tseeb
Well-known member
:-o I skied five of the last ten days at Tahoe on two 500 mile round trips from San Jose. The best day was Tuesday, 12/16 at Kirkwood where they reported 9" new. (On Facebook on Wednesday 12/17 they reported 4" new at bottom and 5" new on top and a month-to-date total of 39" at 7800' base and 67" at top which also shows how warm December storms have been in CA.) Their early Tuesday Facebook post said they may not open at 9 am due to snow safety so I took it easy during the last 30 miles of my drive up which was under chain control that includes 25 mph speed limit on CA-88. They opened Cornice chair on time with 20-30 people in line while I booted up. I was on the chair at 902 and headed for untracked Olympic and was surprised how bumped out it was on top. Next run I hiked over to Sentinel which was nearly untracked and skied well. Third time up I followed a patroller off a small drop between rocks into Cliff Chute and found more untracked to the right. I was surprised how little snow was near the bottom in The Drain where you had to pick and stay on a side as creek in the middle was still visible.
I moved to Wall chair where the entrance was very easy as road that you usually have to drop off to enter main run is not yet there. (Snowboarders scraped most of the snow off during the day as entrance was very rocky by end.) I skied skiers left of chair once and skiers right twice, finding a lot of lightly tracked snow and some untracked lower down on far right where snowboarders could not get to it. My next two runs I took the highest track to Wagon Wheel bowl. Both times I lost my momentum due to clueless gapers standing in the track. The first run was excellent untracked into Schaeffer's Chute. The second run was not as good into False Peak Chute as 4-5 people were already in it and snow was more wind-affected with some rocks showing. I moved back to Cornice and hiked as high as allowed into The Palisades where I had some nice untracked turns at the top, but struggled a little to avoid getting cliffed out by rocks that are usually mostly covered. I had about a 10 minute wait for shuttle that ran very full to main base and returned to car for lunch.
I got back on Cornice, less than 100 yards from my car, and took a warm-up run on bumped out Zachary near chair, then cut left next to cliff area between Janek and Olympic. I returned to Wall chair and was still able to find untracked going far skiers right. I took one ride on Reut chair and was able to cut across rocky area in Waterfall for some untracked, then went up Wall and took another run on still very good Schaeffer's Chute. I finished my day with another lap into The Palisades where I found a lot of untracked by going further out than previous run. I tried to catch shuttle but it drove away as I skied onto road about 100 feet behind it. A very nice young lady from Maryland gave me a ride back to my car. I finished with 14 runs/20.3 K using EpicMix count. My watch was about 4% high.
After skiing, I could have stopped and turned on cabin in So. Tahoe, less than an hour from Kirkwood. But I took up friend who lives near Truckee on offer of home-cooked dinner and place to stay so I drove another hour plus past So. Tahoe. Powder-wise it was a mistake as next morning there was only a trace overnight at my friend's house and Northstar reported 1" the next morning. But I'm not sure my early-season legs were up for another powder day and I had not been on snow with my friend in over a year. We skied from 9 until a little after 1, his longest day of the year as he has been getting pain in one of his knees and only lasted 4-5 runs on his previous days this season. We were able to carefully poke around between the runs and make some tracks in the 15" of snow that had fallen in the last week. I hit very few rocks at Northstar, especially compared to previous day, but 12 times on Comstock chair that developed a line later in the morning was enough. The drive home was tough with heavy snow as I got on I-80, that continued over Donner Pass down to above 5,000' elevation where it turned to rain. Rain stopped around Auburn, but started again when I got on I-680 and continued for the last 70 miles into San Jose where I was not early enough to beat PM commute.
The previous week I skied Northstar on Monday, then Heavenly on Tuesday and Wednesday. Conditions at Northstar were challenging enough for my first day of the season as most runs were open off Comstock on natural snow. The snow was good at the top, got firmer in flatter middle and there was only one narrow run open towards bottom to return to chair. I rode Comstock 15 times and skied over 20K vertical. Part of the day I was solo, then I was joined by friend who I stayed with at very nice timeshare near South Tahoe. Access to Heavenly was using gondola and only two intermediate chairs with a total of three runs were open. Surface conditions were good, but snow was way too thin to get off groomed. My friend joined me on Tues. and we skied Dipper chair 12 times and Tamarack chair 3 times for over 15K vertical. On Wednesday, I got out early to see if fresh corduroy would be more interesting and it was, but I still got bored and quit before noon after 9 runs on Dipper and 3 on Tamarack. Heavenly has really been missed during recent CA storms with only 5" in last week while Sugar Bowl has received 45". Even though some resorts are opening more terrain, I may be done until 2015. Added a couple of pictures and may do more when I have more time.
I moved to Wall chair where the entrance was very easy as road that you usually have to drop off to enter main run is not yet there. (Snowboarders scraped most of the snow off during the day as entrance was very rocky by end.) I skied skiers left of chair once and skiers right twice, finding a lot of lightly tracked snow and some untracked lower down on far right where snowboarders could not get to it. My next two runs I took the highest track to Wagon Wheel bowl. Both times I lost my momentum due to clueless gapers standing in the track. The first run was excellent untracked into Schaeffer's Chute. The second run was not as good into False Peak Chute as 4-5 people were already in it and snow was more wind-affected with some rocks showing. I moved back to Cornice and hiked as high as allowed into The Palisades where I had some nice untracked turns at the top, but struggled a little to avoid getting cliffed out by rocks that are usually mostly covered. I had about a 10 minute wait for shuttle that ran very full to main base and returned to car for lunch.
I got back on Cornice, less than 100 yards from my car, and took a warm-up run on bumped out Zachary near chair, then cut left next to cliff area between Janek and Olympic. I returned to Wall chair and was still able to find untracked going far skiers right. I took one ride on Reut chair and was able to cut across rocky area in Waterfall for some untracked, then went up Wall and took another run on still very good Schaeffer's Chute. I finished my day with another lap into The Palisades where I found a lot of untracked by going further out than previous run. I tried to catch shuttle but it drove away as I skied onto road about 100 feet behind it. A very nice young lady from Maryland gave me a ride back to my car. I finished with 14 runs/20.3 K using EpicMix count. My watch was about 4% high.
After skiing, I could have stopped and turned on cabin in So. Tahoe, less than an hour from Kirkwood. But I took up friend who lives near Truckee on offer of home-cooked dinner and place to stay so I drove another hour plus past So. Tahoe. Powder-wise it was a mistake as next morning there was only a trace overnight at my friend's house and Northstar reported 1" the next morning. But I'm not sure my early-season legs were up for another powder day and I had not been on snow with my friend in over a year. We skied from 9 until a little after 1, his longest day of the year as he has been getting pain in one of his knees and only lasted 4-5 runs on his previous days this season. We were able to carefully poke around between the runs and make some tracks in the 15" of snow that had fallen in the last week. I hit very few rocks at Northstar, especially compared to previous day, but 12 times on Comstock chair that developed a line later in the morning was enough. The drive home was tough with heavy snow as I got on I-80, that continued over Donner Pass down to above 5,000' elevation where it turned to rain. Rain stopped around Auburn, but started again when I got on I-680 and continued for the last 70 miles into San Jose where I was not early enough to beat PM commute.
The previous week I skied Northstar on Monday, then Heavenly on Tuesday and Wednesday. Conditions at Northstar were challenging enough for my first day of the season as most runs were open off Comstock on natural snow. The snow was good at the top, got firmer in flatter middle and there was only one narrow run open towards bottom to return to chair. I rode Comstock 15 times and skied over 20K vertical. Part of the day I was solo, then I was joined by friend who I stayed with at very nice timeshare near South Tahoe. Access to Heavenly was using gondola and only two intermediate chairs with a total of three runs were open. Surface conditions were good, but snow was way too thin to get off groomed. My friend joined me on Tues. and we skied Dipper chair 12 times and Tamarack chair 3 times for over 15K vertical. On Wednesday, I got out early to see if fresh corduroy would be more interesting and it was, but I still got bored and quit before noon after 9 runs on Dipper and 3 on Tamarack. Heavenly has really been missed during recent CA storms with only 5" in last week while Sugar Bowl has received 45". Even though some resorts are opening more terrain, I may be done until 2015. Added a couple of pictures and may do more when I have more time.
