimited season pass! That sounded like casino

With that, I skied at Mt. Rose again this Sunday morning before we drove back after this short but wonderful vacation with the boys. Leveraging the snow for some cross-training instead of logging much miles this week. And combining activities so Agnès could still enjoy this first winter without skiing for her after 36 years!