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Tuesday, April 23 I returned to Kirkwood after three days at home where I got my tires rotated (free and keeps mileage warranty), pulled weeds for a couple hours, took dogs for two walks and saw my son and his girlfriend every day and had dinner with them twice. I went to my appt. on Monday...

"EpicMix is not always accurate" is an understatement for Kirkwood this season, but maybe some of the missing lifts last week were due to no line so I usually breezed under the EpicMix scanner. More likely is that some lift never were counted. Surprisingly, the new-to-me Avocet watch you sold me...

Not sure if you missed my point that riding many slow lifts at Kirkwood makes it harder to get high vertical. They have verticals listed on 1973 map that I took photo of and posted above, but the only lifts I usually ride of their original four are chair 2 to get to Backside, Whiskey runs and...

Friday 4/19 Friend I was staying with at his Kirkwood cabin and I drove separately the mile or so to VIP lot and loaded Reut chair about 9:30 and skied Buckboard groomer to Cornice chair. Road to Buckboard was a little slow, maybe I was burning in rub-on wax while N-facing groomer was fast. We...

Not much new from skiing Thursday, 4/18 at Kirkwood, but I won't let that stop me from writing. Friend and his son who was a liftee, then cat driver/snowmaker at Kirkwood, then worked on lift maintenance at Heavenly, and I started at 10 after getting shuttle ride from cabin to near Cornice lift...

My friend’s seasonal renters moved out on 4/15. He was lucky that Kirkwood extended their season for two weeks after originally scheduled 4/14 closure. He could not come up until late afternoon and will stay until 4/28 closing. I left San Jose at 525, (Altamont Pass sunrise with Sierra visible...

Is Mammoth going to close the same day (5/27) as Palisades Tahoe? They are already running fewer lifts (14). Palisades has 19 scheduled today on Olympic Valley side including Silverado which didn't open until mid-March this season plus 9 more on Alpine side. Other bad news includes Alpine side...

Cloud Cruiser, only available on Alaska Airlines flights, was good. They didn't charge me for this on LAX-SJC flight. They didn't give me a glass either. Return flight was a much better deal than flight down where we got the last two seats on SFO-MZT nonstop (only flies on Saturdays) including...

While Mammoth says 151/176 runs open, they closed a lot of lifts for the season yesterday including chair 1 to have replacement done before next season. Thanks for reminder that gondola is closed for maintenance for three weeks after Memorial Day. Still wondering if they will extend season into...

I don't see chairs 9, 22 or 25 on Mammoth's Operation Update Facebook post today: "Canyon and Eagle Lodge along with The Village Gondola will remain open daily through next Sunday, April 21. Canyon Lodge will then re-open for the weekend of April 26-28. With Canyon Express (16) and Schoolyard...

Without chair 9, does Canyon/Eagle add much besides a shorter drive from some lodging and a couple of runs that face SE and soften earlier than chairs 1 and 2. I realize chair 1 is now closed for replacement which will add more demand for chair 2 parking. I was thinking about waiting until next...

I think the parking @jimk was referencing is a friend who made a paid parking reservation. Not sure that Deer Valley expansion is going to add much more than another entrance to the mountain. I've used the Jordanelle parking and gondola to access Deer Valley which has similar exposure and also...

I was hoping I'd gotten better eclipse photos on 5x Zoom Point and Shoot camera that I couldn't review well until I got home, but nothing was good enough to post. Some great photos Liz and Noel took. Here are others I took in Mazatlan. The sunset from hotel room where we stayed the first 5...

Tres Islas Mazatlan. I tried the Porter when we went to a Sports Bar to watch Warriors beat Lakers (saw 2nd half at room since it was on TNT) and Giants fall behind on way to a loss. Went to brewpub near where we stayed for last night and tried most of the others. Porter and Hoppy Pils were...

Today. There is big difference between 99.8% and totality.

We saw it from Mazatlan. There were some thin and broken clouds, but since ACE did not have the rental car I booked and paid for via Priceline a couple of days before our Saturday arrival, we could not try to go inland for clearer skies in the Sierra Madre as 4 people in our group did. A couple...

Four weeks and a day later, I'm without pain in ribs although shoulder on that side is still a little stiff. I didn't help it by falling on it at Kirkwood on Monday when I missed a turn on steep slope that is a rocky cliff until filled in next to Olympic. I laid it over and ended up with skis a...

Kirkwood, CA 4/3/2024 We found some sticky snow where it was flat when we started at Kirkwood on Wednesday about 1015 after packing, cleaning and closing So. Tahoe cabin, then 45+ min drive. Friend I skied for the last three days gets his place at Kirkwood back from ski-lease on 4/16 and we...

Loaded Gunbarrel at Heavenly at 859 - they opened CA base lifts about 5 min early. We stayed above 8K until end of day. Rode Sky chair 10x, line never was that bad, but we did move to Canyon a few times to avoid the worst of it. Besides groomers, we also skied Liz’s, Ellie’s and Sky Canyon twice...

After being home for Easter from last week’s trip for about 36 hrs, I met friend in Tracy at 6 AM Monday for this week’s trip. We skied and watched Freeride Comp at KIrkwood and got to see many crazy lines skied, some big rocks jumped off, a few crashes and some skiers throw backflips and 360s...