Skiing and Sledding in Tahoe

We try to get to the mountains at least once per winter (snow being scarce in Palo Alto). Sierra always looks forward to playing in the white stuff, and this is Kade’s first real exposure to it. (Last year in Yosemite, he was too young to do anything except look puzzled). We stayed with our friends Rich and Celia at their cabin in Truckee.

We got off to an inauspicious start early Saturday morning when Kade fell out of bed and hit his mouth on the side table- rather a rude awakening. We took him to the Tahoe Forest Hospital Emergency Room in Truckee at 4:30am to get checked out. Fortunately he was more perturbed than injured.

After a much needed morning nap, we headed down to Granlibakken, a small ski and snowplay area on Lake Tahoe. The highlight of the area is their saucer hill. Kade took one look at this and decided he wanted no part of it (the morning’s experience still uppermost in his mind), but Sierra and Don made a number of runs. The saucers are only large enough for one – Sierra had to go down on her own from the very first run. She did well, given that the only instruction she got was “hang on”.

Things were a bit better organized on Sunday at the Tahoe Donner ski school. The area has a special program for kids 3 to 6 years of age (“Snowflakes”), which includes a two hour lesson, skis, and a lift ticket. The school is set up to minimize parental interference – we weren’t allowed into the fitting area or the section of the bunny slope where lessons take place. There is an interesting conveyer belt for taking the kids uphill- much easier than the rope tows of yore. Sierra did well – staying upright and composed and lasting through the entire lesson.

It was interesting visiting Granlibakken and Tahoe Donner for the first time. We have been skiing in the Tahoe Basin for many years, but are now finding a parallel universe of smaller areas that cater to small children and families.