Withdrawl Symptoms

I've spent the last 2 weekends away from the mountains hanging out in LA and San Diego. I was sick the first weekend and just didn't want to make 6-8 hour drive necessary to find decent skiing. This weekend, I originally had plans to go to Tahoe and ski Squaw and Sugar Bowl. Then I got a call from my buddy James on Tuesday night. At first, he said that the snow wouldn't be that great and it would be mid 50's and sunny. My answer to that was fine, we'll just approach it with the attitude that it would be spring skiing. We'll be wearing T-Shirts and skiing lots of bumps. Although far from powder, that can be a lot of fun if you go into it with the right attitude. That didn't sway him and eventually it came out that he wanted to stay in San Francisco for the weekend and go out on a date with a girl that he met recently. Not being a powder weekend and the fact that he spent the last 6 weekends at Tahoe, girls naturally won out over bumps and sun. Although disappointed not to be going up there this weekend, I clearly understand. Given the same choice, I probably would have made the same decision.

I am really hurting to get back out and get some turns in. Although I'm interested in going for a tour next weekend, what I really want is some lift serviced skiing. The backcountry is a great experience in that you have to work for each turn and that you're usually the only ones out there. But the tradeoff (versus lift service) is that you really don't get a lot of turns in and you don't ski as steep of terrain.

On the positive side, this past weekend was a lot of fun. I visited my buddy Carl in LA, got my butt kicked surfing and brewed my first batch of beer since last July. It will be a Belgian Red Ale in the style of Rodenbach and should be available on draft here in San Diego in another 3 weeks.