ChrisC
Well-known member
SETUP
Kirkwood was already reporting 36" new on Thursday evening. Combined with waves of snow still rolling in, the closure of The Wall (Chair 10) and The Backside (Chairs 2,3,4) all day, and Route 88 rendered useless due to avalanche control from the West/Bay Area, I decided a personal day was in order for Friday. Oh yeah, temps were 0s/10s and NOAA forecasting 7-10% moisture content snow - Utah-quality! Unfortunately, no other friends could start their weekend on Friday, so I was solo for this day. They would show up for Saturday.
TRAVEL
Since Cal DoT did not give an ETA on 88 reopening from the west, I decided to take 50 and backtrack up 89 to 88 on Friday morning. The snow levels for this storm were very, very low - like 1500 ft and chain controls just outside Placerville. Very promising. The drive only took 3.5+ hrs, so I was at Kirkwood at 8AM or so. Well in time for first chair - or first few chairs as skiers were already gathered.
FIRST CHAIR
Chair 6 'Cornice' is the first significant lift to typically open - attracting a crowd of a 200+ before 9am. No gates were up so a Euro-style line formed (calculated chaos). The President of Kirkwood was out doing crowd-control and, asking the crowds to avoid closures and setting expectations for operations - promising the lower lifts to open at 9am and chair 6 shortly thereafter. Chair 10 and Backside were TBD.
Anyways, this sets up a game of trade-offs for the day. When will terrain open? What time? What lifts? Rumor and half-truths - like a giant game of telephone - flowed between skiers. The Kirkwood Prez would repeat his promise of Chair 6 shortly after 9am and immediately someone would ask - "so this lift is not opening till 11am?"
Nevertheless, Chair 6 opened promptly at 9:15am.
THE GOODS
Snow was amazing! I've skied a few higher quality dumps in the Sierra, but none more than a few inches. This was an honest 36"-48" and deeper drifts near trees. I was at knee-to-waist depth all day with fat skis (and I am pretty tall guy at 6-3). Face shots were a dime a dozen. Slopes with less than an expert pitch did not require turning since the snow created so much resistance. A lot of bogged down skiers/boarders in places. The snow was so light, you could even bottom out and hit a rock or two that have yet to be covered by a deeper Sierra base.
MY ITENERARY
I was in the first dozen chairs on Chair 6, so I immediately went to skiers right into the Wagon Wheel Bowl where I thought the snow would be deepest. It was snorkel deep. Another lap on 6 gave some solid fresh on skiers left in Chamonix. Since, sentinel Bowl was still closed and the wait for 6 lengthy (15 min), I decided to investigate when Chair 10/The Wall would open.
Over at Chair 10, there was a line but no word on opening. I decided to make laps on Chair 11 watching when 10 would opened. It was a good call. I got 3 laps in on great snow on the Nose and in drainages before 10 opened. On The Wall I was able to link mostly fresh skiers left on the liftline while others were traversing further left. I'll take the seconds that skiers did not fully milk. On the next run, I was able to score a rope drop for Eagle Bowl - another of the day's highlights.
Coming out of the Eagle Bowl, the Backside opened so I immediately went over there. The terrain over here was almost too-flat for this depth of snow, but some pitches could handle it. Anyways, I took 4-5 runs hitting various faces, including a nice huck off The Wave into fluff.
My final run was off Chair 6 - into Sentinel Bowl. This terrain had opened sometime earlier in the day, but there were still plenty of areas for tracks.
PICS
I took some random shots of lines and other skiers to document the day.
Early Morning Kirkwood
Untouched....
Lots of snow even in the village
Boarder dude under 6
The Reut - 3 laps vs. first on Wall
Nice pillowy drops
My knees - max amount of my leg showing all day
The Wall opens
Still lots of untracked at noon
Eagle Bowl
Eagle gets tracked
The Cirque
The Backside opens
The Wave - boarders huckin'
A 2pm 3' powder shot. Snow quality was primo despite it being a south-facing run funneling back to Sunrise.
Kirkwood was already reporting 36" new on Thursday evening. Combined with waves of snow still rolling in, the closure of The Wall (Chair 10) and The Backside (Chairs 2,3,4) all day, and Route 88 rendered useless due to avalanche control from the West/Bay Area, I decided a personal day was in order for Friday. Oh yeah, temps were 0s/10s and NOAA forecasting 7-10% moisture content snow - Utah-quality! Unfortunately, no other friends could start their weekend on Friday, so I was solo for this day. They would show up for Saturday.
TRAVEL
Since Cal DoT did not give an ETA on 88 reopening from the west, I decided to take 50 and backtrack up 89 to 88 on Friday morning. The snow levels for this storm were very, very low - like 1500 ft and chain controls just outside Placerville. Very promising. The drive only took 3.5+ hrs, so I was at Kirkwood at 8AM or so. Well in time for first chair - or first few chairs as skiers were already gathered.
FIRST CHAIR
Chair 6 'Cornice' is the first significant lift to typically open - attracting a crowd of a 200+ before 9am. No gates were up so a Euro-style line formed (calculated chaos). The President of Kirkwood was out doing crowd-control and, asking the crowds to avoid closures and setting expectations for operations - promising the lower lifts to open at 9am and chair 6 shortly thereafter. Chair 10 and Backside were TBD.
Anyways, this sets up a game of trade-offs for the day. When will terrain open? What time? What lifts? Rumor and half-truths - like a giant game of telephone - flowed between skiers. The Kirkwood Prez would repeat his promise of Chair 6 shortly after 9am and immediately someone would ask - "so this lift is not opening till 11am?"
Nevertheless, Chair 6 opened promptly at 9:15am.
THE GOODS
Snow was amazing! I've skied a few higher quality dumps in the Sierra, but none more than a few inches. This was an honest 36"-48" and deeper drifts near trees. I was at knee-to-waist depth all day with fat skis (and I am pretty tall guy at 6-3). Face shots were a dime a dozen. Slopes with less than an expert pitch did not require turning since the snow created so much resistance. A lot of bogged down skiers/boarders in places. The snow was so light, you could even bottom out and hit a rock or two that have yet to be covered by a deeper Sierra base.
MY ITENERARY
I was in the first dozen chairs on Chair 6, so I immediately went to skiers right into the Wagon Wheel Bowl where I thought the snow would be deepest. It was snorkel deep. Another lap on 6 gave some solid fresh on skiers left in Chamonix. Since, sentinel Bowl was still closed and the wait for 6 lengthy (15 min), I decided to investigate when Chair 10/The Wall would open.
Over at Chair 10, there was a line but no word on opening. I decided to make laps on Chair 11 watching when 10 would opened. It was a good call. I got 3 laps in on great snow on the Nose and in drainages before 10 opened. On The Wall I was able to link mostly fresh skiers left on the liftline while others were traversing further left. I'll take the seconds that skiers did not fully milk. On the next run, I was able to score a rope drop for Eagle Bowl - another of the day's highlights.
Coming out of the Eagle Bowl, the Backside opened so I immediately went over there. The terrain over here was almost too-flat for this depth of snow, but some pitches could handle it. Anyways, I took 4-5 runs hitting various faces, including a nice huck off The Wave into fluff.
My final run was off Chair 6 - into Sentinel Bowl. This terrain had opened sometime earlier in the day, but there were still plenty of areas for tracks.
PICS
I took some random shots of lines and other skiers to document the day.
Early Morning Kirkwood
Untouched....
Lots of snow even in the village
Boarder dude under 6
The Reut - 3 laps vs. first on Wall
Nice pillowy drops
My knees - max amount of my leg showing all day
The Wall opens
Still lots of untracked at noon
Eagle Bowl
Eagle gets tracked
The Cirque
The Backside opens
The Wave - boarders huckin'
A 2pm 3' powder shot. Snow quality was primo despite it being a south-facing run funneling back to Sunrise.
/ looks amazing