Snowmageddon!

A major storm hit the Sierra Nevadas this past week, just as we were headed up to go skiing with Lindsay's family. Dave and Kellen came out from New York, and Kristin and Partha came from Washington, D.C. Andy was thrilled at the prospect of skiing on fresh powder, but Dave put it best for the Martin family - "we're all looking for a reason to be excited about winter - and maybe, just maybe, a winter sport could do it".

Here is the driveway at the cabin - who can find the front door?

Over the last week, Tahoe received over 70 inches of snow. The depth of the snow around the cabin was over 8ft in places! The front door was inaccessible unless tunnelling was your thing. As a result, our winter sports didn't just include skiing and snowshoe-ing...but also lots of shovelling!

Snowshoeing explorers

You can't tell, but this is Lindsay and Kellen snowshowing in about 6 feet of powder. Even with snow shoes on we sank to waist deep in powder. The three of us (Andy included) went all of 500 yards which took over 30 minutes and was a seriously good workout! And yes, this is a good example of the highly fashionable clothes you can borrow if you come to California during the winter;)

BBQ in the winter!

After one of our days skiing, we decided that dinner should be a BBQ. There's nothing quite like the smell of a BBQ in winter - it warms the heart! And yes, we brought the W-P games with us up here too! We ended the night with a game of the now infamous Poch - the W-P clan should note that Kellen won easily and is a dark horse when it comes to board games with strategy. She cleaned us all out of our "pennies"...

Lindsay, Dave, and Partha prepare for the slopes

We managed to get in three days of skiing while up at Donner. Kellen did fabulous for her first time skiing despite being freezing, Partha returned to skiing after an 8 year hiatus, Dave took up snowboarding again after a 5 year break, and Lindsay improved so much that next time she might actually enjoy it!! All of us were a little rickety afterwards (call it age), but we had such a good time with a lot of laughs that it begs the question..."same time next year?" This is an open invite by the way.

Tested to the extreme: the Kia exceeded expectations!

As promised - a Kia Adventure... Not all 4-wheel drives get to use all their gadgets and abilities in the first weekend of use...3 Caltrans (police) checks for snow chains because of the deep snow; a mandatory 30 mph speed limit due to low visibility; 7 passengers for a trip to the local Mexican restaurant; numerous trips to the slopes...the list goes on. Despite all the challenges we cannot find fault with the car. It passed all tests with flying colours. True to W-P fashion, it didn't stay dirty and salt/snow stained for long - it was cleaned thoroughly upon arrival in SF - Hanmer would be proud - as they say, the apple never falls far from the tree!