Heavenly, CA
by Cyndi Fritz & Mike Langton

In the last week of February 2010 the Jacksonville Ski Club descended upon the Lake Tahoe area with approximately 30 anxious skiers.  Unfortunately we had a few travelers that had to back out of the trip at the last minute due to injuries, and they were sorely missed.  After our bus driver extended our drive by 4 minutes to provide us with a tour through town and share stories about his award winning mustache we arrived in South Lake Tahoe at the base of Heavenly just in time for our pizza party, and Happy Hour!  (The Embassy Suites did a great job with daily complimentary breakfast in the morning and a generous happy hour each evening, which became quite the gathering place for our festive group!) 

The week started off with fantastic weather and skiing conditions, and it snowed almost every day of our trip.  Our first day on the slopes saw everyone start off with a great group run, but by the afternoon Cyndi and John once again opted for their annual doctor consultation at the local clinic.  (Thankfully, it was nothing too serious and the festivities were able to continue!)  The next day a group of us took the mountain eco tour beginning at the top of the Gondola and the entire group met up for lunch and an attempt at our group picture.  (Pat Caldwell even negotiated a snowmobile ride to get there and arrived in style!)  Meeting for lunch on the mountain became a daily occurrence for most of our group.  The day was capped off nicely with an impromptu performance by Jim and Alex playing guitar and crooning tunes for us around the “fire” in the center of the Embassy Suites lobby.  

After several days of skiing Heavenly the group once again boarded a bus and headed north to descend up Squaw Valley!  Thankfully, we were able to capture a photo of the entire group right under the Olympic sign in the village.  The day of skiing at Squaw was filled with gorgeous sunny weather and wide open runs.  Shopping in the village was also a huge success!  However, Anthony and Michelle almost missed the deadline to catch the bus back and arrived breathless with flushed faces just in the nick of time (hard to imagine with these 2 experienced and aggressive skiers).  The entire group met at Cabo Wabo Cantina in Harvey’s and we welcomed more members of the Builteman clan for our farewell dinner. 

High winds and heavy snow at Heavenly shortened the amount of skiing that could be done on our last day, but that didn’t dampen the spirits for this group who simply met for our daily happy hour a little earlier and enjoyed watching the snow come down.  The following morning the happy and satisfied skiers boarded the bus back to the airport and enjoyed orange juice and donuts thanks to Mike’s thoughtful planning!  All in all, we had a great group on our trip, and a fun and well organized itinerary of events.  Everyone is looking forward to the trip next year!!!

 Jacksonville Ski Club
P.O. Box 551352 Jacksonville, Florida 32255-1352
Phone: 904-350-1615 or email JaxSkiClub