Last year I didn't have a ski house. I went up for several one day shots and crashed at a friend's place in North Lake. It was ok, but the end result was that I didn't ski much-6 days at Heavenly, 4 at Whistler, 3 at Squaw and one each at Alpine and Homewood. Just not enough skiing for my tastes.

So this season I decided to join a house again. It was going to be expensive, a grand for the season. But it was really a no brainer, the main reason being that driving up in the wee hours of the morning, skiing like a bat out of hell all day and then skiing home is for the birds. It's exhausting and it takes me too long to recover-Ironically, I've already done it twice this season, but let's not get into that.

So the house started on the 5th. It's a condo in Nevada and few hundred meters below the stagecoach lift. I didn't make it the first weekend. I was up skiing at Heavenly (skiing day 2), but I was over on the California side and even though planned to drop over to Nevada, pick up key and leave my gear behind, at the end of the day, all I wanted to do was get in the car and head home.

The next weekend was MLK. I knew the hill was going to be insane. The house which has ten members was going to have 15 people sleeping refugee style and I thought I'd give it a pass. It hadn't snowed much anyway (still hasn't). I didn't think it was a big loss.

So I went up for the first time the following weekend. I headed up late Friday night to avoid traffic, at which I was marginally successful. I followed the instructions from house organizer to pick up the key and promptly got lost. I was halfway to Carson City before I turned around and finally found the little ump called the Pine Cone Resort (the "Pine Cone' part of the neon was out which was why I missed it and should tell you everything about how appropriate the name "Resort" is. Anyway, I found the place. Parked. Got out. Used the the code to get into the antechamber and retrieved my key. But I wasn't out the woods.

Google Maps doesn't do a great job of handling little private roads in small areas, like at the base of a ski resort, so the tool that I and so many people like me have come to rely on, was of little or no use. But I plowed ahead and tried to mash up the written instructions provided by Ezra and the Google Map and promptly got lost. I made wrong turns. I ended up on one way streets. i muddled through and finally found the place, or the at least the vicinity, but I couldn't find the building.

I parked in one place, looked around and couldn't find it. I called Ezra but got no answer. I wandered around some more. Keep in mind it's cold and it's dark. I'm tired and hungry. I just want to find the fucking place and, grab a bite to eat and crash.

I parked in another place. There was mangy dog growling at me. I had to flee into a snow bank behind a car to escape him. When the owner came out to fetch the mongrel, I asked if he knew where 928 was and he pointed over my shoulder. There it was right behind me. What an idiot. Of course, the adventure wasn't over yet.

I had located the buildling. That was a good start. I grabbed my gear. The house was on top of a little hill and the driveway was steep and it was covered with this translucent ice. I really needed crampons to navigate, especially since I was carrying skis and ski gear and tons of crap. Somehow I managed to get up the hill without incident, but just barely and only with the most patient efforts at movement.

Then I couldn't figure out where to go. The outside of the condo offers no clues. Even worse there were negative clues. I opened the door to the place, and this is a very unwelcoming weather beaten outisde door and it opened up into what looked like a construction site. There was mylar on the floor and the carpets had been ripped up. This couldn't be right? I must be at the wrong entrance.

i went back outside to look for another way in, but there was none. Ok. I went back in. Trudged over the mylar walkway and found the condo.

Nothing was easy, Even using the key was a pain in the ass. But I was in.

Warmth. Camaraderie. Food. Sleep.