tseeb
Well-known member
Short version
1/1 Heavenly, CA and NV - Snow got worn out before me
1/2 Kirkwood, CA - There is firm and there is scary firm
Longer version
My wife and son plus our 25 year-old niece and her friend visiting from Central America and I went to South Lake Tahoe for the New Years Eve festivities. We arrived about 7:30 PM, turned on the cabin, visited Dart Discount Liquors, partied at the cabin and then went to the casino core about 11. Just before midnight, we went outside, where it was 10 degrees and revelers/PD had closed US-50. We only stayed outside about 5 minutes, then toured the casinos and got back to the cabin about 1. The overnight low in SLT was 3 (or -16 if you are from the other CA).
On New Years Day, my wife dropped me a the tram a little after 10 and got what may have been her first experience driving back to cabin on icy streets. When I got off at the 8300' top I was surprised by the still strong E winds there and was hoping it was not enough to keep Sky chair closed which would have limited me to CA unless I took a shuttle to gondola or NV. While Sky chair was running, the only run open on highest CA level was Ridge and it also gets skied from Canyon chair. With two high-speed chair feeding one run (many people going up Sky go to NV) it's good they were not running full. I skied Ridge three times, once from Canyon and twice from Sky and found very good snow near the 10K top and good snow along the left edge most of the way down. Only the area from where Powder Bowl chair came in to the base was over-crowded; on the rest it was easy enough to stay in clear.
I moved to Nevada and found Dipper chair with too long of a line so I skied Comet. First I went and skied to the bottom of chair, then since singles line there quickly got longer, I took Crossover to Upper North Bowl. There I found some of the best snow of the day, both on the 'steep' part of run and by carrying speed up Olympic where I was the only one skiing 'new snow' from guns that ran all day here (also on Groove and at base of Tram). After skiing Stagecoach again, I went into East Peak Lodge and was joined about 1 by my son and we skied Comet once, then Stagecoach twice. The number of beginners and low intermediates had increased and snow had gotten scraped off in many places so it was getting harder to find acceptable route and surface. We did find better snow on right edge of California Trail, but the normal route to CA was still closed and so you had to go closer to top of gondola where you had to carry a lot of speed around a sharp turn to avoid a hike through Von Schmidt's Flat. The steeper bottom of CA trail above Sky chair was in very good shape, probably due to facing south. We did a last run from top of Sky chair, down Ridge, then very crowded with mostly beginners Maggie's. We avoided crowded Patsy's chair, went up just opened that day Groove and skied to and downloaded tram where we were picked up by my wife at 3:30. I counted just over 20K vertical.
On 1/2, we picked up and closed cabin, then claimed prizes won that morning from Lake Tahoe TV, filled up at a very crowded Safeway selling gas for $2.32. After a somewhat eventful drive that included getting unnecessarily brake checked, then excessively flipped off when passing on a mile long downhill straight, then aggressively tail-gated for a couple miles (all by guy with braids in Toyota truck with shell), my son and I were on lifts at Kirkwood about 11:45. The girls and the Beagle played snow bunnies which included having a couple of guys show them their abs and getting a free meal when waiter forgot about them.
We skied winch-cat groomed and firm Sentinel three times, twice going all the way to Timber Creek lift. Sentinel definitely skied as a black run, although snow would mostly hold an edge and you could throw a lot of dry snow along most of the left side of run. We moved to The Reut chair and found better snow on Race Course under the chair, then I used very firm and bumped out Shotgun and super firm traverse to get to better snow and Caples Crest lift. We skied over to where we could see Sunrise chair and I decided line was too long for long, slow chair so we took slow double Iron Horse and skied back to Kirkwood base. My son went in to get something to eat and I took two more laps on Cornice. First was now mostly scraped off Sentinel, then was similar Monte Wolf where I found good snow by staying on left couple feet of run. I cut over to above Solitude chair and found OK snow in one place, but bottom of Upper Mokelomne was too firm even where sun had hit it.
Kirkwood did not open The Wall lift or run. They opened it on New Year's Day, once wind had died down from the 80-50-30 mph they experienced for a few days, but it was too firm for many of their customers and they closed it either because or before someone got hurt. I quit at 2 pm with almost 10K. We stopped at Avio winery in Amador County and on my shortest way route home to San Jose and were hosted by the owner for a tasting. When getting out of the very loaded SUV, one of my passengers noticed left rear tire hissing so after our tasting, my son and I unloaded enough luggage to get to jack and changed tire. Good thing I replaced temporary spare with full-size spare as otherwise we would have been getting it patched to get the rest of the way home.
1/1 Heavenly, CA and NV - Snow got worn out before me
1/2 Kirkwood, CA - There is firm and there is scary firm
Longer version
My wife and son plus our 25 year-old niece and her friend visiting from Central America and I went to South Lake Tahoe for the New Years Eve festivities. We arrived about 7:30 PM, turned on the cabin, visited Dart Discount Liquors, partied at the cabin and then went to the casino core about 11. Just before midnight, we went outside, where it was 10 degrees and revelers/PD had closed US-50. We only stayed outside about 5 minutes, then toured the casinos and got back to the cabin about 1. The overnight low in SLT was 3 (or -16 if you are from the other CA).
On New Years Day, my wife dropped me a the tram a little after 10 and got what may have been her first experience driving back to cabin on icy streets. When I got off at the 8300' top I was surprised by the still strong E winds there and was hoping it was not enough to keep Sky chair closed which would have limited me to CA unless I took a shuttle to gondola or NV. While Sky chair was running, the only run open on highest CA level was Ridge and it also gets skied from Canyon chair. With two high-speed chair feeding one run (many people going up Sky go to NV) it's good they were not running full. I skied Ridge three times, once from Canyon and twice from Sky and found very good snow near the 10K top and good snow along the left edge most of the way down. Only the area from where Powder Bowl chair came in to the base was over-crowded; on the rest it was easy enough to stay in clear.
I moved to Nevada and found Dipper chair with too long of a line so I skied Comet. First I went and skied to the bottom of chair, then since singles line there quickly got longer, I took Crossover to Upper North Bowl. There I found some of the best snow of the day, both on the 'steep' part of run and by carrying speed up Olympic where I was the only one skiing 'new snow' from guns that ran all day here (also on Groove and at base of Tram). After skiing Stagecoach again, I went into East Peak Lodge and was joined about 1 by my son and we skied Comet once, then Stagecoach twice. The number of beginners and low intermediates had increased and snow had gotten scraped off in many places so it was getting harder to find acceptable route and surface. We did find better snow on right edge of California Trail, but the normal route to CA was still closed and so you had to go closer to top of gondola where you had to carry a lot of speed around a sharp turn to avoid a hike through Von Schmidt's Flat. The steeper bottom of CA trail above Sky chair was in very good shape, probably due to facing south. We did a last run from top of Sky chair, down Ridge, then very crowded with mostly beginners Maggie's. We avoided crowded Patsy's chair, went up just opened that day Groove and skied to and downloaded tram where we were picked up by my wife at 3:30. I counted just over 20K vertical.
On 1/2, we picked up and closed cabin, then claimed prizes won that morning from Lake Tahoe TV, filled up at a very crowded Safeway selling gas for $2.32. After a somewhat eventful drive that included getting unnecessarily brake checked, then excessively flipped off when passing on a mile long downhill straight, then aggressively tail-gated for a couple miles (all by guy with braids in Toyota truck with shell), my son and I were on lifts at Kirkwood about 11:45. The girls and the Beagle played snow bunnies which included having a couple of guys show them their abs and getting a free meal when waiter forgot about them.
We skied winch-cat groomed and firm Sentinel three times, twice going all the way to Timber Creek lift. Sentinel definitely skied as a black run, although snow would mostly hold an edge and you could throw a lot of dry snow along most of the left side of run. We moved to The Reut chair and found better snow on Race Course under the chair, then I used very firm and bumped out Shotgun and super firm traverse to get to better snow and Caples Crest lift. We skied over to where we could see Sunrise chair and I decided line was too long for long, slow chair so we took slow double Iron Horse and skied back to Kirkwood base. My son went in to get something to eat and I took two more laps on Cornice. First was now mostly scraped off Sentinel, then was similar Monte Wolf where I found good snow by staying on left couple feet of run. I cut over to above Solitude chair and found OK snow in one place, but bottom of Upper Mokelomne was too firm even where sun had hit it.
Kirkwood did not open The Wall lift or run. They opened it on New Year's Day, once wind had died down from the 80-50-30 mph they experienced for a few days, but it was too firm for many of their customers and they closed it either because or before someone got hurt. I quit at 2 pm with almost 10K. We stopped at Avio winery in Amador County and on my shortest way route home to San Jose and were hosted by the owner for a tasting. When getting out of the very loaded SUV, one of my passengers noticed left rear tire hissing so after our tasting, my son and I unloaded enough luggage to get to jack and changed tire. Good thing I replaced temporary spare with full-size spare as otherwise we would have been getting it patched to get the rest of the way home.
