tseeb
Well-known member
Monday 4/3/23
Heavenly opens for passholders at 830 on Monday (weekends and holidays for everyone). I wondered why the usual suspects were not waiting for Tram which I parked close to. When I went there, I was told it was only running for employees, so I put on skis near base of World Cup and skied to Gunbarrel that starting loading about 825 (I got on before 830). Heavenly reported 2” new and at bottom it seemed like it was going to clear up and was supposed to remain cold. It did remain cold but did not clear up as it snowed on and off during the day and the top was often in clouds and it was windy, the coldest April day I’ve skied in a long time.
I rode Sky chair twice before 9, first skiing the new inch or two on Ridge Run into Ridge Bowl where it was not smooth or deep enough to keep from hitting bumpy bottom. I moved to Nevada and found deeper new snow in Milky Way Bowl. My tracks barely visible in center.
Next I skied Dipper chair 4x finding some decent new snow, but it was hard to avoid hitting hard bottom. At 10, I hiked over big hump that has formed to left at top of Dipper and skied left side of Milky Way Bowl. New snow was a little deeper and I went through Gate 1 into Mott Canyon skiing Bills where new snow skied well and sluffed a lot. I next went through easy to get to gate 4 and worked my way right to ski some of Widowmaker and Snake Eyes. At the top I went right and skied low angle new snow to and past top of Galaxy and found more new humps to get over to get to Nevada Trail which I skied to Stagecoach base. Under Stagecoach chair is roped off due to lack of clearance.
Heavenly announced last Friday that they were cutting back operations beginning Monday and would only be running Stagecoach, Dipper and thankfully Mott Canyon in NV, with shuttle from Boulder parking to Stagecoach. Some people were upset to lose North Bowl and Dipper. To me it mostly means if there is enough new snow to make it worthwhile, I have to figure out best way to ski the Gondola. They did not announce Tram would be closed to public and even worse on a windy day with highs on mountain in teens, that East Peak Lodge, where I planned to warmup, would only be open outside where they have BBQ on covered metal deck. There were 2 ladies with 3 little girls who also needed a warmup and didn’t know where to go so I showed them the way to Tamarack Lodge with one crying most of the way up cold Dipper lift and down Sam’s Dream run that avoided the worst of the flats getting to lodge.
My phone was dying quickly dropping from 30% to 20% charge while I was in lodge. I hadn’t brought right cable to charge from external battery and charging station was not working so after riding Tamarack and skiing California Trail to a very early entrance to Maggie’s Canyon, I rode Groove and skied Advanced Roundabout with a couple drops into untracked steeps between corners to my car. Besides charging phone, I changed to mittens with liners and moved heat packs from gloves and car to parking closer to where I’d end day.
I skied one Sky lap starting on Liz’s then into trees closer to lift before returning to Nevada and catching run of the day, Outer Limits, from gate A into Killibrew Canyon.
The top was very lightly tracked and new snow was deeper and subsurface soft enough that I didn’t feel it. I found entrance to Pipeline that I skied, then took an early exit from it to get more untracked before catching higher Killibrew exit. It was good enough that after riding Mott and Dipper, I got back to gate A and repeated Outer Limits. I stayed out of Pipeline and quickly found hard layer underneath on lower half of Outer Limits, but still had untracked turns. Then I found great untracked deep enough snow in what used to be called The Meadows (to skiers left of Boundary Chutes). Looking down into Meadows and looking up to where I skied.
which meant taking lowest exit from Killibrew that required three 12-25 sidesteps up to get out. I did one more lap down Mott trying to get above and past Rocky Point to North 40/Promised Land, but was too low so I skied some of Bill’s the got in below Rocky Point and skied good chopped up new snow in what is usually cliffs.
After riding Mott and Dipper again, I skied California Trail, finding some untracked to left then more on drop towards Maggie’s Canyon where I skied left side of gully for first time this year. I went back up to top and skied some low angle untracked in trees between Canyonland and High Five and to left of High Five, then skied left side of Waterfall. After riding stopping a lot Groove, I skied next to ropeline above Gunbarrel and on left side of it before cutting across and finding shallower new snow to right of East Bowl. World Cup, the bottom of East Bowl, was getting firm as new snow had been scraped off except along very edges. I quit at 3:55 with over 28K.
Heavenly opens for passholders at 830 on Monday (weekends and holidays for everyone). I wondered why the usual suspects were not waiting for Tram which I parked close to. When I went there, I was told it was only running for employees, so I put on skis near base of World Cup and skied to Gunbarrel that starting loading about 825 (I got on before 830). Heavenly reported 2” new and at bottom it seemed like it was going to clear up and was supposed to remain cold. It did remain cold but did not clear up as it snowed on and off during the day and the top was often in clouds and it was windy, the coldest April day I’ve skied in a long time.
I rode Sky chair twice before 9, first skiing the new inch or two on Ridge Run into Ridge Bowl where it was not smooth or deep enough to keep from hitting bumpy bottom. I moved to Nevada and found deeper new snow in Milky Way Bowl. My tracks barely visible in center.
Heavenly announced last Friday that they were cutting back operations beginning Monday and would only be running Stagecoach, Dipper and thankfully Mott Canyon in NV, with shuttle from Boulder parking to Stagecoach. Some people were upset to lose North Bowl and Dipper. To me it mostly means if there is enough new snow to make it worthwhile, I have to figure out best way to ski the Gondola. They did not announce Tram would be closed to public and even worse on a windy day with highs on mountain in teens, that East Peak Lodge, where I planned to warmup, would only be open outside where they have BBQ on covered metal deck. There were 2 ladies with 3 little girls who also needed a warmup and didn’t know where to go so I showed them the way to Tamarack Lodge with one crying most of the way up cold Dipper lift and down Sam’s Dream run that avoided the worst of the flats getting to lodge.
My phone was dying quickly dropping from 30% to 20% charge while I was in lodge. I hadn’t brought right cable to charge from external battery and charging station was not working so after riding Tamarack and skiing California Trail to a very early entrance to Maggie’s Canyon, I rode Groove and skied Advanced Roundabout with a couple drops into untracked steeps between corners to my car. Besides charging phone, I changed to mittens with liners and moved heat packs from gloves and car to parking closer to where I’d end day.
I skied one Sky lap starting on Liz’s then into trees closer to lift before returning to Nevada and catching run of the day, Outer Limits, from gate A into Killibrew Canyon.
The top was very lightly tracked and new snow was deeper and subsurface soft enough that I didn’t feel it. I found entrance to Pipeline that I skied, then took an early exit from it to get more untracked before catching higher Killibrew exit. It was good enough that after riding Mott and Dipper, I got back to gate A and repeated Outer Limits. I stayed out of Pipeline and quickly found hard layer underneath on lower half of Outer Limits, but still had untracked turns. Then I found great untracked deep enough snow in what used to be called The Meadows (to skiers left of Boundary Chutes). Looking down into Meadows and looking up to where I skied.
which meant taking lowest exit from Killibrew that required three 12-25 sidesteps up to get out. I did one more lap down Mott trying to get above and past Rocky Point to North 40/Promised Land, but was too low so I skied some of Bill’s the got in below Rocky Point and skied good chopped up new snow in what is usually cliffs.
After riding Mott and Dipper again, I skied California Trail, finding some untracked to left then more on drop towards Maggie’s Canyon where I skied left side of gully for first time this year. I went back up to top and skied some low angle untracked in trees between Canyonland and High Five and to left of High Five, then skied left side of Waterfall. After riding stopping a lot Groove, I skied next to ropeline above Gunbarrel and on left side of it before cutting across and finding shallower new snow to right of East Bowl. World Cup, the bottom of East Bowl, was getting firm as new snow had been scraped off except along very edges. I quit at 3:55 with over 28K.
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