On Friday at Heavenly Resort in Tahoe I skied (by myself for the day) down the equivalent of Mt. Everest, which also includes riding chairlifts up the equivalent of Mt. Everest. So, I spent a lot of time making small talk with randoms on the lifts, and the conversation topics ranged from normal to strange, including the following, in order of frequency:

  • The lack of snow
  • Last season’s snow was amazing
  • Is Kirkwood any better? (About the same right now, but I did see Heavenly people there on Thursday, so there’s that)
  • The fact that this is still better than east coast skiing
  • Where everyone on the lift is from, including Santa Cruz, upstate Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maine, Nevada, Pittsburgh, and Colorado (in which case, why are you here?! The snow is so much better over there right now!)
  • Absurd traffic driving to Tahoe
  • Does Yosemite in summer get as crazy as Tahoe during ski season? (Yes, and more, minus the weather complications)
  • We want to leave the Bay Area but it’s got so much going for it
  • Are different brands of skis really that different from each other after all? (Probably, but I’m not good enough to tell, plus I’ve been skiing on the same pair for the past four years)
  • The Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in northern Spain
  • That guy looks kinda like Gumby
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Mt. Everest is tall