Day 13
Location: Truckee, CA
Resorts: 8 out of 50
Sometimes the universe just lines up for you – Seven feet of snow in four days. Interstate 80 closes. And we have a bunch of tickets to Northstar-At-Tahoe. Here’s the rundown of the first big powder day of 100DOW:
5:30 am: Woken up by snowplows in the Truckee Safeway parking lot. C’mon guys. We’re trying to sleep here. Fire up the Mystery Machine and move next door for another hour of sleep.
The morning weather report calls for a powder day
7:00 am: Waiting at the front door when Ace Hardware opens. I have lots of questions about truck chains. The most helpful guy in the world takes a vice grip and bends broken chain back into some semblance of order.
7:35 am: Success! Chains on. Let’s roll.
Chains: The RV owner's best friend
8:15 am: Rolling into the Northstar parking lot. There’s nobody here.
8:35 am: We already secured our tickets the day before, so we roll straight onto the world’s slowest gondola — and ironically the quickest way up the hill.
9:00 am: At the top of the mountain. The backside isn’t open yet. Patrollers tell us it will be twenty minutes. We take a quick knee high powder run under the Comstock Express.
C'mon and open already!
9:20 am: Backside is still closed when we get back to the top. There’s no crowd. It looks like it’s going to be awhile…No wait. They’re dropping the ropes. We’re the first people allowed in. We take a quick burner down Burnside.
10:30 am: Multiple face shots later we start diving into the trees. More knee deep powder awaits us in the trees off Challenger. There has been zero waiting at the Backside Express lift. Rumor has it that Interstate 80 is closed which explains the lack of crowds.
The trees at Northstar make me happy
10:45 am: We head over to Lookout Mountain via the Poma. It’s snowing again. Hard. I clip a stump in the woods and almost dive head first into a tree.
12:30 pm: The Lookout Express lift closes for mechanical reasons. Our quads are burning. We return to the frontside and shoot blues and blacks for another ninety minutes. The wind is blowing up the front hard enough to make every run a fresh powder run.
Snooze gets buried
3:05 pm: We’re cooked for the day. Legs are hurting, and so are our faces from smiling. We head down to Truckee and park our rig on main street. Coco fixes us an afterschool snack of Keystone Lights and Hot Pockets.
The snacks of champions...or RV people
4:00 pm: Posted up at the Past Time Club.
5:45 pm: Rolling over to the Tourist Club for a couple of $2.50 PBR.
7:00 pm: At Taco Jalisco for a kickass dinner. Snooze orders the Volcano Bowl, which might be the most amazing thing ever. The guy next to us overhears our conversation and asks if we’re The Snow Junkies. He’s heard of us. Cool.
9:00 pm: Back in the Safeway parking lot. It’s pounding snow outside. We fire up the laptop and watch South Park episodes until everyone passes out.
The Safeway parking lot -- Our home away from home
2:30 am: Woken up by snowplows in the Truckee Safeway parking lot. C’mon guys. We’re trying to sleep here. Fire up the Mystery Machine and move next door. It’s still snowing.
