tseeb
Well-known member
Kirkwood seemed promising early with 3-4" new and a lot of avalanche control. We parked at Timber Creek and loaded lift at 9:45. We should have done some laps there as we skied to Cornice which didn’t load until after 10. We were on about 15th chair and it looked like Zachary was skied out so one friend and I took Olympic where new snow was not deep enough to keep you off firm bumps so it was a tough first run especially for friend who was on his first run of season. After a better run on Zachary, we saw rope drop for Sentinel and I got 2nd tracks down left side, probably my best run of the day. It was snowing early, but got warmer and wetter later in morning.
Backside opened in afternoon and it was not very good as untracked new snow had mostly frozen and even groomed run was tough up high with firm snow, some gravel with wind and bad visibility on top. They were not letting you go towards the Wave due to visibility, wind stripping snow or avalanche danger. After my third lift ride where I drank an excellent St. Archer Mosaic that I didn’t realize until later was a 9% double IPA, I exited via main Thunder Saddle run. It was probably my toughest run of the year with deep crust and slabs, even though I skied the main run, not the chutes I’d done earlier in month.
After a few laps on a good groomer under Caples Crest lift and one on the Reut, I took the Wall once and it was pretty good. I caught up with my friends at top of Sentinel where snow was still OK. One friend skied down to truck and moved it to 7800 while other friend and I went up Reut and skied to bar about 4. My watch counted 22 runs/22.65K and EpicMiss had 17 lifts/under 15K (missed all morning Cornice lifts). At 7800, my friends had $6 Moscow Mules and I had a $3 Coors.
I did not get home until 9:30 PM so long day as I left my house at 5 AM. I only had to drive from my house to/from friend’s place near downtown and (his truck) from Kirkwood to Stockton. I don’t like my ski trip trend so far this year as I started season with a 5-day trip (with some new snow every day), then had a 3-day trip and this was a one-day trip (although I tried to get friend who was driving to stay Fri. night or get other friend who went with us to go to his family’s Kirkwood cabin the night before). Planning to sit out holidays (and since I can’t really go I’m OK seeing Christmas Eve storm dialed back from 18” to less than 12) and go back in 2019. Only picture I took was on Wall when clouds lifted a little. I found good snow on steep face (lower center) to lookers right of chair.
Backside opened in afternoon and it was not very good as untracked new snow had mostly frozen and even groomed run was tough up high with firm snow, some gravel with wind and bad visibility on top. They were not letting you go towards the Wave due to visibility, wind stripping snow or avalanche danger. After my third lift ride where I drank an excellent St. Archer Mosaic that I didn’t realize until later was a 9% double IPA, I exited via main Thunder Saddle run. It was probably my toughest run of the year with deep crust and slabs, even though I skied the main run, not the chutes I’d done earlier in month.
After a few laps on a good groomer under Caples Crest lift and one on the Reut, I took the Wall once and it was pretty good. I caught up with my friends at top of Sentinel where snow was still OK. One friend skied down to truck and moved it to 7800 while other friend and I went up Reut and skied to bar about 4. My watch counted 22 runs/22.65K and EpicMiss had 17 lifts/under 15K (missed all morning Cornice lifts). At 7800, my friends had $6 Moscow Mules and I had a $3 Coors.
I did not get home until 9:30 PM so long day as I left my house at 5 AM. I only had to drive from my house to/from friend’s place near downtown and (his truck) from Kirkwood to Stockton. I don’t like my ski trip trend so far this year as I started season with a 5-day trip (with some new snow every day), then had a 3-day trip and this was a one-day trip (although I tried to get friend who was driving to stay Fri. night or get other friend who went with us to go to his family’s Kirkwood cabin the night before). Planning to sit out holidays (and since I can’t really go I’m OK seeing Christmas Eve storm dialed back from 18” to less than 12) and go back in 2019. Only picture I took was on Wall when clouds lifted a little. I found good snow on steep face (lower center) to lookers right of chair.
