Climbers use the word epic to describe climbs or adventures were something goes seriously wrong and extra ordinary effort is needed just to survive. Below is a time line of a semi-epic ski resort trip that Bill (Boots) and I "survived" at June Mt from Dec 30 to Jan 5.

Dec 30, 6 pm - Skipped out of Las Vegas for a 3-day weekend skiing at a resort in June Lakes, CA.  "So long stink town."

Dec 31, 12 am - Pulled off road and slept in Isuzu Trooper near Mammoth Lakes, CA.  It was raining cold slush, but not snowing at all.  Very depressing ski conditions. 

Dec 31, 9 am - Woke up and drove to June Lakes, CA.  Still raining slush.

Dec 31, 10 am - Found ski resort closed because of slushy rain, so we went to Mammoth Lakes to shop.  We bought a bunch of jalapeno pizza bagels from Shotz Bakery and beer from Vons.  We also called everyone we knew to rub in the fact that we were skiing and they were not.

Dec 31, 1 pm - While dinking around town we became aware that the temperature was falling fast.  Slushy rain was now falling as heavy snow with ice everywhere.  We started fiddling with our tire chains and bought some stuff to make them fit better.  Grocery stores were becoming mad houses, fear was in the air.  We could tell that something bad was heading our way.

Dec 31, 4 pm - We headed back to June Mountain Ski Resort to spend the night in the parking lot.  I had the Trooper in four wheel drive and had the chains on, but the driving conditions were rapidly going down the crapper. Snow was piling up fast and roads were closing.

Dec 31, 10 pm - Ran out of beer.

Jan 1, 9 am - Woke up.  The Trooper's clutch would not disengage and it wouldn't go into gear.  After messing around with it for several hours and calling for expert advice from dad and uncles, no solution was found.  So, we went skiing.

Jan 1, 5 pm - Skied the trees all day in excellent falling powder with very low visibility.  The only Trooper solution my panel of experts could advise when called was to replace the clutch, a major repair requiring dry-dock time and towing.

Jan 1, 8 pm - Watched TV in the resort's deserted ticket lobby.  Snow continued to fall heavily.

Jan 2, 9 am - Woke up in Trooper.  I didn't hear any explosions from resort personnel to prevent avalanches.  There was several feet of fresh powder everywhere.  The resort didn't open due to an avalanche on the highway keeping their employees from coming to work.

Jan 2, 12 pm - Watched Dumb and Dumber on the ticket lobby's TV with even more snow piling up outside.  The Trooper looked like it had a four foot white afro.  Avalanches on several highways left us completely isolated.  We had the entire resort to ourselves.

Jan 2, 2pm - Power went out.  Instead of watching a dark screen until the power came back, we tried to go skiing.  We hiked up a near by hill in waist deep snow and jumped off.  We didn't go far in the fluff, so we back tracked our way back to the lobby and read books.  The cops came by near dark to check our IDs but left abruptly when a report of a crazy lady attacking people with a razor blade came over their radio.

Jan 2, 7 pm - We huddled around a lit candle in the lobby.  We watched some snowboarders from Las Vegas' City Board Shop play in the snow.  They built a snow ramp leading to the hand rail on the stairs going to the first chair lift.  They worked and played on this for several hours.  We left them when the power came back and watched more TV.  It had finally stopped snowing.

Jan 3, 9 am - The resort's parking lot guys were starting to get upset with our snow cave on wheels on their property.  I've been calling the only U-haul place in the phone book for days with no success, now we thought the best course of action was to go skiing.  Only a few runs were open but we had fun anyway.

Jan 3, 3 pm - The U-haul guy answers his phone.  We make arrangements, but the roads were still closed.  In the parking lot we disconnect the Trooper's drive lines.

Jan 4, 10 am - We've started to run out of bagels, so we walk the two mile to the town of June Lakes.  At a restaurant we meet an old guy, who seems to have traveled everywhere on earth, that takes us to Mammoth Lakes and from there we hitch hike with a Mexican emigrant sushi chef to Bishop to pick up our rental truck.

Jan 4, 5 pm - We arrived back at June Mt Ski Resort after dropping a hitch hiking hippy ski resort worker off at Mammoth Lakes.  The parking lot guy wasn't available to help us push our Trooper onto the rental truck's tow dolly so we settle on watching more TV in the lobby.

Jan 4, 11 pm - The cops visit again.  They take our IDs and watch us watch reruns of South Park.  They eventually get tired of our inability to cause crime and leave us.

Jan 5, 7 am - With the parking lot guy's help we get the Trooper on the tow dolly.

Jan 5, 7:10 am - The rental truck will not start.

Jan 5, 10 am - While I'm dropping a dooky bomb Bill gets the rental truck to magically start.  We leave soon after.

Jan 5, 5 pm - We cross the state line back into Nevada and wonder if anyone at work will notice that we didn't show up for the last three days.