CHAPTER 16- LAKE TAHOE- SKIING AND SOME SCENERY GAZING

CHAPTER 16- LAKE TAHOE- SKIING AND SOME SCENERY GAZING

It was in the middle of the quarter that we decided we ought to the one other place we had been wanting to go every since we came to Davis- Lake Tahoe. It was a frozen lake just 80 miles north of Davis, which was very scenic and had ski resorts and the best time to see it was December to February and so we decided it was now or never. The 5 of us who were interested in going (JB, Dwarak, Varun, Jakki and I) rented a car and started very early in the morning, heavily dressed for the cold. I was really excited as it was the first time I was going to see and feel and even ski in snow.

We had driven for about an hour and there was still no sight of snow. We could feel the wind chilling a bit but considering we had another 30 miles only to our destination, which was to be snow covered mountains and a frozen lake, it was bizarre that we hadn’t caught sight of any snow. After double-checking if we were on the right track, we continued on and noticed that the wind had chilled suddenly and another two minutes of driving led us to our first sight of snow. It was beautiful to see white flakes on the black tar on the road ahead of us.

Another two minutes of driving…and voila…we couldn’t see any color other than white all around us. All the greenery and earth had been covered with snow. It was a majestic sight to look around you and see only white. Soon the road began climbing and we realized we were on the snow capped mountains now. After sometime we could see the ground below, all covered in beautiful white.

We reached our first destination, the ski resort in a few minutes from then, and got down from the car and wore every layer of clothing we had brought with us. We needed it. I stepped into the snow for the first time in my life and it was initially a weird feeling. It was about 5 inches deep and it was pretty difficult to walk initially. It was similar to walking on sand on a beach, only this was a good 3 inches thicker. We went into the resort and collected our gear. It was a huge struggle to wear the snow boots. They were humungously heavy. Each boot must have weighed at least 5 kgs(whatever that is in lbs- I am still used to the SI system). It was such a struggle to walk with that. We were handicapped the whole way from the gear closet to the open, as our movement was restricted by these boots and we were also carrying other stuff like the skiing rods. After losing balance countless times and bumping into loads of people, we finally got out into the open and the sight dazzled us. Literally. Everything in front of us was vulgarly white. There was so much white light reflected by the snow all around us that we had to close our eyes and open them gradually to get accustomed to it. It was like waking up from sleep and the first thing you look at is the sun. No wonder serious skiers wear goggles.

Once our eyes got accustomed to the light, we looked around to see lots of snow covered hills of all heights and of all steepness around us. There were at least 500 people skiing in that resort at that time. We wore the skis on our boots and we realized we were even more paralyzed that before. It was impossible to lift our legs and walk. And it was impossible to move uphill with the skis which dug into the snow. And we were too scared to go downhill, as we didn’t know how to control it. And so we stayed put, watching other people, including kids as young as 6-7 years ski down the steepest slopes. We felt retarded.

Finally the ski instructor came down to us and our crash course in skiing started. There is so much technique involved in skiing, some quite difficult to master. Your legs need to be bent at the right angle to have proper control when you ski downhill. And your feet should be relaxed. When you want to stop, you have to do what is called the pizza formation with your legs, where you join the thumbs of both your toes and maintain a 30 degree angle. Not more, not less. You do one of these things wrong, and you ll end up falling, as we realized the hard way. When you want to turn right while skiing, you need to wiggle the toes of your right foot and for turning left, your left foot. There was so much concentration necessary.

The initial lessons were quite easy but when we went to do the real thing, we realized how hard it was. Concentration and relaxation is preceded by instinct when you are racing downhill and so you often end up doing one thing wrong and that is enough to make you do a somersault and fall a few yards away, head down and feet up. The worst thing was not the fall. It was the recovery from it. It was really hard to get back up on your feet, with such heavy boots and skis which give you no control. And once you get back up, if you don’t get your feet into the pizza formation, you are likely to plummet downhill again and fall.

I must have fallen at least a hundred times (no juxaggeration) and it is a wonder that I had no bones broken. Each fall propelled me to try more and fall again, after attaining a greater velocity. The longest I managed to stay on my feet was for about 20 seconds down a 60 degree inclined hill and I remember that achievement not for the good amount of time I managed to maintain balance but for the fall I had at a 40 kmph speed I must have attained. I tried to steer right, for which I had to wiggle the toes of my right foot alone and being the symmetry freak (guys who know me will understand this), I couldnt get myself to do that and so I wiggled the toes of both my feet simultaneously and as they say, the rest is history. I must have been at least 5 seconds in the air (which is a long time) and landed at least 20 metres from the point I started flying. Ouch. It sure hurt! It is funny how snow flakes, which are on its own so soft, combine to form a lump of snow which is as hard as stone (and seems harder as your body is numb in the cold). It is analogous to how, in a situation where one individual may be ineffective in performing a task, a team of individuals can accomplish the same task. In that way, the snow teamed up to give amateur skiers like me a ‘hard’ time. Pun intended.

But finally after 4-5 hrs of skiing, I think I got the hang of it and I could keep myself on my feet over a whole downhill path. Dwarak got really good at it though, almost looked like a pro towards the end. Varun didn’t really take to the snow as he would to a guitar and hence was branded ‘grandma’ by the ski instructor (:P). Knowing that our bodies would be aching all over but not even able to feel it because of the numbness due to the cold, we called it a day and returned our gear and warmed ourselves. Only then we started feeling the pain from all the bones which had taken a beating. It was like coming back from a dentist after a tooth extraction and feeling the pain after the anesthetic wears off.

We then drove to the lake, which was about 20 miles from there. I got down from the car and I was greeted by what was the most beautiful sight I have ever taken into my eyes. This was what would be justifiable usage of the often overused expression ‘picture-perfect’. Imagine this scenery. You are standing on snow. Right in front of you is a vast expanse of a frozen lake, where the ice forms a single sheet which reflects light at you like a mirror. In front of the lake which seems to stretch forever are mountains. Snow capped ones, where the snow on their peaks makes them look like a vanilla cream garnished dessert. Behind them, you can see the sky, in its purest blue. And behind that, the sun peaking out of the mountains completes the picture. It was breathtakingly beautiful. You could stare at that one scenery all day. It was so hypnotizing.

We played around on the banks making a snowman and taking pictures and then decided it was time to leave.

Rather reluctantly, we went to our car and drove back home. It had been one hell of a day. The aftermath was also hell, but in a different way. The next three days, we couldn’t move a muscle as an effect of all the beating our bones had taken while skiing. But it was worth every bit of that pain.

(TO BE CONTINUED...)