Southern California has always been the most mysterious of places to me. Just in terms of weather, we have pristine beaches next to snow-capped mountains and blisteringly hot deserts astride cool valleys. Since a heat wave has just washed over Irvine and spring approaches with blistering intensity, I feel that I should share a winter anecdote to beat the heat.

About six years ago, during the winter, my family and I went up to Big Bear with two other families, attempting to beat the warm winter with some ice-cold snow. We all decided that skiing would be the best option to learn during the time and headed to Bear Mountain.

My friends and I had also decided that without much experience, jumping on one ski lift all together was a good idea. Not so much in this case. Our skis got completely tangled in a quasi-knot of plastic. So when I tipped forward from the jerking motion of the ski lift, so did everyone else, causing me and one other person to fall out of the lift and land in the snow below. Thankfully, we were only about 10 feet up, so neither of us got hurt during the fall and were only a little freaked out.

That experience seems far away in the past, but I still hope that nothing happens to me during any future winters!

Sincerely,

Avantika Vivek