Squaw Valley !

For the late January long weekend, Dad and Henry flew to Reno and stayed in a condo near Lake Tahoe, in Tahoe City. We skied at Squaw Valley (home to the 1960 Olympics) two days and Alpine Meadows one day. Squaw had sunny skies the first day, and snow with low visibility the second. A challenging resort for sure, almost entirely blue and blacks, and lots of steep runs.

Rambler !

Dad dusted off the Go Pro and used it to record the boys going down Rambler at Sun Peaks. A pretty tame run, the biggest challenge is staying out of the way of the little kids on their lessons!

Skiing In Canada for the Holidays

We took a shorter ski trip this year for Christmas, driving up to Canada for 3.5 days of skiing - the first day and a half at Sun Peaks (our fourth time there), and the final two days at Revelstoke (first time there). We drove up on the 26th (7.5 hours, leaving at 5:30 so we could get a half-day of skiing in) to Sun Peaks, and stayed at one of the hotels in the village. Then after a full day of skiing we drove to Revelstoke, a three-hour drive away. Revelstoke is most famous for having the largest vertical drop from top to bottom of any resort in North America. John took the main (easy) trail down from summit to base - it was 8.5 miles and a nearly 6000 ft. vertical drop. Even if the middle of the mountain was in the clouds, the top was often above them! Very nice scenery, and great skiing.

Christmas 2019

With Christmas on a Wednesday and our ski trip starting the day after Christmas, we actually celebrated Christmas on the 25th this year! Big presents were lots of ski gear (coat for Joseph, pants for Henry, ski rack for Jack), the James Niehaus Ski Map book, and some board games that were a big hit - namely Quadropolis and Trekking the National Parks. Even Wilson and Keetna got some enticing gifts!

Mt Rainier National Park in Winter

Right before Christmas, Dad and Joseph stayed two nights at the Longmire Inn inside Mt Rainier National Park. This was our second year in a row of doing short National Park trips right before Christmas, last year it was to Yellowstone.

We did a short hike and a longer snowshoe, and explored around the park. The Lodge was decked out for Christmas and was very comfortable. The mountain was socked in for the first two days, but when we awoke on the day we left (Christmas Eve) it was a clear sunny day and we got a beautiful view of the summit!