tseeb
Well-known member
Heavenly, CA and NV 3/30/22
EpicMix says I loaded Gunbarrel at 9:05. Friend driving up from Half Moon Bay got later start than planned and selected Heavenly vs. Kirkwood which he says would only be 5 minutes shorter for him. I was OK with driving 1 mile vs. the 35 (each way) I had the previous two days. High at Heavenly was predicted to be 42 with some winds. I saw 32 at the base of Olympic around 11 so it was cooler than I expected and I was not wearing very warm jacket.
I started out with a lap on Canyon, then a couple on Sky before moving to NV. I found a few places near top and lower on the right side of upper Milky Way Bowl where there was an inch or two of day-old N-facing untracked. I skied to Stagecoach where guy I saw skiing one of the re-frozen ungroomed runs there that he did not recommend said Heavenly had received only about 1/2 of the 3” they’d claimed the previous day. I rode and skied Stagecoach once (Upper North Bowl into Olympic Downhill), then rode Olympic 3x, first skiing Cloud 9, then smooth and still a little firm upper Downhill, then moving to Comet via E-facing ungroomed run that was softening. I skied upper Comet, then used Crossover to repeat lower part of E-facing run. Next I rode Dipper chair 3x, skiing Big Dipper run that was in great shape, then challenging Dipper Bowl, then skiing top of California trail to Tamarack 6-pack.
I rode Tamarack and skied CA trail to ungrowded Sky and skied toward NV at top. I followed a one person hiking track off Skyline Trail that took me to very top entrance to Milky Bowl. Path was further W of my usual route (that needs more snow to be easily passable) that I have not taken for a couple of years. I had to place skis ahead of me a few times to get up or down over rocks and postholed twice then had to squeeze between some Krummholz (stunted, crooked trees at treeline). After more than 20 minutes and eventually diverging from following footprints that may have been going to top of rock outcrop, I made it to very top entrance to Milky Way Bowl where I sat on rock, drank a juice box and had some salted nuts and a small dark chocolate. Snow at top was not as good as expected and it was only about 10 turns before hitting highest traverse tracks. I found more lightly tracked snow lower that skied better.
I skied to and rode Dipper, then returned to CA where I rode Sky, skied Ridge including W-facing at top Ridge Bowl which is burning off, then shady left side of Waterfall where I found some untracked towards bottom. I rode Groove where I felt warmth near the top and skied high entry to left side of Gunbarrel where new snow was lightly tracked. Bumps on Gunbarrel/East Bowl are getting big and you need to be on lookout for rocks. I got to my car about 1:30 and had a long break sitting in chair I’d brought eating sandwich and chips and having drink I’d left there. I napped a little and my friend eventually arrived and we loaded Tram at 2:45. We skied fast groomers on Canyon and Sky 6x, with most rides on Canyon as S-facing top of Sky, even though it starts at near 10K, was deteriorating. On one of the Canyon runs we had a slight collision as we both had speed into narrow left side of rock patch and found more rocks on entry. No crash, I think he just hit the back of my skis and we both stayed up.
We finished day nearly the same as I’d finished my long morning, riding Sky skiing Ridge Run, but skipping Ridge Bowl, to Waterfall where I found and skied more 1-2” untracked along left side. Gunbarrel must allow loading until 4:30 as beside downloaders, there were ski still people riding it up, most likely ‘Face Rats’. In one of the Austria posts, Tony Crocker asked about W-facing that doesn’t soften until noon and the lower CA level of Heavenly qualifies and is often roped off in AM in Spring, but they also have two higher CA levels and two level in NV and a lot of connections in between. Heavenly doesn’t have much E-facing so it can be hard to find soft snow when there is a hard freeze after a warm-up. My watch counted 30.8K.
Added some pictures in post #4 below and a couple more here.
A couple of pictures of Greg in East Bowl.
And one looking down East Bowl
EpicMix says I loaded Gunbarrel at 9:05. Friend driving up from Half Moon Bay got later start than planned and selected Heavenly vs. Kirkwood which he says would only be 5 minutes shorter for him. I was OK with driving 1 mile vs. the 35 (each way) I had the previous two days. High at Heavenly was predicted to be 42 with some winds. I saw 32 at the base of Olympic around 11 so it was cooler than I expected and I was not wearing very warm jacket.
I started out with a lap on Canyon, then a couple on Sky before moving to NV. I found a few places near top and lower on the right side of upper Milky Way Bowl where there was an inch or two of day-old N-facing untracked. I skied to Stagecoach where guy I saw skiing one of the re-frozen ungroomed runs there that he did not recommend said Heavenly had received only about 1/2 of the 3” they’d claimed the previous day. I rode and skied Stagecoach once (Upper North Bowl into Olympic Downhill), then rode Olympic 3x, first skiing Cloud 9, then smooth and still a little firm upper Downhill, then moving to Comet via E-facing ungroomed run that was softening. I skied upper Comet, then used Crossover to repeat lower part of E-facing run. Next I rode Dipper chair 3x, skiing Big Dipper run that was in great shape, then challenging Dipper Bowl, then skiing top of California trail to Tamarack 6-pack.
I rode Tamarack and skied CA trail to ungrowded Sky and skied toward NV at top. I followed a one person hiking track off Skyline Trail that took me to very top entrance to Milky Bowl. Path was further W of my usual route (that needs more snow to be easily passable) that I have not taken for a couple of years. I had to place skis ahead of me a few times to get up or down over rocks and postholed twice then had to squeeze between some Krummholz (stunted, crooked trees at treeline). After more than 20 minutes and eventually diverging from following footprints that may have been going to top of rock outcrop, I made it to very top entrance to Milky Way Bowl where I sat on rock, drank a juice box and had some salted nuts and a small dark chocolate. Snow at top was not as good as expected and it was only about 10 turns before hitting highest traverse tracks. I found more lightly tracked snow lower that skied better.
I skied to and rode Dipper, then returned to CA where I rode Sky, skied Ridge including W-facing at top Ridge Bowl which is burning off, then shady left side of Waterfall where I found some untracked towards bottom. I rode Groove where I felt warmth near the top and skied high entry to left side of Gunbarrel where new snow was lightly tracked. Bumps on Gunbarrel/East Bowl are getting big and you need to be on lookout for rocks. I got to my car about 1:30 and had a long break sitting in chair I’d brought eating sandwich and chips and having drink I’d left there. I napped a little and my friend eventually arrived and we loaded Tram at 2:45. We skied fast groomers on Canyon and Sky 6x, with most rides on Canyon as S-facing top of Sky, even though it starts at near 10K, was deteriorating. On one of the Canyon runs we had a slight collision as we both had speed into narrow left side of rock patch and found more rocks on entry. No crash, I think he just hit the back of my skis and we both stayed up.
We finished day nearly the same as I’d finished my long morning, riding Sky skiing Ridge Run, but skipping Ridge Bowl, to Waterfall where I found and skied more 1-2” untracked along left side. Gunbarrel must allow loading until 4:30 as beside downloaders, there were ski still people riding it up, most likely ‘Face Rats’. In one of the Austria posts, Tony Crocker asked about W-facing that doesn’t soften until noon and the lower CA level of Heavenly qualifies and is often roped off in AM in Spring, but they also have two higher CA levels and two level in NV and a lot of connections in between. Heavenly doesn’t have much E-facing so it can be hard to find soft snow when there is a hard freeze after a warm-up. My watch counted 30.8K.
Added some pictures in post #4 below and a couple more here.
A couple of pictures of Greg in East Bowl.
And one looking down East Bowl
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