tseeb
Well-known member
I thought about going to friend’s house near Truckee Tues. PM and get ahead of what was predicted to be the biggest 2013 storm for Tahoe, then ski Northstar. But two other friends wanted to go, needed a place to stay and offered to drive so we left San Jose at 5:15. We decided on the way to go to Kirkwood as not enough snow had fallen to close the Carson Spur and our other option on the way to my family’s South Tahoe cabin was Sierra where I had a free ticket I was trying to save for when my son has spring break. It started snowing at about 2500 feet and on the first big downhill after Pine Grove, a minivan drifted into the other lane in the slush and got into a head-on. My friend lost it at about 40 mph about 10 miles later and it took him three tries to get his half-ton GMC 4X4 going straight. He drove very cautiously the rest of the way and we arrived after 9:30 and did not get on a lift until after 10.
Lift operations were affected by the strong wind and Kirkwood was only running chairs 1, 5, 7 and 9. The first and last of those are flat beginner chairs. We skied low-speed chair 5 (Solitude, one I usually avoid) three times before I noticed chair 11 (Reut, also low-speed, but steeper) was loading and moved there. New snow at the top to skier’s right was wind-affected, but it was at least 8 inches deep and very dry lower down. Kirkwood reported 2” new Sunday, 6” Monday and 6” Wednesday, plus another 6-8” fell during the day. (They also claimed 17” Thursday – a lot of it fell while we were there on Wed, 6” Friday and 4” Saturday – all 5 a.m. 24 hr. totals) Before going in for lunch, I was able to cut across the rocks at the top and hit a deep, untracked area of Waterfall and ski out The Drain.
I skied The Reut four times before lunch and two after (first time EpicMix did not skip some of my lift rides – 16K total for day) before noticing that much steeper and higher and high-speed Cornice was loading. The wind was still strong over the top and they were not letting you hike along the ridge either way at the top, but I was able to traverse to and past Saddle Chute for untracked steeps three times. The ride out of the drain was long, but it was worth it as many turns were as close to face shots as have been seen around Tahoe so far in 2013. Next run I cut in earlier and found some lightly tracked, but too many traverse marks. I met and rode up with my friend and we skied mostly packed out Olympic, before he quit for the day while I went up and skied steep faces between Olympic and Janek. I was able to pole to the car and finished with 16K with at least some powder on every run. On our way out of Kirkwood, we saw 88-W was being held at the Carson Spur, probably for avalanche control. The road to South Tahoe was in OK shape, although it probably took over an hour to cover the 35 miles. We were disappointed to see snow stop falling and eventually a lot of stars Wed. evening, but it was snowing hard the next morning as next phase of storm hit.
On Thursday, we got to Heavenly before 9 am opening and I was less than 10 chairs back from the first public riders. Heavenly reported 9” inches new, mostly from during the previous day on top of 2” new the previous day. The top of CA side had not opened the previous day so that is where we wanted to get early. But fully-loaded Gunbarrel chair stopped for at least 10 minutes when we were close enough to see the top as the sun started to show through the clouds. Two trams (my usual way up from the CA base) passed us. I’m not sure what caused this EpicFail, but the diesel motor was running at the top of the lift. I moved quickly to Sky chair and couldn’t find tracks into small canyon I wanted to hit from Skyline trail so I went down Pinnacle run before cutting in untracked to the left. The right side of the run was wind-affected, but left side and trees to left were not. I again tried to find entrance to canyon I wanted but entered too early and missed it, eventually getting back to Ski-ways trees. The line at Sky was building too fast so I moved to NV and took high entrance into Milky Way Bowl, where I found some deep, lightly tracked powder before getting too close to a tree that must have had a branch sticking out as I hit it hard enough to find broken skin when I removed my jacket at lunch.
Mott Canyon was open and the top was great as it was unreachable previous day, but lower down had been mostly tracked out. From the chair I saw a nose that looked untracked and it was good enough to do twice. Both times I went skiers left on the lower part to get more untracked snow on the sunny side of the run. I moved to Dipper chair where line never got too big and enjoyed the lightly-tracked trees to the East side of the chair and found more good snow dropping off between Dipper run and bowl. Lower down I found some totally untracked by following a track the required a very little hike to a knoll above the bottom of Dipper.
We met for lunch at noon at Tamarack Lodge and listened to a ski school employee who recommended Scorpion Woods off Stagecoach chair. I found good snow on edge of Comstock run, but got sucked way too low by untracked powder into the boundary line that required some hiking to get to way too long and slow Galaxy chair. I almost got sucked into Galaxy twice more, once barely making the lowest track that got me back to Stagecoach. I later asked a patroller where the big sign for Scorpion Woods that instructor said to go under and he said it no longer exists as that is where Comstock and adjoining run are now.
I met my friends at Tamarack lodge for happy hour that starts at 3:30 and seems mostly designed to spread out traffic for downloading gondola. One friend did not like the loud music and does not drink so he left to ride Tamarack chair and then Sky chair to ski to his truck. I had a quick half-price beer (only $5.20 plus $1 tip) and got on Tamarack less than 10 minutes before 4 pm close. I took CA trail, then Maggies Canyon, where there was still a little untracked snow. After riding Groove chair with a skier from Mississippi, I led him on a quick ride down Upper Roundabout, taking three of the steep bypasses before skiing the lower part of Gunbarrel, which was perfect new snow on top of groom seven hours earlier. I got to the truck ahead of my friend who I must have passed early on Upper Roundabout when he went past some directional arrows. Our other friend took the gondola down and was already waiting near the casinos for a pickup. My watch showed almost 26K – EpicMix missed a lot of lift rides.
It snowed most of Thursday and continued into the evening. We returned from poaching lakefront hot tub to a mama and two big baby bears checking out across the street neighbor’s garbage cans at cabin three blocks from Pioneer Trail and about 6 blocks from Stateline Raley's. They moved into our yard and we drove around the block, then waited until they climbed fence into another neighbor’s yard before parking in driveway. I’m not sure if they are done hibernating or never do with all the nightlife and food available in South Tahoe.
We went to Sierra on Friday. I would have liked to save my ticket and was not able to find as much or as deep untracked as previous two days in the six runs we started the day with on West Bowl chair. There were places where it was good, but it did not seem as deep and there was not great coverage on and off runs as we all found some rocks. Crowds on West Bowl were moderate. We moved to higher Grandview chair and found slightly larger crowds that went down at noon. The first time up we rode with a Mountain Host who after some confusion between Backside, back and side country, went out the Pandora gate with me. Gate was marked double-diamond, helmets and goggles recommended, but as we got lower, I realized it must all be in-bounds as there is a boundary rope.
Since it was the first time for both of us into the area, we missed some good snow by not following other riders closely enough and went left above a cliff area when we should have tried to get through them. I did find a line along and off a large rock spine that led into lower-angle two feet deep untracked. But it quickly flattened and we ran into a mostly flat narrow track with a couple of steeper pitches with tracked powder. The exit from this area is almost too long for the drops found and includes a few short uphills before rejoining Castle run. But it was the best untracked I found so I did again, going right after the gate and staying as high as possible, even hiking up a little to where I took some pictures above some big rocks. I had gotten ahead of the Mtn Host on the previous run’s exit so I was solo, but could see a couple snowboarders further out in the bowl. I made first tracks between some very steep big rocks. I was a little concerned about slides and was ready to straight-line, but snow was stable and I later learned patrol had done a lot of bombing in the area. Since I now knew where the exit was, I skied a little more powder on the way out, but had an extra uphill as payback.
Before lunch, I started on the right side of intermediate Jackrabbit before cutting into trees on the right where I found good snow and only one rock. Lower down, I skied Chute and found some powder in the middle of the run where I got a couple of turns before scraping a rock with both skis. I also found some powder and another rock in the trees to the left of the run. Sierra has so many big granite boulders, especially in the trees, but even in the runs, that it takes a lot of snow to cover. At least whenever I took off my skis and looked at them, the damage to my very recent tune was very light considering I hit more at Sierra than in the previous two days.
The skiing and hike going through the gate made me warm enough to drop a jacket liner at the truck before meeting friends for lunch on the deck outside by the Tiki Bar. In the morning it was warming and almost sunny. After lunch, it got cold, windy and before 2 p.m. started dumping. It snowed enough in an hour to improve surface conditions on groomed runs and to start covering tracks on ungroomed. After lunch and skiing one run with them, I left my friends and skied two runs on Preachers Passion, starting in trees on left, finishing in trees on right and finding a lot of lightly tracked. I finished my day with over 23K by skiing the top of Hemlock before getting in trees that I stayed in between Chute and Lower Main. Traffic coming up Highway 50 was very heavy. Saturday morning, Kirkwood reported 4” new and Sierra reported two. Adding this to Friday totals from OpenSnow, gave both a total since Sunday of 33”. It did not fall in the overnight three-foot dump that Tahoe sometimes gets, but it was the most new snow in 2013 for Tahoe.
All these pictures are from iPhone 4. I may have a couple more in my camera in jacket that I hope is in my friend's truck.
Lift operations were affected by the strong wind and Kirkwood was only running chairs 1, 5, 7 and 9. The first and last of those are flat beginner chairs. We skied low-speed chair 5 (Solitude, one I usually avoid) three times before I noticed chair 11 (Reut, also low-speed, but steeper) was loading and moved there. New snow at the top to skier’s right was wind-affected, but it was at least 8 inches deep and very dry lower down. Kirkwood reported 2” new Sunday, 6” Monday and 6” Wednesday, plus another 6-8” fell during the day. (They also claimed 17” Thursday – a lot of it fell while we were there on Wed, 6” Friday and 4” Saturday – all 5 a.m. 24 hr. totals) Before going in for lunch, I was able to cut across the rocks at the top and hit a deep, untracked area of Waterfall and ski out The Drain.
I skied The Reut four times before lunch and two after (first time EpicMix did not skip some of my lift rides – 16K total for day) before noticing that much steeper and higher and high-speed Cornice was loading. The wind was still strong over the top and they were not letting you hike along the ridge either way at the top, but I was able to traverse to and past Saddle Chute for untracked steeps three times. The ride out of the drain was long, but it was worth it as many turns were as close to face shots as have been seen around Tahoe so far in 2013. Next run I cut in earlier and found some lightly tracked, but too many traverse marks. I met and rode up with my friend and we skied mostly packed out Olympic, before he quit for the day while I went up and skied steep faces between Olympic and Janek. I was able to pole to the car and finished with 16K with at least some powder on every run. On our way out of Kirkwood, we saw 88-W was being held at the Carson Spur, probably for avalanche control. The road to South Tahoe was in OK shape, although it probably took over an hour to cover the 35 miles. We were disappointed to see snow stop falling and eventually a lot of stars Wed. evening, but it was snowing hard the next morning as next phase of storm hit.
On Thursday, we got to Heavenly before 9 am opening and I was less than 10 chairs back from the first public riders. Heavenly reported 9” inches new, mostly from during the previous day on top of 2” new the previous day. The top of CA side had not opened the previous day so that is where we wanted to get early. But fully-loaded Gunbarrel chair stopped for at least 10 minutes when we were close enough to see the top as the sun started to show through the clouds. Two trams (my usual way up from the CA base) passed us. I’m not sure what caused this EpicFail, but the diesel motor was running at the top of the lift. I moved quickly to Sky chair and couldn’t find tracks into small canyon I wanted to hit from Skyline trail so I went down Pinnacle run before cutting in untracked to the left. The right side of the run was wind-affected, but left side and trees to left were not. I again tried to find entrance to canyon I wanted but entered too early and missed it, eventually getting back to Ski-ways trees. The line at Sky was building too fast so I moved to NV and took high entrance into Milky Way Bowl, where I found some deep, lightly tracked powder before getting too close to a tree that must have had a branch sticking out as I hit it hard enough to find broken skin when I removed my jacket at lunch.
Mott Canyon was open and the top was great as it was unreachable previous day, but lower down had been mostly tracked out. From the chair I saw a nose that looked untracked and it was good enough to do twice. Both times I went skiers left on the lower part to get more untracked snow on the sunny side of the run. I moved to Dipper chair where line never got too big and enjoyed the lightly-tracked trees to the East side of the chair and found more good snow dropping off between Dipper run and bowl. Lower down I found some totally untracked by following a track the required a very little hike to a knoll above the bottom of Dipper.
We met for lunch at noon at Tamarack Lodge and listened to a ski school employee who recommended Scorpion Woods off Stagecoach chair. I found good snow on edge of Comstock run, but got sucked way too low by untracked powder into the boundary line that required some hiking to get to way too long and slow Galaxy chair. I almost got sucked into Galaxy twice more, once barely making the lowest track that got me back to Stagecoach. I later asked a patroller where the big sign for Scorpion Woods that instructor said to go under and he said it no longer exists as that is where Comstock and adjoining run are now.
I met my friends at Tamarack lodge for happy hour that starts at 3:30 and seems mostly designed to spread out traffic for downloading gondola. One friend did not like the loud music and does not drink so he left to ride Tamarack chair and then Sky chair to ski to his truck. I had a quick half-price beer (only $5.20 plus $1 tip) and got on Tamarack less than 10 minutes before 4 pm close. I took CA trail, then Maggies Canyon, where there was still a little untracked snow. After riding Groove chair with a skier from Mississippi, I led him on a quick ride down Upper Roundabout, taking three of the steep bypasses before skiing the lower part of Gunbarrel, which was perfect new snow on top of groom seven hours earlier. I got to the truck ahead of my friend who I must have passed early on Upper Roundabout when he went past some directional arrows. Our other friend took the gondola down and was already waiting near the casinos for a pickup. My watch showed almost 26K – EpicMix missed a lot of lift rides.
It snowed most of Thursday and continued into the evening. We returned from poaching lakefront hot tub to a mama and two big baby bears checking out across the street neighbor’s garbage cans at cabin three blocks from Pioneer Trail and about 6 blocks from Stateline Raley's. They moved into our yard and we drove around the block, then waited until they climbed fence into another neighbor’s yard before parking in driveway. I’m not sure if they are done hibernating or never do with all the nightlife and food available in South Tahoe.
We went to Sierra on Friday. I would have liked to save my ticket and was not able to find as much or as deep untracked as previous two days in the six runs we started the day with on West Bowl chair. There were places where it was good, but it did not seem as deep and there was not great coverage on and off runs as we all found some rocks. Crowds on West Bowl were moderate. We moved to higher Grandview chair and found slightly larger crowds that went down at noon. The first time up we rode with a Mountain Host who after some confusion between Backside, back and side country, went out the Pandora gate with me. Gate was marked double-diamond, helmets and goggles recommended, but as we got lower, I realized it must all be in-bounds as there is a boundary rope.
Since it was the first time for both of us into the area, we missed some good snow by not following other riders closely enough and went left above a cliff area when we should have tried to get through them. I did find a line along and off a large rock spine that led into lower-angle two feet deep untracked. But it quickly flattened and we ran into a mostly flat narrow track with a couple of steeper pitches with tracked powder. The exit from this area is almost too long for the drops found and includes a few short uphills before rejoining Castle run. But it was the best untracked I found so I did again, going right after the gate and staying as high as possible, even hiking up a little to where I took some pictures above some big rocks. I had gotten ahead of the Mtn Host on the previous run’s exit so I was solo, but could see a couple snowboarders further out in the bowl. I made first tracks between some very steep big rocks. I was a little concerned about slides and was ready to straight-line, but snow was stable and I later learned patrol had done a lot of bombing in the area. Since I now knew where the exit was, I skied a little more powder on the way out, but had an extra uphill as payback.
Before lunch, I started on the right side of intermediate Jackrabbit before cutting into trees on the right where I found good snow and only one rock. Lower down, I skied Chute and found some powder in the middle of the run where I got a couple of turns before scraping a rock with both skis. I also found some powder and another rock in the trees to the left of the run. Sierra has so many big granite boulders, especially in the trees, but even in the runs, that it takes a lot of snow to cover. At least whenever I took off my skis and looked at them, the damage to my very recent tune was very light considering I hit more at Sierra than in the previous two days.
The skiing and hike going through the gate made me warm enough to drop a jacket liner at the truck before meeting friends for lunch on the deck outside by the Tiki Bar. In the morning it was warming and almost sunny. After lunch, it got cold, windy and before 2 p.m. started dumping. It snowed enough in an hour to improve surface conditions on groomed runs and to start covering tracks on ungroomed. After lunch and skiing one run with them, I left my friends and skied two runs on Preachers Passion, starting in trees on left, finishing in trees on right and finding a lot of lightly tracked. I finished my day with over 23K by skiing the top of Hemlock before getting in trees that I stayed in between Chute and Lower Main. Traffic coming up Highway 50 was very heavy. Saturday morning, Kirkwood reported 4” new and Sierra reported two. Adding this to Friday totals from OpenSnow, gave both a total since Sunday of 33”. It did not fall in the overnight three-foot dump that Tahoe sometimes gets, but it was the most new snow in 2013 for Tahoe.
All these pictures are from iPhone 4. I may have a couple more in my camera in jacket that I hope is in my friend's truck.
