This is a long post about the weekend ski trip. More than reporting, I wanted to flex my non-existent writing muscles. Enjoy.

For those curious about the ski trip : Yes, we did break the record of most Indians actually skiing at a ski resort — 8, to be precise. The Guinness guys didn’t show up — they didn’t believe we could pull it off. But we did, although it didn’t come easily.

TO start off, there was a heavy snowstorm at North Lake Tahoe, where the ski resort was located. As Murphy’s law goes :

  • If you have snow chains and a rental car, the chains will be of a different size than the tires.

The drive to Northstar was fairly uneventful — by the standards of what followed — with just some gentle snowfall and a little bit of trouble fixing the snow chains. I hadn’t used snow chains previously, so I skipped the offer of the store owner help us out with it (for $20, of course). All this meant we reached the resort at 11 a.m. instead of the imagined 9.15 a.m. The ski-virgins could take lessons at either 10 a.m. or 1 p.m., so 1 p.m. it was going to be since I didn’t take my time machine along.

Meanwhile, I had a 2-tickets-for-the-price-of-1 offer and met a fellow skier at the ticket counter, who was only happy to get a ticket at half the cost. He asked me where I worked, and the next question was : So are you allowed to talk about your work ?

Evidently, that is what is most famous about the organization I work with. By now, I’ve gotten used to this — in fact, I enjoy being tight-lipped about my work. Some strange sadistic pleasure, or so I think.

It was snowing all this time — mostly gentle — and I separated from my friends after a quick lunch to explore the resort in the few hours I had. The higher I went, the rougher the weather was. I absolutely loved skiing at Northstar. It had some of the finest — both literal and figurative — snow I’ve seen and it was a pleasure to ski. The black slopes of Northstar are all far away from the intermediate slopes — meaning lesser crowd and thousand-feet high black slopes. I skied alone since all my friends were newbies and my regular skiing partner is enjoying his vacation in India — whilst feeling jealous as he reads this bit. At higher altitudes, the snow was heavy and the wind was hard. Some gusts of wind caused a visibility of mere 5 feet, and I had to wait them out. I skied till my legs ached (it was my second time this season, and I wasn’t in the greatest of forms) and then joined my friends for the final ski down from the ski school to the base of the resort.

We were hopeful the ice rink would be open for ice-skating, but heavy snowfall since Thursday ensured almost everything was shut. We had to return the rental car by 11.30 p.m. so decided to take off immediately after some hot coffee.

This was when the memorable part began.

By now it was snowing heavily, and we had around 10 miles to cover on interior roads till we hit the freeway. I was the only driver who registered while renting out the car, so I had to drive in the low visibility while one friend each made sure I did not hit the curbs on either side of the road — I just followed the faint tracks ahead of me. The thought to pull over and wait never struck, because there wasn’t any place nearby and by now, we just wanted to get out.

When we hit the freeway — I-80 — things were only worse. The road was in a terrible condition due to a feet of snow that preceded; visibility was still low and the driving was still a team-work — just to make sure we didn’t crash into anything. It was by far one of my most harrowing driving experiences, better than only a 60 km motorbike ride in Ladakh at night. In the mountains. Without headlights. Alone.

We were constantly monitoring the outside temperature — once it crossed 32 F, it would convert from snow to rain. The displays flashed that we had 3 miles to go before chain control was not required. Good.

All this while, I had to check the brakes periodically — brakes tend to get locked in the extreme cold in which case, slight, quick bursts of braking unlocks them. We were descending down on a slope when it occurred to me I hadn’t checked them for a few minutes.

I hit the brake slightly. Locked. I applied it 2-3 times slowly. The first skid. Towards the right. We had about 15 feet on either side of us — on the left was a curb, snow covered; on the right was a hammock, a ditch separating it from the road.

The obvious thing to do was steer left. The car swerved even further left than it did right. With each correcting steer I did, the car just kept oscillating further — until it was completely out of control and we were whirling. Did anyone mention snow chains weren’t foolproof — but sarcasm could wait.

Around this time, my friend said, “Don’t steer !”.

Ah, how could I forget ! You do not steer if the wheels skid ! Basic, elementary, silly mistake.

I wasn’t mad or scared for those 2 seconds the vehicle was out of control; I just wasn’t sure how this was going to end.

Then we crashed into the pit on the right — front wheels on the road, rear wheels well into the pit, the car facing oncoming traffic. There wasn’t much traffic; it was streamlined and everyone was being cautious and slow — we were good there. No cliff on the right side either — we were fine there too. We crashed into snow; no sound of a crash. The vehicle was safe too.

Yeah, we were all safe too.

(A later geeky analysis revealed that the net angular rotation was 270 degrees and the cumulative rotation was around 400 degrees, with 3 oscillations.)

Flashback to the previous night where I was renting out the car. The girl at the counter asked, “Would you like roadside assistance ?”. “No, I’m good”, I said.

“Wait .. how much would it be ?”

“2.99″.

“Sure, throw it in.”

A passing car stopped by. The situation was hopeless so we said we’d be calling the roadside assistance, thanked them for stopping by and let them go.

Cellular coverage — 4 bars. Good.

4 bars of AT&T. Not good — calls weren’t going through.

Then, a truck and a couple in a sedan slowed down — either it was a car facing them on the side of the road, or it was actual, real Indians near a ski resort. Whatever the reason for their curiosity, they stopped. The driver of the truck suggested heaving it out. OK, we said. I was at the wheel, 3 friends, 1 couple and the driver — 6 people pushing. In 20 seconds, we were back on the road. We couldn’t thank them enough.

(For all the criticism AT&T faces over its bad network, I am sure they are helping rebuild human connections. Or whatever.)

The snow part was done, then rain annoyed us endlessly. I haven’t seen such sudden bursts of rain before — it happened twice immediately after the wiper blades were turned off. And not bursts like the ones under which heroines dance. Bursts like pouring-cats-and-dogs. Bursts like you couldn’t see beyond 20 feet. They ended as suddenly as they began too. It was like someone was playing a game with us. I know how the Bigg Boss inmates feel.

The rest of the journey was uneventful — except maybe for the bit where we had to rush to return it in time — in comparison. I haven’t seen such a WTF weather ever — and I have seen a fair share of WTF weathers. The great thing was it ended well without any serious injuries or headlines that went, ’4 Stanford students injured in car crash’. I’m thankful for that.

Now some of you might wonder why we went ahead with the plan when a snowstorm was expected.

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