tseeb
Well-known member
Sorry this news is so late, but when I applied for an account, the e-mail went went to my Junk Mail so I didn't see it immediately.
The conditions must have been prime for avalanches in the Sierra on Monday, February 12, as they occurred at Kirkwood, where I was skiing, and at Mt. Rose, where they injured a ski patrolman on Yellow Jacket run in the Chutes area.
See http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/5753921.html and http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/articl ... /-1/REGION
The Kirkwood avalanche, if that is what happened, did not reach the media. We were stuck on the backside for almost 30 minutes at about 11:30 am. First we waited a few minutes at Chair 4 which was no longer running. Then we went to Chair 3 which also was not running. an employee walked by and said Chairs 2, 3 and 4 were on hold due to an avalanche in Thunder Saddle. After about 10 minutes, they started the lift and loaded somebody that was hurt and then loaded a few people who must have been VIPs. Then Chair 3 started loading everyone after about 10 more minutes. Chair 4 was still shut down, but the line for Chair 3 was so long that many people had already started walking the 500 vertical feet towards Caples Crest. At the top of Chair 3, we noticed some Ski Patrolmen struggling to keep a snowmobile from rolling down the hill. It appeared the avalanche was on the Chair 3 side of the ridge that runs between the top of Chairs 2 and 3 and Thunder Saddle.
It was very good skiing in the Sierra both Monday and Tuesday as the received about 2-3 inches each day at Kirkwood and Sierra on top of the 3-5 feet received over the weekend. The new snow was enough to re-surface the groomed runs for high-speed cruising and there was still powder to be found on the edges of some runs. I easily set my second highest vertical day ever on Tuesday at Sierra with 32,300 feet which included all the runs on the West Bowl plus many runs down Castle off Grandview chair which was groomed to perfection. The Sierra could still use more snow, but I hit almost no rocks compared to a mid-January trip to Utah.
The conditions must have been prime for avalanches in the Sierra on Monday, February 12, as they occurred at Kirkwood, where I was skiing, and at Mt. Rose, where they injured a ski patrolman on Yellow Jacket run in the Chutes area.
See http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/5753921.html and http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/articl ... /-1/REGION
The Kirkwood avalanche, if that is what happened, did not reach the media. We were stuck on the backside for almost 30 minutes at about 11:30 am. First we waited a few minutes at Chair 4 which was no longer running. Then we went to Chair 3 which also was not running. an employee walked by and said Chairs 2, 3 and 4 were on hold due to an avalanche in Thunder Saddle. After about 10 minutes, they started the lift and loaded somebody that was hurt and then loaded a few people who must have been VIPs. Then Chair 3 started loading everyone after about 10 more minutes. Chair 4 was still shut down, but the line for Chair 3 was so long that many people had already started walking the 500 vertical feet towards Caples Crest. At the top of Chair 3, we noticed some Ski Patrolmen struggling to keep a snowmobile from rolling down the hill. It appeared the avalanche was on the Chair 3 side of the ridge that runs between the top of Chairs 2 and 3 and Thunder Saddle.
It was very good skiing in the Sierra both Monday and Tuesday as the received about 2-3 inches each day at Kirkwood and Sierra on top of the 3-5 feet received over the weekend. The new snow was enough to re-surface the groomed runs for high-speed cruising and there was still powder to be found on the edges of some runs. I easily set my second highest vertical day ever on Tuesday at Sierra with 32,300 feet which included all the runs on the West Bowl plus many runs down Castle off Grandview chair which was groomed to perfection. The Sierra could still use more snow, but I hit almost no rocks compared to a mid-January trip to Utah.
