Kirkwood, CA 12/19-21/23

[tseeb]

My drive was 3 1/2 hrs with Stockton gas stop and me (and my radar detector) leading a long line of vehicles through 10 miles of chain control approaching Kirkwood. There was not much on the road until Carson Spur. It was 930 before I finished a couple of calls, dressed and loaded Cornice. Kirkwood reported 5” new, but most of the runs had some bumps under it as they have not had enough snow to be able to groom. Edges were usually better and I was able to make some tracks. Hard to see the ones I made to lookers right of gully on Zachary's.

Kirkwood base temps on my iPhone stayed at 32-33 so it was not dry snow, but it was snow and better at top than bottom. I rode and skied Cornice 4x (2xSentinel and one each Zachary and Janek), Reut 7x (best snow was next to ropeline on Shotgun although many other runs had their moments) and 2x Solitude and Timber Creek. I took two breaks to dry out and changed to extra pair of gloves at 7800 where I dried out by fire. They've upgraded their $3 beer from Modelo to Goose Island. It started snowing harder about noon. This was @1255.

I skied to my car just after 3 PM with just under 14K. Arriving at 855 I got closest parking to Cornice chair by mostly getting inside Fire Lane sign.

Also saw some people who should not have been driving in snow on my 50 minute (25 mile) drive to friend's house in Meyers. First one was in Pinball Alley above Kirkwood Inn where sedan going downhill with chains lost it into bank/ditch on other (my!) side of road. Second one was before long dam on Caples Lake where SUV missed the corner and may have gone over some big rocks below dam that were there to block dirt road. Then I thought it was too slow following a 4Runner at 20 mph up Carson Pass before catching up with 4x4 truck with unchained trailer going 15 mph down the other side. Chain control for other direction at bottom of pass made him stop and probably told him the rules about pulling trailer through chain control (trailer needs to have chains).

 

[EMSC]

So glad I no longer live in chain control part of the country. Only Commercial vehicles require it over this way. If it gets super slick (a couple times per year) such that SUV's are sliding they simply shut the roads for a few hours then re-open. That said there is technically a 'traction control' law in Colo now. Basic gist is no one is looking, but if you slide out or cause a wreck and have bald tires you get extra fines and tickets.

 

[Tony Crocker]

This is a positive report to see all snow at Kirkwood's 7,800 foot base considering the predictions for this storm.

 

[tseeb]

So glad I no longer live in chain control part of the country. Only Commercial vehicles require it over this way. If it gets super slick (a couple times per year) such that SUV's are sliding they simply shut the roads for a few hours then re-open. That said there is technically a 'traction control' law in Colo now. Basic gist is no one is looking, but if you slide out or cause a wreck and have bald tires you get extra fines and tickets.

It's not the chain control, it's the clueless drivers going under 25 mph speed limit in chain control who don't pull over even when they have 100 cars backed up behind them. I have not chained up for more than 30 years driving AWD minivan, then SUV, unless stuck getting into unplowed driveway or when SUV settled into more than a foot of unplowed snow.

This is a positive report to see all snow at Kirkwood's 7,800 foot base considering the predictions for this storm.

I'd planned to go Mon-Thurs, but it seemed like storm and winds were late and I had plenty of other things to do, so I delayed my trip. I heard Monday was much wetter.

 

[tseeb]

Kirkwood, CA 12/20/23
I'd planned to avoid driving today by trying shuttle from cabin 3 blocks off Pioneer Trail to Heavenly gondola so I could ski Nevada, then take what so far this season has been one-way trip to CA (Skyline from CA to NV opened today) before shuttling from CA base after skiing to near cabin. But first report I saw about 6:30, Kirkwood had 11" new and Heavenly 0 (later updated to 3). So I drove to Kirkwood in less than an hour with view on the way of SUV that went off turn before Caples Lake dam still there.

Dave/Fatbob from SkiTalk and England and I separately loaded Timber Creek at (him) or very shortly after 9 (me). We skied to and rode Cornice together, then skied some of the new snow on Zachary, then he went to Solitude while I skied new snow on edge of Sentinel from Cornice chair. I moved to Reut and found good snow on Shotgun early, then found where ropeline ended and got some low-angle untracked after this.

I returned to Cornice and found patroller opening rope partway down the Rabbit runs into the Palisades. He warned me about sharks and I tried to straddle a rock just after entrance but hit it hard enough to lose a ski which I struggled to get back on in steep and deep new snow. I also struggled to find good route into Palisades, but the nearly untracked powder I found was worth the trouble.

Dave and I met up at Monte Wolfes (also the name of this closed to public run where patrollers left some nice tracks) for a break.

After break we skied Reut 5x finding best snow on Buckboard where bumps from previous day had mostly filled in/been smoothed out. We also tried Short Spoke (the race course) and Wagon Trail, but they were not as good. Hoping Kirkwood can groom more runs, but it looks like they tried at top of Cornice and on Home Run and quickly found dirt. @fatbob returned to Timber Creek via Solitude while I did two more laps into Palisades riding Cornice and Timber Creek, still struggling to find good path from where ropeline ended. The lightly tracked new snow was still good and worth the trouble. I quit about 3:25 with 21 lifts/19.5K and got to very busy So. Tahoe branch of my bootfitter to talk to them about some concerns I have.

 

[tseeb]

In my post from Wed, I didn’t include bootfitters recommendation to solve very low left shin pain was that my Palau liners are probably worn out and I should replace them with $500 ZipFits that last twice as long and work much better. Since I was the only one left in the store, I should have done it then, but thought I should see if my wife who always struggles to find me a Christmas gift would get them for me. Honey, I’ll think fondly of you every time I have to first put on liners, then slide them into my boots.

I also forget to mention I was about the 5th person into Waterfall which is reached from Reut chair by crossing Buckboard and finding a clean line or traverse between rocks. Some snowboarders were jumping off the rocks into the untracked. I took a traverse to large open field and still lightly touched a rock, but it was very good new snow into the Drain.

Kirkwood, CA 12/21/23

Dave from England and I both skied Kirkwood again today, our third day in a row there although we didn't get together the first day. Thursday was busier than Tues or Wed and I think we both looked at parking lot next to Timber Creek without finding empty spot before parking along road across from Timber Creek. It was 9:30 before we hiked up to and loaded TC lift that we rode 3x and skied twice before moving to Cornice. While coverage was OK, there were already thin spots and it is going to suffer from traffic before Christmas.

From Cornice we saw they'd opened Monte Wolfe which was only for patrol on Wed. I think many people were sorry they went into it. There were rocks on traverse most were using to enter and it was deep crusted snow in main run. I found some untracked that I could ski and a good steep E-facing exit, but a lot of people struggled in it and/or went to skiers left where it faces more S was very thin. Dave skiing the last pitch above Solitude chair.

We next did a couple of laps on Reut skiing Buckboard which was good before I returned to Cornice, first skiing packed powder on Sentinel. Then guy I rode up lift with said Wagon Wheel Bowl between Cornice and the Wall had opened so I went there and found some decent day-old foot deep mostly untracked.

Thimble Peak with retaining wall visible for not yet put in road entrance to Wall.

Hi-speed Cornice didn’t have much of a maze or need any line control while slow and prone to stopping Solitude developed a large line. I took a quick lap down edge of Janek before cutting back to Zachary; both were OK. We met up for a break at Monte Wolfe, then skied three more laps on the Reut including one into Shotgun, before separating again. I did two laps on Cornice but was not feeling it so I stayed out of the Palisades and quit after a run on all of Janek and one on Sentinel about 1:30. I only out skied 4hrs, rode 14 lifts and my vertical was just under 14K.

I was hoping to get home in time to take dog for a walk before it was totally dark, but my wife had already done that and traffic drove me off 680S in Milpitas, about 10 miles before my usual exit. It gave me a chance to stop at a Queso Birria food truck near friend's house in NE San Jose that I’d always wanted to try. I got three tacos. My wife ate 1/2 and I had 1 1/2 last night then the other one for lunch. Very good with a lot of meat in tacos and consommé, although my wife thought onions in picture were not cooked enough and the serrano pepper I tried was very hot.

 

[tseeb]

Kirkwood was running the Wall on and off yesterday and we thought it might open for a couple of hours late, but according to https://www.instagram.com/kirkwoodmtn/ it opened today. It did not look like entrance road was in and I saw it open like that in early Dec one year and quickly get rocky.

"LIFTS & TERRAIN ALERT SURPRISE! Chair 10 - The Wall - is now open....*experts only*! We are also expanding terrain off of Chair 6, which means we’re going deeper into Wagon Wheel and Sentinel! Looking for learning terrain? We’ve got that too with Chair 1 now spinning, allowing us to expand our learning terrain, along with the addition of a magic carpet over at Timber Creek. So what are you waiting for? Get out here and we’ll see you soon!"