tseeb
Well-known member
My friend won a bunch of Squaw tickets and invited me and others to join him there on his 51th birthday, Sunday, 4/5. He and his family and others were doing it as a long day trip, while a friend and I combined it with going to Kirkwood on Saturday, 4/4 even though Kirkwood is not allowing my Sunday – Friday 6Wood passes to be used on Saturdays. But we have an almost free place to stay at South Tahoe so Kirkwood on a $40 ticket worked better than anywhere else.
We started out at Kirkwood on Cornice chair where we did a run on groomed, but firm Olympic, then on east-facing and softening a little Monte Wolf before going to the Backside. Crowds were way down from the previous Sunday and I was able to do a couple of fast runs before we moved to the drag lifts and came down groomed Devil’s Draw. The 1-3 inches of snow that fell Thursday night was becoming skiable as the crust underneath it softened. It skied best where it was smooth and not too steep. Next time up the drag lift I stayed skiers left of Devil’s Draw and skied the untracked 2” under the Wave. I took one run before lunch to the right of the T-bar and found it very firm at the top and better halfway down. South Tahoe only hit 46 on Saturday and since Kirkwood’s base is 1,500 feet higher, it may have barely broken 40 and mostly stayed firm until late.
After lunch, we took the Wall where my friend had trouble with the firm snow and steepness. I did the Wall a couple of more times including one run down Notch Chute where I found great snow and was able to ski cleanly through the 12 foot wide crux. I took one more run off the right side of the T-bar and found the West-facing run was softening, but not too much. I went to the backside to get to the Moon Bowl return which was also excellent, but I was late to the car due to a long stoppage on chair 4, plus I waited more than five minutes for a shuttle before giving up and taking Cornice chair to ski Olympic to the car parked at Chair 7. My watch counted 25 runs which including 2 drag lift runs and 26.5 K vertical. I will add the 4/5 Squaw report later, but some pictures follows.
We started out at Kirkwood on Cornice chair where we did a run on groomed, but firm Olympic, then on east-facing and softening a little Monte Wolf before going to the Backside. Crowds were way down from the previous Sunday and I was able to do a couple of fast runs before we moved to the drag lifts and came down groomed Devil’s Draw. The 1-3 inches of snow that fell Thursday night was becoming skiable as the crust underneath it softened. It skied best where it was smooth and not too steep. Next time up the drag lift I stayed skiers left of Devil’s Draw and skied the untracked 2” under the Wave. I took one run before lunch to the right of the T-bar and found it very firm at the top and better halfway down. South Tahoe only hit 46 on Saturday and since Kirkwood’s base is 1,500 feet higher, it may have barely broken 40 and mostly stayed firm until late.
After lunch, we took the Wall where my friend had trouble with the firm snow and steepness. I did the Wall a couple of more times including one run down Notch Chute where I found great snow and was able to ski cleanly through the 12 foot wide crux. I took one more run off the right side of the T-bar and found the West-facing run was softening, but not too much. I went to the backside to get to the Moon Bowl return which was also excellent, but I was late to the car due to a long stoppage on chair 4, plus I waited more than five minutes for a shuttle before giving up and taking Cornice chair to ski Olympic to the car parked at Chair 7. My watch counted 25 runs which including 2 drag lift runs and 26.5 K vertical. I will add the 4/5 Squaw report later, but some pictures follows.
