Do you have a license to drive that thing?

Winter weather in all its fury has finally caught up with us. Over the past few days the biggest storm of the season moved into California and the Eastern Sierra. This storm brought with it high winds – it blew down canyon overnight, loud enough that we both put in earplugs in quest of uninterrupted sleep. The local weatherman said it would really start snowing hard at about 5 pm yesterday, forecasting it would come down in blizzard quantities of three inches per hour. His advice was, if you don’t need to be out, don’t go – it would be dangerous driving in the storm.

And just as promised, the clouds dropped right at 5 pm, and it started snowing in a circulating mass of wind-driven flakes. This morning the sun came up, highlighting the peaks with a fresh coating of snow. The final tally on snow amounts was hard to measure – it drifted five or six feet in places, like right at the bottom of our stairs blocking our exit. So we spent a couple of hours digging out both ourselves and our cars. Our landlord and proprietor of Ernie’s Tackle and Ski loaned John his snow blower, and after a few basic instructions, off he went. The nose of our Honda Civic was completely buried, but excavated in short order under John’s superior handling.

Blue sky, fresh powder, and unburied cars make for a good day of skiing. So we ventured out for the afternoon to our current favorite cross-country tour, Obsidian Dome, with our friend Judy. It was just perfect – untracked snow, warm sun cutting the chill of the air, and not another soul in site. My conclusion is that it was the best day I ever had cross-country skiing.