skiing: left and right

This photo was taken at the Boreal ski resort, right off the west stretch of I-80 in the Lake Tahoe area. It ended up getting the most comments from my friends among the ski set on Flickr -- maybe this is just the artifact of staying as the first picture on the photo page, but the experience in boreal was somewhat special.

What first puzzled me was the trail map: no explicit route was drawn to show the dozen-or-so ways to come down as what I used to seeing in the ski places around PA or NY. The reason soon became clear as I descended from the lift: there are probable routes, but there is basically unlimited possibilities for coming down! From the wide opening areas, to a impromptu detour via a side slop, to zooming by among the sliver-lined trees. The entire mountain is covered by a thick layer of powdery snow, and there are plenty of seemingly pristine grounds for my ski to leave a fresh trail on.

Now that I've finally tried the snow-covered slopes in both the "right" and the "left" coasts, I'd just say that the Californians are a spoiled bunch!

p.s. a group of my friends are speeding down Hunter Mountain today. I'm stuck at home writing code and figures, whining from a blog is a good outlet :-)