Expedition: Retirement

 This winter was the 19th time we have traveled to Steamboat to ski (and if you count the summer trip out for our daughter's wedding, our 20th time visiting the town), and we have come to come to consider this ski resort our "home mountain". We love the mountain and the town and are entirely at home here when we visit, even with the changes that they have implemented over the last few seasons.

So it was pretty much inevitable that Steamboat would be on our skiing itinerary at some point this season. However, the accommodations we were able to book were later in the season than we commonly go, making this the final ski destination for the season.

Because of how I scheduled the pick-up and drop-off times for our rental car for the drive from Beaver Creek to Steamboat, we thought we would drive straight to the ski area and ski for a couple of hours on our arrival day, before checking into our accommodations and returning the rental car. However, with my wife's injury, we were forced to abandon that plan, and we enjoyed a leisurely transition day, driving north in the morning and stopping at the grocery store before checking in. Then, as we unpacked, my wife made an appointment to begin physical therapy for her injury while I skied the next day.

By happy coincidence, our ski club happened to have a trip to Steamboat scheduled to overlap with our stay, and we had been looking forward to skiing with people we knew when we got here. This was even more fortunate in light of my wife's injury because it meant that I would not have to ski alone while we were here. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a list of names for the members on the trip, but I knew a couple of people who were definitely on the trip, so I reached out and made plans to meet them in the morning.

I ended up skiing four days with the same group from the club. The skiing was fine, although they hadn't had any new snow for some time before I arrived, so the conditions off the groomed trails was less than optimal. But since the guys I was skiing with only wanted to ski groomed runs anyway, this wasn't a problem. We got a lot of great skiing in, and they appreciated my ability to efficiently navigate the mountain, which allowed us to (mostly) avoid long lift lines. But as the week went on, I kept checking the weather forecast, hoping for new snow, and when it failed to be in the forecast, I finally decided that it made sense to go home a couple of days early, when the ski club left, rather than ski alone on mediocre conditions.

We were able to change our Monday return flight, which included a layover in Houston, to the nonstop from Hayden to Dulles Airport on Saturday (the same flight the ski club was booked on), and the airline also flagged us for "mobility assistance" which allowed us to pre-board, all of which made it much easier to deal with our carry-on luggage, since we only had three good arms between us.

Normally, I would be reluctant to go home early from a ski trip, but this was my fifth week of skiing for the season, so it was less disappointing than it otherwise might have been. Couple that with less than optimal ski conditions, and I really was ready to go home. It was a banner ski season: My wife skied 23 days prior to her injury and I ended up skiing 28 days, by far the most skiing I've ever done in a single season before.

We had been to Palisades Tahoe twice before. In 2020, just before Covid, we arrived just two weeks after my wife had torn her ACL at Steamboat, so she wasn't able to ski on that trip. I skied half-days and we explored the Lake Tahoe area in the afternoons. Then two years ago, we returned with another couple we sometimes ski with and spent another week here. So the mountain was familiar to us, and we were looking forward to enjoying some great skiing here.

The first three days were bright and sunny, with temperatures that weren't too uncomfortable. The first day we skied the "Palisades" area of the resort in Olympic Valley. They hadn't had fresh snow in a while, and they had had some rain, so the ungroomed terrain was very icy and crusty, and we chose to stay on the groomed runs for the day. The next day, we took the base-to-base gondola over the "Alpine" side of the resort (formerly operated as the separate Alpine Meadows resort). Again, the conditions in the ungroomed areas were not optimal, so we spent the day enjoying the groomed runs, which were fast and fun. On the third day, we planned to spend the morning at Alpine and then return to Palisades for the afternoon. But when we arrived at Alpine, we ran into another couple that we had met at a social event where we were staying, and decided to ski with them. We skied all morning at Alpine with them, and then they suggested we head over to Palisades for the rest of the day. Since this was our original plan anyway, we agreed, and ended up skiing with them all day.

On Thursday, things changed dramatically. A storm had blown in overnight, and when we headed out to the lifts, it was windy, with a mix of snow and rain falling. The lifts to the upper peaks were closed because of wind and to allow for avalanche control operations. We decided to take the shuttle bus over to Alpine (the base-to-base gondola was not operating, either), since it is about 1,000 feet higher, which we hoped would mean that it was just snowing. We arrived at Alpine to find that it was, in fact, just snowing, but it was a heavy, wet snow that stuck to everything, including goggles, coats, gloves, pants, lift chairs, etc. By the time we rode the lift up the mountain, we were soaking wet. There was a stiff wind blowing, and between the falling snow, the low clouds, and the snow sticking to our goggles, it was very difficult to see. But even worse, the snow was so heavy and thick that it was very difficult to ski in. I struggled to get my skis  to turn, and it was not fun skiing. When we reached the bottom, we went inside to dry off our goggles and other gear. While we were doing that, they had a partial power outage that shut down the lifts for 20 minutes or so. When the lifts started running again, we made another attempt to ski, but the conditions were just too unforgiving to be worth the effort, and we gave up after the second run. We caught the shuttle back to Palisades and headed back to our room for the rest of the day.

The snow continued to fall into Friday, although the temperatures dropped enough that the snow was somewhat less wet and heavy. Unfortunately, with the continuing wind and high risk of avalanches kept much of the upper part of the resort closed until well after noon. In addition, the Alpine area suffered a total power outage through most of the morning, which meant that there were really only three lifts open until after lunch time. We got a later start than normal because we staying in our room watching the lift line status until it looked like we might have a chance to ski without standing in lift lines for long stretches to do so. When we did finally head out, there were still lines, but we separated and used the singles lines, and found that the waits weren't too bad. The snow was still pretty heavy, but at least we could ski in it, and the visibility was better than it had been the previous day. Eventually, we were able to work our way up to the upper mountain for a few runs at the end of the day.

The sun returned for our final day of skiing here. The mountain had a fresh layer of new snow on it and we started the day with some warm up runs in the fresh snow on the runs that had previously been groomed. But as more people skied those runs and the snow became more chopped up and bumpy, we moved off to other areas we hadn't skied much earlier in the week, where the new snow made the moguls and the trees more skiable. And surprisingly, with it being the first day of a holiday weekend, we found that the lift lines weren't as long as we had feared, and we got a lot of fun skiing in.

So the week at Palisades Tahoe was, over all, a bit of a mixed bag. We had some really fun skiing, but we also had one day that was absolutely terrible. On the whole, it was a great week.

The scenery you encounter on a road trip in Europe is utterly unlike anything you will see in the US (and the reverse is also, by and large, true as well). Our transfer from Budapest to Crans-Montana began with a flight from Budapest to Zürich, followed by a three and a half hour bus transfer to our hotel at the ski resort. This gave us plenty of opportunities to enjoy the views of the Swiss countryside. The first part of the drive was through the farmlands of northern Switzerland, from Zürich to the capital city of Bern. We then headed south, past Lac de la Guyère to the shores of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva, in English). We then followed the Rhône River up into the Alps to our destination. As we neared our exit from the motorway, we saw the ruins of a castle and an old abbey on a nearby hill, with the mountains reaching up behind them. This was the Basilique de Valère and the Château de Tourbillon, in Sion. These were built in the middle ages as the home for the Prince-Bishops of Sion, who ruled this area. It is the sudden appearance of old castles and churches like this on random hilltops that has come to define the scenery that we have seen driving through Europe. The history here is soo much older and deeper than ours, and there are traces of it almost everywhere you look.

Based on our experiences the previous day, we abandoned any thought of trying to hike up Mt. Washington as entirely unrealistic. While we might have been able to make the ascent, all the information we could find suggested that we not attempt it unless we were confident we could do the round trip. While it is possible to descend either on the cog railway or by shuttle down the auto highway, both of which reach the summit, both of these options prioritize round trip riders, and the operations of both are subject to the weather, so that there is no guarantee that a seat would be available. And while we could use either for the ascent, I was certain that my knees were not up for the hike down the mountain.

With that decision made, we opted for a series of shorter hikes in the Pinkham Notch on the east side of Mount Washington. This pass is the location of the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center, operated by the Appalachian Mountain Club, and located on the Appalachian Trail. I picked two shorter hikes to waterfalls. The trailhead parking lot for the third waterfall I hoped to visit was closed, so we decided to see if we could hike there from the Visitor Center, using a section of the Appalachian Trail to get there. However, we would have to cross the Ellis River near the trailhead to the falls, and it wasn't clear from my research what that crossing would entail, so we were prepared to turn around at that point, if necessary. We would finish our day with a visit to Jackson, New Hampshire, which had a covered bridge and a set of waterfalls in town.

Our first stop took us to the Wildcat Mountain ski area for a short hike to Thompson Falls. We parked in the deserted ski area parking lot and walked to the base of the ski area. Our hike began along a self-guided nature trail at the base, before branching off into the forest and up to the falls. The signs along the nature trail described the local ecology and some of the history of the area, which was interesting. Much of this portion of the trail was originally used as a logging path to haul logs from the extensive timber industry that once dominated this region. The very existence of the White Mountain National Forest is a testament to the extent to which the trees of these mountains were harvested, ultimately leading to calls for conservation and the better resource management provided by the National Forest Service. The hike to the falls and back was not particularly taxing, and after we finished, we drove to the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center, where we would park for much of the day.

Our first hike from here was another short hike on a trail that ultimately would have taken us to the summit of Mt. Washington, had we continued, but our goal was the Crystal Cascade on the Ellis River, not very far above the visitor center. This waterfall included two smallish cascades, with the trail crossing the river on a footbridge between them. There was an extended family there taking family portraits on the rocks between the falls, so it took some creativity to get good shots without disturbing them.

After returning to the visitor center, we crossed the highway and started our hike to the Glen Ellis Falls. Our route began with a boardwalk through some wet lands behind what appeared to be very old beaver dams. We didn't see any evidence of any recent beaver activity, so it looks like these dams were long ago abandoned by the beaver. The trail (which served as a portion of the Appalachian Trail), turned south and ran parallel to the highway and worked its way around a quiet pond. As we worked our way around the pond, we came across a few sections of the trail that crossed some fields of giant boulders, requiring a little bit of rock scrambling to traverse. Eventually, we reached a trail junction where we could turn back towards the highway and the Glen Ellis Falls trailhead. But first, we had to traverse the Ellis River. At the Crystal Cascade, the river was still a relatively small stream, but by this point, it had grown significantly. But there were boulders scattered across the river, and it looked like they were close enough together for us to be able to cross the river by stepping from rock to rock. Luckily, the rocks were (mostly) dry and not very slippery, and we both were able to work our way across the river without getting wet.Back at the visitor center, we found a picnic table to eat our lunch and consider our options. Our hikes thus far that day hadn't taken as long as I had expected, so we decided to do one more hike from this location, a climb up to Square Ledge to take in the view across the valley to Mt. Washington. Again, we crossed the highway and used the boardwalk across the wetlands, but this time we turned up hill away from the highway and began to climb up to the ledge. When we reached the bottom of the cliff, there was a sizeable group of rock climbers preparing to ascend the cliff up to the ledge, but we continued past them and followed the trail around the side of the cliff and up through the boulders and rocks along the side of the outcropping, before circling back onto the top of the ledge from the rear. The views were stunning, and we could see that the colors of the foliage had brightened considerably from even the previous day. Mt. Washington dominated the view in front of us, even with the small clouds that lingered near the top. As we began to our descent, retracing our steps, the rock climbers were beginning their climbs up the cliff face.From the visitor center, we drove back down the valley to the town of Jackson. Here we parked across the street from the historic Wentworth Inn, which served tourists visiting the Jackson Falls in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As we walked up the river here, we took in the falls (two sets, the lower, which were a little harder to reach and see, and the upper, which were readily accessible with walkways and benches to enjoy them from) and learned more about the history here. Railroads made this area a popular tourist destination in the 19th century, and much like the Catskills, artists found much inspiration here in the White Mountains as well. After seeing the falls, we made one final stop to see the covered bridge over the Ellis River at the south end of Main Street before returning to our accommodations for the night.

We hadn't been hiking since our last trip to the Smokey Mountains in October of 2021, so we felt like a fall hiking trip was in order. We actually booked this before we left for Africa and originally had thought to give ourselves a couple of extra weeks in between, but other considerations forced us to schedule this less than three weeks after our return from that adventure. The plan was to drive up and back, but with a total driving time of around 12 hours each way, I wanted to break that up and stop each way, which prompted us to add some additional activities enroute. As it turned out, we found ourselves in the White Mountains of New Hampshire at exactly the right time, as the colors of the autumn foliage peaked while we were there. When we first arrived, we were disappointed, because the trees were still mostly green, and we were afraid we had come up too early, but by the end of the week, the mountains were ablaze with color: red, yellow, and orange. Amazing.

I will be posting more details about the trip, but in the meantime here's a video slide show that provides a pictorial summary of our trip: