tseeb
Well-known member
We got out of our studio at 8:15 to find parking at Kirkwood was filling up almost to our place. I was on the Reut lift a couple of minutes before 9 with a Gatorade and cinnamon role from the 3-Day Women’s Weekend that my wife is enjoying. She said they were mostly on ungroomed snow Saturday and found some untracked off the Backside that they enjoyed so much they did it twice and were late to their lunch I dropped my lunch and a beer under a tree near the base of the Snowboard Freeride Competition that was going to come down the usually closed Cirque. I went up Chair 2 then sidestepped the 100 or so feet up to the T-Bar. Everyone but me was going left towards Chair 4, but I didn’t want to try the sun-baked deep powder without fat skis so I went down the shady side under Lookout Vista and found lightly packed steep powder. Next time up Chair 2, I continued to the Backside where I went off skier’s right of The Wave and found very lightly tracked snow at the bottom and untracked in the trees further right. I went to the Backside to do a couple of early high-speed groomers, but found the runs were not groomed very wide or smooth. I was only able to hit 900 vertical feet per minute on Cold Shoulder which was only groomed 5 cat tracks wide and not totally smooth between them I did one more run in lightly packed powder skier’s left of the chair, before the 11 am crowds drove me out of the Backside.
I left the Backside via Hell’s Delight, next to The (permanently closed except for competitions) Cirque Hell’s Delight had great snow with enough exposure and steepness to require caution. They had lower Thunder Saddle roped off for the snowboard competition so I traversed high enough to get one gully above were most people were coming down. I found untracked on an almost cliff to the right of the exit. I was going to go up chair 2 again, but crowds drove me to the Wall were I had to wait a minute or two for a chair. I avoided the cluster of people on the main road entrance to the Wall by dropping in below the rope where snow was excellent until you hit the traverse marks. I skied the Notch Chute and then rode up the chair with a competitor from Snowbird, Matt Carter. I skied Norm’s Nose and picked up my lunch which I ate sitting on my jacket watching snowboarding get hung up in rocks that locked like dead ends. I saw drop up to 40 feet during the competition and no bad falls.
After lunch I skied Chair 2 and the T-bar twice more. The T-Bar is very steep on the second half. I tried it solo on the right side and the left side and found you had to fight (or crab) it a little. My last time up I rode with a ski patroller which was easier and I was able to get names for more of the runs between Lookout Vista and Thunder Saddle. Some of them are simple like Shots No. 1 through 7 for where they blast. The snow was softening in the hot sun and 40 degree temperatures and I was cooking. After going up the Wall and barely holding on during my entrance to cheers from the chair, I went to the car where I exchanged my jacket for a vest and took off my boots for a few minutes. I made it back out for 4 runs on Cornice chair which had a short line until 4 pm closing. 17 runs/21K vertical
My wife had a shopping party with wine and appetizers at Kirkwood Mountain sports and I had a nice talk and some wine from saleslady in the Lodge. Then I had a 15-20 minute talk with Kirkwood Mountain Real Estate president, Tim Cohee. He showed me the plans for replacing slow chair 4 on the Backside with a high-speed quad and moving chair 4 higher up and to the right on Thimble Peak, They also will try to get approval to add a chair near Martin Point which further North (looker’s right) on the ridge past Cornice. Hikers probably do not like the new surface lifts and proposed lifts as the easy hike-to untracked inside the resort boundary will be harder to find. They want to add a lot of lift capacity while increasing the number of homes at Kirkwood to provide funding for the lifts. They are not going to add more day skier parking.
There is a slight chance of snow Sunday evening and a wind advisory beginning at 2 PM WINDS: SOUTHWEST 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 40 MPH BY THIS AFTERNOON... THEN INCREASING TO 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 50 MPH TONIGHT. RIDGE GUSTS UP TO 105 MPH
More pictures added Sunday night.
I left the Backside via Hell’s Delight, next to The (permanently closed except for competitions) Cirque Hell’s Delight had great snow with enough exposure and steepness to require caution. They had lower Thunder Saddle roped off for the snowboard competition so I traversed high enough to get one gully above were most people were coming down. I found untracked on an almost cliff to the right of the exit. I was going to go up chair 2 again, but crowds drove me to the Wall were I had to wait a minute or two for a chair. I avoided the cluster of people on the main road entrance to the Wall by dropping in below the rope where snow was excellent until you hit the traverse marks. I skied the Notch Chute and then rode up the chair with a competitor from Snowbird, Matt Carter. I skied Norm’s Nose and picked up my lunch which I ate sitting on my jacket watching snowboarding get hung up in rocks that locked like dead ends. I saw drop up to 40 feet during the competition and no bad falls.
After lunch I skied Chair 2 and the T-bar twice more. The T-Bar is very steep on the second half. I tried it solo on the right side and the left side and found you had to fight (or crab) it a little. My last time up I rode with a ski patroller which was easier and I was able to get names for more of the runs between Lookout Vista and Thunder Saddle. Some of them are simple like Shots No. 1 through 7 for where they blast. The snow was softening in the hot sun and 40 degree temperatures and I was cooking. After going up the Wall and barely holding on during my entrance to cheers from the chair, I went to the car where I exchanged my jacket for a vest and took off my boots for a few minutes. I made it back out for 4 runs on Cornice chair which had a short line until 4 pm closing. 17 runs/21K vertical
My wife had a shopping party with wine and appetizers at Kirkwood Mountain sports and I had a nice talk and some wine from saleslady in the Lodge. Then I had a 15-20 minute talk with Kirkwood Mountain Real Estate president, Tim Cohee. He showed me the plans for replacing slow chair 4 on the Backside with a high-speed quad and moving chair 4 higher up and to the right on Thimble Peak, They also will try to get approval to add a chair near Martin Point which further North (looker’s right) on the ridge past Cornice. Hikers probably do not like the new surface lifts and proposed lifts as the easy hike-to untracked inside the resort boundary will be harder to find. They want to add a lot of lift capacity while increasing the number of homes at Kirkwood to provide funding for the lifts. They are not going to add more day skier parking.
There is a slight chance of snow Sunday evening and a wind advisory beginning at 2 PM WINDS: SOUTHWEST 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 40 MPH BY THIS AFTERNOON... THEN INCREASING TO 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 50 MPH TONIGHT. RIDGE GUSTS UP TO 105 MPH
More pictures added Sunday night.
