tseeb
Well-known member
The big Saturday storm mostly blew through too fast, although it was snowing at So. Tahoe Sunday morning and continued to snow most of the way to Kirkwood where they reported 16-21” in the last 24 hours. Northstar reported 8-9” in the last 12 hours and 15-17” in the last 24. Sugar Bowl reported the most new snow at 24” and even Heavenly reported 12-18”. I had to deliver Kirkwood ticket to friend driving up from San Jose, so I had an hour plus drive from So. Tahoe instead of a mile plus to Heavenly. At least it was entertaining as a truck and another car making unsafe passes (they did get a couple of really slow cars to pull over or speed up) were stopped by the CHP at the bottom of Carson Pass.
My friend was supposed to meet me at Timber Creek base, but I figured he would be way behind me so I left ticket in envelope under my windshield wiper, covered with a pile of snow. I got my free ticket from my Heavenly/Northstar pass, then loaded uncrowded Chair 7 about 9. At the top, I heard Chair 6, Cornice, was not yet loading so I took a too low angle for deep powder run on Chair 7. Next time up I heard Cornice was loading so I went there. There was a considerable line that did not diminish for more than an hour. The wait probably averaged close to 10 minutes. I got in singles line to the right. There was also one to the left that looked longer.
Finally at the top, I headed left and did a short hike with skis on to Corner Chute. The snow was deep and untracked for at least the top third and easily my best powder turns of the season. I crossed a few tracks in the trees in the middle third before exiting through The Drain. A line was building on The Wall chair, but it would not load until about 10:30. I repeated the same run except I traversed right after the untracked at the top and found more untracked on the very steep side of Notch Chute. The next two times up I took off my skis and followed the bootpack further into the corner between Cornice and The Wall. The bootpack was probably 8-10 minutes vs. 4-5 for the skis on hike, but got me further into Wagon Wheel Bowl for more untracked. My last time out there, skiers unloading from The Wall had begun to more towards the corner (with much less effort than me).
The line on Cornice finally was diminishing. Next time up, I went right, traversed above Sentinel Bowl and conga-lined the highest path towards the Palisades. I did not understand why so many people were hiking so far when there was 20+” of lightly tracked snow below. I dropped into where it was barely tracked and skied very well. My friend had finally contacted me at 10:50 and I went to the car to see if I could catch him and to drop a layer as it was getting warm quickly. I went up chair 7, then 6 and skied deep, almost untracked on skiers right of Sentinel, then headed into trees when it became tracked. I met my friend at the Reut at noon and we decided to head to the Backside, somewhat surprisingly already open only hours after storm stopped.
We skied down to slow triple Chair 2 and found a moderate line. The chair stopped for almost 10 minutes and it took a guy climbing the tower near the drive motor after coming down the hill on a snowmobile to restart it. The line got much worse due to the stoppage. At the top, I was even more surprised to see Lookout Vista T-bar running (first time this season?) so I climbed the 200 foot long hill to it and got into line after setting some meeting places with my friend who continued to the Backside. I was more than halfway through the 50 or so person line when I heard an employee say no more public on the T-bar. At least one avalanche had occurred in-bounds and they were not letting anyone else up the T-bar, including hiking, or I later found out from my friend, the Backside chair. After waiting a few minutes, I straight-lined between rocks into powder skiers left of chair 2. I kept left and found more untracked and got to the base of the always-closed-to-the-public Cirque where I ate lunch, had a beer and saw the end of the women’s snowboard extreme competition. Unlike in Utah, here the Sierra Nevada tent was selling $4 beers.
Since it was going to be fifteen minutes or so before the men started competing, I thought I’d finally get a run on The Wall chair. I got to the bottom and found neither The Wall or The Reut loading. When I complained to the lift operator, he said if I was an expert skier, I could help out by reporting to ski patrol at the top of Chair 2 and volunteering for the probe line. I took Chairs 1 and 2 to patrol, but there were no longer sending out volunteers. After waiting around a few minutes, I followed a couple of others to what another person and I decided was Very High Whiskey, where we skied moderate-angle west-facing untracked between rocks near the Red Cliffs ropeline. At the base of Kirkwood nothing was loading. I thought about going to Heavenly, but my car was a shuttle or a hike away and it was already about 2 pm. Instead, I lined up at Chair 6, Kirkwood’s only steep high-speed quad. After waiting there more than a half hour, and watching two groups of ski patrol go up about 10 minutes apart, ‘Coop’ announced that chairs 10 and 11 would load sooner than chair 6. I skated over there and went up chair 11, The Reut about 3 pm and saw chair 10, The Wall, was also loading. I took chair 10 twice. The first time I skied around the back to the Notch Chute, where the entrance required removing skis, but was not as scary as I have seen it and had a nice flat for putting skis back on. I cut left into powder and got close to area I had been skiing in the morning from Cornice chair. Next time I took a high and too fast entrance and traverse to the Notch Chute. I was concerned about choke in the chute so I skied on the left wall until lower down, finding some untracked going hike on both walls of the chute.
Since my friend needed a ride to his truck parked almost a mile down the entrance road and we’d set a 4 pm meeting time, I went up Cornice to ski to where I could see my vehicle. The Sentinel side of the chair did not re-open (assuming from avalanche concerns) so I skied the ridge left of Olympic, then found my friend near base of chair 7. We ended up skiing the low-angle powder skier’s right of the chair three times as Kirkwood ran all lifts until 4:30, except 2, 3 and 4, which did not re-open.
I finished with just over 20K vertical. I did not see any mention of avalanche on any media (except TGR), but was mostly without Internet access other than iPhone. I heard that there may have been multiple in-bounds avalanches, without any burials, and that they could have been caused by rapid warming or the hot April sun. TGR Tahoe thread had photo of avalanche on east-facing 99 Steps, above the Backside chair. Kirkwood announced that any ticket for 4/1 can be used another day as long as it is still attached to clothing. My friend already used his the following day. I’m not sure if they are doing anything for passholders. I asked at ticket office and they said to send e-mail which I did asking for food and beverage credit or discount on pass renewal. I’ll ask again when picking up ticket on 4/5 to ski Kirkwood on my way home. Will add some photos when I have more time.
My friend was supposed to meet me at Timber Creek base, but I figured he would be way behind me so I left ticket in envelope under my windshield wiper, covered with a pile of snow. I got my free ticket from my Heavenly/Northstar pass, then loaded uncrowded Chair 7 about 9. At the top, I heard Chair 6, Cornice, was not yet loading so I took a too low angle for deep powder run on Chair 7. Next time up I heard Cornice was loading so I went there. There was a considerable line that did not diminish for more than an hour. The wait probably averaged close to 10 minutes. I got in singles line to the right. There was also one to the left that looked longer.
Finally at the top, I headed left and did a short hike with skis on to Corner Chute. The snow was deep and untracked for at least the top third and easily my best powder turns of the season. I crossed a few tracks in the trees in the middle third before exiting through The Drain. A line was building on The Wall chair, but it would not load until about 10:30. I repeated the same run except I traversed right after the untracked at the top and found more untracked on the very steep side of Notch Chute. The next two times up I took off my skis and followed the bootpack further into the corner between Cornice and The Wall. The bootpack was probably 8-10 minutes vs. 4-5 for the skis on hike, but got me further into Wagon Wheel Bowl for more untracked. My last time out there, skiers unloading from The Wall had begun to more towards the corner (with much less effort than me).
The line on Cornice finally was diminishing. Next time up, I went right, traversed above Sentinel Bowl and conga-lined the highest path towards the Palisades. I did not understand why so many people were hiking so far when there was 20+” of lightly tracked snow below. I dropped into where it was barely tracked and skied very well. My friend had finally contacted me at 10:50 and I went to the car to see if I could catch him and to drop a layer as it was getting warm quickly. I went up chair 7, then 6 and skied deep, almost untracked on skiers right of Sentinel, then headed into trees when it became tracked. I met my friend at the Reut at noon and we decided to head to the Backside, somewhat surprisingly already open only hours after storm stopped.
We skied down to slow triple Chair 2 and found a moderate line. The chair stopped for almost 10 minutes and it took a guy climbing the tower near the drive motor after coming down the hill on a snowmobile to restart it. The line got much worse due to the stoppage. At the top, I was even more surprised to see Lookout Vista T-bar running (first time this season?) so I climbed the 200 foot long hill to it and got into line after setting some meeting places with my friend who continued to the Backside. I was more than halfway through the 50 or so person line when I heard an employee say no more public on the T-bar. At least one avalanche had occurred in-bounds and they were not letting anyone else up the T-bar, including hiking, or I later found out from my friend, the Backside chair. After waiting a few minutes, I straight-lined between rocks into powder skiers left of chair 2. I kept left and found more untracked and got to the base of the always-closed-to-the-public Cirque where I ate lunch, had a beer and saw the end of the women’s snowboard extreme competition. Unlike in Utah, here the Sierra Nevada tent was selling $4 beers.
Since it was going to be fifteen minutes or so before the men started competing, I thought I’d finally get a run on The Wall chair. I got to the bottom and found neither The Wall or The Reut loading. When I complained to the lift operator, he said if I was an expert skier, I could help out by reporting to ski patrol at the top of Chair 2 and volunteering for the probe line. I took Chairs 1 and 2 to patrol, but there were no longer sending out volunteers. After waiting around a few minutes, I followed a couple of others to what another person and I decided was Very High Whiskey, where we skied moderate-angle west-facing untracked between rocks near the Red Cliffs ropeline. At the base of Kirkwood nothing was loading. I thought about going to Heavenly, but my car was a shuttle or a hike away and it was already about 2 pm. Instead, I lined up at Chair 6, Kirkwood’s only steep high-speed quad. After waiting there more than a half hour, and watching two groups of ski patrol go up about 10 minutes apart, ‘Coop’ announced that chairs 10 and 11 would load sooner than chair 6. I skated over there and went up chair 11, The Reut about 3 pm and saw chair 10, The Wall, was also loading. I took chair 10 twice. The first time I skied around the back to the Notch Chute, where the entrance required removing skis, but was not as scary as I have seen it and had a nice flat for putting skis back on. I cut left into powder and got close to area I had been skiing in the morning from Cornice chair. Next time I took a high and too fast entrance and traverse to the Notch Chute. I was concerned about choke in the chute so I skied on the left wall until lower down, finding some untracked going hike on both walls of the chute.
Since my friend needed a ride to his truck parked almost a mile down the entrance road and we’d set a 4 pm meeting time, I went up Cornice to ski to where I could see my vehicle. The Sentinel side of the chair did not re-open (assuming from avalanche concerns) so I skied the ridge left of Olympic, then found my friend near base of chair 7. We ended up skiing the low-angle powder skier’s right of the chair three times as Kirkwood ran all lifts until 4:30, except 2, 3 and 4, which did not re-open.
I finished with just over 20K vertical. I did not see any mention of avalanche on any media (except TGR), but was mostly without Internet access other than iPhone. I heard that there may have been multiple in-bounds avalanches, without any burials, and that they could have been caused by rapid warming or the hot April sun. TGR Tahoe thread had photo of avalanche on east-facing 99 Steps, above the Backside chair. Kirkwood announced that any ticket for 4/1 can be used another day as long as it is still attached to clothing. My friend already used his the following day. I’m not sure if they are doing anything for passholders. I asked at ticket office and they said to send e-mail which I did asking for food and beverage credit or discount on pass renewal. I’ll ask again when picking up ticket on 4/5 to ski Kirkwood on my way home. Will add some photos when I have more time.
