Epic (IKON) Ski Trip
Paige wanted to get back to skiing and I had a ton of United miles. I thought they would go a lot longer if we planned it all at once bumping from resort to resort. Of course I added some LA time to hang out with the boys.
We started in Solitude Utah. We flew into Salt Lake City and spent one night at the airport hotel. We save hundreds of dollars booking our car downtown (savings hint), then we headed up to Solitude.
I haven’t been in skis in 6 years so I’m a wimp and took it easy. Paige hurt his knee on a last minute trip, just prior to this one, with his college buds in CO, so he was in no rush to ski hard. We skied a couple of day at Solitude once we got settled into our Airbnb Spring Eagle West. We had the forecast of an incoming storm so we drove down to Costco in Sandy the day before the snow storm to buy some snow shoes and made it out to one of the amazing snow shoe trails as soon as we got back. We got a little lost and panicked since the snow started and it was getting dark, but we managed to figure out where we were going and made it back ok. We snowshoed the next day in the amazing snow storm, which lasted the entire day. (Friday Feb 7). I did not ski again until Sunday but we snow shoed every day on the really cool trails that Solitude has.
I rate myself a 4/10 as a skier, most definitely a fair weather skier. I rate myself a 10+/10 as a snow shoer. It is the most amazingly beautiful way to burn calories, especially in a wild snow storm. We made fresh tracks in the very cool Solitude marked trails. It is worth a trip to Solitude just to walk on the trails through the mountains. I only skied a little bit but I am happy I got back on skis after a long hiatus. The hot tub at our condo was very nice too!
Our next stop was Manhattan Beach. We stayed with Jarrett since Taran was traveling. We got some heavy rain the first couple of days. Most of the time we walked Wolfe on the strand, ate dinner with Jarrett and Nicky and Mia. We even got to hang out with Harriett and Jake at our favorite lunch spot in Hermosa, Martha’s. Our weekend was spent in Venice Beach in a super nice studio apartment that we booked on booking.com called Su Casa. It is about a mile away from Nicky’s apartment but it is it right on the strand and we walked to the Santa Monica Pier Sunday and Monday morning, enjoying the volleyball action while sipping coffee. We hung out with Nicky and Mia at lot, finally got to see Taran and Emily on Sunday, met up again with Harriett and Jake and Amanda at the famous Erewhon, iced chai at Menoti’s coffee shop, walked on the Venice canals, and had lunch with Anna and Steve (Mia’s parents) on Monday before we headed to the airport hotel. How can I forget to mention that we finally got to the end of Route 66 at the Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier. We had a quick dinner with Taran, Jarrett and Emily Monday night, repacked with some clean laundry, then Taran dropped us off at our airport hotel ready for our next adventure. Banff here we come!
Jarrett accompanied us to our next stop, Calgary! It was -6 F on our arrival at 11 a.m. Lucky for us we missed most of the Polar Vortex and were told it was at least 30 degrees warmer than the previous few weeks. On our way to Sunshine Mountain, we stopped at the Ginger Beef Bistro House, an Asian restaurant to have the famous Calgary ginger beef typical dish, We ordered a ton of food and managed to eat all of it, simply delicious.
We arrived at the base of Sunshine Mountain at 4 p.m. Note to self; always read the details of a reservation! The only way to get to our lodge (Sunshine Mountain Lodge) is the gondola which closes at 5. Thank goodness we had an hour to spare. They helped bring our skis up to the top, but we managed to carry the rest of our bags. This was actually one of the coolest places that we have stayed at any ski resort. We were forced to dine in the lodge restaurants but we found our favorite, Trappers, and by the end, I critiqued the menu for the head waitress since we tried pretty much all of it during our six day stay. Our room was tiny and big enough for me and Paige but since Jarrett ended up joining us, we were a little squished (he slept on a trundle bed not under our bed lol) and the room had a ton of storage. We made the most of it and were fine.
We LOVED Sunshine Mountain. Paige and Jarrett skied way more than me. Jarrett coaxed Paige back to the blacks and got him over his knee intimidation. Jarrett then managed to get me out there even for a few rounds a day. I did get to the gym a few times and the hot tub was quite amazing.
We made it down to Lake Louise on Friday (February 21) since they keep the gondola open til 10 p.m. on Fridays.
Lake Louise was frozen over and we could walk across the entire lake. It was simply beautiful. Jarrett and Paige brought their skis and took one run at the Lake Louise ski resort. We stopped at the town of Banff on the way back up to Sunshine and walked around the town. It is very nice with lots of shops. We contemplated buying some Arc’teryx since we could have saved 30% with the strength of our dollar in Canada but we passed this time. All in all, Banff is a 10/10 and we would all go back, especially to Sunshine Mountain Lodge. We got some majorly needed snow on the second to last day. Their 8 foot base which never melts was skied off especially at the top, so the snow was fun to ski on. We got to use our snowshoes once and walked to the top of Wawa lift for some good exercise. No marked snowshoe trails here, but still beautiful.
Next stop Reno. We parted ways with Jarrett at the airport in Calgary on Feb 24th. Jarrett flew home to LA and we arrived in Reno 8 p.m. rented a car and drove to our place in Palisades (only about 50 mins). We stayed at the Olympic Village Resort which had a minute shuttle to the village, but we walked most of the time.
We loved Palisades very much. Luckily they had some big snow dumps because the weather was very warm and melting fast. The freeze at night made it slick first thing in the morning so after asking several skiers for reports, we took the first day off. We got a quick bite then met Harriett’s famous friend Barbara, who was hanging out with her dog Jasper and working from home a at friend’s cabin under the Tram. Barbara is super sweet and gave us numerous local tips for the area. After our meeting, we took the Tram up to the Olympic center for an amazing view, quick 10 minute museum tour, then back down. We drove over to the lake (Tahoe), walked a little on the lake trail, made it to the grocery store (tired of restaurants), then back to our place after a long day.
We skied the next three days in 50 degree weather and enjoyed the sunshine. We mostly stayed on the Alpine Mountain side via the base to base lift. We also walked a trail along the Truckee River which was absolutely gorgeous.
It was finally time to head home after we skied a half day on Friday the 28th. After a quick stop for lunch in Truckee (and an ice cream) in the historic downtown, we drove back to Reno, dropped our car off and stayed in an airport hotel across the street from the airport for a 645 a.m flight to LAX then EWR then ILM. All went well until our ILM flight was delayed 2 hours. We were happy to be home at 2:30 a.m.
Our epic IKON ski trip was quite a fun adventure. No favorites, we loved it all! Thank you United for all of the free flights and great service!!!!
