Great terrain, (lots of) crappy snow, terrible town.

But it was still fun!

The terrain was not only great for skiing, but also looking at. It could very easily be the prettiest place we have ever skied. It’s not often that I find myself stopping for the sole purpose of taking in the views, but it was a daily occurrence in Tahoe.

On to the snow! It should have been amazing… they got four to five FEET of snow days before arrived. Unfortunately, tons of RAIN was right behind it. We skied in the pouring rain at Kirkwood the first day and might as well have just jumped in the lake!

Luckily the rain stopped after the first day and the conditions improved a bit. You just had to watch out for the sheer ice or these little ice pellets that effectively act as ball bearings and would send you for a very wild ride.

Skiing under the large rock formation in the shade was particularly terrifying. It was impressively steep and icy as anything I’ve ever skied or skated on.

Perhaps we should have paid more attention to these signs…

Because we both ended up having some good crashes. I somehow tumbled into/over/through a bamboo caution side in the DITCH OF DOOM.

Jen tumbled while jumping over this rock and lost a contact. Amazingly, we not only found it but got it back in.

The snow did soften up as the trip went on and tons of terrain was open. The skiing ended up being quite good.

The town itself was WEIRD. It was almost entirely composed of true drive up motor inn style motels that were clinging desperately to the their 60s (50s?) roots. I’m also pretty sure nothing has been updated since. A lot of places look like the Stardust Inn only seedier (in retrospect, we probably should have stayed there as it reviewed better than our casino).

We spent a few hours driving around looking at various rooms. The most notable was without doubt the Fantasy Inn. The (very creepy) concierge really talked up all the mirrors surrounding the bed. A bit too much really. It also featured wallless showers, a heart shaped jacuzzi, and a questionable level of cleanliness!

There is no shortage of hotels in the world I would prefer not to stay in, but there really aren’t all that many I wouldn’t stay in. This is not the case in Tahoe. I would have happily slept in the car to avoid that particular Super 8. We probably would have been safer and more comfortable. Keep in mind we often frequent and enjoy the (also old) Super 8 in Colorado!

The winner ended up being the MonteBleu Casino, partially because we just couldn’t keep going (we’d been traveling since 5am!) and partially because they had a $9.99 1 pound steak special.

It’s the white building. It’s a terrible picture, but just imagine the architect did some work for the Roger Moore era Bond movies.

I can say with authority that the steak was worth $9.99. Take that as you will.

The hotel was quite nice, it was just a little dated. And dirty. And really loud. I’m not entirely sure we are cut out for casino towns.

We managed to find a few good restaurants after we got a feel for the town, but overall it’s just not like the other ski town’s we have seen (read: nice). It’s probably because it’s not a ski town, it’s a gambling lake town that happens to have great skiing.

Reno was also a bit weird, but we did get to try In and Out!