KIrkwood, CA April 1 & 3, 2024

[tseeb]

After being home for Easter from last week’s trip for about 36 hrs, I met friend in Tracy at 6 AM Monday for this week’s trip. We skied and watched Freeride Comp at KIrkwood and got to see many crazy lines skied, some big rocks jumped off, a few crashes and some skiers throw backflips and 360s coming down the always closed to the public Cirque.

Evil E/NE wind was there, but not that bad in most places and the sky was an unreal blue. Friend from Minden joined us in PM and will meet us at Heavenly today. Then back to KIrkwood and home on Wed.

KIrkwood reported 2” new on Mon (May have fallen Sun after AM report) on top of 24” the previous 4 days. We skied 915-345 with a couple of breaks to watch the Comp. My watch counted over 23K. Great snow on Cornice groomers and in windsift on the Wall. The first time returning from Backside, the ropeline for Comp forced us into One Man Chute where a couple of people were side-slipping but I thought it had very good packed powder. The second time we went further right, hiked above Moon Bowl and came down in the corner where I found some steep untracked along left edge. Snow lower down was W-facing, out of wind and getting sun-affected.

Posted without a keyboard and goodphoto editing tools.

Start of Freeride Comp was just right of middle at top.

We stopped by to check friend’s KIrkwood cabin that is leased through 4/15. Tenants are supposed to be paying for a walkable path to be cleared to front door. Snow is gone in places and generally 1-2’ deep at our cabin in So. Tahoe.

 

[tseeb]

Kirkwood, CA 4/3/2024

We found some sticky snow where it was flat when we started at Kirkwood on Wednesday about 1015 after packing, cleaning and closing So. Tahoe cabin, then 45+ min drive. Friend I skied for the last three days gets his place at Kirkwood back from ski-lease on 4/16 and we plan to return there before they close on 4/28, two weeks after originally scheduled and it looks like they will stay open 7 days a week.

After skiing Zachary's, the E-facing groomer on Cornice, we took a lap on The Wall but it was still too firm so we used The Reut to get to Sunrise where we skied an E-facing lap. On return to front-side, my friend missed entry into Hell's Delight that I enjoyed so much that we did another 30 minute, two slow chairs lap that required crossing sticky snow to get to bottom of each chair and it was well worth it. This is looking up some of Hell's on my first lap.

This is lower on first lap next to Thunder Saddle.

Greg entering Hell's Delight

Great snow and skiing in Hell's Delight

We ate our lunches that we had in our jacket pockets while riding slow chairs and found good snow in PM on Olympic from high-speed Cornice chair. I also skied Chamonix, a chute I once hiked back out of on an early season powder day when I found a too big mandatory air.

I took one more lap on the Wall skiing Notch Chute from the back which required removing skis and down-climbing about 20'. I found some great snow, especially on apron at top. Clouds started blowing over and wind picked up in PM. We quit before 3 for the drive home. My watch counted 17.5K.

I bought this pint at Kirkwood store for $4.60 after skiing. On Thursday, I could see snow above 3K from San Jose.