Carson Pass to Kirkwood Traverse. Epic or Epic Fail?

It took me until the very end of the day to realize that it was pretty damned good one.  For some of us, it was epic.  And it could have been for me too. But there were complications.  For starters, my go to touring rig had ran into issues the previous week, and with my Dukes on the way back to Marker, it was time to mount that second Dynafit onto my second Kusala.  Now, I had mounted the first one a bit off, but thanks to the huge heel adjustment, no extra holes were drilled.  Learning from my mistakes, the second one went on without a hitch.  That was the final full success in my planning of a super fun traverse Carson Pass to Kirkwood.  Now, this traverse can be done pretty easily, and you can even avoid doing any significant descents.  That was not our plan.  Our plan was to travel over eight miles, climb over four thousand feet and include three big face descents.  It was ambitious, but not ridiculous.

The Playground.  We were headed to the saddle in the middle of the picture between Round Top and the first Sister.

The second Sister has always been my favorite.  

The crew.  Buffy, Alex and Noah enjoying the traverse out to Winnemucca.  

She remains captivating even close up. 

My day started early.  It was March 7th.  My wife had to grumble to me at 3:30 AM that my alarm was going off.  Not an excellent start.  I try to sneak out of bed without waking the family.  Good things I had plans to meet Alex in Pleasanton, as I would surely need someone to do the majority of the driving in the state of mind I was in.  Turns out I was headed to Livermore.  Luckily he called to check in on the drive, otherwise we would have been in two parking lots several cities apart.  Not so great start number two.  Still, from here I thought I had it all under control.  We pulled into Kirkwood several hours later to pick up Buffy.  We would leave her car by the Tower Bar to get us back to the pass later in the day.  Noah was already at the trailhead when we arrived.  We all shuffled, packed and unpacked out bags, drank water, put on skins and we were on the trail around 8:40.  A later start than planned.  But not horrible.  We we on the way, and skin track was fast through the woods.

As you start to gain elevation on the northerly slope of Round Top, Lake Tahoe comes into view behind Red Lake Peak and Carson Pass.

The only super fun firm side hill on the approach has the group super excited.  The last twenty yards are the best.

Palisades Bowl at Kirkwood is just around the corner.

When you get right up into her face, she is still lovely.

But our goals lie on the other side of the ridge.  Buffy tests out the snow.  We are headed to Fourth of July Lake below.

Now the Kusalas are damn awesome skis.  I was on a pair last winter for four hours and they instinctively slayed the four inches on crust pow day.  Super grippy on the firm, but absolutely killed it in the drifts.  And they stomped so nicely.  But I was in alpine boots that day.  And they are a stiff ski that demands to be driven.  For this tour I was in an old pair of MegaRides.  Turns out (and I knew this) I don't love that boot.  For a number of reasons.  But more on that later.  I do love how they tour.  Comfy as hell.  Like a down booty.  The skin from Carson Pass to the shoulder of Round Top and the Sisters took us just under two hours.  It is a nice hike that starts in the shade of the trees, and then ascends up and across the north slope of Round Top offering alpine and lake views.  Hard to complain about that.  With the resent wet snows, enough coverage remained across the south side of the Sister such that we could easily skin or schuss across.  A rare treat indeed.  That put us atop Life on the Edge.  With late morning sun baking the slope, it was prime corn.  But we had something slightly different in mind.  I like to think of it as Beyond the Edge.  We worked our way south across the knife ridge into the next face.  Now this one faces a bit more northwesterly, as opposed to southwesterly.  It was not as creamy corned.

Our meeting location is a point about 200 feet below.  Mini AK Face is top center.  That will be lap two.

Noah enters.

Alex schusses.

Buffy follows my tracks.  I basically got right up to the looker's left edge and thought, uh-oh.  Then I think I may have cursed a bit as I side stepped back up.

She then easily slips into the main chute and finds turns to the valley below.

We all skied off the top, one at a time, and met back up at a point about 200 feet down.  From there, I skied the entire face, to set up for pictures from the across the valley.  Another thing about my new skis.  I never did a hard detune on the rockered tips.  Turns out that can cause some hooking.  Paired with a weak, soft boot, it made for some adventure and comedy as I began to make high speed, large radius turns down the face.  Funny thing is, the skis were working great.  I just could not quite stay on top of them.  As I descended though, the snow began to soften up, and my turns became more regular.  I was finding my rhythm just as I realized that I had gotten out onto a shelf I meant to avoid.  What is this?  Mistake number seven by now?  Anyway, I slowed, and  then stopped.  Edged left.  Edge right.  Yup.  Here I was on a forty degree roll over above an eighty foot cliff.  With no pow pow below.  Crap.  I shuffled backwards, and then side stepped upwards and them performed a very delicate kick turn, and found a sliver of snow rolling through the rocks into the chute below.  I yelled up for folks not to follow my tracks and to go left.  Then I slid into the chute.  Good times.  Once in the chute, it was easy street to the meeting location far below.

Noah apparently heard the word "left" when I called up, and went that way.  Entering the chute from the top.

Alex decides to spice things up a bit.

Slaying turns all the way through the apron.

After a good 300 foot vert boot pack out of the lake, we don skins.  You can't say it is not beautiful out here.

And the imagination always runs a little wild.

Buffy was up next.  She followed my tracks.  On a snowboard.  Luckily she sensed my error and made it into the chute using the same sliver of snow.  Tragedy avoided.  Noah was up next and made it far left and skied the chute from the top.  As did Alex.  Once rejoined, we continued down to the lake.  It was fun, soft, hippy corn, with plenty of small jibs to hit.  From there, we decided to boot pack out from Forth of July Lake.  We were climbing a south east face, and it was slippery and steep.  Hence the choice of boot packing.  While boot packing always sucks, it seemed like it was wiser than skinning until the slope mellowed and snow was not as wet.  It was here that the super comfy touring boot on my right foot transformed into the  heel crushing son of a bitch that it really is.  I think it was also here that I started to get too much sun exposure that would result in a dried up, beat up, skin flaking man that I became a few days later.  Anyway, wear a hat.  A big floppy one.  And re apply sunblock.  And drink a ton of water.  Or suffer the consequences.  So, anyway, we climbed.  I was beginning to feel like we should forgo what Alex calls Mini AK Face, and some others call Dodge City.  Regardless of what one wants to call it, it is a pretty sick face.  One, that once you see from a distance, you get stuck in your mind, and want to ride.  Conditions did not look perfect.  A dusting of snow atop rain crust and avy debris.  While the early march sun was hot, it was not quite warm enough or late enough in the year to get the north facing aspects to corn.  But we kept heading in that direction, knowing we might need to turn away for multiple reasons.

Some people pay good money to develop water spots.  I get mine for free.  Deadwood.

The crew rests, prepares and spots lines as I massage my heal, atop of Corrie Lochan

Looking back toward the line we had just skied.  Life on the Edge is the obvious large bowl starting looker's right in the pic.  Our line was above the big cliff well right of that.

Buffy slices the wintery buff and crust that was the shaded slope.

Noah drops the opposite sun lit wall.

In retrospect, I'm glad the group was ambitious.  Several of us had been eyeing this face for seasons.  My foot hurt.  If we continued, we would miss last lift and add an additional 400 feet of climbing to our tour.  The snow was neither corn nor powder.  Not very inspiring.  But we pushed up.  Once off the top of the bowl lookers right of the face we had a quick consult.  I was feeling tired, in pain with a pitched heal and not feeling like the descent would be awesome.  But I had wanted to ski this thing for some time.  Everyone else was learning toward continuing our ascent.  So, we pushed on.  At the peak, the views were great.  The faces across the creek are awesome.  Deadwood Cirque offered up its siren call.  We rested quickly.  I massaged my heel.  Folks scoped out there lines.  Buffy dropped, then Noah.  Both looked and sounded as if they enjoyed their run,  You could really only see their first few turns, as this face has a wild rollover a few hundred feet down.  Then Alex spent what felt like an eternity trying to strap in while balancing on a knife edge.  It was almost vertigo educing to watch him, as one false move forward or back would result in quite the tumble.  Finally he dropped, and schralphed the face.  I could here his hoots drifting up from far below.

Anf invokes his best Scot Schmidt.

Once in the bowl, the angle moderates before the rollover below.

Buffy and Noah wait in the valley far below.

Everyone always enjoys a good knife edge ridge.

Especially when on a snow board and trying to strap in while performing a circus balancing act.  

Next it was me.  Now, I really want to go back this face.  It is so much fun.  But I found it to be a bit challenging this day.  See, another thing I had forgotten to do was to purchase leashes for my bindings.  I had to remove the breaks when mounting, as they could not fit around my ski waist.  So, here I was at the top of a killer run with several thoughts on my mind.  First, how I did not feel confident in these boots and how my heel hurt.  Second, how I feared my binding mount would rip out, just because I did them myself instead of paying some stoned, but practiced, shop rat to do it instead.  And I feared my dynafiddle binding might just decided to pre release and send a ski sliding 1200 feet to the valley below, leaving me stranded one turn from the top.  Not the kind of thoughts you want to have atop a run a friend had nicknamed Mini AK Face.  But I dropped in, and successfully skied, if tentatively, to the bottom with no major fail.  Perhaps some major flail, though.  But now I just want to go back more than ever and rip it.

Dropping.

Buffy took the shade.  Noah took the sun.  Alex tows the line.

Looking almost creamy.

And this is where the slope really gets going.

It is nearly impossible not to enjoy the beauty of this place.

From there it was a relatively easy skin to Stove Pipe or Sally Alley, which is a popular run in the Kirkwood side-country.  We reached the top at 3:50 and could see lifts still loading inbounds.  Still, after this final face, we would still have a decent skate and traverse to get back to the resort.  No chance of getting there by 4:05 for last chair out.  Oh well, we all knew we wanted a little suffering in our lives, otherwise we would not be out there anyway.  We made out way down quickly, enjoying, at least for me, some of the best snow of the trip.  No pics, as we were late, tired, at at least for me, really enjoying the turns.  Late day corn was the order, and the Kusalas easily sliced through it.  With that ski, and that snow, it really did not matter what boot I was wearing.  Just stand tall, point and swivel.  All the way to Emigrant Lake and across.  From there, it is a short hike up to the usual traverse back in bounds.  Super easy on skis, and not horrible on a snow board.  We poked and looked at Temple from above, but the twenty foot to firm did not get any of us excited.  And we schussed down to the base of chair 3.  There we had a little conversation with the lifties, and after them telling us to mind the time, and asking where the hell we had been, they allowed us onto the chair, after our request.  So gracious of you folks.  Last lift of the day at 4:45.  I have to admit, it felt mighty good to be sitting on a lift.  At the top, we debriefed. with patrol, who also let us know we were super late.  After explaining we had been planning to skin out, they asked us about our day and the snow stability.  It is nice to talk with a pro.  From there it was a quick 800 foot vert ski down a beat to hell groomer to the car below.

Dodge City, Corrie Lochan, Mini Ak Face, Whathaveyou.  A good slope to explore.

I call these the Horseshoe Chutes.  Anyone know the real name?

Sometime the most inspiring trees are dead.

West Shore and vicinity is looking like it would be a blast.

Our line from the ridge down to Emigrant Lake.  This area offered the best steep corn snow of the trip.  

Soon after, we were all sitting up at the Pass again, out of our boots, and sipping on a cold IPA.  Well, semi cold.  We did not stash them in the snow bank in fear they would be stolen.  Apparently that is a thing at this trailhead.  Shame.  Anyway, it was about at this point, as the sun began to drop low on the horizon, that I realized my day was pretty damn epic.  Sure, I had had a whole series of issues.  Another one I would only figure out a day or two later is that I was also sick, coming down with something that I picked up while surfing a few days before.  But all that did not matter.  The fact that my skiing felt sub par did not matter.  The fact that I crimped my heel, got slightly dehydrated, got way too much sun exposure, got hung up above a no fall cliff, and more, did not matter.  The day had been epic.  I don't know if it was the fun of being out there with our group, or the periods of quite slog were you can get into your mind, or the working of all your muscles, or the conversations along the way, or just the fact that we scored last chair, but right then, in the parking lot atop Carson Pass, while kicking back with a nice adult beverage, it sure felt epic.  It was a good day.  Now I just want to go out for more.

This winter begins in March.

Usually by this time of year, I have things dialed.  My gear.  My plans.  My expectations.  My packing.  Not this season.  It is only just starting.  The two to four feet of snow that fell in Tahoe this past week has not finally put us on the upper end of low tide.  What that means is that everything is either still real fun, or not yet going.  I just needed to get there.  When I left my home at 3:55 on Sunday, I felt that I had finally packed everything and had forgotten nothing.  Nothing important at least.  Then, ten minutes down the road I remember that I like to take pictures.  With my camera.  Which was at home.  Then, back at home, I could not find my fresh battery.  Knowing that I would really only be able to get a few pictures off, I headed back out the door.  I was making good time until I hit the caravan headed up to Kirkwood, near which, I would be meeting with some friends to go for a hike.  The resort had got skied out the day before, so there was no point waiting in line to ski bumps.  I mean, who does that?  Apparently 2700 cars worth of people do that.   Power to them.  But we were in search of something else.  Namely, fresh tracks and small hits.  We found just that.

Wanna go ski Kirkwood?   These people do.  

Tried to look back toward the resort to see how crowded it was, but we could not see past Notch Rock.

So Bob decided to give the skiing a try.

I met up with Alex, Colin and Bob around 8:45.  After a bit of gear talk, adjustments, and car shuttling, we were on the trailhead. performing a beacon check.  The snow did not feel blower.  In fact, it felt rather dense.  As we headed up, things began to get a bit lighter.  It felt pretty good in the trees, but out on the open face, things were a bit wind blown, with small soft slabs forming.  But were had plans to head to were we could find a few steeper pitches tucked into more moderate terrain.  At the top, during our switch over we discuss the day's conditions and made plans for our descent.  Felt good being with folks who take the snow seriously.  SAC had called the danger for the day moderate, but there still existed chances for an avalanche stepping deeper down.  No one wanted that.

Turns out, the snow was pretty good.

Colin enjoying himself, even though that pretty good snow, was also heavy, and could stop you in your tracks at times.

Alex getting himself up and over this little jib.

The upper slope is a bit more exposed, so a line through the trees held the best snow and offered the safest option.  The face, though, still skied well, even if it had a bit of a wind crust.  Once down toward tree line, it was basically jib city, with some moderate features, and plenty of small ones to jump around on.  This area is a series of three benches.  The first one is fairly small, and in a few more storms, will be just a roll over.  The second is a bit bigger, and grows to huge the further left you go.  The third ranges a from fun bowl, to a cliff band ranging between twenty to forty or more feet.  In between, it is low angle tree skiing loaded with small hits.  In short, good fun.  We enjoyed our selves, so took a second lap.

Once down in the trees, the skiing was quite fun.

Alex follows and tries playing "Touch the Nipple"

The climb takes just under an hour.  It is not a whole lot of vert.  On a good day, you can easily pull off four, or even five laps.  A group of four could ski five laps and slowly work there way around the hill, never crossing a track.  But we did just two.  Some had to get going and take care of life.  I just seemed to break my climbing bar.  It took a three people, a rope and a file to jam it back in place with out actually busting the binding.  We got it into ski mode, but putting it back in climbing mode just was not an option.  So I headed inbounds with Alex for a few laps.

And then finds a nice stump to launch off of.

Colin thought it looked like fun, so follows suit.

Here is a lower mountain wall slash.  Can you tell it was getting pretty think down low?

All in all it was a good day.  What struck me as odd were the number of cars piling into Kirkwood Valley.  At about 10AM, we could see a line of vehicles backed up to the Kirkwood Inn on 88.  I think they eventually parked cars over there.  Now, it was not a powder day.  That was Saturday.  It was not sunny.  In fact, it was blustery.  And chilly.  And precipitating.  It was snow, but juts barely.  I have never seen that many people at Kirkwood before on such a day, and I have been going to that place for well over a decade.  Good for them, but I am sure glad I was not waiting in line to sit on a slow cold life to skied hard packed bumps.  I was enjoying a hike with some friends, having conversations and jumping off rocks and landing in deep, soft snow.  Sure, I went inbounds at the end of the day, but by then, there were no lines.  Just four ski onto the lift laps.  Three of them through the fingers.  Which are a go for the season.  Get up there and have some fun.  Next Saturday looks sunny to boot.

So, the camera battery never lasted past the first lap, so there are limited pics.  When I walked in the door at home at 10PM that night, I found the battery within five seconds.  Right were it should have been.  Right were I did not look in my early morning haze.  Went to bed feeling pretty bummed about that.  Turns out, that battery was already dead.  So, no harm no foul.  Sort of.

We Take What We Can Get.

A fantastic start to the season.  If only it were November.  But those of us dependent on the whims of nature to get our good times in, can't really complain to much.  So, when it snows, we go.  Well, sometimes.  With such a dismal season, it has been over a month since I put skins on the skis and went out for an adventure.  Sure, I've made a few turns in between.  Hit a few bumps.  Spent hours with my little guy out on the bunny slopes.  Even did a little off piste adventure skiing within the ropes.  But there was not much that made me scramble to make the time to go out for a hike.  Then we got eighteen inches.  Woot woot.

Boot packing a thin cover coolie.  Loads of fun I tell ya.

Still a beautiful day for a skin in the woods.

Once back below tree line, we found what we were looking for.

Being that the Super Bowl was happening, we made some grand plans to work our way back to the Super Bowl.  Usually a good long day tour, we headed out with our version of an alpine start.  I think it was before 9AM when we left the car at the pass.  The forecast of partly cloudy with a chance of afternoon flurries seemed a bit off.  The wind was blowing, snow was falling and the visibility we similar to looking through pea soup.  A few yawns later, we found ourselves on the shoulder of a pachyderm, along with two other groups.    The good news is that it looked like the prior days tracks had filled in nicely.  Suffice to say, the knee deep turns through the open bowl felt pretty nice, even if it was skiing by brail.  We were amped to get back to hiking and work our way back to our goal.  We knew we had some good work ahead of us.  What we did not know was how much work that would be.  After a few minutes on the skin, we rounded a ridge and got our first look into the valley we were headed.  We soon realized we could not continue to skin around the slope, as we were blocked by a series of couloirs.  The option of skiing down to the valley and skinning up the opposite slope did not seem viable with the lack of snow covering the boulders on the bottom 800 feet of slope.  So we hiked our way up one of the couloirs to see what options we might have at the top.

We found a few fun, if slightly sharky slopes.  Court finding a deeper stash.

The snow ghosts were all over.

Ashley and Marvin enjoy a tandem run.

Guess what we saw.  Pea soup.  And more super difficult to navigate terrain between us and our goal.  We decided to head back and get on top of the other shoulder of the elephant.  Hell, we found good turns there earlier.  With the weather much stormier than forecast, we figured it was best to give up on our goal for the day and stick to where the snow was good.  Thing is, once we started down the slope, we noticed this aspect was starting to develop a thick skin.  And the rocks were still just under the surface.  We poked our way down through the fog, had lunch at the bottom, and changed our plans again.  We were headed for the trees.  Where we could see.  If nothing else.  Turned out, that was the best decision we made all day.  Hell, we were even able to get some pictures, finally.

Fresh snow, good turns and visibility.  Bliss.

So blissful, Court decided it was time to get inverted.  These are his bases.

Here are his top sheets.

Once back in the trees, we found some cut up pow, and a few stashes of fresh pow.  We explored around a bit, finding more than a few fun slopes and features to hit.  Some still looked a touch thin, but it was not hard to avoid the sharks.  A few small hits were enjoyed, and at the bottom of our first run, a kicker was found.  While most of the landing was completely bomb holed, there were a few spots left to hit.  Then we were on our way back up again, with hopes of finding a slope back down to the car we left at the bottom of the pass.  Good times were had.  While the snowpack is still super thin, it is much better than it was all of the winter so far.  And more has fallen, and more is on the way this weekend.  It is pretty much not game on for low tide fun.  Get on out and enjoy it for your self.

A good heavy spackle, with a finish of light, cold pow made for perfect conditions.

And at times, it even felt deep.  

Deep enough to jump off an overhead hit.  Good times.

more pics of this adventure at powdork.com

Coolie Season Skiing.

It may have felt like winter at sea level, but it sure looked like winter at 2000 feet.  Oh yeah!

A lot of people consider mid spring to be the height of the coolie season.  You know, once Tioga, or whatever your local pass is, finally opens and the stuff off the plateau if nicely filled in and going through to the valley floor.    But when I think of coolie season, I think about just after the first snow, when everything seems to be a coolie of some sort, as the snow is only filled in within a nice convex pocket in the mountain.  What might be typically a basic open bowl once we get a base, is right now a rocky, peppered slope with literally one, or maybe two lines through the middle in which you can successfully schuss with out bottoming out.  This is what I headed up to this past Sunday.  The Sierra had just received about two to three feet of super low density Colorado fluff, on top of rocks and about a foot plus of snow that had been hammered by a fierce east wind.  Not exactly prime base building conditions.  But with some work, I was sure I would have fun.  At least more fun than staying home and putting in a few hours of yard work.  So, I hit the road at 4AM.

Full on winter time at the Dew Drop incline.  

The morning light and drive was beautiful up in the high country.

The Sierra Crest coming into view.

A chilly -3F at Silver Lake.  The Kirkwood valley as -9F just ten minutes later. 

It was cold.  -9F when I arrived in the valley just at about 8AM.  Turns out cold enough to freeze the pipes at my buddies cabin.  After spending a little time setting up a space heater, plugging some vents, opening others and cranking the heat, I was ready to step back out into the cold.  I had plans to hike, but I decided to hit the lifts a bit at Kirkwood, to test out the snow supportability, before headed out into the backcountry.  And besides, I wanted to stretch the legs.  And there is no shame in lifts.  None.  Chair 11 was spinning, but only the manmade on Buckboard was open.  Patrol was about to head out and mark obstacles on the face of 11, in plan of opening more terrain.  So I headed over to 5 and skied some of the off piste trees they had open.  I found some low angle fresh snow, made a few turns, and was pleasantly surprised how well everything had settled.  Now I just needed to wait for Court to call, and we would take a short hike into the backcountry behind Red Cliffs.

Cold morning light pours in across the ridge and meadow.  

Palisades looks better than it did over Thanksgiving.  

One thing that is nice about riding the lifts is you can catch a glimpse of terrain that is still closed.  The Fingers looking spicy.

As does the Funnel.  Soon, we will be having some fun around these parts.

As we started to head up the face across the valley from the resort, we could see that Patrol had dropped the ropes under 11 and riders where for sure getting some fun powder runs in.  Sometimes you wonder if you are making the right decision.  The skin was easy, with no real thin spots to deal with, but still, the slope were were ascending was peppered and would likely not be that much fun to ski.  Another route home would be desirable, but this would do in a pinch.  Still we climbed.  Our original objective began to seem distant, considering the fact that night comes so early in the day this time of year.  When we hit the ridge of Baby B, it started to look like a fun thing to ski.  Basically, that means it had snow in it.  So, after a short conversation, we decided to switch over and ski something.  After all, that is why we came.  And it was a good ski, it was.  Fun.  Or, rather, fun enough.  The low angle did leave a little to desire.  As we put on skins, and looked up the slope, we saw that Big B looked like it went.  So, time to generate heat and head a little further up and around the ridge.  Back to the top.

Court gets his ski on atop Baby B.

And enjoys some fun, deep meadow skipping pow, all the way to the bottom.

This wilderness zone is just getting started.  Sally Alley does not look too sally.

Meanwhile, Kirkwood pays homage to Vail, and scripts its name across Montes.

After a quick rest and fuel up, we headed over, and looked down into Big B.  Big B is neither super steep, or super gnar, but with the thin, light snow coverage, it sure felt worthy.  Made a little route planning, and we started the short descent.  After the first turn into the gut of the bowl, it was nothing short of super fluff.  Nice thigh deep plus snow.  Ah, the joys of a winter hike.  We even found some small hits to play with.  And the trees in the apron were nothing short of perfect.  With a short traverse, we hit up the bottom of our skin track, and headed back to the top.  The day was getting short, so we needed to make a ridge that would allow us to return to our car.  We had the choice of another shaded run, or a warm one in the sun.  Of course we headed for the shade.  I mean, you figure it is winter time, so you mind as well go for the goods.  Turns out, we did just that, as we were soon at the top of the Corner Pocket.  And it was filled with goodness.

Did I mention that it was cold?  Try sitting in the shadows while you buddy is in the sunshine.  

The hits where knee to waist high.

The powder was shin to thigh high.

The turns were all good.

And the runs lined with rocks.

These cold winter days are interesting if you are touring.  On the down, it was down right cold in the shade.  And just plain cold in the sun.  On the up, the shade was chilly, but in the sunshine it could get very warm.  It is funny to think about how much I can sweat in 15F degree temperatures.  A lot it seems.  Even late in the day, climbing mostly in the shade, you can feel right toasty.  Well, we had a great final run back down to the lot.  And it was not yet 3:30.  So, I made the quick drive over to the base and hoped on a lift for a few end of the day runs.  Let me tell you, it was freezing out.  Sitting on a chair for 7 or more minutes, in the shade, late in the day that peaked at 15F, is very cold.  Two runs was all I had in me.  I'm not quite sure how some of you folks can sit on chair lifts all day long.  Seems chilly to me.

Once down into the woods, the fluff is deep.

Then it was time to head home.

It turned out to be a decent run.

And a good start to the touring season.

While the resort at Kirkwood is still operating on limited terrain, they are working hard to get more terrain open.  They were blowing snow at the top of 6 all day, as well as in the hole that is the bottom of Upper Zachary's.  Depending on how snow making goes, they could have the top open shortly.  Once that happens, they will certainly have the steepest terrain in Tahoe open.  But really, we just need another good storm.  Then we could be looking at the frontside.  Hell, even the backside could be ready to go.  Cross you fingers, do a snow dance, burn an effigy.  Do what it takes to bring us another dump.  We need it.  But in the meantime, get out there and dust the cob webs off your gear.  Winter is here.

Back on the lifts for a few evening fast laps, and the Kirkwood crew was hard at work getting more terrain ready to open.