tseeb
Well-known member
Friday 4/19/19
A friend who retired from the same place as I bought out his siblings and step-siblings and now owns cabin his family built at Kirkwood 45 years ago. There is still a lot of snow at Kirkwood which planned to close April 7, but after receiving nearly 24’ in Febru-buried extended daily operations to April 14 and re-opened for April 19-21. They had announced it would only be chairs 5 (Solitude which I don’t think I rode all season), 6 (high-speed with over 1300 vertical and some steeps, but a lot of E-facing), 7 (hi-speed but low on mountain and not steep) and 11 (bottom half of the Wall). But they rushed some maintenance on chair 10, The Wall, their best lift for holding good snow into afternoon during Spring skiing, and on Thursday announced it would re-open.
Friend who is still working (at same place where other two of us retired from) and I left San Jose about 5:45. After unloading a little and picking up friend at his cabin, we parked at Timber Creek base and were on lift before 9:45. We took one groomer on Cornice before moving to The Wall, which needed more softening. We returned to Cornice which EpicMix says we rode six times. Snow stayed good, even though it was sunny and warmed quickly. I think we did Sentinel a couple of times before hitting the steep face (a cliff in low-snow years) between Olympic and Janek from each run and from what my friend thinks is Stump Run off Olympic. We also stopped by Kirkwood’s Hole-in-the-Rock where my friend took a selfie that included one of the Sentinels through the hole.
After a break at Monty Wolf that was longer than I wanted to take on such a warm day, we skied The Wall twice. Both times we entered from looker’s left at the top and I went across the top of closed (due wet slide danger?) Eagle Bowl and over the top of Norms Nose. Snow was excellent. But we had noticed an employee on top of the cage above the bullwheel at the top of the lift (is that an OSHA violation when lift is running?) and next time down it was closed so we moved to 11/The Reut for two laps. I’m not sure it they had replaced the bullwheel or only the bearing, but whatever work was done may have to be re-done as others reported bearing was noisier that it should have been.
We moved to Cornice for three more laps that probably included more of Olympic and steep face between it and Janek. There were a couple of sticky spots so we quit at 2:30 and skied to 7800 where other friend, who said lower angle chair 7 skied well until 3, picked us up. EpicMix, after removing an extra Wall lap, counted 16 lifts and over 20.5K.
Saturday 4/20/19
A weak storm had been predicted to bring r--n about noon that was supposed to change to snow (at 36 degrees) later in PM so we got out early and parked not too far from Cornice lift that we loaded shortly after 9. Even though there was not much of an overnight freeze the E-facing groomed Zachary was very good and N-facing Sentinel was firm. After three Cornice laps, where at top the visibility was marginal and wind gusty, we moved to the Reut where we did 4 laps, skiing all the runs between Shoitgun and Conestoga (except for Snowsnake Gully). All had good to excellent surface. While my phone showed the storm coming later, it had other ideas and we started get wet about 11. Precipation turned to snow about halfway up Cornice ~8500’. We did two laps, included one where we skied one of the gullies that drops off Sentinel and goes past a cave where some people where celebrating 4/20. We were lucky that we had just loaded chair and were still under the structure at base when there was an extended stoppage. People who we in line or ahead of us on the chair got wet. We quit at 11:30 and EpicMix (which seems to have worked far better for me at Kirkwood than at Heavenly or Northstar this season) counted 12 lifts and 13,350’. While it would have been nice to have been there for closing day, which was a return to Spring and usually features friend of my friend BBQing and making sandwiches out of a large piece of beef, I returned home in the interest of domestic tranquility and helped my wife as we had her son and family and in-laws for a total of 10 for Easter dinner.
I thought we would be skiing more tight spots so the only skis I brought were 88-waist Head Rev3s demos that I bought for $45 when I was having binding problems (due to ice inside binding) earlier in year. Since Kirkwood had received 4-5” new when they were closed that had consolidated to 1-2” of heavy snow and we were skiing more open groomers, I should have had bigger skis. But my longer 94-waist skis needed a wax that I didn’t have time to do and I thought we were going in friend’s sedan which meant I could only fit one pair. At least I didn’t make mistake friend whose cabin we stayed did as he left his skis and poles under cover in friend’s truck which we didn’t realize until we we over an hour away. Good thing he had found a pair of Nordica skis with demo bindings and poles in Kirkwood dumpster that he waxed and adjusted to use on Sunday.
A friend who retired from the same place as I bought out his siblings and step-siblings and now owns cabin his family built at Kirkwood 45 years ago. There is still a lot of snow at Kirkwood which planned to close April 7, but after receiving nearly 24’ in Febru-buried extended daily operations to April 14 and re-opened for April 19-21. They had announced it would only be chairs 5 (Solitude which I don’t think I rode all season), 6 (high-speed with over 1300 vertical and some steeps, but a lot of E-facing), 7 (hi-speed but low on mountain and not steep) and 11 (bottom half of the Wall). But they rushed some maintenance on chair 10, The Wall, their best lift for holding good snow into afternoon during Spring skiing, and on Thursday announced it would re-open.
We moved to Cornice for three more laps that probably included more of Olympic and steep face between it and Janek. There were a couple of sticky spots so we quit at 2:30 and skied to 7800 where other friend, who said lower angle chair 7 skied well until 3, picked us up. EpicMix, after removing an extra Wall lap, counted 16 lifts and over 20.5K.
A weak storm had been predicted to bring r--n about noon that was supposed to change to snow (at 36 degrees) later in PM so we got out early and parked not too far from Cornice lift that we loaded shortly after 9. Even though there was not much of an overnight freeze the E-facing groomed Zachary was very good and N-facing Sentinel was firm. After three Cornice laps, where at top the visibility was marginal and wind gusty, we moved to the Reut where we did 4 laps, skiing all the runs between Shoitgun and Conestoga (except for Snowsnake Gully). All had good to excellent surface. While my phone showed the storm coming later, it had other ideas and we started get wet about 11. Precipation turned to snow about halfway up Cornice ~8500’. We did two laps, included one where we skied one of the gullies that drops off Sentinel and goes past a cave where some people where celebrating 4/20. We were lucky that we had just loaded chair and were still under the structure at base when there was an extended stoppage. People who we in line or ahead of us on the chair got wet. We quit at 11:30 and EpicMix (which seems to have worked far better for me at Kirkwood than at Heavenly or Northstar this season) counted 12 lifts and 13,350’. While it would have been nice to have been there for closing day, which was a return to Spring and usually features friend of my friend BBQing and making sandwiches out of a large piece of beef, I returned home in the interest of domestic tranquility and helped my wife as we had her son and family and in-laws for a total of 10 for Easter dinner.
I thought we would be skiing more tight spots so the only skis I brought were 88-waist Head Rev3s demos that I bought for $45 when I was having binding problems (due to ice inside binding) earlier in year. Since Kirkwood had received 4-5” new when they were closed that had consolidated to 1-2” of heavy snow and we were skiing more open groomers, I should have had bigger skis. But my longer 94-waist skis needed a wax that I didn’t have time to do and I thought we were going in friend’s sedan which meant I could only fit one pair. At least I didn’t make mistake friend whose cabin we stayed did as he left his skis and poles under cover in friend’s truck which we didn’t realize until we we over an hour away. Good thing he had found a pair of Nordica skis with demo bindings and poles in Kirkwood dumpster that he waxed and adjusted to use on Sunday.