tseeb
Well-known member
I arrived Heavenly and parked near the Tram about 840. While booting up, I started talking to guy parked next to me before we both realized we'd skied together once at Kirkwood with his brother Jim who I know from SkiTalk and have skied with at Kirkwood and Palisades a few times and mountain biked with once at So. Tahoe. Jim spends Winter in UT mostly skiing resorts near Ogden while Mike, who graduated from same high school as me (and my dad and our son) 3 years ahead of me, lives in Santa Cruz and was a dentist (as was my dad). Something else we unfortunately share is our wives both suffered head injuries skiing (his wife's from a snowboarder crashing into her) and are not as enthusiastic skiers as we are. Mike spends a lot of Summer at Tahoe to avoid the coastal fog and Jim spends all of it at Tahoe along with some of the shoulder ski season.
We loaded Gunbarrel before 9 and took the three lifts and two short runs to the nearly 10K top of Heavenly and did one lap on nearly empty groomed Ridge Run. Jim and Mike ski fast and following Mike I found a very thin area at speed on the last part of the 'steep' part of Ridge that I got through without damage. We then rode Sky chair with a couple Mike knew and all skied to Nevada. They continued on Skyline Trail to Big Dipper run while I couldn't pass up skiing the S side of Milky Way Bowl that was getting some sun even though snow may have been better on very shady N side. Some of it was good while some was too firm. I quickly hit where groomers had reached and was able to meet up with the others at Dipper chair. Jim and I next skied groomed and nearly empty Orion, then next time up we skied Big Dipper past not running Galaxy chair to Nevada Trail.
Interestingly, on our 2nd lap Mike started down Lower Nevada Trail but led me down what my Garmin has listed as Stagecoach Return, something that I had not skied in many years (or ever?). It allows you to avoid a boring part of Olympic Downhill with better Lower Nevada. Mike said they used to ski powder in North Bowl area, then traverse high enough to get to high-speed Stagecoach and avoid until recently upgraded low-speed Boulder lift that originally had a mid-station beginner unload and intermediate/advanced load. We next skied bumped but SE-facing enough to be softening Comstock and went all the way down Lower Nevada and rode North Bowl from which we skied all of North Bowl run. We were a couple of hours too early as it was firm and challenging in places including the narrow in places exit.
I'd committed to quitting not much after 11 so after riding North Bowl and Dipper, I skied California trail and was already too late to get a lap on Sky. Instead, I went towards Maggie's Canyon and should have continued down it, but followed steep cattrack that I thought would be quicker getting to Maggie's. But I got too low and passed between base of Sky chair and Sky Deck lodge and had to pole across flat to get to Maggie's. At least I was high enough to take SW-facing Stein's Way vs. beginner's Maggie's. My delays were not over as an instructor had at least 6 young students loading Groove and the first one lost a ski loading and there were empty chairs between some of them then chair ran slow for a while and again for one ski student to unload. I did quick return to CA base on Advanced Roundabout, some of Roundabout, cutting one corner and taking steep West Bowl face that had very good, packed powder before finishing at 11:15 after skiing World Cup. 12 lifts and 13.8K. No photos beside my Garmin track.
My wife and son had already made some progress packing up and cleaning cabin so we were able to leave before 1 pm which got us home about 5 pm avoiding the worst of the traffic through Milpitas and NE San Jose. Drive was 4 hrs. plus 15-20 min. stop at Boa Vista in Apple Hill area above Placerville where I bought two Cara Cara oranges, my son got a hot apple turnover ala mode and my wife loaded up on fruit and got an apple strudel. I got a taste of both the turnover and strudel with the ice cream.
We loaded Gunbarrel before 9 and took the three lifts and two short runs to the nearly 10K top of Heavenly and did one lap on nearly empty groomed Ridge Run. Jim and Mike ski fast and following Mike I found a very thin area at speed on the last part of the 'steep' part of Ridge that I got through without damage. We then rode Sky chair with a couple Mike knew and all skied to Nevada. They continued on Skyline Trail to Big Dipper run while I couldn't pass up skiing the S side of Milky Way Bowl that was getting some sun even though snow may have been better on very shady N side. Some of it was good while some was too firm. I quickly hit where groomers had reached and was able to meet up with the others at Dipper chair. Jim and I next skied groomed and nearly empty Orion, then next time up we skied Big Dipper past not running Galaxy chair to Nevada Trail.
Interestingly, on our 2nd lap Mike started down Lower Nevada Trail but led me down what my Garmin has listed as Stagecoach Return, something that I had not skied in many years (or ever?). It allows you to avoid a boring part of Olympic Downhill with better Lower Nevada. Mike said they used to ski powder in North Bowl area, then traverse high enough to get to high-speed Stagecoach and avoid until recently upgraded low-speed Boulder lift that originally had a mid-station beginner unload and intermediate/advanced load. We next skied bumped but SE-facing enough to be softening Comstock and went all the way down Lower Nevada and rode North Bowl from which we skied all of North Bowl run. We were a couple of hours too early as it was firm and challenging in places including the narrow in places exit.
I'd committed to quitting not much after 11 so after riding North Bowl and Dipper, I skied California trail and was already too late to get a lap on Sky. Instead, I went towards Maggie's Canyon and should have continued down it, but followed steep cattrack that I thought would be quicker getting to Maggie's. But I got too low and passed between base of Sky chair and Sky Deck lodge and had to pole across flat to get to Maggie's. At least I was high enough to take SW-facing Stein's Way vs. beginner's Maggie's. My delays were not over as an instructor had at least 6 young students loading Groove and the first one lost a ski loading and there were empty chairs between some of them then chair ran slow for a while and again for one ski student to unload. I did quick return to CA base on Advanced Roundabout, some of Roundabout, cutting one corner and taking steep West Bowl face that had very good, packed powder before finishing at 11:15 after skiing World Cup. 12 lifts and 13.8K. No photos beside my Garmin track.
My wife and son had already made some progress packing up and cleaning cabin so we were able to leave before 1 pm which got us home about 5 pm avoiding the worst of the traffic through Milpitas and NE San Jose. Drive was 4 hrs. plus 15-20 min. stop at Boa Vista in Apple Hill area above Placerville where I bought two Cara Cara oranges, my son got a hot apple turnover ala mode and my wife loaded up on fruit and got an apple strudel. I got a taste of both the turnover and strudel with the ice cream.