I left my heart in...Colorado!

So I experienced skiing in the Sierra Nevadas for the first time today at Heavenly ski resort! I have been waiting months for this and it was great. Me and my friend, Steven, went up there last night after work. It was about a 4 hr drive. On the way up, we ate at In 'n Out Burger (my second time there), a California fast food craze where you only have three choices (hamburger, cheeseburger, double-double). The meat is grown on some ranch in California and the fries are made from real potatoes. Every weekend night, there are usually 20 cars lined up in the drive-through and the place is packed inside. It's good, but who waits in line that long for fast food?!

They got 6 feet of snow at Heavenly last week. Along the highway, in the mountains the snow on the shoulder or the road was taller than the cars! The skiing was pretty good, but the powder was definitely different than the powder in Colorado -- it was freakin' dense! There definitely isn't the fluffy white dust flying in the air when you're skiing through the virgin runs. That was kind of disappointing actually. And the dense snow forces your muscles to work exponentially harder in your turns! By noon, I felt like every muscle in my leg was pulled, and I hadn't skied any blacks yet! By the end of the day, my legs felt like jelly. In all my life, skiing has never killed my legs like that! (I attribute it to the snow as opposed to the fact that I've exercised aerobically about 20 minutes in the last 3 months!) The temperature was surprisingly cold. It was cloudy and 30 most the day with fog which made it hard to see sometimes (although I'll take that over mid teens and windy in January in Colorado). But the last couple hours cleared up and it was 35-40.

So while I will keep my Vail snobbery and say the snow and mountains in Colorado (thus far in my experience) is better than the Sierras, I must admit the view of Lake Tahoe from Heavenly is quite breathtaking! And Heavenly is split between California and Nevada, so you get to ski between the states, which is pretty cool; however, there is a slot machine at the top of every lift on the Nevada side (j/k, but there are casinos at the base of the mountain)! And the drive out of the mountains tonight was one of the most breath-taking scenes I've ever seen. Driving west down out of the mountains into the foothills, the sunset was orange and purple and there was fog in the Sacramento valley, so you saw peaks of mountains and trees poking out of this sea of fog that we were above! Words can't even describe it. I've never seen anything like it. Absolutely breathtaking! Anyways, after round one: Skiing, grandiose, and atmosphere go to Colorado, scenery and temperature goes to Sierras. While there was some excitement in these mountains, my hearts still belongs to Colorado. Next week is round two at a different ski resort, so I'll let you know what the scores are for that one. In the mean time, here are some pics of Heavenly for you to enjoy.