Chris' Ski and Swowboard Page

I started skiing very late, when I was about 20 years old. That was in Germany, not too far away from my university in the mountains they call "Erzgebirge".

After that I went to Sterzing for a week which was really great. We went with a bunch of other students and had good and cheap skiing and delicious food in the night. I guess the worst I felt on the second day, but then the soreness gradually disappeared.

During my internship and thesis in Japan I went a couple of times with co-workers to places in Nagano, Yamagata (Zao!) and Toyama. But I didn't try the in-door skiing near Tokyo. The place is prohibitively expensive and overcrowded. Surprisingly, skiing in Japan isn't all that expensive, maybe even cheaper than Lake Tahoe. And usually I would have to wait longer than 5-10 minutes at the lift.

Since 1997 I started skiing in Lake Tahoe area, which is quite nice with all that El-Nino snow. In the 98/99 season I have been skiing and snowboarding 12 days or so. My favorite resorts are Alpine Meadows for its nice slopes on the back of mountain and the many runs in the front, Heavenly for its breath-taking views of the lake and the desert on the opposite side. Kirkwood is nice too, but the drive there is quite a pain. I can't recommend Squaw Valley. They seem to have too much business and an attitude problem. Night-skiing in that place really sucks.

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