South Lake Tahoe, CA 1/5-6/2017

Heavenly 1/5/2017, I left San Jose just after 4:30 and after filling tank in San Jose, then again during pit stop at Grant Line Rd S of Sacramento, I was approaching Sierra-at-Tahoe a few minutes after 8. I was on US-50 as the Carson Spur, on the direct route to Kirkwood was closed at it had been the previous day. It was snowing lightly and chain control started at about 5K.

I have a pair of free Sun-Fri Sierra tickets, but it works better if I save both to ski there with my wife (who only has Mountain Collective), but the only reports I could find said Sierra had 15" while Heavenly reported 30". Since I could not get any lift operation details from Sierra, when a lot of the vehicles turned there, I continued. I was able to pass a couple of slow vehicles at passing lane just before Echo Summit, even though they did not pull over. I did not really consider going to Kirkwood as they had posted on Facebook to not expect any lifts until 11 AM due to avalanche control from 29" new and over 50" since Monday when I skied there.

So, even though Heavenly reported power problems on NV side, I went there and squeezed into a narrow spot about 3 cars from tram. EpicMix says I loaded at 9:07, but they opened at 8:30 and the Face already looked skied out. I skied in trees to skiers left of Gunbarrel, where snow was lightly tracked, deep and dry enough at 8K. The tram operator said skiing was on Face/East Bowl only, but patroller working on buried rope gave me the OK to go into large untracked area where Face and Gunbarrel split where I got more than 20 turns. I then skied in trees to bottom where new snow was not as good or deep, but still untracked. I rode Gunbarrel chair and skied Patsy's, but there was a large line on Powder Bowl 6-pack, the only way to get further up the mountain and highest chair Heavenly ran in the AM.View attachment 3 Since getting back to Patsy's lift required hiking a little, we got lifties to open Groove a couple of minutes earlier than they planned. At the top, I followed a couple of guys going straight ahead and passed patroller who said I was 4th person going into Hogsback for the season. I found a lot of steep untracked and no obstacles under the snow on my first run. Some of steeps off Roundabout also skied well and there were places near the bottom of West Bowl where there still was two feet of new snow. I repeated Gunbarrel chair to Groove to Hogsback a couple of more times, pushing to the left to get more untracked. I did find a rock or two, but there was a lot of new snow to cushion them.
The line for Gunbarrel was growing (that is First Ride in foreground) View attachment 4so I rode First Ride beginners chair at the bottom of West Bowl, a chair I may not have been on for 40 years. At the bottom, I took stairs to the left of the lodge and crossed the parking lot to the Tram, stopping to talk to Guest Services at bus stop who did not know as much as I did (from checking Heavenly tweets) about lift openings. Heavenly was running long high-speed Stagecoach in NV, but getting there required two buses or an 8 mile drive so I went up the Tram, where line was growing slower than Gunbarrel. Getting to Groove was getting hard as singles line for Powder Bowl chair extended all the way to Patsy's chair and there was a lot of cross-traffic. On one lap, I was skiing along rope separating run from snowmobile path and dodging boarders who started out by going sideway into my path when a small out-of-control girl coming from hill above hit me, I thought on rear binding. Others in the area credited me with a good catch. I apologized to her Mom for getting in her way when I should have gotten contact info as on next tram ride I saw top edge had an inch long peel that may need to be repaired.

At the top of Groove, I followed lead of mostly snowboarders taking less than 100 step high to top of hill above lift. I found it was totally untracked going to the E so I repeated that loop about 4 times, skiing untracked E/SE facing. Then I put 4 of the 6 tracks in a tree-shaded bowl the dropped me onto flat part of Roundabout where a lot of people were walking, but I hit it with enough speed to get to where the downhill resumed. There where many short untracked and lightly tracked treed steep shots available off Roundabout and I also skied deep, cut-up Pistol on some laps. The worst tram line I had was 3 boxes and after I took a lunch break at the car, it went down to walk-on. I quit before 2:30 with 15.8K and went to the cabin where I did about 15 minutes of shoveling on the berm and driveway that neighbor had helpfully driven his truck through to prevent deep wet (at 6.3K) snow from freezing into an ice wall.

Kirkwood 1/6/2017
Will finish this later. The following is from my EpicSki post last night:

Kirkwood opened the Backside today at noon for the first time since Sunday? with the biggest avalanche debris fields I've ever seen anywhere. Not only did 99 Steps slide from higher than I've ever seen it go before, it ran all the way past the chair and took out some small trees. Hully Gully was totally filled with debris and you had to cross debris to go anywhere lookers right at top of lift and had to cross it again to get to the untracked on Cold Shoulder. The cornice on The Wave slide included some 8'x8' blocks. There were also major slides below Covered Wagon Peak, in Eagle Bowl and in a lot of Thunder Saddle, except for Two Man Chute and tree runs and chutes to lookers right of Moon Bowl. I found a great high entrance into Thunder Saddle with very steep, deep hero snow that I repeated 3x.

Kirkwood 1/6/2017 continued - a long report for a long day

I was the first car parked N of where snowcats cross Kirkwood's entrance road as I got there ahead of guys with ski bikes that usually take that spot and EpicMix had me getting on Timber Creek at 9:03. I skied over and went up the Wall and was surprised how bumpy the traverse to get to the corner of Wagon Wheel bowl was and how skied out and packed down the 29" reported the previous day was. Getting to and exiting The Drain was also tough on legs stiff from previous day. I went up the Wall again and came down in smoother snow skier's right of the chair. Then I went across top and along big fracture line on Eagle Bowl before skiing off the NE side of Norm's Nose where snow was good wind-pack, but was tough to ski well where less tracked and deeper lower.

I hoped I had not missed the opening of the Backside and found at the top of chair 2 that it was still closed. I skied some nice windpack, then untracked W-facing High Whiskey which was OK at top, but crust was thick toward bottom. I went up Reut and after hearing Backside would not open until noon, repeated High Whiskey, getting a little higher and farther N as another traverse/step-up had been put in. I returned to my car by going up and around the back of the Wall. I looked hard at the Notch Chute which looked good, but decided against 20 foot down-climb over rocks, dirt and snow without a pack for skis or a rope. Instead I hiked, then skied S/SW to get to catch-line around the back off the Sisters. I thought I was just going to look at Sister Chute (or Bowl) which is steep and wide (for a chute), but has big wind-ridge down the center that you would not want to tumble off as there are rocks at bottom on either side. A patroller showed me how and I easily got down it without as much style and found great snow on the apron and better snow below than my previous lap into Wagon Wheel Bowl (really a lot of parallel chutes separated by skiable trees). I went up Cornice and skied to the car via the Palisades where snow was OK, but not as good as untracked I had skied my last two days storm-days there. At the car I poured half a glass from my growler, put a beer in my pocket for long, slow Backside chair and talked to GoPro guy who had tried to drive down cat road and got his Tahoe stuck at least three hundred feet in.

I returned to chair 2 and could see the first riders getting almost to the top of the Backside chair. The line there was not bad the first time, but grew quickly and I think I came out ahead by never getting in very long singles line. I and many others crossed the big debris field, but I re-crossed part of it to get to some untracked on Cold Shoulder. Next run I came under chair, then cut a little right to a lightly tracked snowfield I usually hit. On my last backside run, I tucked the very smooth top to get as far over The Wave as possible, then hiked above it to get above the big fracture. I skied next to debris part of the way, then cut into some steep untracked trees. I had a beer on what I thought would be my last Backside chair ride and found a high, super-steep chute entrance into Thunder Saddle that held deep wind-sift, then found some powder that continued into Two-man Chute, one of the few that had not slid. It was so much fun that I repeated it twice even though it took two slow chairs. On my last time through Thunder Saddle I cut right after the steep entrance, and with a boarder following me, we crossed avalanche debris that almost seemed like a glacier with 3-4' deep cracks between blocks. I got cliffed out, then with boarder directing me, I was able to ski a steep spine above big fracture and cliffs until it got small enough to drop. We then found some good trees and more open areas which gave me the variety I was looking for after doing Two-man Chute twice.

I went up and around the back of the Wall with the guy I rode the lift with, but he bailed on skiing the wind-ridge especially after seeing me try to finesse a turn on top of it and having to hang onto it when my skis slipped off it. Another guy came along and did it the easier way that I did the first time down it and showed the other guy where to find an easier route. We both enjoyed the good snow below the little bowl and then rode Cornice together. I showed him where deep snow collects on the side of Sentinel, but he didn't follow me down the chutes that go past cave where safety meetings are usually being held. The gully below that was tough so I rode Timber Creek once last time at almost 4 pm to leave after a smoother run. I only had 23K vertical due to lot of slow chairs. Even though it took a while to get past all the people driving 40 mph down CA-88, which did not have chain control but a little snow on road in places down to about 6K', I made it home in 3.5 hours.