Heavenly, CA and NV 4/5/2017

tseeb

Well-known member
Day 36 with a some firsts that included first day this year that I used Spring gloves and that I took advantage of Heavenly's not very well publicized early start for passholders on Wednesdays. After running a couple of errands, I arrived at 8:30 as nearly full first tram was leaving and barely caught second tram. I realized my helmet and goggles must have been left in my friend's car the previous day so I skied without a helmet for the first time in many years.
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I also went out the Fulstone Canyon gate for the first time ever
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and was one of less than 10 to ski some excellent corn there.
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Fulstone is the canyon to skiers right of Killibrew and has a long, steep slope with fewer trees than Killibrew. It also lengthens the exit traverse from 3/4 mile to about 1 1/4 miles with one 20 step-up and a couple of flats. Sunny corner on exit from Killibrew deteriorated between my two laps.
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Since I got an early start and skied until the end, I had over 40K vertical for the first time since February 2015 at Bachelor and probably my second time ever.

I started with 7 mostly groomer laps on Sky and Canyon chairs, skiing Ellie's a few times, Liz's twice (it was too firm early and better an hour later) and making a lap or two into Ridge Bowl. I moved to NV where I would ride slow Mott Canyon chair 7 times (not in a row as I also rode long and slow North Bowl chair twice-my lunch break, Stagecoach once and Olympic three times). Besides Fulstone, I got into Stateline Chute from the top and skied the Mott side five times. On my final run, I got through the part of Snake Eyes that is usually a mandatory air without leaving the ground as it is so filled. From the chair I had thought there was a ice bulge in the choke, but after seeing someone ski it later in the day from the chair and inspecting it from even steeper ridge above it, I realized that snow was discolored from blasting.

I re-filled my water bottles at Dipper Lodge about 2 without taking off my skis, then after skiing one more lap on Comet,
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a few on Dipper and one on Mott, I skied to Tamarack Lodge after 3:30. I got a 24 ounce Stella Artois for $6.15, my first time this year taking advantage of half-price during Happy Hour. A band was playing (very loudly) at the bar end of the lodge. I went to the other end and tried (unsuccessfully) to charge my phone before loading Tamarack chair about 3:45 with about 1/4 of my beer. I skied CA trail to Sky chair where I did a top-to-bottom run that included Ridge Run and Bowl and Waterfall. Then, after short Groove chair ride, I raced a tram down the Face. I stayed on right edge as most of the Face and Gunbarrel have developed near-Volkswagen-sized bumps. The tram got a little ahead, but it slows down before docking so I was taking off my skis at the same time they opened the door for unloading. My watch counted 35 runs and over 39K vertical, but I did not have it started for first three runs so I really had 38 lift rides and 41K. My watch overcounts a little, but is much better than EpicMix which had me at 9 lift rides/under 11K.

Today should be interesting as overnight low at South Lake Tahoe and Truckee is well into 40s and Squaw already had gusts of over 100 mph this morning. I plan to ski a few runs, hopefully get into Motts, then drive towards UT where my wife is flying in for the weekend.
 

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