Spring Skiing in January
By Karen Moyer, roving reporter
Or, how to have fun on a ski trip when the bus breaks down, the base temp is 50+ degrees and it doesn’t rain (or snow) in southern California….The fun comes from skiing at the top of a great big mountain, meeting for lunch, spotting a naked snowboarder on the slopes, and having fun in the evening.
The Chagrin Valley Ski Club headed to Mammoth Mountain in California for the first western trip of the season. Twenty four people joined the trip, with 20 of us flying from Cleveland to Reno, NV, before boarding a bus to Mammoth.
The trip out to Mammoth was going quite well. We had stopped at the grocery store for food and beverages. Then, as we were winding through a canyon in California on a two lane road, the bus encountered a large rock/boulder that had rolled down the side of a mountain and landed in the middle of the road. The driver maintained very safe conditions by not swerving to the other lane to avoid the rock, but instead attempted to let it pass under the bus. Low and behold, it hit the transmission pan and proceeded to empty all the transmission fluid rendering the bus inoperable.
Eyewitnesses have varying accounts of how large the rock was; I say 8 inches; Bruce is convinced it was more like a 12 inch boulder. We obviously measure things differently…. California Highway Patrol (CHiPs for those of you old enough to remember the show) came upon us, called in extra vehicles, and provided safety caution markers before towing the bus to a safer area with a much wider shoulder. We got back underway 2 hours later once a replacement bus arrived and we transferred all our ski equipment and luggage to the new bus. The 3 hour bus trip turned into almost 6.
