Grateful for Snow: Lake Tahoe early season report–Boreal Ridge

We left Ventucky just before midnight and drove north all night, switching off between sleeping in the back of the van with the small boy and taking the wheel. At dawn, I pulled off and slept for an hour and the small boy read books and played. Then we were back on I-80 marveling at the fall color and more and more snow as we climbed higher into the Sierra.

We neared Donner Pass and Boreal Ridge ski area just before 9am. We pulled off to check it out and decide where to go to ski for the day. The parking attendant convinced us with a report of $39 for lift tickets but it turned out they’d upped the price to $49 for adults, and $15 for kids.

Even at $49 for a lift ticket–cheap by Tahoe standards, I doubt if I’ll ever return to Boreal Ridge. It was the first time I’d ever been skiing when I wished desperately for a helmet.

Everyone we talked to said Boreal had the best snow in the region: they make it and the base there is high–about 7000. There isn’t much there–just your basic necessities. A lot of people, like us, brought lunch and ate lunch  in the parking lot.

Boreal may be inexpensive and they may have easy access right there off I -80. That could be a benefit and a liability because Boreal was packed with young guys. We should have suspected as much as the SUVs pulled in and Moms dropped of carloads of young snowboarding toting males.

I don’t have anything against young male snowboarders in general. But this pack was rude– and dangerous. While some had good control, many did not. It’s a delicate dance on a crowded slope and it takes everyone there to partner to keep from crashing.  If I had had a helmet, I would have worn it.

There were supposedly four lifts–a magic carpet, a slow beginner lift, and two intermediate quads which  served three runs, two of them crowded with young boarders going as fast as possible.

So we did the third run all day: up, down, up, down, which is great to get your ski legs back actually. They kept the lifts running until a little after 4pm which we were grateful for.

From Boreal, we headed down the mountain Reno where we stayed with fellow Burning Mom and poet friend Nila NorthSun,  feasted on burgers and beer at Silver Peak Brewery (full review of the 12 beers we tasted there later!), went to bed very very early, and dreamed about our next day on the slopes…

(pictures to follow…)