tseeb
Well-known member
We arrived Kirkwood about 9:30 after a 3 hr 15 minute drive from San Jose. Chairs 2, 3, 4 and the two surface lifts they access closed last weekend. The two plus feet new received earlier in the week had not had enough heat to turn into corn in most places. I took a run on Cornice while my friend went to exchange voucher for lift ticket. I ended up skiing Cornice 20 times so I’m not really sure which run I took first. I tried The Wall twice but the snow was not as good as Cornice. We skied Look Out Janek many times, Zachary a couple of times and Monte Wolf twice as the east-facing run softened earlier than most others. I took one run out to Corner Chute and found some corn on the steeper northeast exposures. The snow was very good spring conditions, It was a little fast early in the day, but softened up nicely everywhere as the the temperature climbed into the 50s. We noticed Olympic looked groomed and found great snow there and skied it 3 or 4 times in a row. With 9-10 minute 1,350 vertical foot laps, you can get a lot of steep skiing on Cornice in a short time. Sentinel stayed good, even late in the afternoon. Crowds only built up once in the morning to where we should have split up into the singles line. I quit at 3:45 with 24 total runs and almost 32K vertical, which is my high for the year.
Sunday was passholder BBQ and we arrived about 10 after cooking breakfast and picking up the cabin in So. Lake Tahoe. It got warmer earlier and was a little more crowded. The runs on Cornice were holding up well, although we took lower Sentinel to Timber Creek base a little early and found snow that needed more warmth to soften. We also took The Wall before lunch and saw a snowboarder slide the entire steep part of the run face first. It was very firm on the groomed run to the top. After a very good and free BBQ, with a band on the deck, my friend quit after two runz on Cornice. I did three more runs on The Wall and found snow was getting good almost everywhere. I went high across the top of The Reut chair and dropped into the top of Shotgun and found fast fast and soft corn snow. I took a run over towards Notch Chute and looked up at the Notch, but could not see an easy way in. Next run, I skied All The Way, which has filled in enough so you can easily ski through what are cliffs earlier in the year. Both of these north-facing chutes hold good snow even into the afternoon on a day it was approaching 60 at the base. I took one more run on Look Out Janek off Cornice and found it was not firming up as it did the previous day late in the afternoon, but was still not too soft most of the way down. I quit at 3:30 with 16 runs and almost 22K vertical.
Only posting pictures from Sat. so far.
Sunday was passholder BBQ and we arrived about 10 after cooking breakfast and picking up the cabin in So. Lake Tahoe. It got warmer earlier and was a little more crowded. The runs on Cornice were holding up well, although we took lower Sentinel to Timber Creek base a little early and found snow that needed more warmth to soften. We also took The Wall before lunch and saw a snowboarder slide the entire steep part of the run face first. It was very firm on the groomed run to the top. After a very good and free BBQ, with a band on the deck, my friend quit after two runz on Cornice. I did three more runs on The Wall and found snow was getting good almost everywhere. I went high across the top of The Reut chair and dropped into the top of Shotgun and found fast fast and soft corn snow. I took a run over towards Notch Chute and looked up at the Notch, but could not see an easy way in. Next run, I skied All The Way, which has filled in enough so you can easily ski through what are cliffs earlier in the year. Both of these north-facing chutes hold good snow even into the afternoon on a day it was approaching 60 at the base. I took one more run on Look Out Janek off Cornice and found it was not firming up as it did the previous day late in the afternoon, but was still not too soft most of the way down. I quit at 3:30 with 16 runs and almost 22K vertical.
Only posting pictures from Sat. so far.
