tseeb
Well-known member
Monday 1/2/23 I should have gotten up when I woke up around three, but went back to sleep until my alarm woke me up a little after 4 and didn’t get out of house until 5:45. Apple mapping said I would get to Kirkwood at 9:30. 3 hrs 45 min is pretty good with chain control for the last 20 miles.
Chain control did not slow me down much, but I had a few minute stop before the Carson Spur where I think they were only allowing one-way at a time traffic with pilot vehicles. The last 1/2 mile on 88 and the less than a
mile into Kirkwood were painfully slow with solid stopped traffic from both directions of highway merging then not picking up much after merge. They were already parking people along Kirkwood Meadows Drive (and not much later on 88 past Kirkwood Inn before turning people around). I knew I could find something in one of the lots to the left at Timber Creek which I did. It was after 10:30 before I loaded lift. Both chairs 6 and 7 had lines; singles were at least couple of minutes and regular lines more like 5. I waited for fatbob, Dave from England who is skiing Vail CA resorts for a month, at top of Sentinel which had good packed powder. We next skied Monte Wolfe, with me going down a tight gully that is filling in, to chair 11. We skied it once but line grew, so we moved back to chair 6, skiing steep chute between Olympic and Janek that was a cliff when I was at last at Kirkwood 4 weeks ago.
The Wall opened which reduced line on 11 so we skied it a few times, finding some tracked and packed powder on edges and untracked near the bottom between runs to skiers right. We moved to chair 2 which had some of the best untracked snow of the day to skiers left of the groomed runs. Snow was deep but a little heavy and at least day old, but very skiable as long as you got out of it before stopping and getting trapped in gully. Dave went to lodge to re-hydrate while I rode and skied 2 a couple of more time before exiting area with hike into High Whiskey almost to boundary sign that others were going past. It was longer and a little steeper but still W-facing that I thought was skiing better than N-facing.
Chair 4 was scheduled to open at 2, but never did. Chair 3 opened at 2:30. I never tried it.
I skied to and rode chair 11 once, then chair 10 twice. First lap I went far looker rights of main Wall face and tested some of the tracked deep snow between there and All The Way, the first chute, but found snow somewhat treacherous and hit groomer as soon as I could. Next time I skied just to skiers left of usually groomed main run under chair that had slid and left a lot of debris and found OK smooth packed powder. I cut over past top of closed Eagle Bowl then dropped in above top of chair 11, again finding where it wrapped around to W-facing was best. I also had a few good turns in untracked above road coming from 11.
Dave and I got together for a chair 11 then a chair 6 run before he left for where he is staying with friends in Carson City. I did another chair 6 run and finished after 4 with a couple of cool-down laps on chair 7. Between EpicMix and SkiTracks I counted 18 lifts and 17.5K vertical.
My day was not over as I tested my antilock brakes before slowing down coming down Carson Pass, then was stuck behind long line of cars behind somebody going 15-20 over Luther Pass. My 35 mile drive to cabin was 1 hr 45 min and I had to get off Pioneer Trail before and after Ski Run Blvd as with only CA base open at Heavenly traffic between there and Stateline was worse than I’ve seen in past on New Year’s Eve.
Tuesday 1/3/23 I was planning on only doing the mile drive to Heavenly CA base but 7 AM report on Lake Tahoe TV said 5” at Kirkwood and 0 with on-going lift and power problems at Heavenly so I quickly ate a banana and English muffin, made lunch and got out of cabin at 8 for Kirkwood. I had better day at Kirkwood (and Monday had all I needed after almost 4 weeks off). While roads were slick, I made it there in an hour 20 minutes and my return to near Stateline with no chain control on 88, but chain control on 89 (Luther Pass) was an hour.
I parked in same lot as previous day and loaded chair 7 not much after 9:30. I went straight to the Wall and loaded it 3x by 1030. I repeated the 2 runs from previous day finding much better snow.
Picture from 3rd lap where I traversed into Wagon Wheel Bowl below False Peak.
I next took two Cornice/Timber Creek laps into the Palisades, taking highest traverse which required some stepping up. The top was wind affected, but lower down was lightly tracked and very skiable. Pictures are looking down Palisades, then back up at what I skied.
I took one more lap on the Wall where I missed the rope drop into Eagle Bowl by about 30 seconds. Maybe 20 people were ahead of me, but nobody went left towards Norms Nose so I had untracked, slightly crusty new snow. Then I went to the Backside which had not been open since before big storms before the weekend.
Even though chair stopped a lot, probably due to chair, not people faults, singles line was not bad for my first 3 laps. Line got worse and it was cold and windy, especially at top, so I exited via Thunder Saddle where I found some good deep and steep snow. I also skied and rode chairs 2 and 3 which still had lines around 2 PM. I quit just before 3 with almost 20K and went to very busy Safeway before poaching hot tub with better view of moon than Lake.
Chain control did not slow me down much, but I had a few minute stop before the Carson Spur where I think they were only allowing one-way at a time traffic with pilot vehicles. The last 1/2 mile on 88 and the less than a
The Wall opened which reduced line on 11 so we skied it a few times, finding some tracked and packed powder on edges and untracked near the bottom between runs to skiers right. We moved to chair 2 which had some of the best untracked snow of the day to skiers left of the groomed runs. Snow was deep but a little heavy and at least day old, but very skiable as long as you got out of it before stopping and getting trapped in gully. Dave went to lodge to re-hydrate while I rode and skied 2 a couple of more time before exiting area with hike into High Whiskey almost to boundary sign that others were going past. It was longer and a little steeper but still W-facing that I thought was skiing better than N-facing.
I skied to and rode chair 11 once, then chair 10 twice. First lap I went far looker rights of main Wall face and tested some of the tracked deep snow between there and All The Way, the first chute, but found snow somewhat treacherous and hit groomer as soon as I could. Next time I skied just to skiers left of usually groomed main run under chair that had slid and left a lot of debris and found OK smooth packed powder. I cut over past top of closed Eagle Bowl then dropped in above top of chair 11, again finding where it wrapped around to W-facing was best. I also had a few good turns in untracked above road coming from 11.
Dave and I got together for a chair 11 then a chair 6 run before he left for where he is staying with friends in Carson City. I did another chair 6 run and finished after 4 with a couple of cool-down laps on chair 7. Between EpicMix and SkiTracks I counted 18 lifts and 17.5K vertical.
Tuesday 1/3/23 I was planning on only doing the mile drive to Heavenly CA base but 7 AM report on Lake Tahoe TV said 5” at Kirkwood and 0 with on-going lift and power problems at Heavenly so I quickly ate a banana and English muffin, made lunch and got out of cabin at 8 for Kirkwood. I had better day at Kirkwood (and Monday had all I needed after almost 4 weeks off). While roads were slick, I made it there in an hour 20 minutes and my return to near Stateline with no chain control on 88, but chain control on 89 (Luther Pass) was an hour.
I parked in same lot as previous day and loaded chair 7 not much after 9:30. I went straight to the Wall and loaded it 3x by 1030. I repeated the 2 runs from previous day finding much better snow.
Picture from 3rd lap where I traversed into Wagon Wheel Bowl below False Peak.
I next took two Cornice/Timber Creek laps into the Palisades, taking highest traverse which required some stepping up. The top was wind affected, but lower down was lightly tracked and very skiable. Pictures are looking down Palisades, then back up at what I skied.
I took one more lap on the Wall where I missed the rope drop into Eagle Bowl by about 30 seconds. Maybe 20 people were ahead of me, but nobody went left towards Norms Nose so I had untracked, slightly crusty new snow. Then I went to the Backside which had not been open since before big storms before the weekend.
Even though chair stopped a lot, probably due to chair, not people faults, singles line was not bad for my first 3 laps. Line got worse and it was cold and windy, especially at top, so I exited via Thunder Saddle where I found some good deep and steep snow. I also skied and rode chairs 2 and 3 which still had lines around 2 PM. I quit just before 3 with almost 20K and went to very busy Safeway before poaching hot tub with better view of moon than Lake.
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