While some people prefer vacation to be about relaxing, others prefer a little more action. Mason Quinn, 22, recently found the adventure of a lifetime with five of his friends, Curtis
Davis, Noah Keeton, Reed Galloway, Gracen Layman and Lexie Fannin, on a Lake Tahoe ski trip.
Quinn grew up in the Russell/Bellefonte area with Davis, Keeton and Galloway, and though he was deep in college coursework, they convinced him to make the trip in January 2025.
The adventure started before they left. A severe winter storm was raging and their flight from Cincinnati was delayed. After hours on the phone, Quinn booked a flight from
Columbus. “What’s normally a three-hour drive took me five hours from Lexington,” said Quinn.
“Then once I arrived, that flight was cancelled!” Not to be deterred, Quinn stayed the night and managed a flight the next morning. “Coming home wasn’t much better,” Quinn added.
“Traveling in January is a gamble.” Skiing out west was a first for most of them, and they planned to undertake the slopes of Heavenly Mountain Resort and Kirkwood. With 4,800 acres of off-the-grid terrain, Heavenly consists of groomed cruisers and 1,600-foot plunges.
“Heavenly was a lot bigger and more welcoming to moderate skiers, which I think we were,” Quinn said. “A lot of Blues there.” (For non-skiers: Greens are easiest, then blues, then
black diamonds, then double black diamonds. “It was so enjoyable. We did runs through the trees and that made it interesting.”
Heavenly was tougher than any they had skied previously. “We really felt challenged by the terrain,” Quinn said. “It was so different from the slopes I had skied. I’ve skied a few black
diamonds, and the ones out west are pretty serious compared to the ones back east.” The next day they headed to Kirkwood, about an hour away. Kirkwood sits atop the Sierra
Crest with elevations ranging to 9,800 feet. It is known for 2,000 feet of vertical drop and over 2,300 acres of terrain, including hair-raising cornices.
“I have to admit this one was scary,” Quinn said. “We’re on the lift. It’s super windy and so cold. Took 15 minutes to get up there. It was shaking back and forth the whole time. Once
up there we could see how steep it was. We were like, ‘Are we sure we want to do this?’” Skull signs were peppered about, warning of dangerous conditions. Quinn said it was hard
to move because of the wind and hard to hear each other. “It was terrifying,” Quinn admitted. “It was 90 degrees straight down. We finally got up to the edge and just stood
there thinking, ‘There’s no way we’re gonna go down that.’ We were just trying to stand up at this point.”
Then Reed inched his way to the front. “He just hits it,” Quinn said, “and we watched him disappear.” In the meantime, they saw an adjacent slope. “People were moving over there,” Quinn said.
“So, we decided to try it. Took us a long time to get there only to discover it was a double black. ‘Oh no, now what do we do?’ Everybody else is cruising down and just zooming
through. We knew we had to ski down or wait until the slopes closed to get help from ski patrol. We didn’t want that because they take you down on a stretcher whether you’re hurt
or not.” “I couldn’t help but think ‘we don’t belong here.’” Quinn said. “So, we inch our way back to the first slope. It was exhausting and took a while. We know Reed is wondering where the
heck we are because it’s been like 20 minutes since he went down. We gotta go. Noah leans off the edge, but the wind is blowing so hard he doesn’t move. But he finally hits it
and goes.”
Quinn knows what he has to do. “I go a few minutes later. It is so scary. I’m breathing super hard. The wind is pounding me. Ice is hitting my face. I’m going sideways because it’s so
steep.” Once he got past that top part of the mountain, Quinn found it tough but not as crazy and more fun. “Took about 15 minutes all the way down,” Quinn said. “Reed was like, ‘I didn’t think you guys were coming.’ Everybody made it down and we were like, ‘What are we doing?’ There was not an easy slope there. Even the greens were like a black at Snowshoe.”
Quinn summed it up succinctly. “Yeah, I was scared. But I did it and it was absolutely one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my life.”