tseeb
Well-known member
My wife got two more days on her pass. If we go to upcoming closing weekend at Kirkwood, she will get close to breaking even, but she is leaning towards staying home. We cost Vail money in other ways including by making friends with three people in the parking lot at Heavenly on Saturday morning and letting them use discounted ($70 instead of $98) buddy tickets that came with my pass. The low in South Lake Tahoe was 40 degrees, but it was cold enough up high for snow to be firm when we started shortly after 9. Snow on Patsy's, which connects the top of the Tram and Gunbarrel chair to the 2nd level of Heavenly's CA side was getting brown and looked much worse by the end of my day
My friend took a hard fall early when he turned to look for his wife and skied onto his pole (or caught an edge) which slammed him onto his side and he hit his helmet hard on firm snow near the bottom of Ridge Run. We went to NV and he and I had to go the left side of Milky Way Bowl to find soft snow as the shady right side was very firm. We skied Comet a couple of times as that is about my friend's wife's preferred run. I got them to move to Olympic as I thought it would be less crowded and that she would like some variety. But she did not like the spring conditions getting to the chair and wanted to go in.
My wife and friends went into Tamarack Lodge before 11 while I got on Tamarack chair which closed very soon after due to wind. I took three more laps on Milky Way Bowl from Dipper chair before returning to the lodge to look for my wife as cell service is poor there and I had not heard from her. She was still there and we escaped the flat by Tamarack Lodge using Big Easy beginner chair and did two laps on Dipper. I was hoping to ride it two more times, but Dipper closed due to wind after running slow for more than an hour. We went up Comet and traversed to CA trail as we did not want to have to walk across the flat by Tamarack Lodge or have to ride a long shuttle (or maybe two) from NV base to CA base.
Rather than skiing to Sky chair, where my friend reported dirt and rocks towards bottom of CA trail, we went down Maggie's Canyon which still held good snow although my wife preferred to traverse to Maggie's run rather than go to the bottom of the narrow gully. She waited for me at the Umbrella Bar while I went up to the top and did three quick runs, finding great snow on the left side of Sky Canyon. I skied down Face about 2:30 while my wife took tram down. I was surprised Face was open as it was closed to public previous weekend. There were narrow places including one where you had to take off skis or cross a foot or two of bushes to get to more snow. Snow at the bottom was very good and you could get very close to the parking, unlike one year I can remember where you had to take off skis a couple of hundred feet away. I finished with 22.4K vertical and saw one ski brake fall off when I removed skis. The mounting plate for the binding was cracked where the screw that holds brake to the binding went. I had them both replaced so I have an un-cracked spare.
On Sunday at Kirkwood (where they report 357" for the season), we got on lift at 10:10, good considering we had to clean and close up the cabin, pickup my son's snowboard, which was getting free tune we won previous weekend, and drive for almost an hour. Overnight low at Kirkwood was 28 and snow was very good in most places, but The Wall lift was closed and could be down for the season due to mechanical problem. My wife had a lot of runs on the Reut while I had 7 on Cornice. They had a banked slalom race in Snowsnake Gully between the Reut and Wall chairs and free lunch for passholders (pulled pork or cheeseburger, mac 'n cheese, beans, coleslaw, chips and drinks.) We brought our own wine and pocketed some chip and drinks. A lot of people showed up in street clothes for the free lunch.
We quit before two as my wife was done for the day not long after lunch. I took a couple of runs off Cornice towards False Peak Chute in Wagon Wheel Bowl, where snow was still too firm in the trees. I would have liked to have taken a run to the Palisades, but instead ended with a more direct line to Timber Creek base on the steep faces between Janek and Olympic, ending with 14.4K vertical. Our beagle got to see people skiing after waiting in the car in the shade of some big trees and getting really dirty from the black snow by the parking lot. It sounds like Kirkwood will close 4/21 (last year they extended a Fri-Sun after scheduled close possibly to confuse the end-of-year celebrations and both Squaw (daily, but very limited, maybe only Shirley) and Alpine (now Fri-Sun only) will close 4/28.
My friend took a hard fall early when he turned to look for his wife and skied onto his pole (or caught an edge) which slammed him onto his side and he hit his helmet hard on firm snow near the bottom of Ridge Run. We went to NV and he and I had to go the left side of Milky Way Bowl to find soft snow as the shady right side was very firm. We skied Comet a couple of times as that is about my friend's wife's preferred run. I got them to move to Olympic as I thought it would be less crowded and that she would like some variety. But she did not like the spring conditions getting to the chair and wanted to go in.
My wife and friends went into Tamarack Lodge before 11 while I got on Tamarack chair which closed very soon after due to wind. I took three more laps on Milky Way Bowl from Dipper chair before returning to the lodge to look for my wife as cell service is poor there and I had not heard from her. She was still there and we escaped the flat by Tamarack Lodge using Big Easy beginner chair and did two laps on Dipper. I was hoping to ride it two more times, but Dipper closed due to wind after running slow for more than an hour. We went up Comet and traversed to CA trail as we did not want to have to walk across the flat by Tamarack Lodge or have to ride a long shuttle (or maybe two) from NV base to CA base.
Rather than skiing to Sky chair, where my friend reported dirt and rocks towards bottom of CA trail, we went down Maggie's Canyon which still held good snow although my wife preferred to traverse to Maggie's run rather than go to the bottom of the narrow gully. She waited for me at the Umbrella Bar while I went up to the top and did three quick runs, finding great snow on the left side of Sky Canyon. I skied down Face about 2:30 while my wife took tram down. I was surprised Face was open as it was closed to public previous weekend. There were narrow places including one where you had to take off skis or cross a foot or two of bushes to get to more snow. Snow at the bottom was very good and you could get very close to the parking, unlike one year I can remember where you had to take off skis a couple of hundred feet away. I finished with 22.4K vertical and saw one ski brake fall off when I removed skis. The mounting plate for the binding was cracked where the screw that holds brake to the binding went. I had them both replaced so I have an un-cracked spare.
On Sunday at Kirkwood (where they report 357" for the season), we got on lift at 10:10, good considering we had to clean and close up the cabin, pickup my son's snowboard, which was getting free tune we won previous weekend, and drive for almost an hour. Overnight low at Kirkwood was 28 and snow was very good in most places, but The Wall lift was closed and could be down for the season due to mechanical problem. My wife had a lot of runs on the Reut while I had 7 on Cornice. They had a banked slalom race in Snowsnake Gully between the Reut and Wall chairs and free lunch for passholders (pulled pork or cheeseburger, mac 'n cheese, beans, coleslaw, chips and drinks.) We brought our own wine and pocketed some chip and drinks. A lot of people showed up in street clothes for the free lunch.
We quit before two as my wife was done for the day not long after lunch. I took a couple of runs off Cornice towards False Peak Chute in Wagon Wheel Bowl, where snow was still too firm in the trees. I would have liked to have taken a run to the Palisades, but instead ended with a more direct line to Timber Creek base on the steep faces between Janek and Olympic, ending with 14.4K vertical. Our beagle got to see people skiing after waiting in the car in the shade of some big trees and getting really dirty from the black snow by the parking lot. It sounds like Kirkwood will close 4/21 (last year they extended a Fri-Sun after scheduled close possibly to confuse the end-of-year celebrations and both Squaw (daily, but very limited, maybe only Shirley) and Alpine (now Fri-Sun only) will close 4/28.
