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Heavenly 2/7-2/8

gingerjess

Angel Diva
So I just finished the first day of a two day trip to Heavenly! It's incredibly exciting after staying locked down for the last two months.

I went into today pretty worried, to be honest. The last two-day trip back in November barely was enough time to get me back in the groove of skiing and feeling confident in my ability, and I was scared it'd be back to square one. Luckily that turned out not to be the case and I found my rhythm pretty quickly this time.

Heavenly is a seriously massive resort, and I enjoyed exploring it. I made it all the way from the "Perimeter" trail at the eastern Nevada edge all the way to the "Round-a-Bout" trail running the western border. The Skyline trail has breathtaking views, and I think Heavenly might be the Tahoe resort that best takes advantage of its geography.

I continue to enjoy the Ripsticks; I think the best word to describe them is "pliable"? You can drive them if you want, but you don't need to, and they plow through skied-up muck like it's not even there.

My fitted boots are great! I can really feel the difference at the end of the day in terms of muscle pain; there's very little in comparison, and none in my shins as compared to the rental boots I was on last season. I do think I have a hot spot that needs to be checked out over my right inner ankle, but other than that, they're a dream.

Fatigue was an issue today; I found myself needing to pull over and rest for a minute periodically, even with extended wait times for lifts. It's possible it's related to the fact that I drove up this morning, leaving SF at 4AM. It's also possible that the Heavenly trails just tend to be much longer than what I'm used to; lapping feels strenuous here.

Skiing highlight: the last run of the day around the western edge of the resort and down World Cup to the California lodge. Exhausting. Worth it.

Non-skiing highlight: there was an adorable dad and daughter pair with coordinated outfits and equipment. He was wearing neon green clothes and boots with pink skis; she was wearing all-pink clothes and boots with neon green skis. It was pretty cute.

Lessons learned: taking a break and getting a Gatorade does a lot when you're feeling worn out, and can prevent dumb mistakes.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
This sounds . . . heavenly! I can't wait for the day I get to ski out West. I haven't the faintest idea (and too lazy to look it up) but couldn't altitude have caused some of your fatigue?
 

gingerjess

Angel Diva
This sounds . . . heavenly! I can't wait for the day I get to ski out West. I haven't the faintest idea (and too lazy to look it up) but couldn't altitude have caused some of your fatigue?

That could make sense! It was a pretty abrupt altitude shift (sea level to 10,000 feet in the space of 4.5 hours). And I didn't feel nearly as fatigued yesterday.
 

gingerjess

Angel Diva
Day two report:

Most of the same things from Sunday held true. I did end up feeling a lot less fatigued by the end of the day, even though (according to the EpicMix app), I skied a lot more vertical. Possibly my technique was better, possibly my body had adjusted to the altitude, possibly it was just easier because I was more well-rested.

Crowds and lines were much less of an issue on the weekday, as expected. COVID-related behaviors also seemed different; there was much more consistent mask-wearing and more pairs going up without a third on the other end of the chair.

The event of the day for me was dropping a glove off the lift in the middle of the woods. Rather than try and handle terrain I wasn't ready for to get it back, I downloaded the gondola to the village at lunchtime to buy a new pair. On my way back up, the staff member directing traffic at the big map chuckled and reassured me that he would typically see at least one glove loss a day.

I also got the chance to ski with a fellow Diva! @ski_hat lives in the area and joined me for the afternoon, and we had a great time exploring all the way over to the far Nevada side and back to California. I think my favorite run is the long, extended trek over Skyline and down Perimeter; it's sparsely populated, and alternately wide and swooping and steep.

This trip has cemented my resolve to get a private lesson to learn moguls; there's a lot of terrain that's inaccessible to me at the moment because I can't handle them.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Sounds like a great day, and especially always fun to meet up with a new diva!

If I could go back and start to learn moguls sooner, instead of avoiding them for as long as I did, I totally would. Though know that anything iffy in your regular skiing will be amplified in bumps. It really opens up a whole new world on a mountain when you know you don’t have to obsess about whether something is bumped or groomed because you can handle it either way. I avoided them like the plague for SO long!! I’m still working on them constantly, and I’m not good at them, but I can safely get down which is the point. I hope someday it’ll look prettier though haha.
 

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