tseeb
Well-known member
I drove to Kirkwood Thursday morning, leaving the house at 6:30, only a couple of minutes before my wife left for work, and still arrived before 10 am. Groomed runs on Cornice, Janek and Sentinel, both skied well, but got firmer as snow was scraped off. Olympic looked good, but was very firm and required survival skiing. It started snowing at noon, then snowed hard around 2 pm. The sun almost came out a couple of times, but it kept snowing. By the end of the day 2” had fallen which was quickly getting skied and scraped off if many places. Some of the low-angle runs and edges were improving by the time I quit at 3:30 pm with 25 runs and 26K vertical.
The prediction was for 5-10”, but Friday morning only Kirkwood and Sierra-Tahoe reported 5”. I thought I’d be going to Northstar, but they only reported 2”. Heavenly reported 3” and it was still snowing, but it did not amount to anything. So I headed for Kirkwood were the sun was out early, but temp was 10 and the road was very slick most of the way there. I arrived just before 9 am, missing first run. I found some decent snow, especially on the three early hikes I did towards the Palisades. The first time out it was a gravity traverse to where I dropped into untracked. The next two times, I had a couple of 20 foot sidesteps up and one long climbing traverse, that I dropped off into untracked. Third time I finished the hike and only two people had gotten that high and far out ahead of me. I also found some decent powder in many other places like Sunrise chair (twice I took the drag lift past The Wave – took long slow chair four times total), Thunder Saddle and in the corner of Wagon Wheel Bowl - I reached it by traversing from the Wall and by hiking from Cornice.
I probably hit bottom on close to 90% of my turns, but skiing from 9 am until almost 4 pm, I found some places with about 6 inches. It started snowing again before 11, but did not amount to anything anywhere near Tahoe. Most of the turns were noisy from the firm layer, but you had to ignore that, make tracks and wait for the turns that were in the deeper snow. Low-angle was often better than steep. Finished with over 28K, my high for the year so far and very good considering I had not skied for over a month and had a cold a lot of that time, then a fever for a couple of days the previous week. I had a slow drive west for the first 30+ miles as snow level was about 4,000 feet and road was slick. Got home just before 8 pm.
All iPhone pictures are from Palisades.
The prediction was for 5-10”, but Friday morning only Kirkwood and Sierra-Tahoe reported 5”. I thought I’d be going to Northstar, but they only reported 2”. Heavenly reported 3” and it was still snowing, but it did not amount to anything. So I headed for Kirkwood were the sun was out early, but temp was 10 and the road was very slick most of the way there. I arrived just before 9 am, missing first run. I found some decent snow, especially on the three early hikes I did towards the Palisades. The first time out it was a gravity traverse to where I dropped into untracked. The next two times, I had a couple of 20 foot sidesteps up and one long climbing traverse, that I dropped off into untracked. Third time I finished the hike and only two people had gotten that high and far out ahead of me. I also found some decent powder in many other places like Sunrise chair (twice I took the drag lift past The Wave – took long slow chair four times total), Thunder Saddle and in the corner of Wagon Wheel Bowl - I reached it by traversing from the Wall and by hiking from Cornice.
I probably hit bottom on close to 90% of my turns, but skiing from 9 am until almost 4 pm, I found some places with about 6 inches. It started snowing again before 11, but did not amount to anything anywhere near Tahoe. Most of the turns were noisy from the firm layer, but you had to ignore that, make tracks and wait for the turns that were in the deeper snow. Low-angle was often better than steep. Finished with over 28K, my high for the year so far and very good considering I had not skied for over a month and had a cold a lot of that time, then a fever for a couple of days the previous week. I had a slow drive west for the first 30+ miles as snow level was about 4,000 feet and road was slick. Got home just before 8 pm.
All iPhone pictures are from Palisades.
