After hearing all of the stories on how much snow Tahoe got this past week, I decided that it was time to investigate. Lil' Pinot was already boasting of her girl's trip to Aspen, which had the auspicious start of dealing with a delayed flight followed by a canceled one leading to a 4 hour van ride to the resort, but that's for another time...where was I...oh yeah, so "Tahoe this Friday" became my mantra this week. As the day approached, a few friends who were going with me began to bail, when it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't seen a very dear buddy who lives up there. And so, on Thurs evening put a call into the only guy in the world I know who can on less than 10 hours notice rearrange his schedule for a big day on the mountain. My buddy Mario is with whom I spent a season 6 years ago snowboarding most of the 100 days I had that season. He's a few years younger but really pushes me to ride my best.

And so, the amigos were reunited yesterday for 4.5 hours (non-stop from 10:00a to 2:30p) of remembering what we were like that epic season (2000/'01). By the end of that season, we were both laying out 360s and more (he actually pulled off a front flip) off of 25-30 foot cliffs on powder days. We used to describe fresh pow days as having a tough day at the office (when riding is all you're doing for a season, that becomes your office :) because we would throw our biggest tricks on those days. Well, yesterday was more about remembering than throwing down. We had a great time finding the goods at Sugar Bowl getting turns in untouched pow (had to know your way around to find these). Even the areas that had already been ridden were still nice with easy to move snow as there was a crisp cold in the air, though the sun was keeping our bodies perfectly tempered. This was only my second bona fide day of pure snowboarding for the season, and his fifth (though he got 3 of those in the past week), so our stamina wasn't what it used to be, but we still rode hard and extreme (as in the terrain rather than the tricks). It was good to know that even though I got tired faster, I could still hang with Mario on the big stuff.

Anyway, it's my understanding it was beautiful up there today and should be like that tomorrow, albeit a bit warmer for some perfect spring conditions. Hope you get some.