New Year at the Lodge
by Ed Martinclick for New Year Photos
Our New Year event at the lodge had shaky prospects
around Christmas. Storms were both brewing and dumping,
rightly creating travel nerves. A little frustrating with Ray's powder
e-mails and the knowledge of the ever friendly
welcome our lodge affords.
Après folks are tenacious and found the weather slots that tentatively materialized Sunday and Monday. Many braved the conditions and arrived, each with a travel story to share over impromptu cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. For many of us skiing was top of the agenda and Monday saw early starts for both downhill and cross country resorts. Reports of difficult access to Squaw, Alpine and Northstar persuaded most to choose Homewood and Diamond Peak with Tahoe XC for the cross country. However the best skiing for me, I like to say the best skiing of my life, was 2002's last day. We had two feet of overnight snow with continued precipitation throughout the morning, in Ray's words powder, powder, powder. I became a tree man.
So despite the shaky prospects the event was shaping up and out of the blue we found we had a real cook amongst us. After skiing powder all day Martin Gebert found the energy, the skill was automatic, to prepare chicken fricassee for, in the end, 18. At least as impressive were his own knives and chef jacket. Tonight was party night, Ray had the lodge nicely decorated with lights inside and out and thoughts of finding outside entertainment were brushed aside, our cozy home, delightful company and new super stereo generously donated by Lou Duzac was all we needed. We toasted each time zone and precisely counted down our own transition (the radio DJ's screwed it up as usual) dancing in the New Year with a conga train lubricated with Champagne.
Many planned to stay and ski next day with cross country and the small resorts being the best choices, places like Northstar were surprisingly crowded. Our impromptu event drew slowly to a close with some staying on and new members arriving. Be assured we left you all plenty of snow so come up and enjoy, this is going to be a bumper year.
Happy New Year