tseeb
Well-known member
I left San Jose at 4:40 AM since OpenSnow had predicted 13” overnight for Kirkwood and I wanted to be there before they opened. On the way I saw 88 was closed for avalanche control on the Carson Spur just before Kirkwood. But Caltrans Facebook page showed closure started at 3:40 so I thought it would re-open and committed to it avoiding longer and busier US-50 route with three passes. There was 30 miles of chain control, but not only had the Spur re-opened, I got into signed VIP parking at 8:30 close to Reut/Wall lifts. I followed snowblower from Spur to Kirkwood. Someone posted picture of vehicles that missed turned into Kirkwood.
I started with a mostly untracked, lower-angle lap on Solitude, then took three on very busy Cornice that started loading a little late. I started with Monte Wolfe which did not ski that deep as wind must have packed down or blown away some of the 11” reported although bottom half got deeper. Next I started on left side of Olympic before crossing over and getting into barely tracked steeps on the right. Surprisingly, it seemed like everything off Cornice was open even they were still doing some avy control on the Wall. I skied (tough between whoop-de-dos and rimed goggles) then hiked to left from top of chair into False Peak chute which required dropping cornice to get into my best run and snow of the day. I took left exit from the Drain which is still not very filled in.
I was going to take it easy with a lap on the Reut, but the Wall was loading without much line so I skied it three times. First run was my best, skiing the part of the Wall almost to All The Way then getting untracked into steep faces I’ve found below that. Next run I waited a couple of minutes at rope to closed Eagle Bowl to see if patrollers taking very sketchy chute above it were going to open it, but they didn’t. My last Wall lap was down Notch chute and mostly survival skiing until I got past long choke. The road from top of lift to main Wall entrance on my first two laps was as busy as I’ve ever seen it with at least 50 people creeping along to get to the edge and trying to find a clean entrance. I think it was one or two and done for many as it got scraped off and the rime on goggles at top was bad and not easily removed. Line and crowd on road were gone down my third lap, but rime still built up fast.
After a break at super busy Monte Wolfe, I rode Reut and went to Caples Crest lift that was not yet open last time I was at Kirkwood. I took three laps, finding some low/moderate angle powder, but it was mostly skied out and there were well-hidden rocks where it wasn’t. Returning to the Reut, I spotted fatbob and we skied a couple of laps there before moving to Cornice where we skied Sentinel to Timber Creek chair which had a big enough line that we separated and rode as singles. I finished my day with a lap into the Palisades. The entrance that did not require an uphill hike did require a leap over rocks into an uphill landing. Without going very far I found this at 3 PM.
I skied to my car at 3:20 with 17 lifts and almost 18K. Drive to So. Tahoe was an hour, but could have been much worse if propane tanker had not pulled over to let everyone pass going by Caple Lake. Barely an inch at cabin.
I started with a mostly untracked, lower-angle lap on Solitude, then took three on very busy Cornice that started loading a little late. I started with Monte Wolfe which did not ski that deep as wind must have packed down or blown away some of the 11” reported although bottom half got deeper. Next I started on left side of Olympic before crossing over and getting into barely tracked steeps on the right. Surprisingly, it seemed like everything off Cornice was open even they were still doing some avy control on the Wall. I skied (tough between whoop-de-dos and rimed goggles) then hiked to left from top of chair into False Peak chute which required dropping cornice to get into my best run and snow of the day. I took left exit from the Drain which is still not very filled in.
I was going to take it easy with a lap on the Reut, but the Wall was loading without much line so I skied it three times. First run was my best, skiing the part of the Wall almost to All The Way then getting untracked into steep faces I’ve found below that. Next run I waited a couple of minutes at rope to closed Eagle Bowl to see if patrollers taking very sketchy chute above it were going to open it, but they didn’t. My last Wall lap was down Notch chute and mostly survival skiing until I got past long choke. The road from top of lift to main Wall entrance on my first two laps was as busy as I’ve ever seen it with at least 50 people creeping along to get to the edge and trying to find a clean entrance. I think it was one or two and done for many as it got scraped off and the rime on goggles at top was bad and not easily removed. Line and crowd on road were gone down my third lap, but rime still built up fast.
After a break at super busy Monte Wolfe, I rode Reut and went to Caples Crest lift that was not yet open last time I was at Kirkwood. I took three laps, finding some low/moderate angle powder, but it was mostly skied out and there were well-hidden rocks where it wasn’t. Returning to the Reut, I spotted fatbob and we skied a couple of laps there before moving to Cornice where we skied Sentinel to Timber Creek chair which had a big enough line that we separated and rode as singles. I finished my day with a lap into the Palisades. The entrance that did not require an uphill hike did require a leap over rocks into an uphill landing. Without going very far I found this at 3 PM.
I skied to my car at 3:20 with 17 lifts and almost 18K. Drive to So. Tahoe was an hour, but could have been much worse if propane tanker had not pulled over to let everyone pass going by Caple Lake. Barely an inch at cabin.