Kirkwood, CA 2/18-20/2009

[tseeb]

Big snow and crowds. I left San Jose at 5:30, about 30 minutes later than I planned. I arrived at Kirkwood at nine after at least 30 miles of chain control. I was able to squeeze between a Burton van and a Subaru less than 50 feet from Cornice Chair which already was loading and had a line. I went up Cornice and took a left at the top. I skied down, then hiked up the ridge to Saddle Chute. The snow was deep but already being affected by the warm sun. The Wall was not yet loading and had a line so I went up Cornice again. Next run I went a little farther down and came down Shaeffer’s Chute and got in the increasing line for the now-running Wall which had been closed for a couple of days due to the storm. The snow to the skiers right of the chair was very deep, but I still found a rock or two on most runs as I searched for the untracked. I came down in the Headwaters area and then eventually stayed right towards Conestoga and Shotgun. Next ride up, after about a 15 minute line as they where not fully loading the chair, I saw a group of people waiting for Eagle Bowl to open and heard 10 minutes so I joined in. I waited about 10 minutes and then raced into a funnel on skiers left which kept me away from the 75 or so people that went in to the main bowl. The snow was good where it was steep, but many people had trouble, especially where it flattened out. I thought about heading for the backside which also had not been open for the last couple of days, but the two times I went by Chair 2, it was stopped and had a long line for a slow double chair so I skied the Wall a couple of more times.

I was getting tired so I went to the car for lunch and took a break before going up Cornice and going skiers left of Sentinel. Next time up, I saw a lot of people taking the long traverse and hike towards Palisades so I joined them, then realized most of the people going out that way had telemark skis and were going past the boundary. I found some good snow in lightly tracked Palisades bowl, but it got heavy towards the bottom. Next run I went left on top of Cornice and went further down the ridge and found a couple of turns in almost untracked, then did a lot of survival skiing to get to the bottom where I went up the Wall. I went over the right side of Norm’s Nose and ended up in some untracked, but it was so heavy I had a ski release when I was crossing the top of a gully, then had both skis release almost at the bottom. The backside was very chopped up so I went past Thunder Saddle towards Lookout Vista where I had one of my best runs of the day, dropping off the cornice and finding good snow and enough leg most of the way to the bottom. My legs are definitely feeling the effort of the hiking and steep, heavy powder. 16 runs/21K vertical

 

[EMSC]

Snow sounds about as heavy as when I was there a couple days ago. Fun, but tough work. At least Wall lift didn't break down; giving you a few more options or spreading the crowd out (maybe, that pic looks pretty crowded).

 

[tseeb]

I no longer have Internet access at the cabin so I'm a little late adding reports from 2/19 and 2/20 at Kirkwood. There seems to be a problem with Lift 10 - The Wall. On Wednesday with big demand, they were leaving two chairs in a row empty after loading a few. On 2/19, it opened late and on 2/20 was not yet open at 11 am when I had to leave. I heard it is a gear(box?) problem. It makes me wonder if it is not safe to run with a full load, is it safe to run period?

I was very tired after skiing the 2-4 feet of powder on Wed. after driving 3 1/2 hours after packing in the morning after attending Sharks game on Tues. night. I barely had enough energy to eat dinner and my legs were cramping when editing blog and photos posted above. I felt better Thurs. morning and, after dropping my poles to get new baskets, I went to Alpen Sierra for coffee and Internet about 7 am. I was on Cornice lift at 9:30 and after a warm-up run down Zachary, I dropped off the cornice onto Monte Wolf which had nice packed powder and was getting a little re-fill from the wind out of the southwest. Since the Wall was not running early, I used The Reut chair to get to chair 2 to the backside. The wind was blasting on the route to the new drag lifts, but I had to go there since I had not ridden them since they opened the lower one over a month ago. They were running the upper one and said they would be loading soon. I dropped off above The Wave and found what looked like untracked was crusty in most places, but got better in the trees. The next run they were loading the upper drag lift so I and many others took it, even though conditions were not great.

The lift is not really a poma with a spring-loaded pole and a disk, but a handle tow with a disk hanging from the handle. I found it hard to keep the disk between my legs as the cable height varied and I thought it worked better putting the handle behind your back. I did variations off the handle tows three time, then took one run to skiers left of Chair 4 where the snow was getting packed down enough to be skiable and I found almost untracked dropping into the first gully. My run back to the frontside was similar to the one I did towards the end of the previous day past Thunder Saddle and dropping off the cornice that is in the last picture into excellent steep snow. The snow was so good that I did it again later in the day even though it requires Chairs 2 and 4 and a fast schuss past Thunder Saddle and out of the meadow. I totaled six runs on the long, slow Backside chair which is the most I have done there this season.

My other notable run on Thursday was Notch Chute. The person I rode the chair with said it had enough coverage that you didn’t have to remove your skis to get in. From the top I saw a couple of people hiking into it with their skis off, but thought I could leave mine on which seemed safer than hiking down. But after crossing a few small rocky areas, there was a place where it was too narrow with a big rock so I had to take off my skis for about 10 feet, then put them back on in a semi-exposed place at the top of the chute. The snow was excellent, but I was too tense from the exposure to make the highest turn at the entrance. Going further down the chute I was able to find soft snow by going up the right side and then dropping back in. The crux towards the bottom has widened to about 10 feet. I also found untracked and nearly untracked by following some noses (or spines) between the chutes in Wagon Wheel bowl. I quit at 3:50 with 23 runs (my Avocet counted all three of the handle tows at runs) and 24.5K vertical. I had enough energy back at South Tahoe to poach a lakefront hot tub for the sunset and to make it to Lakeside Inn for a drink and a little video blackjack.

On Friday, my cabinets where finally scheduled to be installed. While I did not have to be there, I wanted to at least make it there before installers left in case there were any problems. So my plan was to get to Kirkwood before they open and ski 10-12 runs on high-speed Cornice chair and leave at 11 to get back to San Jose at 2:30. It mostly worked. Although I only got 10 runs by 11, I was very close to home at 2:30 and able to prevent installation of a maple bar cabinet in the family room that was supposed to match the cherry cabinets in the kitchen.

I did my first three laps in less than 10 minutes each as I started out with the three groomers: Zachary, Lookout Janek and Sentinel. Then I took fours runs to the left at the top, dropping off the cornice into Monte Wolf and Lost Cabin twice each. The more southerly exposures were a little icy from the warm sun and temperatures the day before, but there was still good snow of the more northerly exposures and some untracked in the trees.

I thought I could get 11 runs and over 15K vertical by 11, but short lines developed as The Wall was not running. Then the chair stopped a few times to download and unload people who went up, but could not ski down. At least they knew their limitations. I saw a few people taking long slides on the steep, groomed runs. 10 runs, 14.5K vertical and no pictures from Friday – all are from Thursday.

 

[Tony Crocker]

the cable height varied and I thought it worked better putting the handle behind your back.

Sounds like the infamous Fernie "meat hook."

 

[tseeb]

I heard the new Lookout Vista T-Bar opened for the first time on Saturday. It gets you up the ridge above chairs 2 and 3 which means you can probably ski the cornice I was skied last week without going to chair 4. The pictures posted above where taken with a Canon SD-600, mostly in snow mode, although a few may have accidently been take in backlight setting. I sometimes auto-correct them, but it usually puts too much glare on the snow, so I either leave them alone or increase contrast and brightness by 5-10 levels