Last night was the first Friday night since the first week of the season that I slept in my own bed. I've either been skiing or traveling almost every weekend this year, so it was really nice to change things up, not have to go anywhere and sleep in.

There's only a few days left in the ski season. We did get more snow this past week, but it was an inch or so, and it just didn't seem worth it to go up to the house in Tahoe. No one else RSVP'd and the house would have been empty again. Then there's always the possibility like last Sunday that the Sky Chair would be closed. And that's a problem.

When the Sky Chair is closed, and it was closed for a good reason, namely 60 MPH gusts, there is no way to ski from the California side of Heavenly to the Nevada side. This traps skiers in a bottleneck at the Canyon Express that results in long lifts lines on a day when there should be none. It also means that half of the terrain on the top of the mountain, where the best snow can be found on increasingly hot days, is inaccessible.

Now you can ski down, get in the car, and drive over to Nevada, but that's not much fun. If you're game, you can hike from the top of the Canyon Express to the top of the Sky chair. It might take 45 minutes or so. Maybe less. It's really not that far, but it is a hike. Then you can ski down the cat track to Nevada and take any of three chairs back from Nevada to California. I was down for this, Russell, who took a hard digger the day before was not, so we just skied for the few hours and then took off in the early afternoon.

I'll be up next weekend, the last of the season for Heavenly. I want to ski to get the last few runs before the long drought of summer. We're also having a blowout party, so it should be pretty wild.

Days Skied This Season: 23