January in the Sierra's

Living in Lake Tahoe has been spectacular for the first month.  Our house is tucked up on top of Tahoe Donner, sitting at around 7000 feet and gets tons of snow.  We are about 3 miles east of Donner Pass, in the western part of Truckee, California.  The month started out with a lot of snowshoeing trips up to Castle Peak and Mt. Rose (10,000 ft+) and a handful of ski days to Sugar Bowl, our local mountain.  Katie tweaked her knee and has been out of commission for a couple weeks now, but after a visit to the ortho she is on track for a quick and speedy recovery.

Tahoe National Forest

Lake Tahoe

We've now had snow for the past 9 days, thanks to an El Nino weather pattern, absolutely battering our mountains with upwards of 7 feet of snow in a week.  I'm lucky enough to be working in a school and getting some snow days, which allowed me to ski 5 out of 7 days last week, all amazing knee and waist-high powder, many times first tracks when the lifts fired up in the morning.  

Emerald Bay

I haven't been able to branch out to many different ski resorts yet, staying pretty loyal to a couple hills.  However, I've got a handful of visitors coming this weekend and will hopefully be hitting up some new spots.  

Chute @ Sugar Bowl

Putting in Driveway Work

Westward expansion

For the 3rd time since my college graduation, I'm switching coasts, this time taking up residence in Truckee, California on the Lake Tahoe border with Nevada.  We packed up the car and drove 4 full days to our destination.  The trip included driving through Massachusetts, across upstate New York and by Niagara Falls and the border with Canada, a little bit of PA, an over night in Sandusky, Ohio (where Tommy Boy sold his Callahan Auto Parts), Indiana, Illinois, overnight in Iowa, Nebraska, some bar-hopping in Rawlins, Wyoming, a quick trip through Salt Lake and Park City, Utah, a long way across northern Nevada and our eventual arrival in eastern California.

Ohio Sunset

maps

full car

car wash, Wyoming

I-80, Nebraska

Salt flats, Utah

I-80, Nevada

Happy New Year everyone..next post will have Tahoe National Forest photos