Snow! at Echo Summit, March 1999
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With both time pieces on the blink - one is now blank and the other chooses
to display everything at once - a new clock was needed if I was to to get up
in time to go skiing on Sat. Some mathematicians came to dinner (there was
no way we were going to get through the bottle of champagne our landlord 
gave us for New Years on our own!), we toasted Ben and Sarah's purchase of a
house then the alarm went off at 5:20am. Keren, incoming Princess of Chaos
(I'm finally abdicating as King), picked me up shortly after and we were off!
to Davis to rendevous with Madeleine, Byrce T, Josh, Alan, Ky-Van and Will.
Next stop: the slopes of Sierra-at-Tahoe! Well okay so we stopped to grab
some breakfast at Placerville...To ski or try snowboarding? was decided by
the $10 difference in price and soon I trod the snow on skis, heels firmly
attached for the first time since coming here. Ky-Van and I figured I'd be 
skiing at about the same level as she was snowboarding, and everyone else
seemed to have disappeared, so we hopped on GRAND VIEW EXPRESS to the top 
of Huckleberry Mt. and a view of L. Tahoe. I took timidly to the slopes,
sticking to the green "easier" runs till we all met up again for lunch at
one; but my confidence gradually grew and after lunch we all headed off
to some blue "more difficult" slopes together. The better skiers disappeared
through some trees faster than Ky-Van and I could follow so we slid on at our
own pace for the rest of the afternoon. Slowly discovering that I could in
fact ski when my heels were attached my runs got straighter and faster as
we swooped and swhooshed down such trails as DOGWOOD, BEAVER, ESCAPE, POWDER
HORN and BASHFUL. Alas all to soon the lifts stopped running and we regrouped
at the cars --a fun day but a somewhat expensive one... Keren and Bryce
then headed back to Berkeley, Ky-Van and Will to a hostel to resort ski the
next day and Madeleine, Alan, Josh and I to cheaper but chillier 
accomodation. Making our way to nearby Echo Lake snopark we pitched the tents
in intermittent light snow, setting them up with the doors facing each other.
The stoves went in between and Madeleine soon had dinner under way--soup,
pasta and cocoa (alas Madeleine forgot to buy any choccie). With only two
spoons and one fork between 4 someone ended up using the spondoniculs (Aussie
for potgrips). Dinner over we went straight to bed --I woke at some unknown
hour of the morning a little too cold to get back to sleep...Breakfasted we
set off into the snow and tree covered hills, 'neath blue and white skies
and sunshine and spots of snow, two on skis, two on snowshoes, one bearing
a snowboard --the other three got to slide and glide down from our highest
point but I had to walk down apart from the occaisional bumslide...Alan's
snowboard had just enough room for 4 to sit down for lunch, then we set
off again, walking over Echo Lake and back to the car.