tseeb
Well-known member
I got home from Utah about 11 pm on Sat. night. On Sunday after dark, a friend called to see if I wanted to do a day trip with him on Monday to Kirkwood. It took me until almost an hour later for me to text him if to see I should be packing and what time and where we were meeting.
Kirkwood reported 14” inches in the last 24 hours on top of 40” in the previous 24 and over 100” in the last 8 days. But we got on the hill way too late for a powder day as my friend was a little late picking me up and did not have much gas. We put some gas in near my house, but they would not accept his card. Then gas buddy led us to a station in Manteca that was $3.99 (grand opening, most of CA is over $4.15) and a little out of our way, but had problems and were not selling gas. Then after stopping for gas and McDonald's at start of 88 and finding snow below 2,500 feet, we were stuck behind cars going about 30 for first half of 30+ miles of chain control.
We had to park in the upper lot past employee housing and were booting up when tracks started getting made on The Wall. Then I had to wait in fairly long line to get ticket from showing my Heavenly pass. They would not give me one for my wife's so far this season unused pass, so I had to get in line that had gotten shorter to exchange Tahoe Card ticket that had my name on it for a ticket for my friend as somebody was already using his shop passes.
We started out with two runs on the Wall, both times ending up on skiers right where we found some lightly tracked by going left off the ridge separating Eagle Bowl from most of Chair 10/11 runs. The top was mostly tracked out. On our first run there was a large group waiting for the opening off Eagle Bowl. My son, who was staying at South Tahoe with friends from college and was at Kirkwood for second day in a row, joined us for second run. Third run we took Eagle Bowl towards chair 2 as we planned to go to the Backside. Eagle Bowl faces East and had a lot of tracks, but by going skiers left we found lightly tracked, but sun affected snow.
Going up chair 2, we saw a lot of people hiking to the top of Lookout Vista as T-bar was not running. I saw a nice face, with only one track, that only required hiking about a third of the way to the top. I got second tracks and then filmed my friend and son coming down the moderate angle face. From the chair, my son saw untracked along the end of the run so he skipped the short hike my friend and I repeated. Since it was west-facing, the snow was still very good, even though it was 1 pm and had been sunny.
My friend and I continued on to chair 4, the Backside and we skied it twice, finding untracked and lightly tracked just off the edges of the runs. We probably found the best combination of snow and steepness of the day on the return from chair 4. We cut right across the top of cornice and cliff towards Moon Bowl, where the only tracks at the top were a couple of traverses and I was able to find steep, almost untracked below into the tight trees.
By this time my friend was getting tired as he only has 4 days this year and we did not stop for lunch so he went in after taking it easy coming down Reut chair. I went up and turned left from Cornice chair. Then after a short hike and knocking some of the edge of the cornice off, jumped in and skied lightly tracked snow near the corner of Wagon Wheel Bowl. I took one more run on Cornice, staying skiers left of Look Out Janek, then joined my sons and his friends for their last run down Sentinel (where they were parked). My son and I skied somewhat tracked powder between Sentinel and Jim’s and even found some lightly tracked. I cut between two trees and found a buried branch that caught me in the middle of my boots and slowly and harmlessly flipped me into untracked powder.
They would not let me load Chair 7 at 4:07 so I caught quick shuttle to Chair 5/6 where my friend picked me up. It was a very nice day, with some great powder turns, but the time in car was too long vs. time skiing. 16.4 K vertical
Kirkwood reported 14” inches in the last 24 hours on top of 40” in the previous 24 and over 100” in the last 8 days. But we got on the hill way too late for a powder day as my friend was a little late picking me up and did not have much gas. We put some gas in near my house, but they would not accept his card. Then gas buddy led us to a station in Manteca that was $3.99 (grand opening, most of CA is over $4.15) and a little out of our way, but had problems and were not selling gas. Then after stopping for gas and McDonald's at start of 88 and finding snow below 2,500 feet, we were stuck behind cars going about 30 for first half of 30+ miles of chain control.
We had to park in the upper lot past employee housing and were booting up when tracks started getting made on The Wall. Then I had to wait in fairly long line to get ticket from showing my Heavenly pass. They would not give me one for my wife's so far this season unused pass, so I had to get in line that had gotten shorter to exchange Tahoe Card ticket that had my name on it for a ticket for my friend as somebody was already using his shop passes.
We started out with two runs on the Wall, both times ending up on skiers right where we found some lightly tracked by going left off the ridge separating Eagle Bowl from most of Chair 10/11 runs. The top was mostly tracked out. On our first run there was a large group waiting for the opening off Eagle Bowl. My son, who was staying at South Tahoe with friends from college and was at Kirkwood for second day in a row, joined us for second run. Third run we took Eagle Bowl towards chair 2 as we planned to go to the Backside. Eagle Bowl faces East and had a lot of tracks, but by going skiers left we found lightly tracked, but sun affected snow.
Going up chair 2, we saw a lot of people hiking to the top of Lookout Vista as T-bar was not running. I saw a nice face, with only one track, that only required hiking about a third of the way to the top. I got second tracks and then filmed my friend and son coming down the moderate angle face. From the chair, my son saw untracked along the end of the run so he skipped the short hike my friend and I repeated. Since it was west-facing, the snow was still very good, even though it was 1 pm and had been sunny.
My friend and I continued on to chair 4, the Backside and we skied it twice, finding untracked and lightly tracked just off the edges of the runs. We probably found the best combination of snow and steepness of the day on the return from chair 4. We cut right across the top of cornice and cliff towards Moon Bowl, where the only tracks at the top were a couple of traverses and I was able to find steep, almost untracked below into the tight trees.
By this time my friend was getting tired as he only has 4 days this year and we did not stop for lunch so he went in after taking it easy coming down Reut chair. I went up and turned left from Cornice chair. Then after a short hike and knocking some of the edge of the cornice off, jumped in and skied lightly tracked snow near the corner of Wagon Wheel Bowl. I took one more run on Cornice, staying skiers left of Look Out Janek, then joined my sons and his friends for their last run down Sentinel (where they were parked). My son and I skied somewhat tracked powder between Sentinel and Jim’s and even found some lightly tracked. I cut between two trees and found a buried branch that caught me in the middle of my boots and slowly and harmlessly flipped me into untracked powder.
They would not let me load Chair 7 at 4:07 so I caught quick shuttle to Chair 5/6 where my friend picked me up. It was a very nice day, with some great powder turns, but the time in car was too long vs. time skiing. 16.4 K vertical
