Four days of skiing in March (with our new GoPro)

We took off four weekdays in March to ski at the three Vail resorts around Lake Tahoe, which our season passes get us into, without the weekend crowds.

It was our first ski trip with our new GoPro, and we alternated wearing it on our helmets. These are some of the best moments on video:

(If you're reading this by email, click here to watch the video.)

(Edited by Ben in iMovie. The music is a remix of Asaf Avidan's Reckoning Song.)

The first night we stayed on-mountain at Kirkwood. In the early morning, we watched the snow grooming and setup before the sunrise and the crowds. This was the view from our window:

Steph wanted to buy new skis, and had tried several demo skis on our last outing. This time she confirmed the right model — Volkl Aura's — but they didn't have them at Kirkwood. So the second day, we went to Northstar to pick up the new skis. On the third day we skied Heavenly, which had very little snow; the scenery is beautiful but the skiing is the least good of the three resorts. On the fourth day we skied at Kirkwood again. We confirmed our earlier impression that Kirkwood has the best snow, Northstar has the best infrastructure and food (and also very good skiing), and Heavenly is very big and beautiful but doesn't have great skiing.

I've been trying to improve my skiing; I ski the blacks and some double blacks but I still look and feel pretty sloppy. At Kirkwood the first day, while Steph was trying demo skis, I took a three-hour lesson. (They're normally absurdly expensive, but we found a deal that made it reasonable to do once.) It was a good lesson and I improved a little (focusing on pole plants and balance), but not much. I'm thinking next year I'll upgrade my skis too; they're beginners skis that I bought in college, and I wonder if having better skis will help me get to the next level.

For the last three nights we stayed in South Lake, and two nights in a row we had dinner at a great restaurant called Base Camp Pizza. They had live music outside, which we listened to sipping beer around a fire pit while waiting for our table. This was their excellent beer list:

Steph with her new skis:

These two were taken by the mountain photographer:

- Ben