So, over Winter Break, I started talking to some people in my study group about how fun it would be to go to the snow together sometime in the spring semester.  People really liked the idea and we started thinking about when would be a good time to go.  When we realized that our first weekend back from break would be a three day weekend, we realized we had to jump on that opportunity!!  There are two good reasons why we decided to go this past weekend:

1) Three and a half days of awesomeness (all of us got out of class by 2 on Friday!)

2) No homework because it was the first weekend back and there was not much going on

I was so excited to get up to the snow.  I am from Northern California, and I have been going to snow as long as I can remember up in the Lake Tahoe area.  I was excited to check out Big Bear, because I have never been there before and I was curious to see what the snow would be like and how the skiing would be at Big Bear Mountain Ski Resort.  Finally, it was really neat that one of my friends, Daniel, has a cabin up there that we ended up staying at.

 

So, we left on Friday afternoon and took the train to Daniel’s house, where we got his dad’s car and headed up to the mountains.  The drive was a lot of fun, except it got really windy as we started to head up into the mountains (and I do not do well with windy roads).  We finally got there that night though to the cabin.  I loved his cabin; it was cutesy and cozy!  We got to bed pretty quickly, as we knew we had a full day on the mountain the next day.

 

When we got to the resort the next day, I was expecting the skiing to not be nearly as good as Tahoe, because I consider myself to be kind of a Tahoe snob.  However, the resort was really nice and much bigger than I thought it was going to be.  It was fun being with my friends, as some of them have never skied/snowboarded before, and some have been skiing for their whole lives, like me.  Even though their hardest run wasn’t much harder than an intermediate run at Squaw Valley or Alpine Meadows in the Sierra Nevada mountains, it was still nice getting out and doing some skiing, considering how long it has been since I have last skied.  I have to say that my favorite run there was “Geronimo”, so if any of you guys ever go to Big Bear, make sure to check that run out.

Awesome view!!!

just chillin' (literally) on the chairlift

Can you find Geronimo??

I have to say that the resort there was very different than resorts I am used to.  The slopes there were very oriented towards tricks and freestyle areas, with grind rails, half-pipes, and other terrain features.  I am more used to powder skiing, where the run is not groomed, and you have to put a lot of technique and muscle into your turns to keep yourself from falling.  Like I said, it was still a very fun day though and it made it even better that it was with my friends.

Lunch at Big Bear

For the rest of the weekend, we hung around the cabin and the town of Big Bear, just exploring the candy shops (yum!!!) and Village Pizza (you have to try it if you go to Big Bear).  I got totally hooked on this nerdy game called “The Settlers of Catan”.  I also got some Just Dance in, along with a lot of sleeping and eating.  Overall, it was a fun weekend with great friends that I will never forget.

 

greg

greg

I am a sophomore majoring in Chemical Engineering, with a biochemical emphasis. I am originally from Sacramento, CA. I am in the USC Marching Band enjoy playing playing trombone. I also enjoy hiking and road biking.