Heavenly, Sking #6

They keep giving me these "upgrades" whenever I rent cars. First, it was a civic when it was supposed to be an economy class. Then it was HR-V AWD. And then finally Optima. I was mighty impressed how fun it is to drive these little cars, I've been thinking about getting one to either replace or supplement my old Tesla Model S.  Tesla Model S is good for interstate cruising, but it is not dopaminergic. It just doesn't connect you to the road -- you don't know that you are drifting when you are in the COVID-induced blur in wee hours. It's no wonder I got into an accident in Taos. So, I went to the dealerships and test-drove a few subcompact CUVs to see if I can find one that is fun to drive and that I can take to the mountains. I need some off-road capability as well since I'm not taking my Tesla off-road anymore. I'm done with trashing it and causing $10k damage.

I tested Crosstrek and CX-30, two top-rated CUVs. Crosstrek wasn't fun and neither was CX-30. I figured I might as well test a hatchback while I was at the dealership, so I hopped in a Mazda 3. It was fun as expected, but I can't take it off-road without lifting it a couple of inches. So, it appears that I can't have cake and eat it too: I'll have to give up either fun or off-roading. Will that be worth $30k? Maybe not. Maybe I'll stick to my Tesla for a while longer and then replace it with another electric that is capable of off-roading, when they have AWD available for less than $30k after the EV subsidy. Wait for an electric version of Crosstrek, in other words. An electric version will be more fun to drive since EVs have lower center of gravity, not to mention the instantaneous power.

So, I drove an Optima this time, to Heavenly. And, this time, all lifts were open. It was an absolutely gorgeous day with turquois Lake Tahoe below reflecting the blue sky above. I warmed up on Powder Bowl lifts for a while, and then skied Canyon Express before going over to Nevada side via Skyline trail. There, the snow-sprinkled desert of Nevada spread out below. On sunny days, the views from Heavenly is, well, heavenly. I left my phone in the car unfortunately, so I didn't get to take the picture this time.

It's been over a month since the season started and I was running out of dopamine by now. It's the same pattern: a month into the season, I'm less excited and less talkative. I knew days of struggle was coming after the skiing, but I still skied hard. Then, on my way back to California side, I got lost and got into woods: I ended up tree-skiing into a ravine unintentionally. It took a quite a bit out of me. My right knee was cramping on my way back home, I had to pull over and stretch. All that twisting motion to avoid trees must've taken the toll.

So, rotating to different resorts did not extend the novelty effect by much. And the aftermath after skiing #6 was as expected: I struggled for 4 days afterwards. From this point on, I'll have to cut down on both intensity and duration by half. That means 2 sessions of 4 runs on blue slopes. I'm yet to get my moguls down pat though, so the plan may not go as planned. Which means I'll be struggling well into February at least.