Kirkwood, CA 2/15-18/2010 (added two more days)

[tseeb]

Kirkwood is reporting a base of 118-61" and a total snowfall of 249-312". The temperature in So. Tahoe was 53 on Sun and Mon, 50 on Tues. and predicted to get to 55 Wed. The snow at Kirkwood is holding out very well with only on the low angle at the base getting a little sticky. I found mostly good snow, except for Olympic, which looked good but was too firm on my first run on the day and after lunch on Tues. It was better on Wed, but still required looking for where loose snow had been pushed around for best turns. Lookout Janek was so good on the edges on Wed. that I did it three times. I made it up the T-Bar once on Tues. and got over to the handle tows on Wed. On Wed. I went left from the top of the T-bar and found almost corn on the soouth-facing. I also went right where there was great snow under the big cornice that was the cleanest way, but is starting to show rocks. I also found good snow in Moon Bowl, getting there by skiing partway down Chair 4 and going past Thunder Saddle.

I thought about getting a board and meeting a friend who is staying in Reno at Diamond Peak today, but my $10 card for there is not valid this week and I can't see paying $25 other area passholder rate for more limited mountain where it will get warmer. So I'll make the 10 mile further drive to Kirkwood at least one more day. Even though I didn't get on the hill until about 10:30 the last two days, I totaled almost 25K on Monday and 26K on Tuesday of mostly steep skiing.

 

[Admin]

Pictures are in reverse order with three from Tues at bottom and four from Wed at top

Tseeb, if you want to avoid that you can embed the photos within the text. After uploading the attachment anchor your cursor where you want the photo to go and hit the "place inline" button.

 

[tseeb]

Admin, Thanks for the tip, I'll try it sometime. I entered my post very quickly Wed. morming at Alpen Sierra Coffee in So. Lake Tahoe where they have free wireless. I had a connection Tuesday morming from the cabin, but lost it and never saw it again. I celebrated Mardi Gras at Tahoe Lakeside Inn, about a mile into Nevada, where there give you a drink ticket and $5 match play for showing your season pass and have $1 sliders, fish tacos, slice of pizza and PBR draft. They also give deals to resort employees and attract a good crowd downstairs. I also returned there Wed. night.

Skiing Wed. and Thurs. was firmer than on Mon. and Tues. I think it froze harder as it was colder overnight and did not warm up as fast. I won a free ski demo from RSN-TV and The Powderhousse and tried what they recommended; 170 Volkl Unlimited AC 50. They turned well on hard and soft snow with 18m radius and were more stable than my 177 Volkls at speed. On Wed, I made it out to the drag lifts at Kirkwood's SE boundary twice. First I skied Devils Draw, then next I skirted the boundary line, but found very little untracked and an unmarked cliff. I also skied the T-bar twice and tried to get in a third run by following someone on a very direct line from the top, but was past the 3:30 close when I got to the hike. I skied west-facing High Whiskey instead and found it had softened nicely. I skied the Wall (west-facing Waterfall was good), then Cornice (going out towards east-facing Palisades was getting icy) to get back to the car. No pictures as I missed the good light in the morning and traded my camera and Ipod whose battery died for a cassette with FM in the afternoon. 24K vertical

On Thursday, I skied the south and east facing slopes off the T-bar before lunch, but they were still too firm even though it was sunny. After lunch, I skied a warmup on Monte Wolf, then skied Sentinel a total of 7 times, including once to the bottom of Chair 7, and Corner Chute twice. While the east and west facing did not soften enough all day, the north facing on Sentinel and high east-facing on Corner Chute still skied like winter snow. There was a lot a soft snow pushed into the left edge on Sentinel and the ridge edge had not been skied much. Another 24K day and a total of 99K for the four days.

It started snowing again over the weekend, but it sounded like Heavenly made out better than Kirkwood for a change.