Happy New Year! It’s 2016 and time for a fresh start and more blog posts, which is one of my New Year’s resolutions. The best resolution I think posted my husband: Spend more time with people & things that make you happy and less with those which do not. We will try that together.
It was a very good start into 2016. Staying and celebrating with friends as well as being and skiing in the mountains are very important things for me and which make me very happy. Check! And besides, it’s one of the best times you can spend as a family. We skied in Heavenly and Kirkwood, got some fresh powder – the first time in years for me – skied offside the slopes, through the woods and admired Winter Wonderland and wonderful view of Lake Tahoe.
After moving towards Pioneer and greeting the New Year we took a break from skiing and snowboarding and went to this old ski resort which has not operated since 1995: Iron Mountain. It functions as a Snow Park now and is visited by lots of people with snowmobiles. We were lucky dogs because our friends actually have one. So we got to ride around the park and got lifts after sledding or boarding down the hill. I found this place so beautiful and a bit magical that I googled about it and I found some old pictures, facts and a trail map. Iron Mountain was established in 1970 as Silver Basin Ski Area and operated 14 seasons. In 1998 it was sold and its permit was terminated. It hasn’t been revived as a ski resort, because the Forest Service wants “to use the site to the best public benefit”. Here are some pics of abandoned buildings and lift lodges:
It’s a great place to take the family and have some fun in the snow without having to pay a fortune to Vail Resorts Inc. .And although it was big fun on New Year’s Day to see your kids having a ball on a snowmobile, you can definitely have the same amount of fun just with a sled! I personally think that if you want to sled down a hill, you have to earn it with walking it up first. I also saw a bunch of people with snowshoes – fun, too! You can get a day license online or at a bunch of stores in CA and NV.
Here is a list of SNO-PARK locations in California and here is a list of vendors for SNO-PARK permits.
Have fun playing in the snow, hopefully it’ll keep snowing!
