January 31, 2013 Ski Homewood, CA

This was our 4th consecutive day of skiing, and it was a low-key ski day at one of our favorite areas.  Alpine Meadows used have an ownership agreement with them.  We bought season passes at Homewood a few years ago for $125.  The base is at 6225’, the top is at 7800’, and there is access to Ellis Peak at 8740’.  The access was mentioned by Craig Dostie who started Couliar magazine and then sold it to Backcountry.  We used our Shell 2-for-1 coupon and paid $66 for 2 tickets.  The area is the same as when we were here several years ago and is a nice low-key place.  On a powder day with high winds, the place for locals is Homewood. Thursday was a sunny and no-wind day.  There were no lift lines, and we loved the terrain park (not the jumps, just the areas around them); there were only two sets of tracks at 1pm when we skied the lines without jumping.  We followed the sun and skied the groomers as they corned up.  The area has one 4 seat express and the others are slow lifts that allow you to rest your legs in the sun. We had to walk 40 feet to the lifts from our van which was parked in an area for oversize vehicles – from a car it would have been a 10-20 feet walk.  Some people talk about the soup, but I talk about how far I have to walk from the van to the lifts.