Heavenly officially opened this morning which the ski season has started for me. Well, sort of. I don't know what condition the mountain is in, butad to if I had to guess, I'd say it must be fairly pathetic. According to the listed conditions, no snow has falled in more than a week and the base depth of 30" (down from 46" when I checked on Saturday) is mostly from snow-making. Normally the snow-making just helps lay down the base and is augmented by a thick layer of natural snow by this time, but not this year. So far there has been precious little rain in the Bay Area and therefore minimal percipitation in the Sierras.

This concerns me greatly because I just put a large chunk of change down for a ski cabin. The place won't be available until the first week of January, and much could change by then, but it is a worry nonetheless. It's a condo on the Nevada side near the Stagecoach lodge. It should be more comfortable than last time when we had 15 people in a house with 3 bedrooms. This time there are 12 and the are 12 sleeping spots not including couches. I will always have a bed to sleep in. There's an indoor and outdoor hot tub, gourmet kitchen and what seems to be a nice group of people, none of which will matter if there's no snow. We've had so much snow the last 2 years, it seems as though we're due for a dry season. Let's hope not.

Even though there's little snow on the mountain, I'd like to get up and ski today. I can't because of commitments I've made. I can't go the follhowing two days either because my pass is "blacked out" on certain holidays. I coukd go Sunday and I'm hoping for some snowfall between now and then which would make the decision to drive up all the more easy.

I haven't skied before New Year's in close to 20 years. When I returned to skiing in Vail it was already January 2004. I moved back to the Bay Area, bought a Haeavely pass for the first time and got locked into the ski house, but that didn't start until January as well and I didn't manage to make it up before that. Last season, I didn't have a lease and I spent a good chunk of time in December down in Costa Rica. I didn't get my first day on the slopes until Februrary 21st. I didn't ski nearly as much as in 2004-2005 when I had the house and I didn't ski as much, of course, in 2004-2005 as I did in 2004 when I lived in Vail. I don't like that trend line so it's time to get a few more days in. I'll be happy if I get 25.

Even though I got a late start last year, I thought the season was pretty damn good. I got in about 6 days at Heavenly, or just enough to make the pass worthwhile, including a powder-blessed weekend when my brother came out from DC and I had the biggest wipeout of my life I hit Homewood, Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows in North Lake Tahoe for the first time. I was impressed by all of them for different reasons. And then we capped of the season with the amazing, albeit fateful trip to Whistler/Blackbomb in British Colombia.

If I keep the quality the same and jack the quantity, this wil be a great season.