12 hounds expectantly
left Worcester for this year's trip, 6 by minibus and 6 by car. The minibus
transported the lads, these being Anton, Bud, Carpy, Hensh, Martin the
Fireman and Maz, the couples were Tank and Ange, Matt and Lorna Jenks
and Nick and Maria Martin. There were a few minor traffic delays on the
way but everyone arrived at Heathrow in good time. As Turkey was not with
us this year there was no one you could rely on to do really daft things,
however, at Heathrow, Hensh admirably assumed the Turk role by gathering
up most, but not all of his bags, and heading for the terminal leaving
a rucksack on the bus. Thankfully the bus had only just started its journey
back to Worcester when Hensh's Turkism was discovered and Maz called the
driver to request he return to the airport. Check in was remarkably swift
for a flight to the US but unfortunately the hounds seat allocations were
not in a pre-booked block as had been expected. The Jenks really hit the
jackpot on the seat front as a Lebanese woman with a streaming cold and
germs aplenty insisted on taking her allocated seat next to Lorna. The
plane was not full but the woman flatly refused to take another seat and
allow Jenks to sit next to his wife. Needless to say Matthew was extremely
unimpressed by the woman's attitude and was particularly vocal in his
condemnation of her actions. After the seating shenanigans the long flight
to San Francisco was fairly stress free. Upon arrival in the US we naturally
awaited the connecting flight to Reno by sampling the local gassy, discoloured
dishwater they call beer. The short hop up to Reno was about 35-40 minutes
followed by a 75 minutes bus ride through the mountains into the resort.
We arrived at the hotel at 11:00pm local time after 22 hours travelling.
Everyone was naturally keen to get their heads on the pillow. There were
no room upgrades available and everyone had rooms in a separate annexe
at the rear of the hotel. The rooms were not huge but the beds were big
and comfortable allowing everyone that wanted a bed to themselves to get
one. This was a very significant point considering events of the previous
year in Colorado. Martin had drawn the short straw in sharing with Anton
who, as usual, each night staked his claim to the North American snoring
volume record. Wisely, Martin had equipped himself with industrial earplugs,
an absolute necessity to enable sleep within close proximity of Anton.
The weather forecast had been for overnight snow but everyone woke on
day 1 (Thursday) to find no further white stuff had been forthcoming.
It was hardly needed anyway as the region had experienced massive snowfalls
over the previous weeks and all reports we had seen suggested there was
plenty of snow up the mountain. The day was cool with broken cloud and
everyone headed off up the gondola to get acquainted with the local area.
Passage was made very easy by the location of the new (built in the last
3 years) gondola base station being only 5 minutes walk from the hotel.
Heavenly is a large pisted area that spans the state line from California
into Nevada. The runs of Killebrew, Mott Canyon and Gunbarrels provide
a stiff test but aside from those Heavenly is largely a general purpose,
all-abilities kind of resort. After a fairly sedate first day a visit
to the hotel bar was inevitable and it was here that we met bar manager
Richard the Jock. Rich was a jovial Scot, originally hailing from Ayr,
who always had plenty to say for himself. Rich had been living in the
states for 7 years and was able to provide some good local knowledge.
Of particular interest was the news that it was possible to ski back to
the hotel removing the necessity for a return journey on the gondola.
The skiable route down was apparently via a long, unpatrolled off-piste
route accessible by a fire gate at the top of the mountain. Needless to
say Carpy, Bud and Martin were most keen to check out this alternative
route home which naturally reminded us of their experience the previous
year in Keystone when they were escorted off the mountain by the Colorado
state piste police while exploring an off-piste wooded area. Everyone
except Tank and Ange and Nick and Maria ate at a local steak house. As
usual Tank was in no mood to delay eating for longer than was absolutely
necessary and had previously headed off to a local casino to sample their
fayre. Following a fairly average but expensive meal the main body of
hounds headed off to Mr P's pub that turned out to be one of the few bars/live
music venues in town that wasn't in some way connected to a casino. The
band on at P's were OK without being spectacular and Anton, being the
Trekkie that he is, insisted that the lead singer looked like a Romulan.
We had to take his word for that one.
Day 2 (Friday) was also spent at Heavenly under total cloud cover. This
day was pretty cold and ultimately turned out to be the coldest day of
the trip. This fact was particularly unfortunate for Hensh and Maria who
had become separated from the rest of the group and had to hang around
in the cold for 40 minutes at the bottom of a hill waiting for the rest
of the guys to find them. The location of the fire gate that had been
mentioned the previous evening by Rich in the bar was also discovered,
a discovery made without the help of any of the lift operators or local
ski guides, all of whom denied any knowledge of the existence of such
a gate. Bud, Carpy and Martin ventured forth through the gate that had
a big red sign declaring it was a decision point and that by passing through
the gate, you may die. The run involved traversing deep snow to a point
adjacent to the gondola path and then heading down the mountain in more
deep snow through the trees. After a lengthy run through the trees it
then emerged onto the narrow mogul field directly beneath the gondola
which levelled off onto what appeared to be farm land containing the obligatory
snarling dog. Thankfully, while it was alone, the dog appeared content
to make a lot of noise without actually investigating the skiing intruders
more closely. The stretch beyond the farm brought you to the edge of the
road directly opposite the hotel. Bud, Carpy and Martin completed the
run within an hour having experienced a few hairy moments on the way but
all got down in one piece. The lads and The Jenks ate at Applebee's, a
TGI Friday's style establishment, which was pretty unspectacular. However,
the Margarita's were quite pleasant especially as they were served in
what appeared to be large bowls with stems rather than glasses. After
the meal everyone headed up town and happened to pass Mr P's pub again
where the live music sounded worthy of further investigation, we found
that The Trey Stone Band were playing. Trey Stone had been a member of
Sly and The Family Stone in the 70's and he turned out to be a pretty
slick blues guitar player with great vocals to match. His suitably mulletted
keyboard player reminded us several times that Mr. Stone was a Grammy
award winner and after hearing him perform it was easy to see why. After
Mr P's, Bud, Carpy, Hensh and Maz headed for the casino and had some fine
fun at a blackjack table with a little Polish dealer. The dealer patiently
tried to explain the rules of the game, while deflecting repeated questions
from the lads about her attire, or rather why she wasn't wearing the skimpy
silver uniform many of the other dealers were wearing. The suited and
booted table managers were soon taking an interest when they realised
that the table dealer was engaged in far more banter than potential revenue
earning blackjack playing. The manager's interest in the table became
considerably more focused when Carpy knocked over a Jack Daniels and Coke
which quickly spread over the playing surface, soaked several of the deck
of cards and flowed into the trays of playing chips. The manager was not
impressed and informed the lads that it was the third time that evening
he had had to clean up such a mess as he painstakingly replaced the wet
cards, scraped ice cubes off the table, mopped up and individually cleaned
each chip and their trays. Shortly after the clean-up operation was complete
the lads decided to leave with Bud about $200 richer than when he walked
in, the majority of which was Maz and Hensh's money.
Day 3 was Saturday and there had been a plan to go to Kirkwood to avoid
the weekend crowds in Heavenly. However, owing to a communication breakdown
the plan fell apart. Heavenly did not turn out to be as crowded as we
expected. The weather was glorious, which was to become the standard for
the rest of the week, and a pretty uneventful days skiing was had primarily
over on the Nevada side of the border. Bud, Carpy and Martin braved the
firegate run for a second time and managed to get down in about 45 minutes.
Carpy reported conditions on the run to be at their very best.
Cheap and cheerful was the meal decision for this particular evening and
after a few beers with Rich in the hotel bar we headed out to a Mexican
McDonalds style eatery close to the hotel. Our expectations were met perfectly
by this establishment but the food was fine if not most elegantly served.
Carpy was by now suffering from rear end problems, which had not been
helped by the Mexican; this resulted in several unplanned visits to various
venues in search of the men's lavatorial facilities. Fire and Ice was
the first port of call, which was packed followed by Bill's Bar. Bill's
Bar is a sort of "Casino Lite" frequented by all the local Chavs. The
band playing was pretty diabolical and included guest singers that reminded
us all of our mothers. Finally we ended up in Caesars Casino for the grand
finale of Gay and Lesbian week. The geriatric band with bad 70's haircuts
soon tapped into the mood and started churning out material suitable for
the audience present and we witnessed much entertaining cavorting round
the dance floor by girls who just like being girls (debatable in some
cases)
So the general impression after 3 days in California was that Heavenly
was an extensive ski area with some decent runs but we needed to go elsewhere
to find some new challenges. One thing that had struck all of us about
Heavenly was how archaic the lift systems were. Extremely slow, very rarely
with footrests and a large proportion without even safety bars. The lack
of speed of the lifts resulted in it taking forever to get from bottom
to top of the mountains, especially on the longer runs. The result was
a very poor "skiing time" to "sitting on the lift time"
ratio.
Away from the slopes too much of the apres-ski and social facilities revolved
around the Casinos. There were very few independent bars, restaurants
& clubs to offer some diversity of dining and entertainment. Someone suggested
that the Casinos ran the town, and we all thought they probably did.
Day 4 (Sunday) was a sunny day and all of the hounds with the exception
of Tank and Ange headed off to Kirkwood in 2 taxis. Kirkwood is about
an hours drive from Heavenly and we had been told that even though it
was a much smaller area it had far steeper slopes and was therefore more
suited to advanced skiers. As we had hoped Kirkwood was not too crowded
and had some really nice runs. The weather was stunningly good again and
all the hounds tans were coming along nicely. The forecast was for much
of the same for the rest of the week which naturally raised questions
about how long the snow was going to last.
We thought the lift systems at Heavenly were poor but Kirkwood was considerably
worse. The UK health and safety authorities would have had a field day
here. In the evening back in Heavenly we ate in The Wrap Shop, a small
place close to the hotel that had previously been discovered by Bud and
Carpy. The place serves exotic combinations served in tortilla wraps and
great coffee. After a couple of beers in the hotel bar the evening was
spent at Sam's bar which was a taxi ride out of town. Sam's Bar was run
by a friend of Rich's from the hotel and Rich regularly arranged trips
out to Sam's for visitors. The lovely Amy was a wonderful host and in
addition to serving up anything from the array of beers and spirits on
offer she patiently explained, to those were interested, primarily Anton,
about how to lose your money in the poker video games that were sunk into
the bar. The bar was well stocked with every weird spirit you could imagine
which was particularly unfortunate for participants of the pool tournament
who downed a shot, chosen by the losers, after each game.
Day 5 (Monday) was again gloriously sunny and half of the hounds (the
lads) chose to ski in Heavenly while the other half (the couples) chose
to go shopping. The lads had a slow start with one or two feeling the
effects of the previous evenings post pool match excesses. The morning
skiing was fairly sedate and we were starting to see evidence of the down
side of the constant high temperatures with the occasional rock or piece
of undergrowth appearing through the surface of the packed snow. A good
lunch followed where it was decided to head straight for the fire gate
to the big run down to the hotel. Maz and Hensh joined Bud, Carpy and
Martin and the five of them got down in reasonable time despite a few
hairy moments, particularly for the run virgins, Maz and Hensh.
After a quick shower and change the lads took a couple of cabs to a nearby
factory outlet to take advantage of the cheap prices and favourable dollar
rate.
The couples had hired a people carrier, driven by Jenks, and headed off
towards Reno. On arrival at the shopping malls Jenks completed all his
shopping in 20 minutes and then had to hang around for the rest of the
day waiting for everybody else. As the designated driver of the hire car
there was no possibility of him sliding off for a beer and therefore he
not only remained bored but also remained completely sober. On their way
back to Heavenly they were delayed in Carson City (Nevada state capital),
apparently because the Wells Fargo bank had been held up. It's not everyday
that you can say that you had been prevented from getting on with your
day because the Wells Fargo had been held up in Carson City.
Within Harvey's Casino was a Hard Rock Café and it was here that the lads
ate, the couples choosing to eat elsewhere. After the meal the lads +
the Jenks headed to Cabo Wabo, a basement bar located in Harveys Casino.
Cabo Wabo is owned by rock star Sammy Hagar who occasionally performs
at the venue himself. The walls were adorned with photographs of Hagar
on stage in the club along with the stadium shots of his performances
fronting Van Halen. Unfortunately for us (arguably) the next Hagar performance
was not scheduled until the end of April and instead we suffered a pretty
poor one-man band playing along to backing tracks.
On day 6 (Tuesday) we had an early start to catch the bus to Northstar.
Yet again it was sunny but when we first hit the slopes the sun had not
yet had time to soften up the top cover of snow and we found it to be
very crusty. Perhaps the less than ideal surface was a factor in the slopes
being virtually empty and we skied for most of the morning hardly seeing
another soul on the mountain. After lunch the sun had softened the snow
and a lot more people appeared, most skiing in T-shirts and some even
topless (unfortunately all male).
The Northstar ski instructor team provide free group lessons on selected
afternoons and we were fortunate to be there on a day when such lessons
were available. Anton and Hensh took advantage of the free lessons in
a group of about 10 or 12 oddballs (mainly Americans) including a woman
who skied with a coyote on her head. With a group of such size there was
no possibility of one-to-one teaching but they both felt it was worthwhile
and proceeded to bore everyone else for the rest of the day with details
of the exercises and tips they had picked up.
We waited for the bus to take us back to Heavenly in the semi-permanent
tented area at the foot of the mountain. The tented structures, containing
bars etc., had been erected for the season while major construction projects
continue to build a large accommodation complex with leisure facilities
and shops. While have a couple of beers we watched the construction workers
adding the roof to what will be an impressive development. The new facilities
will certainly go a long way to putting Northstar on the map as a major
tourist attraction for the Tahoe area for next season and beyond.
In the evening the 6 lads wandered into Big Dogs Pizza House and ordered
6 pizzas. Such an order would not be deemed unreasonable in the UK, however,
Big Dogs serve big pizzas, 14 inches wide to be exact, and we were immediately
advised by the barman to reduce our order from 6 to 4. This turned out
to be good advice as several slices of pizza was left over after everyone
had become completely stuffed.
We then all waddled over to Mr. P's where we were surprised to find an
extremely poor offering of live music from a couple of old guys who would
have been more suited to playing lounge lizard style in a large hotel
foyer. This was most surprising as we had come to expect a decent standard
of live music at Mr. P's.
Harvey's casino was the final port of call where a few bucks were frittered
away at the tables.
Day 7 (Wednesday) was yet another gloriously sunny day and the majority
headed up the local slopes of Heavenly to enjoy a pretty uneventful day.
Anton and Hensh chose to rest their weary bones and engage in a little
retail therapy. They hired a car and headed off to the huge malls located
in the Reno area. Anton in particular gave his credit card a seriously
hard time returning with enough gear to open his own clothing and footwear
shop.
The evening held the prospect of something different in the form of a
stand-up comedy show at Horizons casino. Greg Proops, an American comedian
well known in the UK for his role in Channel 4's "Whose Line Is It
Anyway" show was the star attraction and the lads and Tank and Ange
swelled the audience in the moderately sized casino theatre.
A few beers at the now familiar territory of Mr. P's was followed by a
relatively early night in preparation for an early start in the morning.
The early start on day 8 (Thursday) was to catch a bus to the other side
of the lake to Squaw Valley. On the bus we were accompanied by a number
of older generation Americans who wasted no time in cracking open bottles
of wine for distribution among themselves as soon as the bus left Heavenly,
which was still well before 8:00am. It was noticeable that it was the
women more than the blokes that were keen to get stuck into the early
morning booze.
When we arrived at Squaw Valley we were yet again greeted by glorious
sunshine and found the skiing to be superb. The ski area is situated in
a large bowl on the North side of Lake Tahoe and there appeared to be
more snow that we had left behind in Heavenly. We experienced the highest
winds of the week at the summit of the Squaw mountains. On a couple of
occasions we needed to make a quick decent from the top to escape being
pelted in the face by hard wind blown ice particles. This same wind also
made lunch more interesting as we chose to eat outside on the deck of
one of the higher restaurants. Trays of food were being tossed around
the mountain top tables and Anton suffered most when one landed in his
lap.
After a great days skiing, a mosey round the shops and a beer listening
to the blues band in one of the open air bar frontages we headed back
to the bus for the short ride down to the edge of lake Tahoe to board
the Tahoe Queen. The Tahoe Queen is a Mississippi built paddlewheel steamer
with a passenger capacity of 500 on 3 decks. On board we enjoyed several
beers on the top deck in the sun then headed downstairs for a meal in
the restaurant area. As the on-board live band struck up, the wrinklies
we had shared the early bus with flocked onto the floor. Somehow we managed
to resist the temptation to join them!
After docking on the South shore of Lake Tahoe the bus met us and transported
us back to the hotel. After a quick shower and change we made a return
trip to Cabo Wabo where we thankfully we found the band decidedly better
than the previous visit to the venue. After another whirl around the casino
tables we ended up in a karaoke bar at Caesar's casino.
Day 9 (Friday) was our last skiing day and it was spent in the now very
familiar surroundings of Heavenly. In the morning we headed over to the
Nevada side of the mountain for a final run around the Mott Canyon area.
After the exceptionally hot week the area was in need of some new snow.
We found numerous thin patches and protruding rocks of varying sizes.
For lunch we joined the Caribbean party at Snow Beach where we secured
and strategically positioned a few easy chairs and enjoyed the Californian
sun for the last time for an extended period. The last run of the trip
really had to be the fire gate run and Bud, Carpy, Hensh and Martin stepped
through the gate for the final time. There was still plenty of snow on
the run but the effect of the prolonged sunshine had changed the consistency
of the snow dramatically. In some places it was like skiing on sticky
sugar. The glue-like conditions and frequent stops to allow Hensh to dig
himself out of a hole or tree was never going to make for a fast decent.
However, the thing that really slowed things down was the decision to
try and find an alternative skiable route to avoid a yomp across the now
snow-free farmyard. Martin became separated from the group and headed
off to the West behind the farm house while Bud, Carpy & Hensh, realising
they had lost Martin, headed North until they came to the farm boundary.
They then headed back East ending up virtually where they had started
considerably more knackered than when they had first left the trail. This
left no alternative but to remove skis and yomp through the farmyard.
As we approached the gate we were greeted by a much more active farm dog
than we had seen previously and his mate, another dog who was certainly
not content to lie down and howl, he wanted to get close to the intruders
and see what they were all about. It was an uneasy trek through the farmyard
being closely tracked by the very vocal dogs but we made it to the other
side. Back at the hotel we found Martin who had managed to ski all the
way back to the road but in doing so had tracked so far to the West that
he emerged 2 blocks away and had to walk back up the road to find the
hotel. After a couple of beers at Fire & Ice, a little last minute shopping
and a mad packing session we had a few beers in the hotel bar with Rich.
The lads had been recommended by the couples to check out the Casino Buffet
on the top floor of Hurrah's casino. Unfortunately we were unaware that
the buffet adhered strictly to the American preference of eating early
and closing early, when we arrived at exactly 9:00pm we found the place
to be closed. After a skirt around the town to find most places full we
ended up in Applebees again. This did not turn out to be a bad thing as
we enjoyed a decent meal. A final couple of beers in the hotel bar followed
and then it was off to bed in preparation for the early start in the morning.
Saturday morning we left the hotel for the airport at 5:00am. Our transport
was 3 taxis rather than a bus which made the journey more comfortable.
The short Reno to San Francisco flight was straightforward and with our
bags checked straight through to Heathrow we had a couple of spare hours
in San Francisco before the long flight home. Most of this time was spent
sleeping, eating, shopping and texting folks at home to try and find out
the rugby and football results. The flight to London was fully booked
which assured some lively debate among passengers and a round of musical
chairs before departure. Thankfully everyone ended up reasonably happy
with their seats.
On arrival back at Heathrow early on Sunday morning the couples separated
to find their cars and the lads met up with Dave and the bus for the ride
home to Worcester.
All the lads had attended the previous years Breckenridge tour and were
therefore able to draw comparisons between the two North American adventures.
Overall it was agreed that the preference was for Colorado over California.
The ski areas of Breckenridge, Keystone, and Vail were not hugely different
to those of Heavenly, Squaw, Kirkwood and Northstar. The ski areas of
Breckenridge, Keystone and Vail were not hugely different to those of
Heavenly, Squaw, Kirkwood and Northstar, however, Keystone did offered
the option of night skiing which was not available in the Tahoe area.
The diversity of the Breckenridge environment with more variety of eating
venues and entertainment also contributed to making it the favoured destination.
The people of Colorado were also felt to be more welcoming than the Californians.
So, another year over and talk rife already about next year checking out
the skiing across the North American border in Canada….... bring it on.
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