Beep! Beep! Beep! At five in the morning and the fire alarm roared. We were up in our condo in Kirkwood at Tahoe, the lights were out and something had happened in the horrible blizzard.

“Jeff, Riley, Zach! Wake up!” My dad ordered over the sound of the alarm.

`What the hell is happening’ I thought in a daze. The strobe and sound of the alarm was disorienting and as I went to turn on the lights I bumped my head on the wall just to find the power and all lights had gone out.

“What’s happening dad?” I asked.

“I don’t know the storm may have caused a malfunction in the building,” he replied.

So, we all ran out of our rooms and into the main hallway. Then, once we were all together, Zach, Riley, my dad and mom, Darrel, and I all rushed down and exited the building into the freezing night. We had nothing but sweats, sweatshirts and shoes.

“Jeff did you get the dog?” My mom nervously questioned.

“Yah, he is right here,” I replied. We were out in the freezing night with no flashlights, money, warm clothes, food, the roads were closed, and we had a new one month old Bulldog Puppy. If something was to go wrong then we were not prepared. Luckily, just as we exited the building the screech of the alarm finally stopped ringing and it was safe for us to go back inside. We were all very relieved at this point, but still we did not have any flashlights with no power this was going to be a long night.

This all started when I invited my friends Zach and Riley on a snowboarding trip to Kirkwood. We had high hopes and were ready for an amazing day of riding, but when we arrived to our condo we saw that gusting winds and a blizzard had hit the mountain.

“Man, I hope this clears up for tomorrow,” said Zach.

“Definitely, that would be a bummer if it didn’t,” I replied.

Once we parked and unloaded our food and clothes we settled in and just hung out.

“Wow, this is a nice place,” said my mom in astonishment.

“Yah, only if you went more often,” joked my dad. Finally, after years we had convinced her to come up to snow with us, but this weather might cause her to never come back.

That night we all trekked out into the torrential downfall of snow to get something to eat. We stopped just across the street at Bub’s diner. Once we got there we sat down and had a good, fun dinner. After dinner we rushed back through the storm t the Condo.

Since, it was such a cold night; we decided that the hot tub would be very soothing. So, my dad, Zach, Riley, and I all stripped down to just our board shorts and shoes and started to run to the resorts hot tub a quarter mile down the road. The wind chill and snow was piercing so, we had to wear goggles and our little towels had no real affect on the cold night air. It was extremely cold the numbing wind and torrential downfall of snow were hard to block with just a towel and shorts. Through the mind numbing pain we fought to make it to the hot tub and after a minute or so after we left we made it.

“Finally, we made it!” I said ecstatically.

“That was freezing, I can’t wait to hop into that warm water,” Zach replied.

“Defiantly!” Riley interrupted.

“Wait, why is it so dark in there?” My dad questioned. “It can’t be closed yet.”

“Crap! It is, it says right here it closes at eight thirty. It’s nine o’clock right now,” I disappointedly stated.

“Wow!” Zach and Riley said simultaneously.

We were all very disappointed from our failed adventure, but also unreasonably cold. So, we prepared ourselves and ran back through the blizzard and snow back to the warmth of the condo. The only thing worst must have been for Darrel, being stuck in a small condo with a bunch of kids and a crazy family.

Once we got back we got into some warmer clothes,

“Well, that sucked,” my dad laughed.

“Yah I’m freezing,” Riley added in.

So, we warmed up and watched a movie, “3:10 to Yuma”. After that we hopped into bed soundly. We could hear Darrel talking in his sleep and we went to sleep in a good laughing mood. We were sound asleep until the alarm went off.

After the alarm incident we woke up the following morning to the same story of the night before, bad weather, no power. Without power the lifts could not run and that day we would not be able to snowboard. We were all sad to not be able to board for the day, so we ate a light breakfast and Riley, Zach, and I put on our snow gear.

“Hey dad we’re going out to find something to do,” I yelled up the stairs.

“Ok, I’ll call you if anything comes up,” he yelled back.

That whole day Zach, Riley, and I just hung out. We played board games, had a snowball fight, and try to ride our snowboards. After hours being outside we retuned to the condo, and then the lights went on! We started to sprint and in a matter of seconds we were in the cabin eating some fresh warm food.

“Power! Power! Whoooooo!” We screamed.

“Finally, we can eat,” Zach said.

Then, we all went downstairs and cooked enough food to feed an army and in five or so minutes it was all gone, we were stuffed. After that we watched movies played video games and hung out in the condo and that is when the weather finally cleared up.

“Finally, a break in the storm,” my mom said happy to see the sun again.

“Yah it is so nice now too bad we can’t go boarding,” I replied.

My dad had been down at the guest service area this whole time and he finally returned. “The roads have been cleared, we have a small window to leave and make our way home. Hurry and get back. Let’s get moving!” And the mad scramble began. In about twenty minute we were on our way home and in just over six hours we made it back safely.