tseeb
Well-known member
We arrived at Heavenly about 9:30 and parked one row away from the tram. That was the same time as previous two days even though the drive was 33 miles shorter than drive to Kirkwood the day before and about 190 miles shorter than Friday drive from Bay Area to Sugar Bowl. Since we just missed a tram and Jr. race team was running gates, we went up World Cup and skidded our way down the very firm snow and over to Gunbarrel chair. Gunbarrel had some bad spots that made me wonder if they will be able to run Glen Plake?s Gunbarrel 25 on 4/7. For details, see https://ssl.skiheavenly.com/mountain/pa ... nbarrel25/ That is during my next planned trip and, while I could probably do it, I am not sure I could ski the next day if I did. One, two or even four runs or five runs on the Face and Gunbarrel are OK for me, but I don?t know about 25 or more.
The temperature was a little cooler than previous two days and my wife wished she was wearing more than thin fleece. We continued up and did a warmup on the corduroy on Canyon before heading to Sky. Ellie?s run, next to Sky Chair, was wind scoured and would not be open without snow-making and wind fence even though the top is 10,000 feet. We enjoyed the great views of the very calm lake and skied to Nevada.
I was turning off Skyline trail to test east-facing Milky Way Bowl when I was slammed into by a large Asian man. He went down hard and one of my skis came off and I ended up about 10 feet down the entrance to the bowl. I told him that he is supposed to avoid anybody he is passing even if they stop or turn in an unexpected way. I was not sure if he was stunned or spoke English because he looked confused and didn?t respond immediately. He eventually said he was sorry and that he tried to avoid me.
Milky Way Bowl was good as long as you kept skiers left where the sun had softened the snow. We took a couple of runs on Dipper and then moved to Canyon and took Olympic chair to the top of 2.2 mile Olympic downhill. The is some controversy over the routing of high-speed replacement for Boulder and Olympic chairs which will go through some large trees that currently hold good powder a couple of days after a storm. We met up for an early lunch with my friend who had taken his girlfriend to the beginner?s area at the top of the gondola.
After lunch, I took my wife back down to Dipper and cut over to Meteor, which is a newer run further east than Dipper run and was still firmer than she liked, She cut back to Dipper and I continued down and found the snow improved. After one more combination of Dipper Run then cutting over to lower Meteor, my wife took a break and I went up Dipper and skied Milky Way Bowl into Mott?s Canyon. I found good snow by skiing the sunniest spots I could find between Widowmaker and Hully Gully. The run was closed skier?s left of the chair due to lack of snow. Even at 1:30, it looked too early for the steeper, north-facing chutes like Bill?s and The Y.
My wife was ready to start heading back so we went up Dipper and skied California trail to Sky Chair and then went down Ridge Run to Waterfall. Since the run is halfway roped for Heavenly Foundation only, my wife went to Swing Trail while I found good snow in the less-moguled area next to the ropes. We went up Powder Bowl and didn?t see why nobody was skiing the excellent snow on Powder Bowl Line until we found how thin the snow was where you joined back with other runs. I continued down the liftline and found good snow and easily avoided rocks. I skied down the Face which was big, sharp-edged bumps. My wife can do the run in better conditions, but I think it was a good call for her to take the tram down. We got to the car about 3 pm, picked up the cabin and were on the road at 5 pm for the just over four hour Sunday evening drive home. I think I totaled 17 runs and slightly under 20K vertical, but forgot to stop my watching from counting.
We had scheduled originally Monday off, but had to return so our son could complete homework due today. Seeing that the low Monday morning was 38 at South Lake Tahoe, I don?t think we missed much. Hopefully the 4 inches predicted today is followed by more soon.
The temperature was a little cooler than previous two days and my wife wished she was wearing more than thin fleece. We continued up and did a warmup on the corduroy on Canyon before heading to Sky. Ellie?s run, next to Sky Chair, was wind scoured and would not be open without snow-making and wind fence even though the top is 10,000 feet. We enjoyed the great views of the very calm lake and skied to Nevada.
I was turning off Skyline trail to test east-facing Milky Way Bowl when I was slammed into by a large Asian man. He went down hard and one of my skis came off and I ended up about 10 feet down the entrance to the bowl. I told him that he is supposed to avoid anybody he is passing even if they stop or turn in an unexpected way. I was not sure if he was stunned or spoke English because he looked confused and didn?t respond immediately. He eventually said he was sorry and that he tried to avoid me.
Milky Way Bowl was good as long as you kept skiers left where the sun had softened the snow. We took a couple of runs on Dipper and then moved to Canyon and took Olympic chair to the top of 2.2 mile Olympic downhill. The is some controversy over the routing of high-speed replacement for Boulder and Olympic chairs which will go through some large trees that currently hold good powder a couple of days after a storm. We met up for an early lunch with my friend who had taken his girlfriend to the beginner?s area at the top of the gondola.
After lunch, I took my wife back down to Dipper and cut over to Meteor, which is a newer run further east than Dipper run and was still firmer than she liked, She cut back to Dipper and I continued down and found the snow improved. After one more combination of Dipper Run then cutting over to lower Meteor, my wife took a break and I went up Dipper and skied Milky Way Bowl into Mott?s Canyon. I found good snow by skiing the sunniest spots I could find between Widowmaker and Hully Gully. The run was closed skier?s left of the chair due to lack of snow. Even at 1:30, it looked too early for the steeper, north-facing chutes like Bill?s and The Y.
My wife was ready to start heading back so we went up Dipper and skied California trail to Sky Chair and then went down Ridge Run to Waterfall. Since the run is halfway roped for Heavenly Foundation only, my wife went to Swing Trail while I found good snow in the less-moguled area next to the ropes. We went up Powder Bowl and didn?t see why nobody was skiing the excellent snow on Powder Bowl Line until we found how thin the snow was where you joined back with other runs. I continued down the liftline and found good snow and easily avoided rocks. I skied down the Face which was big, sharp-edged bumps. My wife can do the run in better conditions, but I think it was a good call for her to take the tram down. We got to the car about 3 pm, picked up the cabin and were on the road at 5 pm for the just over four hour Sunday evening drive home. I think I totaled 17 runs and slightly under 20K vertical, but forgot to stop my watching from counting.
We had scheduled originally Monday off, but had to return so our son could complete homework due today. Seeing that the low Monday morning was 38 at South Lake Tahoe, I don?t think we missed much. Hopefully the 4 inches predicted today is followed by more soon.
